7267. Coronation Road

Rowdy, Ryder, Taboo, Sage and Solar, Coronation Road, Bristol, January 2025
Rowdy, Ryder, Taboo, Sage and Solar, Coronation Road, Bristol, January 2025

I photographed this building way back in January, but never got round to posting it. I am doing so now, because there was a large fire at the site, a former metalworks, in early October. The building ceased to be in use in 2020, and became an obvious opportunity for graffiti, and several writers from around the city duly obliged. I don’t believe that this was any kind of overall collaboration, more an accumulation of pieces over time from Rowdy, Ryder, Taboo, Sage, Solar, and one other.

Rowdy, Ryder, Taboo, Sage and Solar, Coronation Road, Bristol, January 2025
Rowdy, Ryder, Taboo, Sage and Solar, Coronation Road, Bristol, January 2025

The top row (the former canteen of the building and most severely fire-damaged part – arson, by the way) is a combination collaboration from Ryder and Rowdy, both of whom are significant players on the graffiti scene in Bristol. Taboo’s dominant epic piece takes up the whole of the middle floor, and some smaller pieces from Sage, Solar (PLB) and Phase (?) occupy the ground floor. This is more of an interesting mosaic than anything else really – iconic in its own way, but now alas, ashes.

7193. St Werburghs tunnel (526)

Butch and Solar, St Werburghs, Bristol, September 2025
Butch and Solar, St Werburghs, Bristol, September 2025

Thinking back, it is quite unusual to see any work from the PLB (Placebo) crew in St Werburghs tunnel, but here, breaking the trend, is a two-piece collaboration from Butch and Solar. I suspect that there is a third artist involved in this piece in the form of the cat character in the middle, but it is unsigned, so I can’t be sure.

Butch, St Werburghs, Bristol, September 2025
Butch, St Werburghs, Bristol, September 2025

To the left is a really lovely piece of writing by Butch. I love his choice of letters, they really work for me, and the way he lays them out in a higgledy-piggledy fashion appeals. The letter fills in red are good and bounded by a strong orange line, all neatly placed on a white cloud background.

Solar, St Werburghs, Bristol, September 2025
Solar, St Werburghs, Bristol, September 2025

To the right, Solar has painted his customary slightly wibbly letters in striking red, with black decorations and an uplifting yellow drop shadow. The whole thing is vibrant and eye-catching and, from my perspective, shows great development and improvement/confidence from both artists. Who did paint the cat?

6719. Greenway Bush Lane (2)

Solar, Greenway Bush Lane, Bristol, January 2025
Solar, Greenway Bush Lane, Bristol, January 2025

I love the fact that this long hoarding in Green Bush Lane is becoming a ‘spot’ having been colonised initially by Mote and Mr Crawls – great work from these pioneers. This represents the ever-changing mosaic of graffiti spots around the city, as areas become gentrified and old spots disappear, new opportunities appear.

Solar, Greenway Bush Lane, Bristol, January 2025
Solar, Greenway Bush Lane, Bristol, January 2025

This is a sensational piece from Solar, and an instant winner with me. With this piece alone, the PLB artist has raised his game to the next level. He has cleverly used the ‘clean’ hoarding as his background colour and painted his piece directly on to it. No need for any buffing. His irregular letters spelling SOLAR have an organic feel to them and are beautifully outlines with a pink border. Some fabulous decorative work, including bubbled inside and outside the piece contribute to its magnificence. A piece out of the top drawer from Solar.

6643. River Avon (74)

Solar, River Avon, Bristol, December 2024
Solar, River Avon, Bristol, December 2024

While this is far from my favourite piece by Solar, and not the easiest to photograph, even on a wide-angle setting, I have included it in the name of completeness and documentation. I think it is only honest to post work by artists, warts and all, if and when possible. All too often such pieces get deselected, but during the Christmas and winter period there is lower turnover and I can post more of what I see.

Solar, River Avon, Bristol, December 2024
Solar, River Avon, Bristol, December 2024

In this piece the letters SOLAR are stretched out, and difficult to notice when walking along the narrow pathway. Painted in subtle shades of grey with tints of duck-egg blue, the unruly letters touching on anti-style, are actually quite nicely done. I sense that this writing has been here a long while, but that I haven’t noticed it before.

6574. Sparke Evans Park (109)

Solar and Nice One, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, June 2024
Solar and Nice One, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, June 2024

This is another one from my archive. I was actually digging it out because of the piece by Nice One, which is sitting above a Solar piece. It is impossible to post one without the other, and so you are getting two for the price of one in this post. Solar is a reasonable active member of the PLB crew, and it is not so long ago that I posted a gallery of his work. This is a nice letter blocky piece from him, and I think he painted the PLB letters too.

