St Werburghs – Page 16 – Natural adventures

5816. St Werburghs tunnel (405)

Mr Klue, St Werburghs, Bristol, January 2024

I am very short of time today, with lots to do, having spent the whole of yesterday in London at a wonderful wedding of a cousin of mine. Still feeling a little worse for wear, and tired, as we were on the last train out of London, and then had to endure music and a party in our next door neighbour’s flat which continued until 4am. A little bit of Mr Klue magic is the perfect antidote to this.

Mr Klue has been a little quiet over the winter, but seems to be cranking things up a little. This piece is in one of his favoured spots, and is probably one of his clearest renditions of the letters KLUE in his ephemeral abstract style. A perfect piece for a Sunday morning.

5808. St Werburghs tunnel (404)

Kid Krishna, St Werburghs, Bristol, January 2024

Whenever I see the number 404, my heart sinks, thinking of some kind of computer error code. Fortunately no such disappointment with this fine piece from Kid Krishna at the end of the tunnel, it what is proving to be a fruitful and exciting comeback after a few lay months.

I have to take it on trust that the letters spell out CRIE, because, although it is what he usually writes, the letters are very well disguised and obscured. I love the way the greyscale piece draws in a puddle of colour towards the middle, a little reminiscent of those blotting paper colour separations we did at school in science lessons.. Great to have Kid Krishna firing on all cylinders again.

5801. St Werburghs tunnel (403)

Silent Hobo and Mr Riks, St Werburghs, Bristol, January 2024

Flying out of Grenoble today, so no time to write much about this magnificent collaboration from Silent Hobo and Mr Riks. The former has been rather quiet on the streets of late, but the former a little more busy than usual. A classy collaborative effort, with some contemporary commentary thrown in for good measure.

5798. St Werburghs tunnel (402)

Mr Crawls and Mote, St Werburghs, Bristol, January 2024

With this double collaboration from Mote and Mr Crawls, we are treated to some outstandingly creative monster characters, demonstrating that this relatively recent pairing is thriving, and their partnership is becoming one of the most interesting in Bristol at the moment.

While I have met Mote on this many occasions, I have not yet met Mr Crawls, but hope that I will catch them painting together before long. The left-hand side pairing of bird monsters are painted in rich colours and superbly designed. The different styles, as always, complement each other perfectly, and to date this is my favourite piece by the two artists so far.

To the right, two more imaginative creatures hang out side-by-side, set on a chrome background. As these two paint more often together, they are clearly bouncing ideas off each other and incorporating elements of each others’ work. For example Mote’s monster horns are straight out of the Mr Crawls song book. What a fabulous collaboration.

5795. St Werburghs tunnel (401)

Minto, St Werburghs, Bristol, January 2024

There are some pieces that stick in the memory, for one reason or another, and this unusual piece by Minto is right up there, and to be fair, quite a lot of his pieces are memorable, because of his design ideas and concepts.

The letters have an organic look to them, almost melting down the wall, like wax from a candle. Accompanying the letters are a couple of characters and a bird’s head. I don’t really know what it all means, but I’m not too sure I need to. The whole thing looks great and has a touch of class about it.

Hitting the slopes hard tomorrow, so heading to bed now (written last night)

5774. St Werburghs tunnel (400)

Zaenone, St Werburghs, Bristol, January 2023

I did another bit of digging through my archives, something I like to do from time to unearth some overlooked or ‘left behind’ pieces, and found this beauty by Zaenone, which I photographed in St Werburghs tunnel a year ago before I had clocked the artist.

The large, bold letters spell ZANE, but in this one are not accompanied by character bookends, unlike the other pieces I have posted by the artist. The fill is simply magnificent, incorporating a range of blue and green colours that drift into one another, and decorated with dozens of little symbols and marks. The whole thing is a really beautiful piece of graffiti writing, and I am so pleased to have found it in my archive and put a name to it too.

5773. St Werburghs tunnel (399)

Raid, St Werburghs, Bristol, January 2023

At around the time that this piece is published, my beloved Arsenal FC will be a few minutes into their first league match in a couple of weeks, against Crystal Palace, and I will be at the Emirates Stadium cheering them on. The result of the game could determine my mood for the next few days, so I am keeping my fingers very firmly crossed. Naturally, I have had to plan my day carefully, and I wrote this post last night, to provide continuity of publishing my daily two street/graffiti art posts at around 11.55 and 12.55 UK time.

Raid is another artist who has been regularly hitting the walls of Bristol throughout last year, constantly adjusting and refining his letters to great effect. This one in the tunnel is a little bit more like some of the first pieces I saw of his, back in March last year, with an ornate lower case ‘a’. There is a very nice colourful fill with a cosmic feel to it, and enough of a background to help the letters pop. Definitely time for a gallery, even though I have less than one year’s worth of photographs of Raid’s work. Watch this space.

Come on you Gunners!

5758. St Werburghs tunnel (398)

Hypo, St Werburghs, Bristol, January 2024

One of the artists I have most enjoyed over the past 12 months or so has been Hypo, who has been out and about a lot during that period (in part due to poor health and recovery). I think that part of the secret to his success is his choice of letters, which are really playful, and allow a lot of flexibility. Some letters and combinations of letters simply don’t work as well as others.

I sense a little bit of a Hemper influence in this piece, which is quite elaborate and intricate. Hypo has selected some cheerful light colours that interlock, creating an integrated whole that is nice to look at. I’m not too sure that the copper outline quite works, but on the whole this is a fine piece of writing.

5745. St Werburghs tunnel (397)

Raid, St Werburghs, Bristol, January 2024

Raid has had a flurry of activity this winter, and I keep finding pieces new to me, wondering if they are recent or if I have simply missed them. I can be pretty sure this is a recent piece (it wishes us a Happy New Year) as turnover in the tunnel is much easier to monitor than in some of the other spots in Bristol.

One of the challenges Raid appears to have set himself, on occasion, is to create a piece that is rotationally symmetrical, and this piece I think falls into that category. The fills in this piece are beautifully done, and the green line with stars creates interest and continuity through the letters. It is interesting that he hasn’t painted a border between his fill and drop shadow, preferring to leave a clean line instead. Surely time for a gallery?

5744. St Werburghs tunnel (396)

Fiva, St Werburghs, Bristol, December 2023

Any and every time I see a piece by Fiva, it makes my heart sing. The rarity value has something to do with it and this is one of only three pieces painted in Bristol in 2023, and before these we had to wait three years for his reappearance.

This is an outstanding piece, adopting his customary formula of writing his name and accompanying it with a fun cartoon character. As in previous pieces, Fiva has superimposed a script ‘fiver’ over his block capitals ‘FIVER’ to create an amazing and very clever effect. He is a master of this technique and seems to make the complicated look simple.

The wonderful character is saying ‘Diolch Bristol’ which is Welsh for ‘Thank you, Bristol’. I’m not too sure what that means, but it has an inference of finality about it. I do hope not, and will be keeping my fingers crossed for a return by the artist in 2024. Meanwhile, I will simply enjoy and admire this outstanding piece.

	Sheree on 7439. M32 Cycle path (304…
	TiffanyArpDaleo on 7437. M32 roundabout J3 (…
	paulh121 on 7438. River Avon (108)
	paulh121 on 7436. St Werburghs tunnel…
	Cethru Cellophane on Tales of a telecabine

	Sheree on 7439. M32 Cycle path (304…
	TiffanyArpDaleo on 7437. M32 roundabout J3 (…
	paulh121 on 7438. River Avon (108)
	paulh121 on 7436. St Werburghs tunnel…
	Cethru Cellophane on Tales of a telecabine

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