River Avon – Page 3 – Natural adventures

7195. River Avon (93)

Scrapyardspec, River Avon, Bristol, September 2025

I always feel much happier writing about street art once I have met with the artist. For me, it feels like I have been through some process of validation and gives me confidence to speak more authoritatively about street art and the pieces in question. This lovely piece by Scrapyardspec is a case in point.

I met Scrapyardspec about a month ago, and we chatted for quite a while. He shared with me what I’d already noticed, that he was developing his characters a little bit, now that he was confident of his archetype and his painting skills were improving. Here, the character has rudimentary limbs, and a rather fetching pink hairdo. Great to see him improving and pushing his boundaries.

Goosey

Domestic goose, River Avon, Bristol, September 2025

Where shall I wander?

to the banks of the Avon

a taste of freedom

by Scooj

on seeing a domestic goose feeding free on the banks of the River Avon – an escapee? certainly not something you see all that often.

7157. River Avon (92)

I said a week or two back that I would try to feature Bags from the No Frills crew more often, and true to my word, here is another piece by the graffiti writer. I am writing this post yesterday, because at the time of publishing, I will be somewhere in the air between Bristol and Madeira.

As with the last piece I featured by Bags, He has separated the BA and GS of his letters with different colour regimes, a device that sems to work rather well for him. The solid fills are decorated minimally by some reversed out circles and a white star. Bags has added a little extra interest with some red zigzags that look like they have come from an oscilloscope (does that age me?). Addressing underrepresentation one day at a time.

Please excuse the next week of posts, they are likely to be a little haphazard while I am on holiday.

7122. River Avon (91)

Scrapyardspec, River Avon, Bristol, August 2025

I was fortunate enough to meet Scrapyardspec for the first time last weekend, and had a conversation with him that helped me to put his work into some kind of context. I’d also add that he was a really nice bloke (I was going to say young man, but somehow it sounds patronising, when it really isn’t meant to).

Scrapyardspec has been painting the streets for about two years and has lived in London, but now lives in Cheltenham (I think) but manages to get to Bristol about once a week, which would account for his productivity over recent months.

Like so many artists who work on a theme, Scrapyardspec spent a long time replicating the same basic character, but in recent weeks has been expanding the theme with additional elements. In short, he has mastered his basic approach and style and is now modifying and adapting it, adding more interest and variety to his work.

This pair of goofy characters share the same basic DNA, but one has three eyes and a wobbly tongue, where the other is more like the basic model. Both have the inclusion of brown teeth. Where this will all end up, who knows? But it is a privilege to be observing Scrapyardspec’s development.

7115. River Avon (90)

Squarms, River Avon, Bristol, August 2025

There is something very charming about the stylised skeleton characters painted by Squarms. They are nicely designed and consistently presented, so that it is clear and obvious that they all belong to the Squarm stable. His work feels like that of a graphic designer taking his ideas to the street.

These two small pieces are so much more than quick throw ups. The grey background has been prepared nicely so that the skulls stand out with their soft pink and light grey drop shadows. Accomplished designs presented really well by Squarms.

7111. River Avon (89)

I have a great many pieces by Bags in my archives, but have only posted a fraction of them. I keep meaning to post more from this stalwart of the No Frills crew, but somehow never seem to do it. This is a recent piece, one of several, in which he has played with bilaterally splitting his letters into two colour sections, with the BA in one colour and the GS in another.

He has painted so many of these, that his letters must come very easily, and he tends to keep the general shape of his letters consistent from piece to piece. The dark blue and red colours work well, and I rather like the half-and-half appearance. I’ll try to post more of his pieces in the future.

7079. River Avon (88)

Werm and Scrapyardspec, River Avon, Bristol, July 2025

In my mind, some collaborations were just meant to be, and this magnificent joint venture from Werm and Scrapyardspec is simply awesome. Two utterly different styles, a writer and a character artist, have combined with skilful design and colour sharing to create a piece that just works brilliantly.

There is nothing pretentious about this combination piece, just two artists comfortable with what they do where the resulting whole is greater than the sum of the parts. The letters by Werm are nicely executed with straightforward fills and a bold white border. Scrapyardspec’s goofy character replaces the ‘E’ of ‘WERM’ and is integrated into the word with the clever use of an orange border bringing everything into the single piece. Excellent work, full of the joy of street art friendship.

7071. River Avon (87)

Trafficity, River Avon, Bristol, July 2025

The name of the game in Trafficity’s work is consistency. His basic design of the letters ZIOS, with its near symmetry, hardly changes from piece to piece, with only the colours and peripheral decorations that vary. He must be able to paint this piece with his eyes shut.

There is a sharp contrast between the upper yellow section and light-blue lower section of the letters, perhaps amplified by the dark background. Not my favourite colour combination, but it seems to work well. I do sometimes wonder what Trafficity’s work would look like if he went for some different letters or new designs, but maybe it would disrupt the ‘brand’. Who knows?

7032. River Avon (86)

I am writing this post (last night) in a lonely hotel room in Warrington. Tomorrow, I am attending the launch of a new National Nature Reserve just outside the town, something I have been working on for a few months. It will be great to see the partnership project come to life.

This piece by Zake is a superb example of his work, and he has really managed to keep the whole thing very neat and tidy. Although it doesn’t look like it, the piece is quite large, and on a wall he decorated back in August

As with all of his portrait pieces, he has created great depth using light and shade to lift the face from the wall, deceiving the eye. Big teeth and a lack of pupils in the eye, give the character a sinister appearance, which is a bit of a Zake trademark. Below is his previous piece in this spot.

6990. River Avon (85)

Not every piece that appears on Natural Adventures is necessarily of the highest calibre, but that isn’t really the point. I like to include a representative spread of pieces from low end to high end, from spray paint to wheatpastes and from graffiti writing to portraits. I like to feature it all here, rather than creating something exclusive. The risk, of course, is that not everybody is going to like everything, although there will, I hope, be a broad enough spectrum of artwork here that most people will see something that they like eventually.

I have included this piece from Pl8o, mainly because it has been a very long while since I last saw something from him. This piece isn’t going to set the world on fire, but it has a certain attractiveness to it. The letters are nice and uniform, and painted on a particularly challenging wall surface. I hope it signals a return to more frequent pieces from a graffiti writer I like a lot.

	paulh121 on 7474. Canons Wharf
	scooj on 7474. Canons Wharf
	paulh121 on 7474. Canons Wharf
	Cethru Cellophane (a… on 7474. Canons Wharf
	Sheree on 7474. Canons Wharf

	paulh121 on 7474. Canons Wharf
	scooj on 7474. Canons Wharf
	paulh121 on 7474. Canons Wharf
	Cethru Cellophane (a… on 7474. Canons Wharf
	Sheree on 7474. Canons Wharf

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