When I first encountered Mr Crawls, it was his pieces of birds that first caught my eye, and although he has come on quite a way from his early Bristol pieces, with the encouragement of his painting partner Mote, this particular piece up at Purdown is a bit of a throwback.
Mr Crawls, Purdown, Bristol, August 2024
The particular type of bird is a little difficult to nail down. The colour of the beak and head would suggest a gull, but the shape of the beak is far more raptor-like. I guess it doesn’t actually matter, because the joy of creative art is that you can conjure up imaginary things and situations. This is a fun piece from the productive Mr Crawls.
Although Mr Crawls appears to enjoy painting with Mote, it certainly doesn’t stop him from going out and painting on his own. This column piece, under the M32 motorway, takes us back to some of the artist’s earlier themes, incorporation; old and new styles into the work.
Mr Crawls, M32 Spot, Bristol, July 2024
The cartoon character is a gull or a raptor of some kind wearing a bucket hat. The piece incorporates newer design themes developed by Mr Crawls, such as the skeleton neck and hollow square eyes. You might have spotted a rare appearance by my dog, who accompanies me on most of my photographic trips. Nice work from Mr Crawls.
Mote and Mr Crawls, Cumberland Basin, Bristol,July 2024
This fine Mote and Mr Crawls collaboration is at the northern end of Ashton Avenue Bridge, and greets with good humour all who cross it. The pair appear to have gone with a full-on monster theme for this collaboration, combining their styles well.
Mote and Mr Crawls, Cumberland Basin, Bristol,July 2024
Once again we see their preferred chrome background, which is a quick and easy way to identify the artists. On the left, Mote’s monster, in pink, has a little bit of Frankenstein’s monster about him, perhaps sub-consciously. On the right, Mr Crawls has gone for the melting face look, a device used by other artists such as Laic217. It works really well with this character piece. All in all, a tidy and fun collaboration.
Two things I really enjoy about Mr Crawls’ work are his desire to grow and develop his ideas, while underpinning them with his magic style and the frequency with which he paints, constantly keeping the interest going in locations all over the city.
Mr Crawls, M32 roundabout, Bristol, August 2024
I haven’t seen anything quite like this from Mr Crawls before, although the head, hat and chrome background are reasonably familiar themes. It is the bottom half of thee piece that introduces a whole new aspect that is different and one which it will be interesting to see if he replicates or uses again. Definitely an eye-catching design in a great spot.
I took a slightly longer walk away from Brunel Way a few weeks back on a very warm summer’s afternoon. Ashton Avenue (I think that is what it is called) is part of the Metrobus route that joins north and south Bristol without getting clogged up on the main thoroughfares, and is a sleepy track, except for the occasional bus trundling past. The route is peppered with utility boxes, some of which have been decorated by the unstoppable duo, Mote and Mr Crawls. Here are some of them.
Mote, Ashton Avenue, Bristol, July 2024
I really need to update Mote’s gallery, and I still haven’t actually created one for Mr Crawls yet, which would seem to be something of an oversight. (Note to self – post a Mr Crawls gallery soon). Both artists have been using chrome backgrounds, which I think is a really effective way of framing their character pieces.
Mr Crawls, Ashton Avenue, Bristol, July 2024
These examples really highlight the differences between the artists’ styles, but also the similarities, where a certain amount of cross-influencing has been at work. Mr Crawls has produced several versions of this character wearing some kind of hat, and indeed, hats seem to be quite an important feature in his work.
Mr Crawls, Ashton Avenue, Bristol, July 2024
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get to a couple of these pieces before the taggers got to them, but the other two are nice and clean. Here again, Mr Crawls’ character is wearing a hat. His work, in particular, has transitioned quite a lot from when he broke onto the Bristol scene with his gulls, parrots and other birds.
Mote and Mr Crawls, Jubilee Street, Bristol, July 2024
I had a lovely evening a couple of weeks ago, visiting the opening of Merny’s art exhibition in Midland Street. Parking in the area was a little troublesome, so I parked a bit of a distance away, but used the opportunity to visit a little graffiti hotspot that I don’t go to all that often. I was rewarded with finding this Mote/Mr Crawls collaboration tucked away on a wall in Jubilee street.
Mote and Mr Crawls, Jubilee Street, Bristol, July 2024
I think that this piece might be a few months old, because I haven’t seen Mr Crawls’ skeleton-neck bird for some time, although the paintwork does look pretty fresh. This pairing has endured really well and brought the best out of both artists, which is great to see. They also tend to visit pretty much every available spot in the city, unlike some artists who may not stray too far from their favoured spots, which adds to their appeal… you just never know when you might stumble across their work.
Mote and Mr Crawls, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2024
Some more jolly capers from Mr Crawls and Mote, who have been smashing it for months now, and continue to turn out some great and fun character pieces dotted all over the place. This pair of characters were painted on the warehouse wall in Cumberland Basin, and command a majestic view over the river.
Mote and Mr Crawls, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2024
To the left is a friendly, toothy monster by Mote whose eyes (in common with the adjacent Mr Crawls character) are simply holes in the head, creating a mask-like effect. There are some nice squiggles and doodles in the fill, something of a trademark of Mote’s work. On the right Mr Crawls has recreated one of his hatted birds, although in a stylised cartoon form that is more angular than some of his earlier work. The pair look magnificent on the white background, and are unusually large, due to the big wall they have chosen to paint.
Mr Crawls and Mote, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, May 2024
I’m not sure how old this collaboration by Mr Crawls and Mote is, but it can’t be all that old, because it contains some fairly recent features incorporated into each of their work. The reason I am a bit puzzled is that the fencing in front of the wall looks like it has been there a while. All I can think is that they moved it out of the way to paint and then put it back afterwards.
Mr Crawls, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, May 2024
To the left is a a stylised cartoon bird by Mr Crawls, which is a development of his earlier birds that we used to see about the place. There is something slightly more figurative about the artwork, and it is a direction that the artist is going in that I am definitely enjoying.
Mote, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, May 2024
Like other artists, street artists appear to go through ‘periods’ and I would call this Mote’s ‘eye’ period, where he is playing with different presentations of eyes. The mouth of this one seems to almost be leaning in to Picasso territory, or maybe something a little more surreal. Lots more fun from these to to come, but I was happy with finding this collaboration which was just a little bit off the beaten track.
Mr Crawls and Mote, Cattle Market Road, Bristol April 2024
The productive partnership between Mr Crawls and Mote continues without interruption. What is comforting bout their work is that both artists are continually evolving, and their influences on one another converge and then diverge, so in this collaboration, we see that slight divergence of styles.
Mr Crawls and Mote, Cattle Market Road, Bristol April 2024
Mr Crawls has recently been experimenting with monochrome pieces and developed more of an angular approach to his stylised bird characters, quite a shift from his early pieces. Mote, meanwhile, is creating ever more sophisticated monsters, and working hard on particular features such as the eyelids. I continue to derive so much pleasure from these two character artists.
There was a time, not so long ago, when Mr Crawls could be identified easily because all of his pieces featured quirky birds. That is most definitely not the case now, and his association with Mote appears to have encouraged him to branch out into painting all sorts of weird and quirky monster characters.
Mr Crawls, Dean Lane, Bristol, May 2024
This quick one on the swimming pool building wall, behind the hedge, is a case in point. The green monster, looking a little bit like a hard-hat, is blessed with enormous eyes and an array of razor-sharp teeth. The eyes have no pupils, giving it a bit of edge. Pupils in eyes always soften a character and conversely their absence creates a hollow, even sinister appearance. This is a nice solo piece from the imaginative Mr Crawls
Natural adventures 