Sled One, Lower Approach Road, Bristol, October 2024
This piece of graffiti writing by Sled One greets visitors and passengers travelling through Bristol Temple Meads station. I am not too sure how long the piece has been there, but I imagine for quite a while as turnover in this spot is pretty slow.
Sled One, Lower Approach Road, Bristol, October 2024
Such is the talent of Sled One, that I imagine he ran this one off with ease straight off the top of his head, which is generally how he rolls. He has painted some nice SLED1 letters with a fill theme bleeding across all the letters and then added a deep 3D drop shadow (which itself has a further shadow) in contrasting red orange and yellow vertical stripes. A fine piece from a brilliant writer.
Soker and Sled One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, September 2024
When the best get together, small miracles happen. And when I look at a collaboration between Soker and Sled One, I find myself asking (again) how do they do this? Of course, I know how they do it, but technically and creatively it becomes unfathomable.
Soker, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, September 2024
The writing to the left is by Soker, and I would like to add that it is wonderful to see him out painting a little more often these days after a prolonged quiet period. The beautifully crafted letters are filled with a stunning combination of colours that work perfectly together. This is wildstyle graffiti writing at its best.
Sled One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, September 2024
The character piece is by Sled One and features a young man (self-portrait?) gazing into a lava lamp filled with trippy smiley faces that bleed into the rest of the collaboration. Sled One not only creates these marvellous characters and scenes, but tells a whole story, which the viewer is challenged to piece together. This is a very special collaboration.
Sled One, Greville Smyth Park, Upfest 24, Bristol, May 2024
Although this is the second weekend of Upfest, there are only a few completed pieces dotted around the place, although I expect that by the end of the festival period, there will be an overwhelming array of pieces for me to photograph. This piece is by another Bristol artist, Sled One who is one of the leading writers and most creative artists in the city. This piece is a bit of a change from his usual style, but demonstrates just how incredibly talented and versatile he is.
Sled One, Greville Smyth Park, Upfest 24, Bristol, May 2024
The crazy character piece is painted on the walls of the bowling club in Greville Smyth Park, and looks absolutely fantastic. The cartoon-style piece depicts a man on a bicycle smelling the flowers. It is beautifully designed and frames in a loose pink border and as well as the central character, there is a lot going on throughout the piece to let the eye settle on. As ever, an outstanding piece from Sled One. You can see more of his work in this gallery.
Smak, Sled One and Oust, Coach and Horses, Bristol, March 2024
The wall on the Coach and Horses is one of the best ‘outdoor galleries’ in Bristol and often hosts some really classy work that tends to remain untagged for reasonably long periods. It probably doesn’t have the same turnover as some of the more accessible or popular walls, which means we can enjoy the artwork for longer. This collaboration is by Smak, Sled One and Oust.
Smak, Coach and Horses, Bristol, March 2024
Smak needs no introduction on Natural Adventures, being something of a staple over the years. This is a finely crafted and executed piece of writing that spells out SMAK. The colour palette is is perfect, and offset by the appearance of a black and white stripe design on some parts. The writing is wonderfully intricate without being over-fussy – clean crisp and classy.
Sled One, Coach and Horses, Bristol, March 2024
We don’t get to see enough of Sled One’s genius on our walls these days, so everything we do get to see, we ought to be grateful for. In this central panel, Sled One has painted a cat toasting a mouse on a stick over a fire, surrounded by barbed wire. There is a story here, but not one I can tell you. There is a mixture of styles, which is a bit unsettling. The cat is approaching photorealistic, but the mouse is most definitely cartoon, which confuses my brain somewhat. Brilliant artwork.
Oust, Coach and Horses, Bristol, March 2024
The right hand side of the collaboration is some unusual writing from Oust. The letters are more like constructions, with hints at industry and engineering. I haven’t come across Oust’s work before, so am a little unsure if his style is always like this or that this is a one-off. I guess Oust was visiting, and took the opportunity to paint with friends/acquaintances. There are some great colours and ideas in the piece which is full of contained energy. Fabulous collaboration.
Sled One, Karmone and Smak, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, October 2023
I think I have Paul H to thank for pointing out this piece. I don’t often venture to this area because usually is is littered with tags and throw ups that I have little interest in, but this outstanding collaboration by Sled One, Karmone and Smak, proves that it is always worth taking a look everywhere.
Sled One, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, October 2023
The piece is sited underneath the railway bridges on Stapleton Road, but cannot be seen from the road, which is probably why I missed it. To the left is something so incredible it is difficult to describe. The fire extinguisher character is Sled One at his most awesome, and it reminds me of a piece he painted way back. I’ll see if I can locate it and pop it in at the end of the post. Sled One’s complete mastery of his trade is something to admire and enjoy.
