6889. Greenbank (155)

Sepr and Pekoe, Greenbank, Bristol, April 2025
Sepr and Pekoe, Greenbank, Bristol, April 2025

I’m not sure why, but I am always surprised (and thrilled) when I see collaborations between Pekoe and Sepr. Somehow in my head I don’t see them as natural collaborators, but how wrong I am. This delightfully witty piece on the long hoarding at Greenbank took me several attempts to get decent pictures. The fine weather we have been experiencing has a downside which is that full sun causes shadows to be cast everywhere. Eventually I took advantage of an overcast day and made my way to the spot.

Sepr, Greenbank, Bristol, April 2025
Sepr, Greenbank, Bristol, April 2025

The combination tells a story of a headless chicken, and in the left hand side, Sepr has created one of his superb cartoon characters, in this case a ‘one chicken band’. Obviously the festive bird wasn’t to everyone’s taste and the decapitated body marches on as the head complete with party hat watches on.

Pekoe, Greenbank, Bristol, April 2025
Pekoe, Greenbank, Bristol, April 2025

The perpetrator of the violent crime is a rather charming young woman wielding an axe, which makes one feel a little uncomfortable. Pekoe has done a great job here and unusually has painted more of a full character than her more usual head portrait. I have noticed that recently she has also been painting traffic cones in her pieces, like a little signature. The collaboration is witty, gruesome and really well painted. It would be great to see more of these story pieces from these great artists.

6880. Greenbank (154)

Mr Crawls, Greenbank, Bristol, March 2025
Mr Crawls, Greenbank, Bristol, March 2025

Oh dear! Mr Crawls’ gull is looking a bit glum in this piece on the long hoarding at Greenbank. Painted on a favoured chrome background, the usually happy or cheeky gull looks like he is down in the dumps. It is clever that Mr Crawls can portray different emotions with tweaks to his ‘archetypal’ bird.

Mr Crawls, Greenbank, Bristol, March 2025
Mr Crawls, Greenbank, Bristol, March 2025

The stylised cartoon character has a downturned (mouth) bill and heavy-lidded eyes, dripping with sadness. The piece is really well presented and clean and tidy, and another in a wonderful series of character pieces by Mr Crawls.

6787. Greenbank (153)

Pura Decadencia, Greenbank, Bristol, February 2025
Pura Decadencia, Greenbank, Bristol, February 2025

Painted alongside a piece I featured recently by Desi, this super writing by Pura Decadencia took me several attempts to photograph on account of the wrong light conditions each time I visited. This third attempt was, as you can see, was on an unusually welcome overcast day.

Pura Decadencia, Greenbank, Bristol, February 2025
Pura Decadencia, Greenbank, Bristol, February 2025

Pura has been teaming up with Desi on a couple of occasions now, and they seem to be bringing out the best in each other. Pura’s letters are clear, regular and quite large, providing plenty of scope for playing about with fills. She has nicely blended three pink tones and added in some reversed spots to jazz things up a little. The atmospheric background is in a style I am seeing more frequently on the streets at the moment, a particular favourite technique used by Sub, for example. No vampire teeth this time, but a fine example of Pura Decadencia’s work.

6780. Greenbank (152)

Desi, Greenbank, Bristol, February 2025
Desi, Greenbank, Bristol, February 2025

It took me three attempts to photograph this wonderful piece of writing by Desi, the first two were ruined with the shadows of trees cast across it, rendering the pictures useless. I should know better, this spot should only be visited on an overcast day, a bit like Sparke Evans Park, if you are after decent pictures.

Desi, Greenbank, Bristol, February 2025
Desi, Greenbank, Bristol, February 2025

Desi is a constant and talented member of the RBF crew whose work has been steadily improving over the years. Recently she has stepped up a level, and this VEIL piece is beautifully painted, and decorated with a couple of flowers, cheering up a dull day. The letters are well presented, and the fills nicely worked to run through all the letters in a coherent way. There is a nice shout-out to Mr Two Gram too in this fine piece.

6720. Greenbank (151)

Lis (Le Imposter Design), Greenbank, Bristol, January 2025
Lis (Le Imposter Design), Greenbank, Bristol, January 2025

We long for those sunny winter days, they offer us a taste of a spring to come and provide a break from the monotony of overcast and wet weather that is typical of an English winter. The only drawback in my mind is that sunny winter days spell trouble for photographing art on walls, and that explains the long shadows on this piece by Lis (Le Imposter Designs).

Lis (Le Imposter Design), Greenbank, Bristol, January 2025
Lis (Le Imposter Design), Greenbank, Bristol, January 2025

Recently, Lis made the switch from her usual brushes and paint materials to spray paint, and has started ‘going large’ with her street art. It is a fascinating transformation, and what she has lost in the fine detail of her work, she has gained with ‘in your face’ impact. This portrait of a cat appears to be full of symbolism, with the character sitting in front of a crystal ball and wrapped in a stellar coat. Her spray paint work at this stage is a little one dimensional at this stage, but that is to be expected. I am full of admiration for her perseverance, and I am hoping to see much more of her work this year – she certainly appears to have the bug.

