No Frills – Page 2 – Natural adventures

6475. Dean Lane skate park (770)

Anyone who knows me will know that I am not a fan of ‘over-celebrating’ Halloween. The festival is so commercialised and has veered away from the modest affair that it used to be when I was a child. It is a generational thing, I know, but it doesn’t really ‘do it’ for me. One aspect that I am prepared to get excited about, rather predictably, is the Halloween-themed street art that always appears around this time of year, starting with this ghostly piece by Biers.

Biers has been writing his WD40 moniker quite a lot recently, although without his accompanying characters, which is a bit of a pity, because his combination pieces are part of his USP. The graffiti writing is accompanied on this occasion by a cute-looking ghost who looks a little embarrassed, judging from his red cheeks. The whole piece is nicely finished and achieved without the need for borders, which is great to see.

6216. M32 Spot (188)

Minto and Bags, M32 Spot, Bristol, July 2024

I am pretty sure that these pieces from Minto and Bags are part of a collaboration, rather than ones painted in isolation that happen to be next to one another. There is definitely some interaction from the Bags piece that overlaps onto the Minto side, but not necessarily vice versa.

Unlike most of his recent ‘deconstruction’ pieces, Minto has opted for a full size portrait, with the only writing being the ‘Minto’ on the subject’s hat. It comes across as a bit of a quick one, and may have been a dregs piece, because the fills aren’t particularly solid. Certainly this is Minto showing a slightly different side to his work, and for some reason it is a very memorable – maybe it is the green, maybe the hat… who knows?

Bags is a woefully underrepresented artist in Natural Adventures, and I think the only way I could rectify that would be to go through my archives and present several mini-galleries, just to catch up a bit. I think that Bags enjoys collaborating a lot, especially with his No Frills friends such as Biers and Slim Pickings. His letters are always recognisable and presented in roughly the same format, with the fills representing the main differences from piece to piece.

5750. Dean Lane skate park (675)

Biers, Dean Lane, Bristol, December 2023

Biers (or WD40 as he writes these days) has been on fire this winter, producing a series of fine writing and character pieces. The formula is a winning one, and the balance between the writing and the character is usually spot on. There are also loads of additional elements that feature in his work and contribute to the overall look and feel.

I am not sure who the cartoon pig is, but will do a very quick Google search to see if I come up with anything… nope, I have drawn a blank. So we have a pig with a bandage – there is a story there I am sure. This is a nice piece to round off the year with for Biers, and I hope he keeps up his frequency and consistency into the New Year.

5719. M32 cycle path (242)

Biers, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, December 2023

Biers has had a very busy couple of months, producing some rally nice work along the war. This is a fabulous WD40 piece on the M32 Cycle path, following his usual formula of his letters accompanied by a character, although this time the character is at the right-hand end, rather than peering through the hole of the ‘0’.

The chrome writing is very nicely presented, although unless you knew it said WD40 is, in my view, very difficult to read. The character has defeated me, except I wonder if he is one of those little characters from Star Wars – Jawas I think they are called. Probably not, but my knowledge of popular culture is limited. May I wish you a very pleasant and restful Christmas Eve.

5170. Dean Lane skate park (591)

Slim Pickings (Tes), Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2023

There was a time, when turnover was slower and the number of artists was fewer, that I would post every piece by Slim Pickings (TES) that I saw. Now, I have an embarrassingly large number of his pieces sitting in my archive, so I have a feeling that I might have to round them up and do a special post of his work from the last couple of years. This is indicative of the up tick in activity these days.

This recent TES was painted on a sloping surface, and not the easiest to photograph – at times like this, a little drone would come in very handy. Nicely done in blues with pink splats and drips. The more observant viewer might notice another TES in the background, just beneath the letters DLH (which stands for Dean Lane Hardcore – an annual music/graffiti/skating/booze event held in the skatepark). Sorry for the neglect Slim Pickings.

4999. Dean Lane skate park (564)

This wall is a little tiresome to photograph, especially as my camera doesn’t have a wide angle setting. The wall is in a narrow space opposite the wall of a ramp on the skate park, meaning that getting decent shots of anything painted here is a challenge. Biers, AKA WD40 has set me the challenge on this occasion.

With his WD40 letters, Biers has incorporated a cartoon character, and I have to say I have drawn a blank on this one, so if you have any idea who he is, please feel free to drop his name in the comments. This is a particularly tidy piece from Biers, who can sometimes be a little rough around the edges, but not here, this is clean and on-point. A really lovely piece by Biers.

4659. Dean Lane skate park (521)

Biers, has been doing some brilliant pieces recently, and this one in Dean Lane really tickled me. My mother and I often discuss Mr Magoo, and our own age-related comical mishaps, a conversation that I expect not many people have these days, as Mr Magoo is probably quite unknown to younger audiences. I can’t help thinking that he was central to the creation of Rowan Atkinson’s Mr Bean.

The piece has been really beautifully finished and it would seem that Biers put a lot of time and effort into this one. Some of his other ‘quicker’ pieces can look a little untidy. The fills and colours have been done well, but it is the Mr Magoo character that steals the show for me, appearing in the 0 of the WD40 letters.

4615. River Avon (32)

One of the things that is happening on Natural Adventures of late is that some artists are simply not being represented as much as they might deserve, because of the sheer volume of new pieces being painted every day of the week. One of those artists is Biers, whose WD40 pieces continue to appear all over town.

This is a decent orange and green piece with a grey spotty feature running through it. I am not too sure what the character is, but he looks like he is up to no good, as if he is a gangster or burglar or something like that. It is his work that has turned the green colour to grey. This is a nice piece from Biers that has a story to tell.

4393. Sparke Evans Park (40)

Just because this is the first appearance from Tes (Slim Pickings) for quite a long while, it doesn’t mean that he hasn’t been painting much recently. On the contrary, there are many of his pieces in my archives that I haven’t managed to post, such is the stiff competition at the moment. It is a crying shame that so many outstanding pieces may never see the light of day on Natural Adventures, but it just indicates the quantity of artists out there at the moment.

Slim Pickings (Tes), Sparke Evand Park, April 2022

These are quite recent works by Tes and they show a playful reversal or mirror image of his usual mega-tag. Well if you’ve only got three letters, you have to find some way of switching it up a little, and this is just the ticket.

These pieces were painted alongside some No Frills crew friends during a paint jam, that included Bags, Turoe and Biers in early April. Both pieces are nicely executed, as one would expect, and demonstrate that even with quite a formulaic approach, Slim Pickings manages to bring variety to his work through colour selections and details.

4366. M32 Cycle path (173)

It is great that Turoe manages to paint reasonably regularly in spite of some health challenges, and when he does paint he still has the ability to surprise. This rather retro piece is a bit of a beauty down on the cycle path, and I suspect it will be there for some time.

Turoe, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, April 2022

The block letters overlap one another and are on the lean, but each one is perfectly finished with crisp, clean lines and borders. You can date the piece from around the time of the Oscar ceremony thanks to the reference to Will Smith. I love the way that street art does this, chronicling contemporary events before being irreversibly wiped from the ‘canvass’ through being buffed, bombed, tagged or replaced.

	scooj on Revel Puck Circus
	M. on Revel Puck Circus
	paulh121 on 7352. Cumberland Basin
	Sheree on 7352. Cumberland Basin
	paulh121 on 7350. Hillgrove Street (9…

	scooj on Revel Puck Circus
	M. on Revel Puck Circus
	paulh121 on 7352. Cumberland Basin
	Sheree on 7352. Cumberland Basin
	paulh121 on 7350. Hillgrove Street (9…

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