Love – Natural adventures

7905. Purdown (106)

It can be difficult sometimes to identify unsigned pieces, and it can take a bit of luck swiping through Instagram profiles to reveal the artist. So it was with this piece. I was looking up Mr Sleven for a recently posted poster piece, and spotted this in his feed. Pennies dropped and I am freed to post it now.

Perhaps the reason I didn’t think of Mr Sleven immediately when I spotted the piece, is that he has been inactive for quite a while. The message is clear, ‘Love Wins’, although the skull with an arrow through it might imply a broken heart, so a little confusing. A heart patterned background is being obscured by a blue dripping sheet of colour. Lots to like about this striking piece.

7871. Cumberland basin

Mr Sleven, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, August 2026

Well this was something I was not expecting to find. More of a poster than a wheatpaste, Mr Sleven has been at work with a sketch and then decided to stick it to a column on the north side of Cumberland Basin.

This is a rather nice creation, emphasising peace and love, but the face itself has a glimmer of menace about it that is slightly unsettling. Great to see that Mr Sleven is active though. I realise that I have several of his recent pieces in my archive and shall strive to dig them out and post them.

7571. M32 roundabout J2 (16)

John D'oh, M32 roundabout J2, Bristol, March 2026 — John D’oh, M32 roundabout J2, Bristol, March 2026

Another column piece from the John D’oh gallery of stencils underneath the M32. The artist has certainly made himself at home here, and I note from his Instagram account that he has been busy down there again recently.

This simple piece features a rather stereotyped curvaceous woman holding a book and tilting her glasses. The caption says ‘love is like street art, sometimes it doesn’t last long’, which I guess can be true, there is also an additional view that might take the position ‘love is like street art, sometimes it lasts forever’. Yet more to come from this rich seam of John D’oh gold.

7007. Cumberland Basin

Andy Council and Acer One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2025

Andy Council and Acer One are a classic painting duo, with utterly different styles and subject, but their work, counterintuitively, seems to be wonderfully complementary. There is no jarring of styles, or competition for space or the limelight – the two artists seem to be comfortable with themselves and each other.

Andy Council, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2025

Andy Council has painted one of his gorgeous dinosaurs, selecting some beautiful colours and stitching the whole creature together with small components, like a Lego model. The little dots of green add so much to the piece. The collaboration was painted as a tribute to Tickz, who will be very much missed by the graffiti community in Bristol.

Acer One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2025

Acer One, who has been relatively quiet this year, has painted one of his iconic peace and love stamps in yellow and white or gold and silver, depending on your interpretation. This is a difficult wall to paint, especially with a designed graphic like this one, and the recesses in the walls present a challenge that Acer One has risen to. A fine collaboration and fitting tribute.

6704. Cumberland Basin

Andy Council and Acer One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2025

There is never a time when it isn’t a genuine pleasure to come across an Acer One/Andy Council collaboration. These two have been painting together for a long time, and although their styles couldn’t be more different, there is a harmony in their work that is probably supported by their familiarity with one another.

Andy Council, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2025

This wonderful composite creature piece by Andy Council is stitched together in his unique style. Andy has said that he is aiming to paint one dinosaur piece each month to celebrate 20 years since he painted his first. If this feathered velociraptor is anything to go by, we are in for a treat in 2025. I like the way that the cloudy puffs span across to Acer One’s piece.

Acer One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2025

Acer One is constantly inventing ways to dazzle us with his graphic lettering and design. Always executed to perfection, his pieces are quite different to anything else we see in Bristol. In this piece he has combined peace and heart symbols to come up with a single entity. It is beautiful and meaningful, and I expect we’ll see more of this icon from Acer One. A fine collaboration.

6447. Stapleton Road

Logoe and Silent Hobo, Stapleton Road, Bristol, October 2024

Logoe and Silent Hobo are good friends and on his most recent visit to Bristol, it looks like Logoe found time to hook up with his mate and collaborate on this wonder wall. The combination of writing and story telling is original and eye-catching, and goes straight into one of my favourite collaborations of 2024. Logoe has pulled out all the stops with his distinctive script writing and produces a very tight and tidy piece with transitional coloured stripes filling the letters.

Silent Hobo, Stapleton Road, Bristol, October 2024

Sitting on top of the writing, Silent Hobo is telling us a story of what looks like heart break, but without the context is difficult to be sure. Rather ominously, the first panel has a woman saying ‘We’ve been through this already…’

In the next frame, a woman, is it the same woman, is saying ‘love is not enough’, a phrase that would wilt the heart of anyone on the receiving end of the comment

The final part has a man, looking a little worse for wear, saying ‘OK’, which probably means not OK. The three panels could be stand-alone pieces, or part of a continuous conversation, and I guess that it is for the viewer to decide which. A magnificent collaboration from this pair.

6302. Cumberland Basin

Acer One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, August 2024

I’m not entirely sure how Acer One finds the time to paint so much, but I am glad that he does. One of the upsides of self-employment I guess. This is a really classy design piece in one of his favoured spots, which he pretty much ‘owns’ these days.

The word ‘love’ is written in the same format as the background, and emerges from it due to the curves in the lettering where they depart from the horizontal background pattern. If the letters were to straighten out, they would disappear into the wall altogether. The piece is nicely conceived, and as always with Acer One, beautifully executed.

5156. Elton Street (19)

Zubieta, Elton Street, Bristol, April 2023

This is another wonderful piece by Zubieta, and I really like what I have seen of her work so far. I know that I have at least one unpublished piece in my archives, which I will need to dig out, because we don’t get to see her stuff on the streets nearly as often as I’d like.

Painted as part of the recent paint jam in the Elton Street gallery, Zubieta is telling a story about how ‘love stings’, featuring a woman and a stinging insect masquerading as a butterfly full of love. Perhaps this is a tale of failed relationships of deceitful partners – who knows? The colours follow the paint jam theme, and the piece is beautifully executed. Tidy work from a great artist.

St Valentine’s Day

What is love? They asked

a million answers came

interpretation

by Scooj

4658. Upfest 2022 (45)

Diff is a Bristol street artist who is horribly under-represented on Natural Adventures, and although I have published a few of his pieces before, I still have several in my archives. I will have to dig them out. This most recent piece, for Upfest is a real winner in my view.

There is something rather tender and touching about the stencil piece, and the positioning and posture of the kissing characters is just about perfect. Young love beautifully captured in a contemporary way. Such a pity this piece was only on view for two days – perhaps he could recreate it somewhere else in Bristol… hint, hint.

	hitandrun1964 on 7912. Temple Way (7)
	hitandrun1964 on 7913. Stapleton Road
	paulh121 on 7913. Stapleton Road
	M. on 7913. Stapleton Road
	Nguyễn Thị Phương Tr… on 7913. Stapleton Road

	hitandrun1964 on 7912. Temple Way (7)
	hitandrun1964 on 7913. Stapleton Road
	paulh121 on 7913. Stapleton Road
	M. on 7913. Stapleton Road
	Nguyễn Thị Phương Tr… on 7913. Stapleton Road

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