Acer One, Andy Council, Paul Monsters, Hire, L Dub, Bristol, March 2026
There are two main painting areas at L Dub; the old water pumping station and the long tunnel under the motorways. This fabulous collaboration is on the former. The main collaboration sits underneath an older piece by Hire, spelling Odiah.
Acer One, Andy Council, Paul Monsters, Hire, L Dub, Bristol, March 2026
Andy Council, Acer One and Paul Monsters have combined to produce this incredible fusion of geometric design and freestyle objects. The colourful background pattern is by Paul Monsters, the central peace and heart symbols by Acer One and the component objects by Andy Council. This is a masterful collaboration from three of the very best.
It has been a very lean start to the year in terms of new street art pieces, which I attribute to the appalling weather that we have had so far this year. It isn’t only difficult to spray paint in the rain, it is also rather unpleasant. The tunnel has provided some refuge from the weather, and this is a nice recent piece by Hire which was painted alongside Sait Bare.
Hire, St Werburghs, Bristol, February 2026
These days, it is more common to see the letters ODIAH than it is to see HIRE from the artist – perhaps it offers him more scope to play with form and colour. In years gone by, Hire used to create much more jagged and spiky pieces, and this feels like a softened version, showing his transition over time. I love the colours and love his work.
It is a little disappointing that I have missed a couple of pieces by Hire this year, which is a real pity. You have to be quick off the mark in this game, and if you snooze, you lose. However, it does feel like Hire’s pieces, a bit like Kid Crayon’s pieces, tend to get painted over rather quickly. I am not sure if this is deliberate targeting or simply bad luck, I would like to think it is the latter, but whatever the reason, it makes their work feel even more precious.
Hire, Dean Lane, Bristol, May 2025
This is a slightly strange piece by Hire, which I think is meant to represent a pile of poo, with some excited insects making the most of it. Certainly it is an unusual composition in brown (why is everyone painting with brown this spring?), spelling out ODIAH, letters which Hire likes to use from time to time. How much better the piece looks with the subtle green glow on the edge of the letters, without which it would all look a little flat. Unusual and interesting work from Hire.
Hire and Ceus, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, February 2025
It looks like Hire and Ceus have formed a partnership, with a couple of recent collaborations, and although their styles are very different, it somehow feels right that these two should team up. This piece in Spark Evans Park was painted as part of the Space Jam themed World Wall Stylers challenge for February.
Hire, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, February 2025
To the left is one of the letter variants that Hire uses, ODIAH, which although carrying many of the artist’s characteristic elements, is softer than some of his writing of the past. Great colours, and a subtle outline glow, are augmented by a central section of characters and the Space Jam logo. I am not sure who painted the characters, but they are brilliantly done.
Ceus, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, February 2025
Ceus, whose style is altogether more ‘heavenly’, has created a fabulous piece of writing with some of the best fills I have seen from him. The CEUS letters are largely pink and lilac, but are complemented with some red and purple touches. The whole piece is a thing of beauty. I have a feeling that the characters might have been painted by Ceus, as the clouds are in the shape of wings, which is a trademark element used by him. A fine collaboration.
When I think about Hire’s art, I pretty much always visualise it in Dean Lane, and although he has painted other spots in Bristol, it is his favoured spot. This long piece of graffiti writing spells out ODIAH. I am not sure why Hire sometimes writes the word, and I have checked in Google translate that it isn’t a Polish word – something to ask him next time I see him.
Hire, Dean Lane, Bristol, February 2024
Hire has prepped the wall nicely in this writing/character combination piece, creating something that is neat, clean and tidy. I suspect that writing on brick walls is a little easier as the uniformity of the letters can be measured on the brick courses, making things easy on the eye. I have no idea what the panda is all about, but it looks a little menacing, with its eye patch (clever) and broken bottle. It is always good to find Hire’s work, always.
This door at the far end of the skate park gets quite a lot of attention from artists and taggers, and is a candidate for the ‘One Wall‘ series of posts that I do. This time it hosts a lovely rabbit piece from Hire. These are not to be confused with other rabbits that were a common feature in Bristol, until the artist, Eldey (followmyrabbits) was jailed for rape and attempted rape in 2021. Hire’s rabbits were the original Bristol rabbits and have an element of edge to them.
Hire, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2023
A yellow rabbit on a green door is the stuff of children’s picture books, I had a particular favourite called ‘Go Dog Go’, which features coloured dogs and trees and so on… I digress. This is another fine rabbit from Hire in a long sequence going back to when I first started photographing graffiti and street art in Bristol.
Although we don’t see too much of Hire these days, what we do see is of the highest quality. I am really enjoying Hire’s relatively recent reinvention pieces like this one in which he writes the word ODIAH
Hire, Dean Lane, Bristol, May 2021
This beautifully presented piece incorporates some of the jagged elements of Hire’s customary style but softens them into a rather more conventional writing style. The colours are nicely selected and the grading of fill from light to dark is masterful. A really nice piece.
Oooh, I haven’t seen anything from Hire for quite a long time, so to come across this in Dean Lane was a very pleasant surprise indeed. Of all the artists in Bristol that have changed their format or styles, I think Hire wins the prize for reinventing himself. There are traces of his older work, which the trained eye might see, but overall the new style, and different letters, seem like a new artist has hit the town.
Hire, Dean Lane, Bristol, February 2021
His letters spell out ODIAH, rather than HIRE, and I don’t know if it means ‘oh dear’ or spells something in his Polish language – a quick look at Google Translate tells me not.
The piece itself is out of this world. Crisp, clean letters in black on a dark blue background, with a cream border, and some supreme letter shapes. This is a welcome return from Hire.
Natural adventures 