Karmone and Smak, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, October 2023
Fortunately, the accompanying writing by Karmone and Smak are of such high quality that they comfortably sit alongside Sled One’s work. Both pieces of writing are of the highest quality and ooze class. Overall, this is one of the best collaborations of the year, and there is some very stiff competition indeed. Once again it makes me feel very lucky to live in a city where such talent is on display, for free, for citizens, every day of the week.
I have known about and photographed this piece by Sled One for quite a long while, but have had to wait until now to get anything worth posting. The problem is that it is painted on a wall in a yard that is used to store building materials including large wooden cable bobbins that were placed in front of it obscuring the view of the artwork. On my most recent visit, I was able to move the bobbins a little bit out of the way, and get the best pictures I am likely to get.
Sled One, Cumberland Bain, Bristol, October 2023
The piece reminds me a little bit of The Luck Dragon in the film NeverEnding Story. It is a typically creative and imaginative character piece by Sled One, but painted in a place I wouldn’t ordinarily expect to find a Sled One piece to be. Beautifully painted and finished, the piece is one of Bristol’s hidden gems.
I would have to say that seeing new artwork pretty much every day of my life fills me with deep pleasure, but there are some artists that max out that feeling and one of them is Sled One. Possibly better known for his wild and surreal character pieces, Sled One is a fantastically accomplished graffiti writer too, as this piece on the roundabout demonstrates.
Sled One, M32 roundbout, Bristol, August 2023
I guess the thing that stands out in this beautifully crafted piece is the fill in the letters SLED1. To me the fill looks like an old stone wall with a choppy sea alongside. Whatever it is meant to be, what is remarkable is that it is contiguous throughout the letters, creating a scene to be viewed through the letters. Some mint-green flashes add further interest. This is a masterful piece of writing from one of Bristol’s best.
You can view a gallery of Sled One’s extraordinary work here
3Dom and Sled One, The Carriageworks, Bristol, May 2023
We have some very special artists in Bristol, and two of the very best are 3Dom and Sled one, and every once in a while these two combine to do something completely amazing. They like to refer to themselves when they paint something like this as the hi-vis crew, becoming invisible when they wear official-looking high visibility clothing.
3Dom and Sled One, The Carriageworks, Bristol, April 2023
I was lucky enough to be passing when these two were still painting these pieces, and it was in fact the first time I have met 3Dom properly, and I have to say what an absolutely lovely bloke he is. These arches have had some fantastic pieces painted on them over the years, and 3Dom and Sled One are continuing that great tradition. I fear that it won’t be too long before the authorities clamp down on painting this wall, but until such time we can only enjoy it.
3Dom, The Carriageworks, Bristol, May 2023
Both artists have a surreal and fantastical approach to their artwork, which in many cases it is probably best not to try and interpret. 3Dom presents a character whose head is made of a balloon filled with water and a couple of fish that might be the character’s eyes and a syringe that forms the mouth. The target and fez are details that add intrigue. Upside-down clouds and a cityscape round off the piece nicely. Brilliant.
Sled One, The Carriageworks, Bristol, May 2023
Sled One has created a portrait piece of a woman smoking a cigarette. Her skin, however, has been stripped away from the middle third of her face, exposing a cartoon-style skull. This is without doubt one of the odder pieces that Sled One has painted, but is certainly arresting and powerful. Also brilliant.
3Dom, The Carriageworks, Bristol, April 2023
If you ever wondered how these artists reach the higher bits of a wall, here is the answer. A perfect collaborative wall from the masters.
Sled One, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023
Probably the last thing I was expecting to see on my work trip to London a couple of weeks back was this remarkably busy piece by Bristol’s Sled One. Finding it gave me a feeling of warm familiarity and a sense of Bristol pride. Unfortunately, there was some construction work going on around this panel, so the photographs are not as good as I’d like.
Sled One, Lighthouse Community Garden, London, April 2023
The letters spell out SLED and there is a numeral ‘1’ at the end. The scene is a basketball game, although I am not quite sure what the significance of that might be. To the right is a curious skeletal character, and the whole thing is typically Sled Oney surreal. What a discovery. what a day!
The Burberry check paint jam in Sparke Evans Park consisted mostly of graffiti writing, but Sled One did what only Sled One can do and created this extraordinary surreal character piece with his own unique take on the theme.
Sled One, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, April 2023
It is difficult to say too much about the artwork, because I would too quickly run out of superlatives. I can however have a go at describing what is going on in the scene. A bumblebee is riding a bicycle – so far so good – He has two feet peddling and four arms, two of which are on the handlebars of the bicycle, a further hand is holding a phone, and the last hand is delicately letting out some gas from a NOX balloon (Nitrous Oxide, laughing gas – a high of choice for teenagers). The bumblebee is, of course, wearing a Burberry hat and scarf. Simply outstanding work from Sled One.
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