6690. Greenbank (150)

Mind 49, Greenbank, Bristol, January 2025
Mind 49, Greenbank, Bristol, January 2025

So Mind 49 gets the year off to a cracking start with this fine piece, combining two contrasting styles, demonstrating his awesome technical ability. Mind 49 has always had an activist streak, and many of his early pieces were themed along the lines of animal rights. This one appears to be more about peace, and might be a commentary on the overthrow of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria.

Mind 49, Greenbank, Bristol, January 2025
Mind 49, Greenbank, Bristol, January 2025

The character is beautifully painted, peering over a scarf that covers up the lower half of his face. The folds in the material are superbly painted. Superimposed over the portrait is a crudely drawn cartoon of a gun being snapped in half and a dove of peace flying off. The peace symbol to the right indicates quite clearly what this wonderful work is all about. I’m looking forward to a great year ahead from Mind 49, I also think it might be time for a gallery of his work.

6684. Greenbank (149)

Kool Hand, Greenbank, Bristol, January 2025
Kool Hand, Greenbank, Bristol, January 2025

Kool Hand always brings his own very distinctive character style to the party, and has been doing so for some years now. His pieces usually feature animals, in particular, orangutans, leopards and crocodiles. His preferred approach is to have bold black outlines and string colour fills.

Kool Hand, Greenbank, Bristol, January 2025
Kool Hand, Greenbank, Bristol, January 2025

This piece, painted as part of a collaboration, features a green leopard wearing a bucket hat, a pretty cool character. The colours are nice and strong, and Kool Hand has used two-tone green shading to emphasise light and shade, offering a little depth to the character. It is always a pleasure to find Kool Hand pieces, and observe how he is constantly improving and evolving.

6680. Greenbank (148)

Mr Crawls, Greenbank, Bristol, January 2025
Mr Crawls, Greenbank, Bristol, January 2025

Slightly coincidentally, I published a gallery of Mr Crawls’ work this morning, which included this wonderful bird character as the most recent picture in the gallery. Scroll back eighteen months or so, and this piece feels like it is a modernised version of one of the first pieces I saw by Mr Crawls. Something that both he and his painting partner Mote have done exceptionally well is gently upgrade their styles, and this one may be setting the scene for Mr Crawls for the year to come.

Mr Crawls, Greenbank, Bristol, January 2025
Mr Crawls, Greenbank, Bristol, January 2025

The bird portrait is highly stylised, rather than caricature, and the boxy look creates a completely different sensation for the viewer. Even though the lines are straight, for the most part, Mr Crawls has managed to squeeze out some expression and emotion in the bird’s face. There is a lot to like about this style, and I’ll be interested to see if he takes us in a new direction.

Mr Crawls, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, June 2023
Mr Crawls, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, June 2023

6675. Greenbank (147)

Daz Cat, Greenbank, Bristol, January 2025
Daz Cat, Greenbank, Bristol, January 2025

A few years ago, Daz Cat was painting charming cat portraits, but compared to the pieces he is turning out today, they were flat and unsophisticated and his work since then has elevated several levels. He is now turning out complex pieces that tell stories and have amazing depth to them.

Daz Cat, Greenbank, Bristol, January 2025
Daz Cat, Greenbank, Bristol, January 2025

This cat with ginger hair and plenty of attitude contains so many interesting features and details. I love the wristwatch and the zip on the tracksuit top, small things that add so much to the story. Also interesting is the creative border, which, rather than being a solid black line, is a dynamic red interface between the character and the background. A very nice piece from Daz Cat.

6663. Greenbank (146)

Lis (Le Imposter Design), Greenbank, Bristol, December 2024
Lis (Le Imposter Design), Greenbank, Bristol, December 2024

It is an interesting discussion to try and determine what constitutes graffiti or street art, and I don’t intend to go into a long essay about it right now. Within the community, there are all kinds of tribal differences, between graffiti writers, stencil artists, wheatpasters, character artists, muralists and studio artists. My take is that if it is on the street, then it all comes under the banner of street art, and I am always happy to feature it here on Natural Adventures. I’ll leave it to others to argue the finer points. I mention this because of an emerging talent, Lis (formerly Le Imposter Design), whose hand painted mushroom pieces are causing a little bit of a stir.

Lis (Le Imposter Design), Greenbank, Bristol, December 2024
Lis (Le Imposter Design), Greenbank, Bristol, December 2024

Lis’ illustrative style is so very different from anything else we see on the street and, in my view, adds to the richness of the street art culture in Bristol. Her talent as an illustrator is obvious, and I love the way she is occupying small spaces on walls all over the city, treating us to interesting fungus-scapes. These orange mushrooms are accompanied by some smaller toadstools and plants as well as some little white symbols around the piece. Great work from Lis and a taste of more to come in 2025 (I dearly hope).