Every once in a while, the walls of the M32 roundabout are treated to a new coat of grey paint courtesy of the council and courts in the form of community service. It is a marginally futile exercise, because it never takes too long for freshly buffed walls to be tagged and painted by street/graffiti artists. A blank canvass is an irresistible itch that needs to be scratched.
Lupa, M32 roundabout, Bristol, November 2025
Lupa, who has been fairly quiet this year, has painted this rather nice chrome piece in one of the tunnels under the roundabout. The chrome has picked up some of the colours of its immediate environment, such as the glow of the orange lighting and the light reflecting in from the ends of the tunnel, creating a warm effect. Her chunky letters are bordered with a pink line, although there is a small mistake on the top of the ‘U’ where the border encroaches too far (nit-picking). I love the happy/sad faces, and it is great to see her work again.
Lupa, M32 roundabout, Bristol, April 2025Lupa, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, January 2025Lupa, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2025Desi and Lupa, M32 roundabout, Bristol, January 2025Lupa, M32 roundabout J2, Bristol, October 2024Lupa, Dean Lane, Bristol, February 2023Lupa, M32 roundabout, Bristol, December 2023Lupa, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, November 2023Lupa, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, October 2023Lupa, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, October 2023Lupa, Purdown, Bristol, May 2023Lupa, Peel Street Green, Bristol, June 2023
I’ve said it before and I will say it again, there is an authenticity I really like about Lupa’s work. Her modest pieces stick to her general formula, and her letters are unpretentious and fun.
Lupa, M32 roundabout, Bristol, April 2025
In this piece she has pushed herself to incorporate an intricate grey and white box background pattern which must have taken ages to do. It has worked really well and raise the interest level in the piece considerably. Her letters are nicely filled with a combination of colours that are easy on the eye. A very nice piece of graffiti writing from Lupa.
I have a feeling that this might be Lupa’s most sophisticated I have seen to date. Her familiar letters are given the solid fill treatment, with some decorative cracks. This is augmented with some circular patterns and accent lines placed in all the right places.
Lupa, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, January 2025
I have said it before that there is an authenticity to Lupa’s work that forgives the rough edges of her style. Big letters from a big personality, and something about her work that always makes me smile. Looking forward to loads more from Lupa in 2025.
With some artists, there is a simple honesty, integrity and a resultant authenticity that makes their work so attractive. There is nothing pretentious about Lupa’s work, and this great big chunky presentation of the letters LUPA ‘does what it says on the tin’.
Lupa, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2025
The big yellow letters stand out on the deep red background. The fills have an electric plasma shock running through them, and I love the black swirl on the ‘P’ and the sad/angry face on the ‘A’. With this piece there is nothing but the letters and the joy. Nice shout-outs to Klofe, Lee Roy and RBF.
Desi and Lupa, M32 roundabout, Bristol, January 2025
Ladies of the PWA crew have started the year with some real momentum, and have broadly had a busy period. This conflation piece from Desi and Lupa looks gorgeous in the evening sun. In my experience, it is quite unusual for two artists to merge their names and share a style in this way, and I have to say I rather like it. Within the crew, there are all sorts of combinations that would be fascinating to see, although I sense that this might be a bit of a one-off.
Desi and Lupa, M32 roundabout, Bristol, January 2025
Desi has contributed the VEI, and probably L, and Lupa, the UPA. They have set the pink writing on a traditional purple brick wall background, and the Christmas hat from PWA’s Zake can still be seen behind the letters, providing some temporal context. A fine and true collaboration from Desi and Lupa.
I am a fan of Lupa’s work, and although it can be a little rough around the edges, it feels authentic, honest and unpretentious. As ever, with her work, there is a lot of joy and personality about the presentation of her letters, which are characterful and animated with simple faces. The bright colours are not blended, but simply blasted onto the wall, which adds to the genuine nature of Lupa’s work.
Lupa, M32 roundabout J2, Bristol, October 2024
This piece is in one of the tunnels of the much underused Junction 2 roundabout, where turnover is far lower than one might expect. There is a lot of wall space here, which gives me comfort, because as the city becomes more and more gentrified, some of the ‘traditional’ walls and hoardings are rapidly disappearing. Lupa has used the space well.
My rummage through my graffiti archives continues with this beauty from Lupa, painted last February. I have said before that I am attracted to her slightly crude style, which is definitely not to detract from it, but to distinguish it from some of the other writers who paint with knife-edge precision. There is room for all styles on the walls of Bristol.
Lupa, Dean Lane, Bristol, February 2023
Lupa’s letters are large and chunky, giving plenty of scope for creating interesting fills. In this case, she has used some lovely shades of purple and lilac which are carefully blended in several different ways, overlayed with some symbol decorations. Her trademark face in the ‘U’ is looking a little sad, and is joined with a simple smiley on top of the ‘A’. An attractive piece from a graffiti writer whose work definitely appeals to me.
Although she has been writing for a little while, Lupa only made her first appearance on Natural Adventures last summer, and I have tried to keep her represented as much as I can. I do feel though that I need to trawl through my archives to dig out some of her older pieces.
Lupa, M32 roundabout, Bristol, December 2023
This is a lovely green piece of chunky writing that, helped by a thick 3D drop shadow, pops out from the wall. Lupa’s finishing is sometimes a little crude, but in a way that is her style, so it kind of works. In this piece, it is the fills that excel, with a blend of green colours and shapes working very nicely together. Rounded off with a couple of trademark faces, this is a piece full of fun.
Desi, Lupa, Pekoe and Evey, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, November 2023
The Resting Bitch Face (RBF) crew have been seriously busy this year, and giving PWA a good run for their money. In this recent paint jam, the ladies have shown their support for the people of Palestine, by incorporating the colours of the Palestinian flag into the piece. There have been so many protest pieces about the war in Palestine, and as I have mentioned many times before, street art captures the mood of the moment and provides a running social commentary, which I have the privilege of photographing and recording before it disappears under ever-increasing layers of paint. This grouping of four of the artists, Desi, Lupa, Pekoe and Evey was in addition to others from RBF (posts to follow).
Desi, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, November 2023
On the left, Desi ha painted another of her VEIL pieces, and it now feels like an eternity since she last painted DESI – she appears to have well and truly moved on. Her colours are those that are adopted across the whole collaboration, namely chrome and gold, a very striking combination. This is a nice tidy piece from Desi, enhanced with some pink and purple spots and circles around the writing.
Lupa, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, November 2023
Lupa, I guess like all the RBF artists, is painting more often, and I am enjoying seeing more of her work about the place. This is a nice tidy piece incorporating her trademark ‘U’ character – her work certainly lends itself to the saying ‘less is more’, where her big fat letters with simple designs, hit home. A little bit more practice with her white boundary lines would lift the whole thing to another level.
Pekoe, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, November 2023
Pekoe has been turning out some exceptional work this autumn/winter, and this portrait is right out of the top drawer. There are minimal decorations on the face, which is a simple solid gold face with features picked out in black. The lips are painted with the Palestinian flag, and the colours are repeated as peace symbols around the portrait. The highlight of the piece for me is the bunches, studded with gold balls – it just looks brilliant and is a really memorable image.
Evey, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, November 2023
Finally, Evey, whose work has stepped up a level this year, has painted a clean and crisp piece with some fabulous features. Evey has chosen to write all her letters in chrome and to accompany them with some golden touches to bring them to life, including a crown and an exclamation mark, the dot of which has the colours of Palestine. A nice red, white and green RBF rounds off the right-hand end of this impressive wall. Bravo RBF!
Natural adventures 