Tag: Horfield skate park

7292. Horfield skate park (16)

Kool Hand, Horfield Skate Park, Bristol, October 2025
Kool Hand, Horfield Skate Park, Bristol, October 2025

What a pleasure to find this tidy three-quarter profile of a trademark orangutan by Kool Hand at Horfield skate park. The piece was painted alongside a wonderful pair of cats by Daz Cat. A quick look at an updated gallery of his work gives an insight into his progress over the years.

Kool Hand, Horfield Skate Park, Bristol, October 2025
Kool Hand, Horfield Skate Park, Bristol, October 2025

The green-faced character has particularly large teeth, and looks a little more ferocious than some of his renditions of the ape.  Two things stand out for me in this piece; the confident solid fills and lines all neat and tidy, and the slight angle of the portrait, moving away from the straight on face, which is where it all started.

7276. Horfield skate park (15)

Daz Cat, Horfield skate park, Bristol, October 2025
Daz Cat, Horfield skate park, Bristol, October 2025

I don’t visit Horfield skate park all that often, maybe two or three times a year, as turnover tends to be very slow there, but there can sometimes be one or two surprises, and amongst them on my last visit was this beauty from Daz Cat.

Daz Cat, Horfield skate park, Bristol, October 2025
Daz Cat, Horfield skate park, Bristol, October 2025

This double portrait piece featuring a fusion of Daz Cat’s cat and human forms is a feast for the eyes. The female on the left is more human (in spite of the blue skin) and the male on the right, more cat-like. Together they make a nice pair and demonstrate Daz Cat’s continual improvement.

5656. Horfield skate park (14)

Mr Klue, Horfield skate park, Bristol, November 2023
Mr Klue, Horfield skate park, Bristol, November 2023

Having been so prolific earlier on in the year, Mr Klue is going through one of his lean periods, and it can be quite a struggle finding anything new by him. This has always been the way with Mr Klue who is a  ‘peaks and troughs’ kind of artist.

Mr Klue, Horfield skate park, Bristol, November 2023
Mr Klue, Horfield skate park, Bristol, November 2023

This piece adorns the end of a ramp wall at the skate park adjacent to Horfield Leisure Centre – a place I used to visit frequently when our daughter was learning to swim. Mr Klue has a great eye for his colour palettes and doesn’t disappoint with this KLUE piece. The letters feel a little squashed, and I think that the height of the wall has cramped his style quite literally. It is, however, always great to find anything from this unusual abstract graffiti writer.

5648. Horfield skate park (13)

Haka and Logoe, Horfield skate park, Bristol, November 2023
Haka and Logoe, Horfield skate park, Bristol, November 2023

I don’t tend to visit Horfield skate park all that often, even though it is one of the closer spots to where I live, mainly because the turnover there is disappointingly slow. On the upside, when I do make the trip, there are usually two or three new pieces to enjoy. This one is a rather nice little collaboration from Logoe and Haka.

Haka and Logoe, Horfield skate park, Bristol, November 2023
Haka and Logoe, Horfield skate park, Bristol, November 2023

The duck character on the left is by Haka, and for once I am stumped – I don’t know if the duck is from Haka’s imagination or is from a children’s picture book, either way he is rather fun. Logoe completes the collaboration with his straight-line script writing, great fills and oval spots. The background colour helps to lift the whole thing and adds vibrancy and joy to a rather dull concrete corner of the Horfield Leisure Centre.

4865. Horfield skate park (12)

John D'oh, Horfield skate park, Bristol, November 2022
John D’oh, Horfield skate park, Bristol, November 2022

Christmas has come a little early this year in the form of this great stencil piece by John D’oh at Horfield skate park. It is a strong reminder that as we head into an unusual Christmas period with the backdrop of our very own cost of living crisis, we need to be mindful that there are others facing constant troubles far worse than our own. This stencil reminds me of an answer I give to my children when they ask me what I want for Christmas and I give them the same reply every time (I am a dad after all); “all I want for Christmas is world peace”. The answer is deliberately both humorous and serious, a blend John D’oh achieves here.

John D'oh, Horfield skate park, Bristol, November 2022
John D’oh, Horfield skate park, Bristol, November 2022

This piece also reminds me of a Costah piece that I posted a few days ago from my trip last June to Porto, which represents a street artist acting as a chronicler of these troubled times, something that John D’oh excels at. Let us all wish for peace this Christmas.

