Fishing calls. Very quick one.
Mr Crawls and Mote have been at it again with these tunnel-end pieces on each side of the archway. The pigeon by Mr Crawls is his latest character favourite, and is getting better with each rendition.
On the other side, Mote has painted this unusual moustachioed character. I haven’t seen too many people portrait pieces by Mote, and it is interesting to see how his style comes through. Looking forward to seeing more of these sophisticated pieces from him.
The ‘dynamic duo’, Mote and Mr Crawls, are back in a spot that they have painted together before in Peel Street Green. It is a smaller bit of wall at the right-hand end of the spot, and is the prefect size and shape for one of their collaborations. The pair of birds are painted in their own unique styles, but there are some obvious ideas that read-across both artists.
Mr Crawls has been developing his pigeon character and here he is in all his resplendent glory. The colours of pigeon plumage lend themselves to street art (note to self: do a pigeon special gallery) and are present here – I wonder if he will start to work in more of the iridescent greens and purples in future pieces. Mote presents a rather weird looking bird monster, which those of you with a natural history interest will appreciate can’t possibly be a bird due to the presence of nipples, a mammalian characteristic. In Mote’s defence, it is a monster and from his imagination so it can be whatever he wants it to be – that is the joy of character pieces. Great to see these two collaborating again.
It has been a little while, but I think I can safely say that the painting duo of Mr Crawls and Mote are back, and painting together again, which in my book is a great thing. The pair have painted a few collaborations lately, but I have struggled to keep up with them.
On the left, Mr Crawls has painted a bird, looking rather startled, in his stylised cartoon form, in which he has incorporated a couple of Mote design ideas, such as the line through the beak and the horizontal lines on the eyes. I think the bird might be a pigeon.
To the right, Mote has gone to town with his portrait piece of a moustachioed man. The composite style isn’t one I have seen before, and I rather like it. A nice purple theme is rounded off with a chrome background, something of a signature for this pair.
On my wanderings in the East Street area of Bedminster, looking for Tian Paste ups, I came across this hoarding with a few treats on it. I think that this collaboration was painted last year when Mote and Mr Crawls were in full flow, painting together frequently all over the city.
To the left, the Mr Crawls character is quite unlike anything I have seen from him before, although his underlying style is unmistakable. The rather strange monster, in great green tones, is perhaps most notable for its psychedelic eyes, and ‘puckered’ upper lip.
Mote is no stranger to painting monsters, and here he has assembled five one-eyed beasts is some of his favoured colours. The chrome background for the collaboration gives me a pretty good date range (a little bit like carbon dating), which they first introduced at the end of 2023. A satisfying find.
I rarely venture along the Bristol to Bath cycle path to the BB Gallery, because turnover tends to be very slow there, but I was pleased to find this collaboration from Mote and Mr Crawls on my last visit there.
It would seem that the collaborative pair are spending some time focussing on their own pieces at the moment, and that the joint pieces have dropped off over the winter. On the left is a fine monster character with all the trademark doodles and markings we would expect from Mote. To the right, Mr Crawls has painted one of his monster characters wearing a hat, the style of which first appeared on the streets about a year ago now. Nice work from the pair.
I believe that Mote might have been one of the first, if not the first, artist to start colonising this long blue-bordered black hoarding in Greenway Bush Lane. As a pioneer, he may well be pleased to see that others have descended on the spot to decorate it.
In this piece, Mote has painted two bird-like monsters for the price of one. They look like distant relatives, sharing colours, but evolution has separated them. The top and bottom halves are reversed, and one has only a head, while the other has a neck and body. These monsters are so uniquely by Mote, and there is no need for a signature. A fine duo.
Sometimes the simplest of pieces can be as pleasing as the most complex, and this is definitely a case of less is more. I find it quite difficult to date this piece by Mote, because it is the kind of piece he was turning out a year or two back, but it looks reasonably fresh and I don’t recall seeing it before.
The monster character is about as basic as you can get. Some features, a double border and minimal fill patterns. There is a charm and clarity in the piece that warrants its inclusion in Natural Adventures, that, and the fact that I am a fan of his work and will always try to include it if I can. Nice, clean, fun piece.
This is the first time I have visited this spot, and it looks like a fairly new one, with a long hoarding that is mostly in mint condition. So far, it looks like Mote and Mr Crawls are the first to ‘colonise’ it. This is a wonderful character piece from Mote, who has had a quiet Winter so far, but appears to be kicking into gear now.
This monster piece, by Mote, resembles a cat who looks both sad and scary in the same moment. The state of the cat reminds me a little of the feral cats that can be found everywhere in Marrakesh (still fresh in my mind and nourishing me). It must feel rather nice being the first to a new spot and painting some ‘virgin’ boards. It will be interesting to see if this becomes a recognised spot, or just occasional. I don’t know what the letters WYWH stand for, but will try to find out.
I guess it only feels right that a special Christmas Day post should fall to Mote and Mr Crawls, who have been Bristol’s most productive partnership this year. Although they have been quite quiet over the past month or two, I am expecting a resumption of their characters brightening up our streets in the New Year. I think I was a little late to the party with this piece, but I don’t visit this area of Bristol too often.
The multi-eyed monster to the right is by Mote, whose presence and development has been a pleasure to witness in recent years, and all the time he is tweaking and adding ideas and techniques. Mr Crawls, too, has been developing his style and characters, and the two appear to bounce ideas off one another. Mr Crawls has had two bites of the cherry here, painting one piece on the hoarding and the other on the utility box. By having two pieces together you can see his identity and style running through, even though the characters are quite different, save the hats. More next year I hope.
Although they appear to have slowed down ever so slightly, Mote and Mr Crawls continue to keep us entertained with their creative monster collaborations. This one on the swimming pool wall has quite a festive feel about it, although it is a little early for Christmas, not that anyone told the supermarkets!
Set on a gold background, which is a progression from their recent penchant for chrome, Mr Crawls has painted one of his bird characters, it might be a penguin, looking mighty cold, wearing a woolly hat and with icicles dangling from its bill. The coloured blobs dotted around the character work incredibly well, adding a dimension our feathered friend.
Mote has created a monster unlike any other, but which holds a certain fascination in its unusualness. Some aspects of the character resemble ET, but I think that this is coincidental rather than planned. There is something a little haunting about this monster, which I guess is appropriate for the Halloween period.
Natural adventures 