Solar and Nice One, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, June 2024
Solar and Nice One, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, June 2024

Nestled on top of the Solar piece, Nice one has painted his Times New Roman font letters spelling out his name. Midway through the letters is an interesting character, looking like somebody from an age gone by. The black and white character is really well painted and something of a nice surprise. I don’t think, although I can’t be certain, that the pieces were painted as a collaboration nor even necessarily at the same time. I can’t be sure either, who painted the brick wall with water flowing from a pipe. Curious stuff.

6328. New Stadium Road (58)

Solar, New Stadium Road, Bristol, August 2024
Solar, New Stadium Road, Bristol, August 2024

I have a feeling that the very first Solar piece I became aware of was in this spot a few years ago, and this recent piece shows how the artist has improved enormously in a really rather short space of time. This one was painted alongside PLB stablemate Whysayit.

Solar, New Stadium Road, Bristol, August 2024
Solar, New Stadium Road, Bristol, August 2024

something went a little wrong with my processing of the photographs, but the first one is a much truer representation of the colours of the piece in the underpass. The letters spell out SUNSHINE in gorgeous shades of orange, and has a very deep 3D drop shadow, characteristic of Solar’s work. This is a bold and cheerful piece, perfect for the summer vibes.

6141. Montpelier Park

j9449j and Solar, Montpelier Park, Bristol, June 2024
j9449j and Solar, Montpelier Park, Bristol, June 2024

More and more these days, writers are stacking their graffiti writing, one piece on top of the other. I am not sure why they do this, perhaps it is all about proportions and wall space. Ultimately what it means is that you get two pieces for the price of one, and this double header is by j9449j (who keeps changing his handle on Instagram, so this will have to do) and Solar.

j9449j and Solar, Montpelier Park, Bristol, June 2024
j9449j and Solar, Montpelier Park, Bristol, June 2024

This spot is one I don’t get to all that often, but it is always worth it, because every time I have been recently, there has been something different on display. j9449j has painted some letters, which I struggle to decipher, but his organic and unique fills give away his identity. Solar, was recently the subject of a gallery I pulled together, and this anti-style writing flows beautifully, so typical of his work. A nice duo to stumble across.

6117. Cumberland Basin

Solar, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2024
Solar, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2024

Although I have been featuring Solar on Natural Adventures since 2021, it wasn’t until May this year that I actually got to meet him while he was painting this piece. As with pretty much all the artists I meet he is a really nice person and managed to instantly dispel some of my imagined preconceptions of members of the PLB crew, which were largely based around not having met any of them.

Solar, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2024
Solar, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2024

I would categorise Solar’s writing style as soft anti-style, meaning that while he bucks the trend of conventional graffiti writing, there is some order and consistency to his letters, nothing too chaotic or anarchic. The letters are nicely done but the star of the show is the ‘implied’ drop shadow in blue and black, which is a very clever mechanism I haven’t seen deployed before. You’d think that the colour scheme wouldn’t work, and at first that was my impression, but actually it seems to work remarkably well.

Solar

A gallery of fabulous anti-style graffiti writing from Bristol artist Solar.

Crew PLB (Placebo)

All photographs by Scooj

Solar and Nice One, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, June 2024
Solar and Nice One, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, June 2024

Solar, New Stadium Road, Bristol, August 2024
Solar, New Stadium Road, Bristol, August 2024

j9449j and Solar, Montpelier Park, Bristol, June 2024
j9449j and Solar, Montpelier Park, Bristol, June 2024

Solar, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2024
Solar, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2024

Solar, Brunel Way, Bristol, September 2023
Solar, Brunel Way, Bristol, September 2023

Solar, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, July 2023
Solar, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, July 2023

Solar, Peel Street Green, Bristol, June 2023
Solar, Peel Street Green, Bristol, June 2023

Solar, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, May 2023
Solar, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, May 2023

Solar, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2023
Solar, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2023

Solar, M32 roundabout, Bristol, November 2022
Solar, M32 roundabout, Bristol, November 2022

Solar, Frome side, Bristol, October 2022
Solar, Frome side, Bristol, October 2022

Solar, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, April 2022
Solar, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, April 2022

Solar, New Stadium Road, Bristol, April 2021
Solar, New Stadium Road, Bristol, April 2021

5505. Brunel Way (229)

Solar, Brunel Way, Bristol, September 2023
Solar, Brunel Way, Bristol, September 2023

I really enjoy the work of Solar, and his work feels all the more enigmatic because I have never met him and know practically nothing about him other than his artwork. His lettering verges on anti-style, without going the full hog, it touches on abstract, but not quite.

Solar, Brunel Way, Bristol, September 2023
Solar, Brunel Way, Bristol, September 2023

It is often the colour palette that first invites you to look closer at Solar’s pieces, and this scorching colour combination has an earthy, lava, fiery feel to it, tempered by the green fragments around the edges. The piece spells out Solar, and by chance the yellow patches reflect the sun splashed dapples of light to the bottom left of the wall. Great stuff from Solar.