Mina Road – Natural adventures

7580. Mina Road (16)

Nice One, Mina Road, Bristol, March 2026

When I drove past this piece for the first time, I performed a monumental double-take. One of those ones when you lose control of your driving for a split second, before pulling yourself together. Such is the power and allure of Nice One’s landscapes.

Nice One has successfully brought edgy fine art to our streets. He isn’t an artist who falls for the trappings of high-end commissions, but expresses himself freely and without conditions. There are so many influences that I can see in this dreamy landscape such as Cezanne. The piece is beautifully balanced with wildflowers in the foreground on the left, and a village clinging to the hillside on the right, with a river valley running through the middle. The piece is given additional drama with a lively sky overhead. A truly excellent piece by Nice One. Bravo!

6995. Mina Road (15)

Stivs and Vane, Mina Road, Bristol, May 2025

This wall, I believe, is owned by the householder behind it who has been happy to give permission to Silent Hobo, in the past, and more recently Stivs and Vane to decorate the wall. This recent makeover is their second collaboration here, and they have created something truly beautiful.

The art nouveau style of this two-part collaboration is not only really unusual, but arresting, and perhaps something you might expect to see on the near continent rather than in Bristol. Vane’s photorealistic portrait is engulfed in flowers and surrounded with a stunning art nouveau design, not unlike the metro signs in Paris.

Stivs continuers the theme, with the highly designed background and floral decoration, and also includes a portrait, although one that is perhaps slightly less photorealistic. This collaboration is as outstanding as it is unexpected. A very special piece.

6759. Mina Road (14)

Aspire, Mina Road, Bristol, February 2025

I am having way too much fun skiing to write comprehensive posts this week, and am completely worn out when I do have a moment. So this is a quickie.

I have known about this stunning Octopus piece by Aspire for a while, but simply haven’t found myself an a situation where I could park up and photograph it. A little late to the party, but I made it in the end. Aspire used to keep us very happy in Bristol when he lived here with his regular bird pictures, but he does come back from time to time, and obviously still has contacts in the city. I guess that this was a commission for the restaurant below. Superb artwork.

5776. Mina Road (23)

One of the nice things about pausing and going back through archives is that it gives me a chance to post those pieces I had always intended to, but never quite got round to doing. This fun spray can character piece by 3F Fino is one of those.

This piece in Mina road spent much of its time being obscured by all sorts of shop paraphernalia and rarely saw the light of day, however, I got lucky and managed to capture it when it was partially exposed. The character, with a nozzle for a head, is standing in a pile of what look like banana caps. I felt, that this was a piece that demonstrated 3F Fino’s development really well, and he did a great job on the fabric shadows and textures, and the same with the shapes and orientations of the caps. A really good piece from the artist, who appears to have stopped painting in Bristol (although I saw a piece by him last week). Time for a gallery? I think so.

5559. Mina Road (12)

Stivs and Vane, Mina Road, Bristol, August 2023

I was fortunate enough to be driving by when Stivs and Vane were pretty much finishing off this piece, but couldn’t take any pictures at that time, because Vane had parked his van in front of it while they were clearing away all their gear. I didn’t go back immediately, knowing that it was a commission piece that would be respected by taggers.

The fantasy woodland piece is a true collaboration, where it is not possible to disentangle which artist painted which bits of the extraordinary work. The piece is quite unusual in Bristol, as we don’t get to see many of this kind of collaborative mural. Each of the artists has included some letters, with Stivs writing DSC on the left and Vane writing TAF on the right.

The almost Disneyesque style of the piece, it reminds me a little of Sleeping Beauty, is compelling to look at and beautifully executed. So absorbing is the piece that it is difficult to see that there is a garage door right in the middle. A garage door that once played host to an outstanding piece by Silent Hobo. This is something you might usually associate with Upfest and a premium wall in Bedminster, but here it is in Mina Road, thanks to an enlightened resident. Bravo gentlemen!