Costah, Porto, Portugal, June 2022
Costah, Porto, Portugal, June 2022

4779. Horfield skate park (11)

Haka and cats and that, Horfield skate park, Bristol, October 2022
Haka and cats and that, Horfield skate park, Bristol, October 2022

I don’t visit Horfield skate park all that often, but whenever I do go there, it is always rewarding. John D’oh favours this spot, but this time there was a whole ton of stuff from various artists to enjoy, including this collaboration between Haka and Cats and That.

Haka and cats and that, Horfield skate park, Bristol, October 2022
Haka and cats and that, Horfield skate park, Bristol, October 2022

Haka is a favourite of mine, and in this piece he brings us another Ahlberg reproduction of Burglar Bill, this time smoking a rather large cigar. Haka’s painting partner on this occasion is not an artist I know, but Cats and That has added six delightful cats on either side of Haka’s character. The two styles are rather different, but sit comfortably together in this collaboration. I have seen some more cats from Cats and That under Brunel Way recently, I hope that we will be seeing more from the artist. A great surprise from the skate park.

4771. Horfield skate park

Enn Kay, Horfield skate park, Bristol, October 2022
Enn Kay, Horfield skate park, Bristol, October 2022

This piece from Enn Kay (NAK) demonstrates just how far the artist has come in a relatively short space of time. There are qualities in this piece that are not present in some of his earlier works, which provide texture and depth, rather than a flat solid monster with an outline.

Enn Kay, Horfield skate park, Bristol, October 2022
Enn Kay, Horfield skate park, Bristol, October 2022

This sophistication advance can be seen in the shading on the ‘dragon’ character, with different tones of green creating more of a 3D effect. The whole piece has more of a pastel feel to it and is less harsh on the eye than a solid fill monster. I love the way the character is spraying a little monster on the edge of the piece. A great work from Enn Kay.

4331. Horfield skate park (9)

John D’oh definitely has a clever approach to his craft. He manages to present a blend of humour and politics in his work, using lots of different stencil techniques and influences to get his messages across. Sometimes he leans heavily on pathos, sometimes deep criticism and at other times wit, and in this stencil, he deals with a very serious issue with the latter approach.

John D'oh, Horfield skate park, Bristol, March 2022
John D’oh, Horfield skate park, Bristol, March 2022

I very much like the fact that he visits this skate park from time to time, partly because it is reasonably close to where I live, but also because it is an infrequently visited spot by artists and turnover there is very low.

This peace dove has had its work cut out over the last few years, and is once again called upon to intervene. We need all the peace we can muster at the moment. A beautifully crafted and sensitively pitched humorous stencil piece from John D’oh.

4322. Horfield skate park (8)

This is a poignant stencil piece from John D’oh up at Horfield skate park. As is so often the case, John D’oh perfectly captures the moment and presents it to us with a political slant. His work can often include strong, assertive and for some, uncomfortable messages, but they capture a mood in a contemporary way.

John D'oh, Horfield Skate Park, Bristol, March 2022
John D’oh, Horfield Skate Park, Bristol, March 2022

The blue and yellow give this piece away as being about the Russian invasion of Ukraine by the ruthless and deluded dictator Putin. A little girl crouches in front of an urban landscape with a red cross emblazoned on it and between them is a hand rising from the ground on which there is a discarded stethoscope. The caption is too awful; ‘war ends lives before they have begun’. This piece speaks to the horrors unfolding in cities like Mariupol, where innocent people, women and children, have been murdered while seeking refuge. I do hope that Putin and his generals and political supporters get lynched when this is all over.

4091. Horfield skate park (7)

In this Halloween stencil piece from John D’oh we see a depiction of the ghastly Priti Patel as a witch on a broomstick, and I can honestly say it is a depiction that I thoroughly approve of, although her ideology and persona are rather more frightening than a regular witch.

John D'oh, Horfield skate park, Bristol, November 2021
John D’oh, Horfield skate park, Bristol, November 2021

Accompanied with the words ‘Happy Halloween idlers’ and a little silhouette of a power station belching out CO2, the piece does nothing for Priti Patel’s reputation. Although she is highly unlikely ever to see this piece, is is yet another contemporary record made by John D’oh chronicling these dark days of conservative government that seem to be squeezing the life and joy out of our country. It really is time for a change and a breath of fresh air, but unfortunately the UK is essentially a conservative country, and little Britain will be very slow to change.