Orangutan – Natural adventures

5052. M32 roundabout J3 (454)

Kool Hand, M32 roundabout, Bristol, February 2023

Kool Hand is another artist who has been keeping things ticking over nicely pretty much for the last year. His characters have been diversifying a little over that time and new favourites have emerges, like the dog in this piece. There was a time when his work was almost entirely confined to orangutans and crocodiles.

The letters KH are book-ended with two characters, his trusty orangutan wearing a cap on the left and a toothy dog on the right. Both characters have wings, although I am not sure of the significance of this addition. The colour scheme has focussed on blues, and works really rather nicely. The piece was painted as part of a larger paint jam a few weeks back.

4560. St Werburghs tunnel (299)

With the very congested field of artists currently painting in Bristol, and the addition of Upfest and a trip to Porto, my cup overfloweth with captured images of street art (I am still covering June art!). It is important that in all this excitement I don’t ignore our good old regulars who paint day in and day out to keep our walls decorated.

Kool Hand, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2022

This is a lovely piece in the tunnel from Kool Hand, featuring his orangutan character using a spray can with pink paint to decorate the tunnel walls. The piece is framed in a black bordered rectangle, which almost looks like a window into the orangutan’s world. A nice stand alone piece.

4189. St Werburghs tunnel (272)

It has been great to see Kool Hand returning to the streets lately, hooking up with various friends to paint with them. I have a feeling that he might have been in London, or certainly out of Bristol, for a little while, but has been in Bristol over the winter and sprayed quite a few pieces of which this is one.

Kool Hand, St Werburghs, Bristol, December 2021

This misbehaving orangutan piece is part of a larger collaboration that I will return to at some point in the future. Kool Hand has taken his little character and made him a little bigger and animated him a little more than usual, which is great to see. I’m never too sure about street art with guns though, it somehow doesn’t sit well with me. Is this way too woke? Nice to see Kool Hand back I. Town.

3989. Greenbank (16)

Well, would you believe it? Yet another superb and crazy piece from Sled One. I have to say, I just don’t know where he gets his energetic creativity from, but it doesn’t really matter, just so long as he keeps turning out magnificent story pieces like this one.

Sled One, Greenbank, Bristol, September 2021

Slapped up somewhere along the very long Greenbank hoarding is this monkey/orangutan/banana mash up that oozes class. There are several things that give this away as a Sled One piece, such as; the zigzag hatched eyebrows; elements of the piece that just hang, like the cigarette and the shading under the eyes; and the amazing use of colour and textures throughout the piece. This is outstanding work from an enormously talented artist.

3543. M32 roundabout J3 (287)

When I visit the M32 roundabout, I usually stop for a few moments and take a look at the River Frome as it escapes its culvert and meanders towards the city centre before entering another culvert. This is a magical stretch of river and an oasis for wildlife slap bang alongside the M32 motorway. It was while I was photographing this new piece from Kool Hand that I spotted a kingfisher darting out of the tunnel and along the course of the river. It made my day… actually it made my week.

Kool Hand, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2021

In a way I have Kool Hand to thank for this brush with nature, because If I hadn’t been photographing this piece at exactly the right time, I would have missed the bird. This is a wonderful throw up from Kool Hand featuring his trademark orangutan face with a baseball cap. A good day.

3518. Brunel Way bridge (93)

It is coincidental, not planned, that I have followed up a Daz Cat piece with a Kool Hand piece, these two being great friends and frequent collaborators. The curved ends of the long concrete bridge support on the south side of the river are great for portrait pieces, and Kool Hand has used the space well for one of his orangutan pieces.

Kool Hand, Brunel Way, Bristol, February 2021

I have seen one of his like this before, where the orangutan is balancing on its hand, in a way that only these large apes can do. I don’t know what the fascination with orangutans is for Kool Hand, but I guess it is no different from Daz Cat mostly painting cats for example.

Kool Hand

A gallery of street art containing quite a lot of orangutans from Bristol artist Kool Hand.

All photographs by Scooj

Kool Hand, M32 roundabout, Bristol, October 2020

CD.TC, Daz Cat and Kool Hand, M32 roundabout, Bristol, October 2020

Kool Hand, St Werburghs, Bristol, September 2020

Kool Hand, Purdown Battery, Bristol, July 2020

Kool Hand, Brunel Way, Bristol, July 2020

Kool Hand, M32 cycle path, Bristol, June 2020

Kool Hand, Dean Lane, Bristol. June 2020

Kool Hand, St Werburghs, Bristol, January 2020

Kool Hand, M32 cycle path, Bristol, December 2019

Kool Hand, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2019

Kool Hand and Daz Cat, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2019

Kool Hand, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2019

Kool Hand, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2018

Kool Hand, M32 cycle path, Bristol, August 2018

Kool Hand, St Werburghs tunnel, Bristol, May 2018

3198. St Werburghs tunnel (191)

This is a rather nice collaboration from Kool Hand and Slakarts. I don’t think I have seen anything from the latter for a very long time, but I am truly glad to see something new from him. Kool Hand as you know has been pretty busy of late.

On the left is a familiar sight to regular readers of Natural Adventures, it is of course a capped orangutan, although this time the fills have developed from solid orange to a blended mix of colours, giving a rather nice textured effect.

Slakarts, St Werburghs, Bristol, September 2020

To the right is a very nice and long-overdue piece from Slakarts. His faces usually have a symmetry about them and this one certainly conforms to that. Great colours and lovely clean lines separating out the solid fills. This is a very nice piece indeed from Slakarts.

3089. Brunel Way bridge (51)

This is the third recent Kool Hand orangutan piece that I have seen and once again he is branching out into the use of patterned fills rather than the solid ones that have been such a central part of his past work.

The character’s face has been filled with what looks like an army print camouflage effect, but is probably just a random green and white pattern. I am enjoying watching Kool Hand adding a layer of sophistication to his pieces.

3055. M32 Cycle path (65)

Kool Hand is at it again, this time on the M32 cycle path, with his colourful Orangutan. This piece is from a few short weeks ago and was sprayed alongside painting pal Daz Cat. It is a near copy of one he painted in Dean Land and which I posted recently.

As I pointed out with the Dean Lane version, Kool Hand is experimenting with decorated fills, which is interesting to see, because his USP to date has been to adopt clean solid fills for his characters. I am going to try and see another of his recent pieces later on today that he painted recently. Great to see his work developing.

	paulh121 on 5103. M32 Cycle path (203…
	scooj on 5103. M32 Cycle path (203…
	scooj on 5101. Dean Lane skate park…
	paulh121 on 5104. Dean Lane skate park…
	paulh121 on 5103. M32 Cycle path (203…

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: