I am in a conference all day today, and only twigged late last night, so I am writing this yesterday in a bit of a rush. Halloween has been well-observed by several Bristol artists this year, and this beauty by Kool Hand was painted alongside a cartoon pumpkin by Werm.
Kool Hand, Purdown, Bristol, November 2025
Kool Hand has gone for an orangutan – pumpkin mash-up and absolutely delivered the goods. The toothy character is nicely painted with superb solid fills and confident thick black outlines. A perfect piece for the square concrete slab.
Kool Hand, Horfield Skate Park, Bristol, October 2025
What a pleasure to find this tidy three-quarter profile of a trademark orangutan by Kool Hand at Horfield skate park. The piece was painted alongside a wonderful pair of cats by Daz Cat. A quick look at an updated gallery of his work gives an insight into his progress over the years.
Kool Hand, Horfield Skate Park, Bristol, October 2025
The green-faced character has particularly large teeth, and looks a little more ferocious than some of his renditions of the ape. Two things stand out for me in this piece; the confident solid fills and lines all neat and tidy, and the slight angle of the portrait, moving away from the straight on face, which is where it all started.
Kool Hand, Mr Crawls and Bean, Brunel Way, Bristol, May 2025
Well this is an unusual trio, but nonetheless a very welcome collaboration from Kool Hand, Mr Crawls and Bean. On closer inspection, I am guessing that it is actually two distinct pieces, a collaboration from Kool Hand and Mr Crawls and an independent piece by Bean, which is perhaps why it looks like an unusual coming together.
Kool Hand, Brunel Way, Bristol, May 2025
Kool Hand has been painting a lot this year, spreading his time between writing and characters. This piece is a profile of his famous orangutan character, which is synonymous with the artist. Constantly improving, Kool Hand has added more detail with shading and complexion.
Mr Crawls, Brunel Way, Bristol, May 2025
Mr Crawls just keeps on going with his gulls, and I just keep on going with photographing them when I see them. This is a nice one painted in his stylised cartoon format – nice and sharp. Difficult to read the expression on this one.
Bean, Brunel Way, Bristol, May 2025
Finally, Bean, who has made a quiet comeback in recent weeks, has painted this exquisite piece with two characters in blue tones spraying the wall. The larger character looks like he is ‘high’ floating on the fumes from the paint can. They have been busy painting the letters BEAN. This is beautifully presented, and it is a great pity that some wally has plastered mud on the piece – what is wrong with some people? A refreshing wall, that didn’t last to long.
Mr Crawls and Kool Hand, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2025
Mr Crawls and Kool Hand have been painting together more regularly of late, and it is good to see. Their character styles, although quite different do complement one another rather well.
Mr Crawls, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2025
Mr Crawls has painted one of his ‘skeleton’ bird characters, which look slightly creepy if I am honest, but are very much part of his repertoire. He has shown another side to his talent here though, with some very nicely presented writing, spelling out JIM. I expect that this is a shout out to a friend/family member.
Kool Hand, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2025
Kool Hand presents his orangutan character, who over the years has developed and become ever so slightly more sophisticated. The solid fills haven’t changed much, but the clean lines have improved and the overall shape of the head has softened. Some nice white flashes add to the 3D appearance of the character. A rather nice collaboration.
Mr Crawls, Kool Hand and Daz Cat, St Werburghs, Bristol, February 2025
This is something of a rarity, a character collaboration. Often you get combinations of characters and graffiti writing in small or large collaborative efforts, but exclusively character pieces is unusual and just how brilliant is this collection from Mr Crawls, Kool Hand and Daz Cat?
Mr Crawls, St Werburghs, Bristol, February 2025
Mr Crawls has hit the ground running this year with some outstanding pieces and a slight change in direction or modification of his characters. He is always looking to move things forward and adding new ideas around his central theme of a bird wearing a hat. This most recent phase I would describe as stylised cartoon work.
Kool Hand, St Werburghs, Bristol, February 2025
Another artist who has been busy over the winter is Kool Hand, and what a good artist he is, I have just updated his gallery and there are some really fine pieces to enjoy there. This piece features a three-quarter profile of his famous orangutan character, this time in green. Crisp and clean and really well presented.
Daz Cat, St Werburghs, Bristol, February 2025
An artist whose work has become more sophisticated and complex over the last few years is Daz Cat. In the early days his cat pieces were fairly two-dimensional, and although fun to find, had plenty of headroom for improvement. Now Daz Cat is operating at an entirely different level, turning out first class portrait pieces (mostly of cats) with every outing. This smiling cat is a perfect example of his work, so full of character and detail and a enjoy to behold. Below is an example of his early work to give you an idea of what I am talking about. This is a very fine character collaboration.
Kool Hand and Scrapyardspec, Frome Side, Bristol, November 2024
This is not a pairing that I would necessarily have predicted, but on reflection, is is a good match, and I can see why these two, Kool Hand and Scrapyardspec, have collaborated. Both have opted for an orange colour theme, either by accident (Kool Hand’s orangutan is usually this colour, and Scrapyardspec often uses orange) or by design.
Kool Hand and Scrapyardspec, Frome Side, Bristol, November 2024
Kool Hand does what Kool Hand does with his familiar character, that he must be able to rattle off in his sleep. It is a pity that his white fill is a bit thin and there is some previous artwork bleeding through, some paints are thin, and there isn’t a lot you can do about it. To the right, Scrapyardspec has painted another of his zany wobbly characters, that we are seeing all over Bristol at the moment. Both artists have decorated the piece with spots, but in their own styles, rather than creating some kind of uniformity across both pieces (which I think might have sealed the collaboration a little better). Great to see these two pairing up.
At the L Dub spot, there are two main areas for painting. There is the long tunnel that runs underneath the M5 motorway, and at the southern end is a disused water pumping station. Each of these offer different opportunities, with the tunnel lending itself more to graffiti writing, with the low long wall, and the pumping station offering more opportunities for character or other artistic pieces.
Kool Hand, L Dub, Bristol, October 2024
Kool Hand has taken advantage of one of the taller walls on the pumping station to create this combination piece. The orangutan character has grown a couple of Shrek ears and is resting on top of the words ‘Last radical souls’ which is the name of the LRS crew. Great use of the space, and a nice tribute to the crew.
Such is the volume of pieces dropping in Bristol these days, that I am still posting pieces from Werm’s birthday celebrations, like this one by Kool Hand, from some weeks ago. I don’t think that I am ever going to get close to getting on top of this and perhaps need to be a little more judicious in my selections, although this is a challenge, because part of the point of the graffiti/street art posts on Natural Adventures is to showcase the range and diversity of pieces, from high-end to beginners, without prejudice.
Kool Hand, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, August 2023
In this piece, which is pink, consistent with the colour choice for the paint jam, Kool Hand has reverted to his staple orangutan character and the letters KH. As Kool Hand has developed his artwork, so this character, which has a three-quarter profile and loads more depth than some of his earlier renditions, shows off how far he has come and continues to improve. A nice piece with a familiar face.
I recently shared a gallery of outstanding artwork from the brilliant Andrew Burns Colwill on my personal Facebook page (I rarely use it these days), and it had a very positive response, which is not surprising really, such is his talent. I came across this piece, which was painted for last year’s Weston Wallz (I think), on a recent visit to Weston-super-Mare, with my friend Paul H.
Andrew Burns Colwill, Weston-super-Mare, May 2023
Andrew Burns Colwill doesn’t shy away from making bold political statements, and much of his recent work has been about the potential impacts of climate change. In this piece he lampoons Parliament, and with some justification, and presents politicians and apes, the central Orangutan being draped in a Union Jack. Political commentary goes hand in hand with a lot of street art, but rarely so beautifully painted. I am reminded that I haven’t yet posted his Upfest piece from last year… so much to do. This was a very pleasant discovery.
Kool Hand’s work just gets better and better and in this piece he returns to his trusty baseball cap-wearing orangutan, but rather than being a flat face on piece, he has added a three-quarter profile and depth to his character.
Kool Hand, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2023
There is loads of movement in the basketball, which you can imagine is spinning on the orangutan’s finger. The whole piece is beautifully finished and set on a grey urban skyscape with tall buildings on the horizon line. I rate this piece very highly because it marks a shift to a new level for the artist.
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