Rafat Oner, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, October 2025
2025 has without question been a year of visitors and new artists breaking onto the Bristol stage. Such an influx of talent is a reflection of Bristol’s street art culture and national/international reputation and is a blessing for me, although at times it can be a curse trying to track down who some of the artists are.
Rafat Oner, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, October 2025
This is a stunning combination piece by Rafat Oner, who came to celebrate Dibz’ 50th birthday and wrap up his tribute with a Halloween theme for good measure. The letters RAFAT are beautifully filled with a funky black and purple design and a double green and orange drop shadow, pulling in all the colours of Halloween. The black and white portrait of a girl is a little disturbing where her face distorts on the left. Two further creepy characters are emerging from the ground. All in all a wonderful piece with lots going on to admire.
Moon Street used to be one of my favourite spots, but the amount of development in the area has reduced turnover of street art and I don’t visit it all that often these days. On my last trip, walking to work, which in itself is a rarity as I mostly work from home, I spotted this strikingly different piece of artwork.
VP, Moon Street, Bristol, October 2025
I don’t know who the artist is, but found the letters VP, so that is what I am going with. The rather creepy piece is composed of a portrait of a woman with pink hair and psychedelic eyes surrounded by multi-eyed ghosts. I wonder if it had been painted for Halloween, but don’t really have any way of dating it.
The artwork is something a little different and painted with brushes rather than cans. I have to say that I really like this, and would love to see more from the artist, but I get the sense it is probably a one-off.
This small piece by Pekoe marks the return of her ‘XXX hates fascists’, theme, which in this instance declares that is it Bristol that hates fascists, and one can be on fairly safe ground that it is indeed the case. It would look odd if somebody raised a hand and said “well, actually, I quite like fascists” – we know that they are out there though.
Pekoe, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2025
The piece was painted for Dean Lane Hardcore, I think. I feel that I haven’t seen enough of Pekoe’s work this year, and there has been a period of quiet from the regular drumbeat of RBF (Resting Bitch Face) paint jams this year – Family life seems to be a factor for some members. As ever, I look forward to more from Pekoe.
One of the very best character portrait artists in Bristol, who doesn’t paint as often as I’d like is Shade One. Fortunately the draw of joining a Ulow birthday celebration was enough to bring him out to create this absolute beauty.
Shade One, M32 roundabout, Bristol, August 2025
Shade One is a specialist at painting caricature portraits, where the subjects are completely on point, but don’t fall into the realm of photorealism. The girl, wearing a bucket hat, painted in greyscale, is absolutely beautiful. Her expression somewhat moody as she glances to her right. Shade One is surely an artist at the very top of his game.
Mr Crawls and Mote have been at it again with these tunnel-end pieces on each side of the archway. The pigeon by Mr Crawls is his latest character favourite, and is getting better with each rendition.
Mote, St Werburghs, Bristol, August 2025
On the other side, Mote has painted this unusual moustachioed character. I haven’t seen too many people portrait pieces by Mote, and it is interesting to see how his style comes through. Looking forward to seeing more of these sophisticated pieces from him.
What a stunning piece by Mind 49 painted at the Lucky Lane paint jam a couple of weekends ago. The theme for the mini-festival, organised by the Bristol Mural Collective, was luck, although I’m not sure how Mind 49’s piece plays into this, if at all.
Mind 49, Lucky Lane, Bristol, September 2025
The obscured portrait, a feature of Mind 49’s work, shows the eyes of a person peering through what appears to be a floral balaclava or headdress. It is an incredibly powerful piece, which is not only painted beautifully, but also conveys a raft of possible emotions – grief? contempt? sadness? resignation? stoicism? – there is certainly something downbeat about it, and yet it is surrounded with beautiful flowers. Lots to think about in this amazing portrait piece.
Mr Crawls and Mote, Brunel Way, Bristol, August 2025
It has been a little while, but I think I can safely say that the painting duo of Mr Crawls and Mote are back, and painting together again, which in my book is a great thing. The pair have painted a few collaborations lately, but I have struggled to keep up with them.
Mr Crawls and Mote, Brunel Way, Bristol, August 2025
On the left, Mr Crawls has painted a bird, looking rather startled, in his stylised cartoon form, in which he has incorporated a couple of Mote design ideas, such as the line through the beak and the horizontal lines on the eyes. I think the bird might be a pigeon.
To the right, Mote has gone to town with his portrait piece of a moustachioed man. The composite style isn’t one I have seen before, and I rather like it. A nice purple theme is rounded off with a chrome background, something of a signature for this pair.
Tera and Kid Crayon (credit: Kid Crayon), Stapleton Road, Bristol, August 2025
I am going to break with tradition in this post and contravene my primary rule, that all photographs are taken by me. This is a rare occurrence and it has been necessitated by the fact that I visited this collaboration from Kid Crayon and Tera less than 24 hours after it had been painted, but I was met by a rather disappointing and talentless tag stating that Jesus loves me. While that may or may not be true, it rather scuppered my photo opportunity. Fortunately, Kid Crayon took some of his own pictures, and I have used them for this post. Exceptional circumstances.
Tera and Kid Crayon, Stapleton Road, Bristol, August 2025
This pair have been smashing it all summer long, but I think somebody has it in for them, because few of their collaborations have lasted more than a few days. The two outstanding portraits are painted in the dia de los Muertos tradition, although there are a couple of months before we get to that celebration.
Tera and Kid Crayon (credit: Kid Crayon), Stapleton Road, Bristol, August 2025
On the left, Tera, who I might remind you only started painting walls this summer, has painted a face that reminds me of the band Kiss in it’s makeup styling. He has created some superb depth in the contours of the face with clever reflections of the candles in the lips and cheeks. Utterly brilliant work.
Kid Crayon (credit: Kid Crayon), Stapleton Road, Bristol, August 2025
Kid Crayon, who has been mentoring Tera (and let’s face it has done a great job of that), has gone for a more traditional styling in the facemask makeup, with some nice flowers (mirrored in the hair) and black patterning. Lots of wrinkles in the neck and black nails on the ends of the woman’s fingers poised while she takes a drag on ger cigarette. Kid Crayon offers a slightly different take on candles, but both are superb. One of my favourite collaborations of the year so far.
Nice One has been producing some outstanding sketch-style portraits recently, and this is an absolute belter on the long hoarding at Greenbank. Incidentally, it looks like this hoarding might be around for a little longer, as the building work on one of the developments appears to have halted for a few months now – perhaps they ran out of money. It is a bizarre sight, almost as if time is standing still, with supplies and equipment simply left in situ and not a worker anywhere to be seen.
Nice One, Bristol, July 2025
Back to the portrait piece. Nice One creates these sketches using spray cans, almost as if they are pencils on a piece of paper, scaling up his drawings in a unique and effective way. Nice One brings something thoughtful and different to the Bristol scene, which has such a wide spectrum of styles and talent. We are privileged.
I don’t visit Montpelier Park all that often, but every time I do go, there seems to be new stuff there, so maybe I ought to increase the frequency of my trips so that I don’t miss out on beauties like this one from Stivs.
Stivs, Montpelier Park, Bristol, August 2025
Stivs is something of an enigma. His work is so varied, he is unbelievably talented, and you never really quite know what he is going to come up with next. He used to be heavy on the calligraffiti, but these days he is painting more of these portrait pieces. This one is a real stunner, and drifting ever-closer to photorealism. I am very much enjoying the ride.
Natural adventures 