There is still plenty more to share with you from Minto’s birthday paint jam in the tunnel, which was so incredibly well attended. This is a fine contribution from Hire, which was near the entrance to the tunnel.
Hire, St Werburghs, Bristol, November 2025
Hire has written MINTO, which, although difficult to see, becomes more obvious each time you look at it. His distinctive spiky letters appear to emanate from a bright light, like a golden sun, with a central vanishing point above the piece. The piece is nicely finished with a some softer curls of green decoration. A great piece from Hire.
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.
This is a wonderful piece of graffiti writing from Hire, that was painted alongside Sait Bare. Together they seem to have struck up a painting partnership and have collaborated a few times recently – I posted Sait Bare’s piece adjacent to this one a little while ago.
Hire, M32 roundabout, Bristol, August 2025
Hire has painted his ODIAH letters, which he does from time to time, and they look absolutely splendid. This is a tight piece of writing with some great fills including mid-line which offers depth to the letters as do the 3D drop shadows. The whole thing is painted on an interesting background of roughly rollered green on black – an interesting effect.
This piece from Hire had me raising my eyebrows, in a good way, because it is quite unlike anything I have seen from him before. I would normally associate his work with quite intricate, spiky, angular letters, but here he has gone for something altogether softer and more fluid – to be honest I hind it a little disorientating. (Update – I am being particularly dense, the writing is, of course, by Sait Bare, which is why it is so different in style. I couldn’t see the wood for the trees.
Hire, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2025
The combination of letters and two characters works well, with a face on the left and one of his trademark rabbits (see, it is spiky) to the right. The letters have a traditional 3D drop shadow with black and red stripes. This whole thing looks like Hire is experimenting a bit, departing from his customary style, and that has to be applauded.
2025 has been a dry year so far, and we have had an unusually sunny time of it, and although this is in part driven by a changing climate, it still feels good after the rather wet years we have had in the last decade or so. I mention this, because in these sunny conditions, photographing certain walls in Bristol has been a bit of a nightmare and this one was particularly challenging.
Hire, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, June 2025
Despite the difficulties (you can just make out my arm in the top left trying to block out the glare), It was well worth the effort to capture this beauty from Hire. This piece is like some of his earlier spiky pieces, but with slightly softer edges. Some great autumnal colours and fabulous highlights surrounding the HIRE letters instead of a drop shadow give this piece a distinctive look that is a hallmark of the artist. A very nice piece of graffiti writing.
It is a little disappointing that I have missed a couple of pieces by Hire this year, which is a real pity. You have to be quick off the mark in this game, and if you snooze, you lose. However, it does feel like Hire’s pieces, a bit like Kid Crayon’s pieces, tend to get painted over rather quickly. I am not sure if this is deliberate targeting or simply bad luck, I would like to think it is the latter, but whatever the reason, it makes their work feel even more precious.
Hire, Dean Lane, Bristol, May 2025
This is a slightly strange piece by Hire, which I think is meant to represent a pile of poo, with some excited insects making the most of it. Certainly it is an unusual composition in brown (why is everyone painting with brown this spring?), spelling out ODIAH, letters which Hire likes to use from time to time. How much better the piece looks with the subtle green glow on the edge of the letters, without which it would all look a little flat. Unusual and interesting work from Hire.
Hire and Ceus, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, February 2025
It looks like Hire and Ceus have formed a partnership, with a couple of recent collaborations, and although their styles are very different, it somehow feels right that these two should team up. This piece in Spark Evans Park was painted as part of the Space Jam themed World Wall Stylers challenge for February.
Hire, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, February 2025
To the left is one of the letter variants that Hire uses, ODIAH, which although carrying many of the artist’s characteristic elements, is softer than some of his writing of the past. Great colours, and a subtle outline glow, are augmented by a central section of characters and the Space Jam logo. I am not sure who painted the characters, but they are brilliantly done.
Ceus, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, February 2025
Ceus, whose style is altogether more ‘heavenly’, has created a fabulous piece of writing with some of the best fills I have seen from him. The CEUS letters are largely pink and lilac, but are complemented with some red and purple touches. The whole piece is a thing of beauty. I have a feeling that the characters might have been painted by Ceus, as the clouds are in the shape of wings, which is a trademark element used by him. A fine collaboration.
This post has been written in advance, because I will be making an early start today departing for our skiing holiday to the French Alps. I will try to post every day while I am on holiday, but it all rather depends on how things go. Meanwhile, I’d like you to enjoy this beauty from Hire.
Hire, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, February 2025
Although Hire’s work has been difficult to decipher from to time, the letters are always there, however, I have noticed that there he is drifting into a kind of abstract presentation, and this piece isn’t unlike some of Ments’ pieces, which I used to describe as organic/abstract. I love the colour selections, the shapes of the letters and the neon glow of the border green in this writing. First class stuff from Hire.
January is usually quite a quiet month for street/graffiti art, with activity building into the spring and summer months. However, this year it was an incredibly busy month, and I still haven’t posted more than half of the pictures I took – unfortunately they will likely not see the light of day, unless get more capacity to post in years to come (a retirement project?).
Hire, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2024
This rich piece of writing is by Hire, one of my favourite graffiti writers in Bristol, and spells out BF, although I am not entirely what it stands for. Set on a dark background, the letters are painted in black (blue-black?), with fine midlines in red. The sumptuous red border and drop shadow (in a slightly different tone of red) round off this very attractive work.
This is an absolutely gorgeous piece by Hire and although it is rather different from his usual style, it is unmistakably his work. There is something really attractive about the tone of the piece, perhaps generated by the colour selection and the fir trees. The serenity of the piece is rudely interrupted by an alien craft sending out a light beam into the forest.
Hire, Dean Lane, Bristol, November 2024
The letters spell out HIRE, with the ‘I’ being cleverly represented by the spaceship. The bottom half od the writing is chunky and smooth, but the upper half is much more like Hire’s traditional pointy lettering style. I really, really love this piece and the story it tells.
Natural adventures 