5936. Cumberland Basin

Mr Crawls and Mote, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024
Mr Crawls and Mote, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024

One of the great joys of the last six months has been the thriving partnership between Mote and Mr Crawls. Rarely do you get the chance to watch on as two artistic talents arrive at a confluence and thrive as collaborators, while maintaining their individual identities.

Mr Crawls and Mote, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024
Mr Crawls and Mote, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024

This collaboration, on the ‘wet wall’ on the north side of the river underneath Brunel Way features two toothy monsters set on a chrome background (a strong feature of their recent work). On the left, Mr Crawls has a go, and smashes it, at painting a monster, which is a bit of a departure from his birds. The purple-faced monster, in spite of the array of sharp teeth, looks gentle enough. On the right Mote has created a monster, also with sharp teeth, in which the fill patterns give the piece away as one of his. As I have said before, they tend to bounce ideas off one another, and you can see how they have both shared an approach to painting the eyelids. So much fun from these two.

5920. River Avon (59)

This piece really made me laugh, taking the brilliant partnership between Mr Crawls and Mote into new territory in this rendition of a couple of fish monsters. Their work is always fun and usually tinged with a touch of humour that brings a smile to your face.

Mr Crawls, River Avon, Bristol, February 2024
Mr Crawls, River Avon, Bristol, February 2024

This is one of those collaborative pieces from the pair, where their influence on one another makes it quite difficult to know who painted which character. There are some tell-tale signs that give each of the artists away, and the yellow anglerfish is by Mr Crawls, and an absolute beauty.

Mote, River Avon, Bristol, February 2024
Mote, River Avon, Bristol, February 2024

The fish monster is by Mote, and consistent with so many of his characters in his vast portfolio. The fill patterning, and little hashtag symbol on the edge of the monster’s mouth give him away. This is a wonderful collaboration from the pair, which took me quite a while to hunt down. Well worth being persistent in my search.

5892. Cumberland Basin

Mote and Mr Crawls, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024
Mote and Mr Crawls, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024

It looks like the dynamic duo, Mr Crawls and Mote, are going to keep us entertained for some time to come, as their collaborations keep popping up all around the city, and as they paint more often together, they appear to be bouncing ideas off one another to bring about some convergent evolution of styles.

Mote, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024
Mote, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024

In these two utility box pieces, the artists have retreated a little back to their original identities, and the discrete nature of the boxes lend themselves to this separation. Mote has painted one of his friendly monster faces on a chrome background (the pair’s background of choice it seems) in his favoured pastel shades. Boldness juxtaposed with modesty – a good look.

Mr Crawls, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024
Mr Crawls, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2024

On the adjacent utility box, Mr Crawls has seized the opportunity to paint one of his birds, I think this one is an eagle wearing a bucket/pork pie hat. Both pieces have omitted pupils in the eyes, leaving the characters with a bit of a ghostly or ambiguous expression, a deliberate move to leave the viewer a little unsettled perhaps? Great stuff from this pair.

5875. Cattle Market Road (16)

Mr Crawls and Mote, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, February 2024
Mr Crawls and Mote, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, February 2024

The ‘dynamic duo’ continue to entertain us with their increasingly frequent monster/character collaborations. Since Mr Crawls and Mote teamed up, they have been creating some fabulous monster pieces spread around the city and they don’t appear to have a favourite spot, so finding them seems to be a bit of a random process.

Mr Crawls and Mote, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, February 2024
Mr Crawls and Mote, Cattle Market Road, Bristol, February 2024

This one, on the ever-shrinking hoardings behind Temple Meads station, features a bird from Mr Crawls and a monster from Mote, set perfectly on a chrome background, something they seem to enjoy adopting in their work. As they continue to work together, they are learning from one another, and here they have gone with a black border that matches in thickness, and draws the collaboration together. I have plenty more pieces in the can waiting for posting.

5873. Brunel Way (260)

Mote, Brunel Way, Bristol, February 2024
Mote, Brunel Way, Bristol, February 2024

This fine column monster very nearly escaped my attention. Mote has painted so many columns under Brunel Way, that it becomes easy to miss new ones in the busy mix – there was certainly a double-take involved in finding this one.

Mote, Brunel Way, Bristol, February 2024
Mote, Brunel Way, Bristol, February 2024

Columns are fun to paint, but a real pain to photograph, especially the circular ones – square or rectangular columns are not so bad. This fish monster indicates a slight shift away from his bird monsters and has opened a whole new world of monster opportunity. I guess that Mote is going through phases or eras with his monster art. A nice modest piece.

5821. M32 Cycle path (250)

Mr Crawls and Mote, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, January 2024
Mr Crawls and Mote, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, January 2024

The series of Mr Crawls and Mote collaborations simply goes from strength to strength, and as far as I am concerned, they can just keep on coming. This is a recent one from the M32 Cycle path not too far from the M32 Spot.

