Jaksta is the best caricature street artist around, and on his birthday he painted this wonderful piece opposite a collaboration (already posted) with Ryder created on the same day. The cartoon character is Donkey Kong, from the Mario Brothers video games stable. The DK on the tie has been changed to NK, although I don’t know the significance of these letters.
Jaksta, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, January 2025
The piece itself is a loyal reproduction of the gorilla character, complete with a barrel over his shoulder. What is quite funny is that in spite of being a superb caricature artist, Jaksta hasn’t done a caricature of Donkey Kong, instead keeping him as he is represented in the video games. Nonetheless, this is a fine birthday piece from Jaksta.
Ryder and Jaksta, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, January 2025
Turnover on the M32 Cycle path has been fairly slow this winter, and I have reduced the frequency of my visits to the spot accordingly. On my last visit, however, I got really lucky and met Ryder and Jaksta, along with some of their friends, who were all painting together to celebrate Jaksta’s birthday. It appears that January is a big month for street art birthday paint jams.
Ryder, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, January 2025
In this combination collaboration, Ryder has painted the letters RAKE and Jaksta the character. Painted on a good old-fashioned brick wall, this piece looks like a throwback to the 1980s. The graffiti writing by Ryder is superb, spelling out RAKE, and not only celebrates Jaksta’s birthday, but also 25 years of painting together.
Jaksta, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, January 2025
Jaksta is the cartoon character king, who manages to create incredible caricatures of people both famous and unknown. This is an absolute peach, and one of two pieces painted by the artist during this session. The exaggerated features and overized head are key components of Jaksta’s style, and would not look out of place in Montmatre’s (Paris) crazy art markets. A fabulous collaboration by the RAW duo.
Vaiga, Jaksta and Neddy Ned Neddy, Frome Side, Bristol, October 2024
It is difficult for me to get to this Frome Side spot underneath the M32, when I have the dog with me, because access is perilous enough, even without a canine companion in tow. This means that my visits are sporadic at best, and I miss out on a lot of great artwork to be found there. This is a three artist collaboration from Vaiga, Jaksta and Neddy Ned Neddy.
Vaiga, Frome Side, Bristol, October 2024
I don’t know the work of Vaiga at all, and know nothing of the artist. Furthermore, it is difficult to find out more, because Vaiga doesn’t appear to have a social media presence. The black and white graffiti writing is beautifully presented in two halves and uses a tidy and distinctive font. This is a lovely piece of writing, although the tight blue border is a little smudged in one or two places (nit picking) This is a fine piece.
Jaksta, Frome Side, Bristol, October 2024
The centrepiece character is by the brilliant caricaturist Jaksta, who tipped me off about this piece a little while back. The brilliant portrait is a representation of Scarface, played by Al Pacino, is set in a Miami-style cityscape, which Jaksta used to hold on to the remains of the summer. A classy bit of character work, as always from this artist.
Neddy Ned Neddy, Frome Side, Bristol, October 2024
To the right is another great piece of wildstyle graffiti writing from Neddy Ned Neddy, whose work has appeared on Natural Adventures a couple of times before. Adopting the same two tone colour scheme as Vaiga, the piece oozes competence, experience and class. This is a wonderful triptych production well worth the trip.
We don’t get to see nearly enough of Jaksta’s caricature pieces in Bristol, so this one from a week or two back came as a bit of a welcome surprise. Based in Swindon, Jaksta makes a living from his art commissions, so his street work will be somewhat dictated by how busy he is, and he lives far enough away for his Bristol trips to only be occasional.
Jaksta, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2024
This portrait piece is in keeping with a slight shift in his work from caricatures of famous people to interesting and dynamic portrait pieces like this one. The piece is cartoon in style, although I can see a transition, perhaps, away from the humorous to a more serious and photorealistic direction. There is a lot of detail in the piece, which leaps out from the wall as being something rather special. I hope we don’t have to wait too long to see more like this from Jaksta.
Dopes, Jaksta and Neddy Ned Ned, M32 Spot, Bristol, January 2023
Well lookee here, on one of my favourite walls we have a fabulous three-way collaboration from Dopes, Jaksta and Neddy Ned Ned. The whole thing is painted in Autumnal colours (although a winter collaboration), and provides more than a little contemporary commentary.
Dopes, M32 Spot, Bristol, January 2023
To the left is a fine piece of writing from Dopes, offering his beautifully proportioned letters in a metallic style with plenty of shading fades and highlights, neatly finished off with a tidy blue border and some arrows thrown in for good measure.
Jaksta, M32 Spot, Bristol, January 2023
The most eye-catching element of the triptych is the portrait of Prince Harry, painted by Jaksta. This mischievous send-up of the Prince directly relates to the revelations in his autobiography ‘Spare’ and is a play on the word Charlie (cocaine) and Charles (his father the King). The portrait is nicely worked, but very different from the style I would normally associate with Jaksta.
