Bean has more than made his mark in Bristol, and his characters have livened things up a great deal. He is on a roll and there doesn’t seem to be any stopping him. This colourful piece under Brunel Way, featuring two characters and some writing, shows how the young artist is quickly growing in confidence and improving his technical skills.
Bean, Brunel Way, Bristol, September 2023
The characters that Bean paints have a very distinct look in a cartoon style that relies on using two tones of each colour in each section of the piece, light and dark, to create some depth. There isn’t much blending of colour or use of highlights, that some artists use to create depth. Bean’s writing is free in form, and very nicely filled. This is an artist who seems to be in a hurry and is turning out imaginative pieces at an alarming rate.
Hiccup (Bloem), Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2023
Hiccup, or Bloem as she is signing herself, is fast becoming a favourite of mine. Not only is she developing her technique at lightening speed, she hasn’t been painting walls for all that long, but she has a wonderfully creative mind, and her work is exciting and varied. This ’tile’ piece is a great example of her versatility.
Hiccup (Bloem), Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2023
There is a little bit of the Willow Pattern in this tile piece, which adopts the colours of Delftware, or Spode. What Hiccup has done here is quite original, and certainly different from anything I have seen in Bristol before. There is a softness of touch in the piece, and an ease with itself, which I can’t properly articulate. The patterns and the letters are beautifully painted, and the flashes through the letters gives the tile a shiny look. Beautiful work from Hiccup. I would love to meet the artist, to be able to complement her on her great work.
I haven’t posted much work from Donz on Natural Adventures, mainly because I haven’t seen an awful lot of his work. What I have seen, I rather like. Donz tends to paint with DJ Perks, and mostly, but not exclusively, at L Dub.
Donz, L Dub, Bristol, August 2023
Donz has selected some beautifully rich colours for this piece, and worked them into his fills most skilfully. His letters are well-designed, and the whole piece has come together very nicely. I fear that Donz is a bit of an unsung hero on the Bristol writing scene, probably because he is not all that visible, which is a pity.
I think I have COVID. I am not well at all and not really in the mood for writing blog posts, but I have a rhythm, and don’t like to interrupt it. It is amazing just how much COVID has disrupted our lives, not only with the illness and suffering it brought with it, but the battles between sectors of society around anti-vax and conspiracy theories about big pharma etc. The pandemic appears only to have divided us, or at least influencers and politicians have jumped onto the back of ‘wedge’ issues with glee to suit their own agendas. Surely the focus should be on mourning the dead, caring for the sick and creating a better more functional society.
It almost feels like a dream, when lockdowns were in place, and we all wore face masks, what a crazy period in our history. One of the upsides to the pandemic and lockdown is that some street artists, made good use of their out of work time to paint and paint, and one of those was Hemper. Since things have returned to normal, Hemper’s productivity has dropped and we only see occasional pieces from him these days.
Hemper, M32 roundabout, Bristol, August 2023
This is one of those rare pieces and what an absolute banger it is too. The joyfully colourful letters spell out Hems, but are very well disguised. Hemper has painted a beauty with extraordinary blended fills, some of which bleed beyond the borders of the letters. The whole thing feels very organic, almost alive. Simply put, this is an outstanding piece of wildstyle writing from one of the very best in Bristol.
It is genuinely getting very difficult to keep up with Dibz and Fade, who appear to be smashing it week after week, with their collaborative walls, and this one, which I don’t think lasted very long, is a real beauty.
Dibz and Fade, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2023
Dibz to the left and Fade to the right have written their names set on a shared blue background with some ‘thermal’ blobs surrounding the letters and breaking off. Everything about this piece is sharp, neat and tidy, and showcases their work perfectly. As well as painting together, it seems that the two get on really well, and bring out the best in one another’s artwork.
The Last One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2023
There are times when great pieces appear, and I have absolutely no idea who painted them. In most cases this will be because the artist is a visitor, and their signature undecipherable. When this happens I become reliant on social media channels to try and find out more. This was a piece too good not to include in Natural Adventures, but I had to be patient before I happened upon an Instagram post that provided the artist’s name. It is by The Last One from the ZFG crew – time for me to do some more homework.
The Last One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2023
To me, this is a really classy writing/character combo, and stood out when I first saw it. I note that The Last One has since returned and I will be posting another piece by the artist in due course. I would like to think that the writing spells ZFG, but I am not too sure. What is clear is that the writing is accomplished and clean, and easy on the eye. It is perhaps the rendition of Bugs Bunny that really wins the day though – presenting a rather fretful-looking bunny, superbly painted. Welcome to Bristol.
Kid Krishna, Lower Ashley Road, Bristol, June 2023
There was a period during the spring/early summer, when I could scarcely take a trip out without meeting Kid Krishna. Our biological clocks were in sync and it was great to be able to chew the fat on a regular basis. Then his activity fell off a cliff, on the streets at least, and I imagine that he was spending more time on his studio art creations. This piece is one that languished in my archive, probably because of the poor quality of photograph.
Kid Krishna, Lower Ashley Road, Bristol, June 2023
When the sun is behind a wall or hoarding, it is almost impossible to stop the flaring, and to maintain the integrity of the colours and contrast of the artwork, so this is a poor reflection of the piece by Kid Krishna. The letters probably spell out CRIE, but there are other elements woven into the letters. Although there is always a basic structure to Kid Krishna’s pieces, there is also a lot of freedom in the decorations and extra bits. In this case FFS, a crew tag, reads as Fireman From Space.
Yield is an artist who has been around for a little while, but whose work in rapidly improving and becoming more dominant. I believe Yield is part of the Sunday Lovers crew, so I would assume he (taking a gamble on gender) is probably Spanish. I haven’t posted much of Yield’s work to date, but the time has come to rectify that.
Yield, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2023
The playful piece in Dean Lane, which was painted alongside From Bacerlona, is full of colour and has a really up-beat feel to it. I don’t think that Yield has a particular ‘house font’ and each piece I have seen tends to be quite different from the last. What I have seen recently fills me with excitement about what Yield might be creating in the coming months.
UPDATE: Yield is not part of the Sunday Lovers, it would appear that any work alongside theirs in coincidental.
Chill,Fade/Face 1st, Soap and Zake, Dean Lane, Bristol, May 2023
This is a wonderful collaborative wall from the PWA crew from a little while back, and includes a subsequently added piece from Fade, which is both good and bad. Good in that his work is always great and bad because he painted over Face 1st’s section before I had had a chance to see it. This wall has played host to some outstanding collaborations this year, of which this is one.
Chill, Dean Lane, Bristol, May 2023
The left-hand-side bookend is by Chill, and sets the tone (for those of us who view things from left to right), of the collaboration which has a theme relating to bed time and sleep. Chill’s wonderful character, complete with night cap and a five o’clock shadow, is holding a candle, all looking a little Dickensian to me.
Fade/Face 1st, Dean Lane, Bristol, May 2023
Next up would have been Face 1st’s contribution, which looks like it was the letters FACE, with a frame of disintegrating green gloop. Fade has overwritten the piece with a nice tidy and sharp piece of writing, spelling out FADE. I have to say I was surprised to see this, but perhaps there is a little history there.
Soap, Dean Lane, Bristol, May 2023
The third piece, by Soap, looks like a bit of a nightmarish scene, inspired by characters from the cartoon series Adventure Time, I think. I can’t identify the horned character, but the one holding the sword looks like Finn the Human, with a skull face. As with so many of Soap’s pieces, there is a whole story going on here, as well as some perfectly crafted writing, with the letters SOAP.
Zake, Dean Lane, Bristol, May 2023
Finally and bookending the collaboration on the right-hand-side is Zake’s sleep-time character also with a night cap, but instead of a candle, the face is holding, with its only arm, a spray can, perhaps for a bit of an evening paint session. As ever, the shading and contrast have created enormous depth to the piece. What a lovely PWA paint jam.
Absolutely out of time this week, so I am, taking a break from Lincoln doors and recycling some street art/graffiti doors that have previously been posted on Natural Adventures, but not under the Thursday doors category. These doors were first posted in October and November 2022. I realise that the interpretation of doors in this post is about as stretched as you can get, and it is a little bit like the children’s book series ‘Where’s Wally?’ but in this case ‘Where’s the door?’ I hope you enjoy them in any case.
Mote, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, October 2022DNT, M32 roundabout, Bristol, October 2022Pair of doors, Jamaica Street, Bristol, May 2022Zase, Mina Road, Bristol, November 2022Stinkfish, St Werburghs, Bristol, November 2022Taboo, Trinity Street, Bristol, November 2022Tack Jucker, River Avon, Bristol November 2022Kid Krishna, Cheltenham Road, Bristol, October 2022
That’s it for another week, I hope you have a fine 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 Thursday Doors post.
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