A quick couple of posts today, written last night, because I have an early start today, running a workshop in the middle of nowhere, somewhere in rural Shropshire. This is another fine piece from my short visit to Liverpool from one of my favourite wheatpasters, LostHills.
LostHills, Jamaica Street, Liverpool, March 2025
You might notice that this isn’t a paste up, but a painting, something LostHills has been doing more of in recent years. His characters are based on Jake the Dog from Adventure time, but I am not sure what the cultural reference is in the piece. A nice one to find.
Although I have only posted one other piece by Coloquix before, I am familiar with the artist’s work, and have been following their Instagram feed for years. I was surprised to find this painted shutter piece, because More often I am used to seeing wheatpastes by Coloquix.
Coloquix, Kitchen Street, Liverpool, March 2025
The stylised character is the trademark of the artist, and here she nestles in a quarter moon with a friendly face. The horizontal bars of colour run across the piece nicely and overall it is a happy soulful piece and a good find during my stroll in Liverpool.
Liam Bononi, Jamaica Street, Liverpool, March 2025
There are many parallels between Bristol and Liverpool, in part due to the established trading routes with America and the West Indies. Unfortunately, both cities prospered through the trade in slaves, alcohol and tobacco, along with a huge amount of other less controversial goods. Place and street names tend to reflect the development of a city, and it is no surprise that both Bristol and Liverpool have a Jamaica Street, and that both are in areas that have seen a lot of change.
In Liverpool, the area around Jamaica street is a hotspot for street art, and I was lucky enough to find some superb pieces during my recent visit there, including this old piece by Liam Bononi.
Liam Bononi, Jamaica Street, Liverpool, March 2025
Liam Bononi has become one of the great high-end artists in Europe and is a favourite for premium walls and festivals, and this piece, I think, was painted sometime last year. Much of his work contains contorted, agonised or corrupted portraits, perhaps reflecting an inner struggle. This beautiful portrait piece appears to be cracked and disfigured as if it were a broken mirror, and as a result is a little unsettling. Although based in the North of England, Liam Bononi does manage to travel around the country a little, which is great news.
Our trip to Liverpool was a short one, two days and one night, but just long enough for me to snap a few street art pieces. I got lucky with this magnificent large mural by Nomad Clan, because it was on the route between our hotel and the station. We were running late for the train, and my wife was less than impressed with me stopping to photograph this beauty – I did catch up…
Nomad Clan, Hackins Hey, Liverpool, March 2025
Nomad Clan are not strangers to Natural Adventures, and the duo have painted a few times at Upfest in Bristol, always going large with beautifully creative works. There is a strong nature theme in this piece, with a bee (anatomically a little dubious) and an amazing cormorant catching a fish. There is a lot of detail in the whole piece, tattoos and a patterned dress for the main character, and loads of hidden extras throughout. This is an impressive mural from Nomad Clan.
Dave Bonsai, Greenland Street, Liverpool, March 2025
As I said in the previous post, it is not difficult to find cultural references to The Beatles pretty much everywhere you go in Liverpool. Street names, pubs, cafés, statues, shops and of course street art and graffiti. There is no escaping it, and indeed it is exactly what you’d expect.
Dave Bonsai, Greenland Street, Liverpool, March 2025
The reference in this piece, by David Bonsai, is that the disguised letters spell out ‘all you need is love’, but how cleverly painted. The letters look like molten metal, or perhaps a splash of solder from a soldering iron, and is beautifully executed. I don’t think I have come across the artist before, but it would be nice to get him along to Upfest in Bristol some time and decorate one of our walls.
John Culshaw, Watkinson Street, Liverpool, March 2025
Perhaps the least surprising theme for street art in Liverpool was a link in some way or other to the Beatles. It seems that so much of the culture of the city is reliant on the greatest music group ever, and it is difficult to avoid any cultural references to them wherever you happen to be in the city.
John Culshaw, Watkinson Street, Bristol, March 2025
This fine portrait piece of the Fab Four by John Culshaw (an artist I know nothing about) features, from left to right, Ringo, John, Paul and George. Each of the portraits is skilfully painted in two-tone colours, with the whole thing looking like an album cover. Fun fact, I was at school with Zak Starkey (only for a short overlap, and he wasn’t in my year), Ringo Starr’s son. More Beatles related street art in my next post.
Liam Bononi, St James Street, Liverpool, March 2025
There were several memorable highlights to our recent weekend away in Liverpool, and nestled just under my wife’s completion of the half-marathon, and walking around the docks and the Liver building, was this utterly outstanding portrait mural by Liam Bononi.
Liam Bononi, St James Street, Liverpool, March 2025
The portrait piece, of a contorted agonised male face, is particularly impactful on account of both its size and its positioning on an entire elevation of a large, isolated Victorian building. There is so much detail in the face and hands, a signature of Liam Bononi’s work, and there is a fair amount of emotional wrestling going on here.
Liam Bononi, St James Street, Liverpool, March 2025
Without doubt, I am a big fan of Liam Bononi’s work, and the quality of his portraits. What a fabulous surprise to find one as magnificent as this on the back streets of Liverpool.
Molly Mural, New Bird Street, Liverpool, March 2025
As you will know from yesterday’s post, I recently spent a weekend in Liverpool, and the old ‘graff radar’, which I thought I had turned off, swung into active duty. Not being familiar with the street/graffiti artists in Liverpool, it was comforting to come across this rather nice mural by Molly Mural, who has painted many times in Bristol, where she is based.
Molly Mural, New Bird Street, Liverpool, March 2025
I’m not sure how long the mural has been there, but I guess a while, as some of the paint was chipping. The piece appears to be full of symbolism and stories and is centred around the numbers 1 and 3. The abstract piece is characteristically colourful, and after doing a little Interweb search, it turns out it was inspired by Taylor Swift’s ‘second era’ and her lucky number 13. You live and learn.
A couple of weeks ago I visited Liverpool with my wife and daughter to cheer on my wife and our nephew-in-law who were running the half-marathon. After finding a strategic place to stop and wave them on at the mile marker, we had an hour or two to kill before being at the finishing line at the end of their admirable adventure. Our rather less energetic walk took us to a café, which happened to be in a street art district.
This discovery had been completely unplanned by me, I have only once before been to Liverpool, long before I was interested in street art, and didn’t do any research before our trip. I got lucky once again. While my daughter and niece, caught up and had a coffee, I ran around the area, like a mad thing, taking as many pictures as I could. This was one of the first.
Aske, Jordan Street, Liverpool, March 2025
As a football fan, I can appreciate that this is a fine piece on two levels. One, the quality of the portrait of Jurgen Klopp, former manager of Liverpool Football Club, and two, the love for football and how the local team touches lives. The artist is Aske, not known to me, and this is a fine tribute to a local hero. More from this Liverpool adventure to come.
Natural adventures 