Soap doesn’t seem to paint all that often these days, especially since his PWA collaborator has moved to Herefordshire. It was therefore a wonderful surprise to come across this absolute belter from him a couple of weeks ago.
Soap, M32 roundabout, Bristol, September 2025
I cannot really express how much I like this piece of graffiti writing. The letters are in a fancy thin script style, which, once you get your eye in, you can see spells SOAP. What makes the piece special is how the letters in green interact with the stunning pink background and all its decorations. Brilliant work from Soap.
This is one of my favourite spots in Bristol, and is the perfect place for a double (and sometimes triple) collaboration. This time, Mesk has combined his talents with ES3 (an artist I don’t know), set on a sharp yellow background.
Mesk, M32 Spot, Bristol, June 2025
Mesk has kept things simple, which is incredibly effective in this case. His overlapping letters cascade from left to right in a slightly decreasing height. The tidy fill in four wavy horizontal bands is all that is needed here, and the solid border/drop shadow does some of the ‘heavy lifting’. A phenomenal piece.
ES3, M32 Spot, Bristol, June 2025
To the right, ES3, who I assume was visiting Bristol, and whose work I am not familiar with, has painted a fun combination piece. A cat character with crazy eyes is painted alongside the letters ES3, which mirrors the fill style of the adjacent Mesk piece, but in red colours. The piece is rounded off with a drop shadow and blue border. Definitely a gratifying find.
Jee See doesn’t paint too much these days, but it is always great to find one of his SEISMIC pieces. This one from earlier this year in July was part of a Free Palestine paint jam, once again using street art as a place to comment on the issues of the day. This and other pieces offer a commentary and through this blog, I record them, archiving a little slice of our local and global history.
Jee See, St Werburghs, Bristol, July 2025
Jee See has been writing his angled SEISMIC letters for as long as I have known him, which must be ten years or so. In this piece the letters are draped in the colours of the Palestinian flag. No further words are needed. We all know what is happening. We all know that the Israeli state is committing genocide. We just want it to stop and to bring peace to the region.
I don’t think I have too much to add to all the words I have already written about Hypo this year. He has been simply sublime, turning out piece after piece of such high quality, and all the time improving too.
Hypo, M32 roundabout, Bristol, August 2025
This is a stunner, painted in the vibrant colours of fire; red orange and yellow. The hot piece is filled with these colours blended in different horizontal sequences through the HYPO letters. Adding to the base layer of shape and colours, Hypo has added white highlights and starbursts that create depth to the letters, added some bubbles for interest and bordered the whole thing with an ice cold line which includes some wonderful dips. A masterful piece.
Hire and Sait Bare, Greenbank, Bristol, August 2025
I mentioned a couple of days back that Hire and Sait Bare have formed a collaborative partnership this summer which seems to be proving rather fruitful. This is a lovely colour-themed collaboration from the pair on the long hoarding on the Bristol to Bath cycle path.
Hire, Greenbank, Bristol, August 2025
Hire has written the most common of his letter forms HIRE, with some nice script letters in yellow that are far removed from his early pieces that were much more jagged and harsh. He has gone for an interesting interstitial fill within the boundary of the letters, which creates an interesting effect. The writing is painted on a background with a rather subtle pink cloud set on a grey buff.
Sait Bare, Greenbank, Bristol, August 2025
Sait Bare has written BARE using the same yellow colour and background, which brings some synergy to the collaboration, but his letter style is quite different. There is a nice transition from solid green and bubbles through to solid yellow and some subtle green patterning. As a pair, these two are working well together and I look forward to more collaborations.
I can’t quite remember if this combination piece from Mr Klue was painted in one session or two, but since they are by the same artist, it doesn’t really matter that much. It is quite unusual to find writing and the Mad Hatter character by Mr Klue adjacent to one another, so this is quite special.
Mr Klue, St Werburghs, Bristol, August 2025
Mr Klue’s gift for creating ephemeral graffiti writing is unparalleled in Bristol and his character is iconic, especially in this area. There are some great colours here and a lightness of touch that is a signature of his work. A real treat in the tunnel.
Whenever I run a street art doors post, it tends to signal that I am busy or under pressure and haven’t had time to sort out a ‘regular’ post. I have just returned from holiday and simply haven’t been able to prepare for the continuation of Marrakesh Doors that I was expecting to post today.
The reason it is quicker to post about street art doors is that all the pictures have previously appeared on Natural Adventures in my street art/graffiti posts, and are ready to go, which means the only bit I have to sort out is this writing bit.
These pictures were mostly taken in May last year, many of them painted during the Upfest 24 paint festival (the largest street art festival in Europe). I hope you enjoy them.
M. Oldhues, Ashton Road, Upfest 24, Bristol, May 2024Abraham.O, North Street, Upfest 24, Bristol, May 2024Zoe Power, Wilder Street, Bristol, May 2024Yoliws, North Street, Bristol, January 2024Jagung, Upfest 24, West Street, Bristol, May 2024Emotional Waterfall Art, Upfest 24, Exeter Road, Bristol, May 2024Bex Glover, Upfest 24, Stackpool Road, Bristol, May 2024Sepr, Upfest 24, The Nursery, Bristol, May 2024Shane O’Malley, Upfest 24, Bedminster Down Road, Bristol, May 2024Stewy, Grevile Smyth Park, Bristol, May 2024
I sincerely hope that normal service will return next time as I continue with some more wonderful doors from Marrakesh. Have a great end of week and weekend.
If you have made it this far, you probably like doors, and you really ought to take a look at the No Facilities blog by Dan Anton who has taken over the hosting of Thursday Doors from Norm 2.0 blog. Links to more doorscursions can be found in the comments section of Dan Anton’s weekly Thursday Doors post.
Real143 and Zase, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2025
Just before I went away on holiday there was a spate of superb pieces from Zase and what I assume are friends of his. This is particularly great news, as Zase has been very quiet ever since his paining partner Dakor left the UK. This outstanding collaboration is by Zase and Real143.
Real143 and Zase, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2025
The whole collaboration is an anamorphic masterpiece, with two distinct styles of writing. On the left is writing by Real 143 which I cannot decipher – perhaps it says REAL? to the right the familiar ZASE letters leap out from the wall thanks to the skilful design and shading. Intertwined with the edges of the letters is a stunning magenta element that looks like some kind of muscle attachment or sub-cellular proteins or something like that, if you get my drift. An utterly outstanding collaboration from Zase and Real 143.
Mr Crawls and Mote, Peel Street Green, Bristol, September 2025
The ‘dynamic duo’, Mote and Mr Crawls, are back in a spot that they have painted together before in Peel Street Green. It is a smaller bit of wall at the right-hand end of the spot, and is the prefect size and shape for one of their collaborations. The pair of birds are painted in their own unique styles, but there are some obvious ideas that read-across both artists.
Mr Crawls and Mote, Peel Street Green, Bristol, September 2025
Mr Crawls has been developing his pigeon character and here he is in all his resplendent glory. The colours of pigeon plumage lend themselves to street art (note to self: do a pigeon special gallery) and are present here – I wonder if he will start to work in more of the iridescent greens and purples in future pieces. Mote presents a rather weird looking bird monster, which those of you with a natural history interest will appreciate can’t possibly be a bird due to the presence of nipples, a mammalian characteristic. In Mote’s defence, it is a monster and from his imagination so it can be whatever he wants it to be – that is the joy of character pieces. Great to see these two collaborating again.
More from the resurgent Cort, who has been smashing it in the second half of this year with some glorious vivid graffiti writing which is so much in his style. In this piece he is using the letters KoRt, which he has presented expertly.
Cort, M32 roundabout, Bristol, September 2025
Cort’s letters are unruly and yet quite uniform, which he achieves through common themes such as the orange spots, mid-lines and a regular black drop shadow. I love his colour choices in this piece which have an upbeat feel, perhaps augmented by the strong, clean cream buffed wall. Some really nice work here from Cort. Spot also the cheeky piece by Corupt hovering high above.
Natural adventures 