Neddy Ned Ned, M32 Spot, Bristol, January 2023
I have never (knowingly) come across Neddy Ned Ned before, although his work does look slightly familiar. It is always great to have visitors to the city, especially when they are clearly as talented as Neddy Ned Ned is. There is a nice flow and confidence to the shapes of the letters, and there is a bit of a fill-fest going on too. Altogether, this is a banging collaboration.
A little while back I was contacted by Paul H, who told me to get myself down to City Road, where there was a RAW paint jam going on. I happened to be passing that way, returning home from another spot, and was very pleased that I did, as there was a bit of a street party atmosphere going on.
Jaksta, City Road, Bristol, May 2022
Food, music and a host of street artists. There was nothing not to like. The colour scheme adopted by all the artists had a kind of summer holiday theme, with lots of pink sunset stuff going on. This piece by Jaksta was one of the highlights, especially as I haven’t seen any of his work for quite a long time. Some of you might recognise the subject of the piece as Snoopdogg, and I find it amazing that Jaksta can create these slightly grotesque carton portraits with spray cans. A rare talent that he executes so well.
Around this time of year it is traditional for some street artists and crews to paint Haloween pieces although there have been few opportunities to spray recently, with so much rain. It is with not a little surprise then that this rather nice character piece by Jaksta appeared about a week ago as part of a collaboration along the M32 cycle path.
Jaksta, M32 cycle path, Bristol, October 2019
Jaksta is the king of characters and has appeared in Natural Adventures a number of times. This is Betelgeuse from the Tim Burton film of the same name and is wonderfully worked, especially those teeth. I have a feeling that the blond hair might be a reference to Boris or Donald, or perhaps both. I’m not sure what the Rake thing is, but I think it might be a crew name. Really nice work.
For the last 11 years there has been a rather mad festival centered around the Stokes Croft area called RaveOnAvon. It is frankly a bit of a booze, drugs and music party that is focussed on three or four live music venues but spills out onto the streets from dusk until dawn. You simply would not believe the mess the following morning. The links between graffiti art and the Bristol music scene are close, and this rather funky piece by Jaksta rather emphasises the point.
Jaksta, Moon Street, Bristol, May 2019
You know you are getting old when one of your children actually goes to an event such as this one. I didn’t ask too many questions. Jaksta, a member of the RAW crew, is a brilliant character artist and creates these wonderful exaggerated bodies ina cartoon style that never disappoints. It is also great to see something decent appear on this particular bit of hoarding, because recently it has been a bit trashy.
This was the last RaveOnAvon ever, because most of the music venues’ days are numbered. They are due to be demolished soon to make way for… da da daah… student accommodations. Gentrification will rob us of a major strand of Bristol culture and provide housing, not for those that really need it, but for the ever-growing student population in Bristol. Of course, students need to live somewhere, but I fear this particular growth bubble will burst, and maybe then affordable housing will become available.
A couple of weeks back there was a large paint jam in St Werburghs tunnel, and it would seem that it was something of a RAW (Read and Weep) get together. This collaborative piece included the T-Rex burner that I featured a few days ago, which was just to the right. These two are Ryder and Jaksta.
Ryder, St Werburghs, Bristol, May 2019
I don’t need to repeat myself, although I constantly find myself doing so, by telling you that Ryder is an incredibly accomplished writer, and here he has created something rather special in shades of gray with blue highlights. Having started trying to paint a little in the garden I realise how much I have to study what these guys do to understand tricks and techniques. Paint big was an important piece of advice I was given – smaller pieces are more difficult.
Jaksta, St Werburghs, Bristol, May 2019
When I have been in the tunnel, it seems everyone notices the pig – he really stands out and the kids that walk past love him. Jaksta is a master of the character piece and his work often joins up pieces of writing like it does here. It is the details I love in this piece, the black shading and white highlights that give a 3D feel to the whole thing, and the two shades of pink that make it look like the light is coming from the right (which in this part of the tunnel it actually does). Great work.
It is always great fun to see how street artists can play with each other’s work. For example, this piece is not a collaboration, it is an add-on. The original work was a RAW collaboration the centrepiece of which was this fabulous character by Jaksta.
Jaksta, M32 roundabout, Bristol, February 2019
Turnover on this wall has been unusually high this spring and when ‘the monday club’ a group of artists including Nevergiveup, Tasha Bee, Soap, Run Z and Zake set about painting here, Nevergiveup worked around Jaksta’s piece almost like a respect thing, his bunnies leaning in towards the character, together with a carefully, thoughtfully resprayed background.
Jaksta, M32 roundabout, Bristol, February 2019
Often Jaksta’s characters are well known film stars or personalities, but I’m not sure I know who this is. What we have here is two pieces for the price of one… and some more bunnies for the collection.
Jaksta and Nevergiveup, M32 roundabout, Bristol, February 2019
Natural adventures 