Mr Crawls and Mote, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, January 2024
Mr Crawls and Mote, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, January 2024

Painted on a chrome-buffed wall, the two birds sit snugly side by side, the different styles complementing each other perfectly. The bird on the left is by Mr Crawls and features the hollow and haunting eyes. On the right, another Mote monster bird comes up trumps. Although they have used different colours, they both adopt minimal colour palettes, so the whole thing isn’t over fussy or complicated. Such a great and productive.

5798. St Werburghs tunnel (402)

Mr Crawls and Mote, St Werburghs, Bristol, January 2024
Mr Crawls and Mote, St Werburghs, Bristol, January 2024

With this double collaboration from Mote and Mr Crawls, we are treated to some outstandingly creative monster characters, demonstrating that this relatively recent pairing is thriving, and their partnership is becoming one of the most interesting in Bristol at the moment.

Mr Crawls and Mote, St Werburghs, Bristol, January 2024
Mr Crawls and Mote, St Werburghs, Bristol, January 2024

While I have met Mote on this many occasions, I have not yet met Mr Crawls, but hope that I will catch them painting together before long. The left-hand side pairing of bird monsters are painted in rich colours and superbly designed. The different styles, as always, complement each other perfectly, and to date this is my favourite piece by the two artists so far.

Mr Crawls and Mote, St Werburghs, Bristol, January 2024
Mr Crawls and Mote, St Werburghs, Bristol, January 2024

To the right, two more imaginative creatures hang out side-by-side, set on a chrome background. As these two paint more often together, they are clearly bouncing ideas off each other and incorporating elements of each others’ work. For example Mote’s monster horns are straight out of the Mr Crawls song book. What a fabulous collaboration.

5765. Jubilee Street (8)

Mr Crawls and Mote, Jubilee Street, Bristol, December 2023
Mr Crawls and Mote, Jubilee Street, Bristol, December 2023

Haha, this is another fabulous collaboration piece from Mr Crawls and Mote whose painting partnership is bearing fruit, and I might venture to suggest that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. The piece is painted on the hoarding down by Jubilee Street, which a few years back was a favourite place for artists like Deamze and Soker, until developers started demolishing the hell out of the area – now we are left with hoardings instead.

Mr Crawls and Mote, Jubilee Street, Bristol, December 2023
Mr Crawls and Mote, Jubilee Street, Bristol, December 2023

The different but complementary styles of the two artists and similar subjects and portrait orientations lend themselves to something quite special. On the left Mr Crawls has painted a gull (or is it an eagle?) with horns and on the right Mote has created a wonderful monster bird. Both characters have outsize beaks, but quite different personas. More to come from these two, which is great news.

5747. Jubilee Street (7)

Mote, Jubilee Street, Bristol, December 2023
Mote, Jubilee Street, Bristol, December 2023

Having had a reasonably quiet autumn period, Mote has been having something of a purple patch lately, and I wonder if it might be in part related to teaming up with Mr Crawls and finding new inspiration. Whatever the reason, I am very much enjoying his renaissance.

Mote, Jubilee Street, Bristol, December 2023
Mote, Jubilee Street, Bristol, December 2023

I normally visit this spot after I have been to the recycling centre, but don’t expect to find anything new, I was pleased to see a few new pieces on this occasion. Mote has painted a humanoid monster this time, which is a bit of a departure from most of his work, and I think that it works rather well. The floating hand with a thumbs up also adds to the piece significantly. Monsterish and endearing, the way that Mote works, and he has managed to succeed with this one. I’m not sure what the ‘tunnel vision’ means, but I am sure there is a story there.

5737. Dean Lane skate park (673)

Mr Crawls and Mote, Dean Lane, Bristol, December 2023
Mr Crawls and Mote, Dean Lane, Bristol, December 2023

Well, they’ve been at it again, and I love it. Mote and Mr Crawls seem to be enjoying their collaborative outings, and not content with picking a single spot, they have been painting together all over the city. This piece in Dean Lane is tucked away between the railings and the swimming pool, and not the easiest to photograph.

Mr Crawls and Mote, Dean Lane, Bristol, December 2023
Mr Crawls and Mote, Dean Lane, Bristol, December 2023

The collaboration has a slightly gory story to it, with an axe embedded in each of the characters and blood spurting from the wounds. Mr Crawls’ bird character has a slightly sinister look to it, I think it might be the eyes, and has a beak that looks like it might belong to a seabird like an albatross or something. Mote has reverted to one of his happy-go-lucky monster characters, although the axe would looks particularly nasty piercing one of his eyes. All a little bit weird. Plenty more from these two to come.