Silent Hobo, Mina Road, Bristol, October 2020

4292. Mina Road (10)

With this post, you can see the kind of time backlog I work to (roughly two weeks). I tend to prepare a pipeline of photographs that I will post onto Natural Adventures, which makes the whole process a little bit more organised than it might be if I left it to last minute posting.

Slakarts, Mina Road, Bristol, February 2022

This is the first anti-war piece that references the horrendous invasion of Ukraine by the odious and deranged dictator Putin (it would be comforting to think that Russian intelligence might be scanning the Interweb for anti-Russian sentiment, and stumble upon this post). Slakarts has painted one of his trademark stylised portraits with the message ‘No War’ incorporated, a sentiment that all but the utterly deluded would agree with, I’m sure.

4147. Mina Road (9)

Since first posting his pieces about 18 months ago or so, I have been thoroughly enjoying the work of Mest. His letters lend themselves very well to writing and he certainly makes the most of them, constantly playing with his fills and colour options.

This piece is painted on the long wall at the southern end of Mina Road Park, which seems to be a bit of a practice wall, but in amongst the dross, there are some nice pieces like this one. I like what Mest has done with his fills, creating a 3D effect by using different shades of lilac and purple. The subtle shading in the white 3D shadow, also lifts the piece up. Nice work.

4142. Mina Road (8)

Once I start posting about an artist, it seems that I find more of their work on both the streets and in my archives, and this is definitely the case with Krops. I don’t know why it took me so long to post any of his work, probably because there is simply so much choice in Bristol that it becomes difficult to post everything.

Krops, Mina Road, Bristol, December 2021

Anyhow, this is a classic piece of Krops work, that has probably been around for quite a while, incorporating a character in the middle of his KROPS letters. The star of the show is the Pink Panther character, and Krops has carried the pink theme through to his letters, the whole piece set off nicely on a light blue background.

4122. Mina Road (7)

Most street artists have a background in art, illustration or design, and many have jobs related to their craft and skills. Some supplement their income with commissions and some (the really lucky ones) derive a comfortable income from their street art and spin-offs from it, for example, Banksy, Inkie and Nick Walker. Hazard, I think, falls into the category of supplementing her income, and you will find a lot of her work around the city, on commercial or private walls that have earned her a little money.

Hazard, Mina Road, Bristol, December 2021

This is one of Hazard’s mos recent commissions in Mina Road, and although not bold or brash, the plant piece oozes class. The mural is painted above the Haus of Hair hairdressers and looks to be a sumptuous collection of houseplant leaves (of the rainforest ilk), providing texture and depth to an otherwise ordinary wall. This is a beautiful commission and a great advert for Hazard’s work.

3242. Mina Road (6)

It seems that Silent Hobo is on a bit of a roll at the moment, especially in the St Werburghs area – I am guessing that he must live nearby judging from the number of new pieces in recent months.

I spotted Silent Hobo painting this piece as I was driving home a couple of weeks ago, but there weren’t any parking spaces nearby and I was in a bit of a hurry, so regrettably I didn’t get a chance to stop for a chat. I returned the following day to take these pictures.

This is an outstanding and uplifting piece, bringing an ordinary and drab doorway to life with a stunning coastal view that dreams are made of. How much we all yearn to get away from it all in these pandemic days. Silent Hobo offers just a tiny moment of escape with this mural. I love, love, love this – if only more drab doors and walls were decorated in this way.

	M. on 7606. M32 roundabout J2 (…
	hitandrun1964 on 7599. St Werburghs tunnel…
	hitandrun1964 on 7603. Dean Lane skate park…
	paulh121 on 7605. Dean Lane skate park…
	paulh121 on Omie

	M. on 7606. M32 roundabout J2 (…
	hitandrun1964 on 7599. St Werburghs tunnel…
	hitandrun1964 on 7603. Dean Lane skate park…
	paulh121 on 7605. Dean Lane skate park…
	paulh121 on Omie

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: