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.
Turoe and Soker, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2024
Two of the Bristol masters have been at work in this fabulous collaboration in Dean Lane. Turoe and Soker have been writing for way longer than I have been posting about street art and are without doubt part of the established scene in the city. Although they don’t paint as often as some other graffiti writers, their work is always immaculate.
Turoe, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2024
The colour selection of both pieces is superb, with cool steel blues dominating. There aren’t the words to describe how good Turoe’s writing is. There is some wildstyle work, but it is not fussy or over-complicated. The colour transitions in the fills are exquisite and the 3D drop shadow with a vanishing point just beneath the piece sets the piece up perfectly.
Soker, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2024
Soker’s piece is rather more elongated and has a slight metallic quality. The letters SOKER are clearly marked out, but it is the design of the letters that is so attractive. What a pity I photographed it when it was in the shade, as I expect that in the sunlight it would give off a quite different aura. Simply a wonderful collaboration.
In this last look back at 2019 (for the time being), I am posting five pieces from the wall on the M32 Cycle path, which never made it onto Natural Adventures at the time. There is some poignancy to this post and the feature piece by Mena (Menas), because I have recently heard that Mena is currently recovering from a bad accident she had while travelling in Thailand. She is back in the UK, but quite unwell. This is my small way of wishing her a full recovery, and I dedicate this retrospective post to her. I expect you’ll see a few pieces, from various artists, in the coming days and weeks that will be wishing her well.
This is a particularly fine example of her work, and although she doesn’t paint all that regularly, her pieces are always welcome. I am not certain that all of the following pieces were painted as part of a paint jam, but I suspect they were.
Ryder, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, June 2019
Ryder is most definitely a graffiti writer’s writer, if you know what I mean, he is highly respected in the community and turns out some of the best graffiti writing in the city which he has done for quite some while. This piece is rather more subtle than most of his work, and perhaps doesn’t quite have the impact we would normally expect. I’m not sure these light shades quite work (for me).
T-Rex, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, June 2019
Finding anything by T-Rex is always a treat, and this is a classy example of her great work. the writing/character combination always works a treat. The dinosaur always adds a touch of light-heartedness to the edgy nature of graffiti writing.
Hemper, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, June 2019
Hemper has used a similar colour palette to Ryder, and for me it all just looks a little washed out. There is no doubting the superb skills of the artists, but on this day, I think they chose a weak colour palette, and perhaps that is why I never posted these pieces back in June 2019.
Soker, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, June 2019
Finally, and very possibly not part of the paint jam, is this bright and colourful piece from Soker, displaying his graffiti writing credentials to the max. Superb letter shapes and fills mark this piece out, I only wish my photographic skills could do it justice.
Dime, Jody and Turoe, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2024
What a wonderful triptych piece on the roundabout which is what I would describe as a unique collaboration between Dime, Jody and Turoe. I am not familiar with Dime and am guessing that he was visiting Bristol and made contact with artists in the city to see who’d like to have a paint. That is how I imagine these kind of things happen.
Dime, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2024
The collaboration starts with a stunning piece of graffiti writing from Dime, with nicely defined letters, beautiful fill colours and a deep 3D drop shadow. The borders are nice and thin and flawless, and the letters are lifted with contrasting orange and red blobby decorations around the outside. The way I think about decorations in a piece is to try and imagine what it would look like without them – often they enrich what might have been something a little ordinary. Decorations are part of the composition, not just an afterthought.
Jody, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2024
Jody has been smashing it all over the place for a sustained period, and I understand from talking to Fade, is really enjoying himself. In this piece he provides the filling in a graffiti writing sandwich and features a cartoon style cool character striking a pose with a cloudy background. I love the sparkle on the sunglasses, a brilliant touch.
Turoe, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2024
Rounding off the collaboration is a piece of writing from a Bristol legend, Turoe, although I originally thought it was by Soker it is actually a tribute collaboration to Soker who had a cycling accident recently (Thanks to Jay for the background information). If ever you want to know what outstanding graffiti writing looks like, then look no further than Turoe, and this piece demonstrates why. Perfect colour selection, superb interlocking letters without being over-engineered, a deep and contrasting 3D drop shadow and tight border. All the elements are there and they are brought together by a master of his craft. All in all, this is a fabulous and quite unexpected collaboration. We are blessed, and a fabulous tribute.
Unfortunately, I missed Soker when he was painting this unexpected piece in Dean Lane, because he had disappeared for a break, and I couldn’t hang around too long. This was extra unlucky (so near and yet so far) because he doesn’t paint all that often these days.
Soker, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2024
As I would expect, the writing from Soker is outstanding, with some quite thin script-like letters spelling out his name. What transforms a good piece into a great piece is the attention to small details, such as the yellow and orange tips to the letters. A beautiful drop shadow lifts the letters away from the luscious pink background, and the whole piece is an exemplar of great graffiti writing. Soker remains one of the very best in Bristol.
You’d need to go back to 2018 to remember this beauty from Soker. I don’t know how, but this piece got stranded and forgotten deep within my archive, and a quick delve has unearthed it for me to post today. Soker is one of the very best writers in Bristol, which is why it is a little surprising that I never posted this one.
Soker, M32 roundabout, Bristol, August 2018
The first thing to grab the attention is the classy colour palette. The fills in the seamlessly intertwined letters are of the very highest class, drifting from which, through yellow to oranges with consummate ease. The letters spelling SOKEM are pretty much perfect, and so cleanly finished. The buffed wall helps the piece to stand out and the pink and purple spots the cherry on the top. As close to perfect wildstyle writing as you will see.
Soker is an artist who has definitely slowed down a little bit in terms of his graffiti writing over the last couple of years, but he has certainly made up for things with this immense piece in Norfolk Place, replacing one of his own pieces there.
Soker, Norfolk Place, Bristol, April 2023
This is a top-notch piece of classic wildstyle graffiti writing, spelling SOKEM. The colour selection and progressions are superb, as is the 3D drop shadow in purple and lilac with its central vanishing point. The whole thing oozes class, and one can be pretty sure that the piece will remain untagged and intact until such time as Soker chooses to repaint it (probably years).
3Dom, Soker, Sepr and Epok, Coach and Horses, Bristol, February 2021
How, oh how, did I manage to overlook this piece for posting? I surprise myself when trawling through my archives and I find stuff like this, and it is also quite a pleasurable experience, because it gives me the perfect excuse to talk about some outstanding artwork. This long wall is a collaboration masterclass from 3Dom, Soker, Sepr and Epok which dates back to February 2021 (actually that is when I took the pictures, I think the artwork had been there for some time already).
3Dom, Coach and Horses, Bristol, February 2021
First up is this amazing character piece from 3Dom, featuring an unicyclist juggling bombs, with his arms weighed down with lead wights, and avoiding landmines. I imagine that this is a metaphor for the tightrope we are navigating as individuals, as a nation and as humanity itself. At least this is how I read it. As we would expect, it is beautifully painted.
Soker, Coach and Horses, Bristol, February 2021
The second piece is some incredibly tight graffiti writing from Soker, one of the very best writers around. It is especially gratifying to dig this piece out from the archives, because he is going through a rather quiet period at the moment.
Sepr, Coach and Horses, Bristol, February 2021
Next up is the magnificent Sepr with a whole story unfolding. Aliens in a spaceship are trying to drag a cow into the sky, but finding the going difficult. The aliens are contacting their base with the words, “Easton… we have a problem” – a local corruption of the famous quote. Brilliant and witty.
Epok, Coach and Horses, Bristol, February 2021
Finally, we have something of a rarity, an amazing piece of writing from Epok. I can’t think when I last saw a new piece from Epok, but this must have been one of his last in Bristol. I hope that the break in his productivity will at some point come to an end and that he will once again bless us with his unique geometric designs. What a collaboration, and what a wait.
Soker is painting more often and that can only be a good thing. His quality always stands out and he really is one of the godfathers of the Bristol street art scene.
Soker, Dean Lane, Bristol, October 2022
This is a piece of pure beauty. Letters in two main colours and several shades interlock in a way that flows and is so easy on the eye. With some spotty details and drip features, this is a fine example of what outstanding graffiti writing can look like.
There isn’t an awful lot more that I can say about the work of Soker that I haven’t already said in multiple previous posts. This one is uncomplicated but so utterly on point.
Soker, Brunel Way, Bristol, August 2022
This is a fantastic piece of writing, with well proportioned letter shapes, fabulously subtle shade progressions in the fills and a nice mauve bubble background. Perfection from Soker.
