An infrequent, yet most welcome, artist is Smut – ‘everyone loves a little bit of Smut’ remember? Recently Smut has hit a couple of walls with his characteristic clean and tidy script writing.
Smut, St Werburghs, Bristol, December 2021
Although the tunnel at St Werburghs is a honey pot for graffiti and street art, it is a beast for getting decent photographs, and I am disappointed with these ones which are a little blurred. His other piece on the M32 roundabout (to come) is altogether more satisfying. It is always a pleasure finding a Smut piece.
Mest is an artist whose writing is improving all the time, not only in quality but also in creativity. Sticking to his standard letter shapes, he gets his variety through his fill designs and colours. I have so many more of his pieces that are not yet published, but posting pieces on Natural Adventures is a very competitive marketplace at the moment. I will get round to publishing more in due course.
Mest, St Werburghs, Bristol, December 2021
The colour contrasts between the orange background and cool blue letter fills works wonderfully, a real hot and cold battle going on in front of our eyes. Mest has also been playing a little by picking out some of the brick work with pink lines. A sprinkling of little yellow dots rounds the piece off nicely. A fine piece from Mest which gets me ever closer to publishing a gallery of his work… watch this space over the next month or two.
Logoe continues to hit Bristol walls hard, this time with his friend Silent Hobo, to create this lovely collaboration on the entrance to the tunnel in St Werburghs. Their content and styles are so very different, but there is a chemistry there that brings the whole thing together seamlessly.
Logoe and Silent Hobo, St Werburghs, Bristol, December 2021
The writing by Logoe is distinctive with its thin script-like letters and gorgeous fills, decorated with spots and stars along the length. The youth, so brilliantly portrayed by Silent Hobo, is wearing a blue hoodie and sporting big hair and glasses. I am not at all certain what the axe is all about though. So good to see these two combining again.
I tend to prepare posts in advance for my street art blogs, perhaps as many as twenty pieces lined up and prepped for written content to be added. It is sorting and sizing the images that takes the most time. Downloading a stream of conscious thought can be surprisingly quick, largely because most of it is conversational nonsense, like this, and comes naturally.
I say all of this because it is quite coincidental that this lovely piece by Benjimagnetic, which has been lined up for some time, is ready for posting just two days after I met the artist for the first time.
Benjimagnetic, St Werburghs, Bristol, November 2021
I have noticed that Benjimagnetic seems to be toying with some different design ideas lately and moving away from his quite scratchy abstract writing and transitioning into more solid and colourful pieces, while keeping the essence of his style. It is a difficult transition to describe, but it is definitely happening. For me, I have to say that I am definitely liking his new work a lot, and hope this is more than just a passing phase. A superb tunnel piece.
I like the work of Mind Control very much, although the theme of his pieces often carry an underlying threat of violence, which I am not so keen on, and this piece in the gloom of St Werburghs tunnel is one of those pieces.
Mind Control, St Weburghs, Bristol, Novemmber 2021
It turns out though, that it is a tribute piece to a young man called Josh Schoolar who died last year, in Manchester. Josh was an activist who had been out to Syria (joining the International Freedom Battalion) to fight against Isis, and this piece is painted from a photograph of Josh from that time.
In his memory, Josh Schoolar’s family set up an annual fund of £300 for an up and coming young street artist, and Mind Control was the first recipient of this award, and painted this tribute piece as a thank you.
I have learned that it is important to understand what lies behind a piece of artwork as well as simply seeing what is in front of you. This is not a violent piece at all, but a fond and heartfelt recognition of a young life lost.
To get the colours right in these pictures, I had to do a bit of manipulation, which if I hadn’t would have left them as yellowy-orange stains on the wall which really wouldn’t do. Instead, you can see the colours, which you can see with the naked eye, but in photographs are negatively impacted by the orange lighting in the tunnel.
Corupt, St Werburghs, Bristol, November 2021
The letters STICK are by Corupt, who is going through a bit of a purple patch at the moment which means that you should look out for more of his work appearing on these pages soon. Corupt is an artist who keeps himself to himself, and although I have seen him paint, at the top of a ladder, I still haven’t met properly.
From a technical point of view, this piece is on-point and skilfully crafted, but it is also rather beautiful too, with some excellent blended shading in the letters. More outstanding work from Corupt is in the pipeline.
I have a feeling that this mask-like face may have been a Halloween piece from Laic217, at least it was certainly painted around that period at the end of October. The piece is far from typical of Laic’s work but contains his recognisable style.
Laic217, St Werburghs, Bristol, November 2021
Set on a vibrant pink background the grey scale demon stares out from the wall menacingly. The mask-like structure is rather static and fixed, which is different to most of his other work which tends to be full of animation and movement. Great to see something a little bit different.
As mentioned recently, Stivs has been absolutely smashing it recently, and this pair of pieces, on either side of the entrance to St Werburghs tunnel, is a wonderful recent addition to his expanding repertoire.
Stivs, St Werburghs, Bristol, October 2021
To the left as you enter the tunnel is a fine bright greeting ‘good morning’ with dawn colours in the background. Cheerful and revitalising. This contrasts with the piece opposite.
Stivs, St Werburghs, Bristol, October 2021
To the right is the ‘good night’ piece in black writing, set on a sunset background. The two complementary pieces are a perfect pair and a creative way of painting this particular spot. There seems to be no limit to Stiv’s ambition and energy at the moment, and that is a good thing.
Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah! It has been such a long time since I have seen a street piece from Kid Crayon, although he has been doing a lot of studio and digital work over the last few months, it is refreshing to see something big and bold. In this collaboration, Kid Crayon has teamed up with Nightwayss, who conversely doesn’t seem to have stopped hitting walls this year, he is a machine.
Kid Crayon, St Werburghs, Bristol, October 2021
To the left of this ‘Finger Trap’ piece, Kid Crayon has painted a brilliant character (is it a self-portrait?) poking his finger into the trap while tipping his red baseball cap. The character is brilliant and so uniquely Kid Crayon.
Nightwayss, St Werburghs, Bristol, October 2021
To the right and making up the other half of the collaboration, joined with the central trap, is an unusual piece by Nightwayss. I love this recent experimental style from Nightwayss that seems to be exploring the fragmentation and interruption of a portrait and other elements, such as a parrot in this case. The fine artist in Nightwayss is coming to the fore in exploring new ideas and forms. Pity about the tag, but hey, you snooze, you lose!
Although rather small and modest in scope, this little collaboration is very significant in the history of street art in Bristol. Veee, an artist from Weston-super-Mare and Stinkfish joined forces to bomb a couple of walls at the tail end of a trip that Stinkfish had made to the city. A crowd-funded project had brought the artist back to Bristol to tidy up a couple of iconic pieces he painted here some years ago.
Veee and Stinkfish, Dean Lane, Bristol, October 2021
I had actually met the artists very briefly as they sprayed a wall in Dean Lane – unfortunately, when I returned a day later their work had been over-painted, so I only have this WIP shot. It was great to meet Stinkfish, in particular, because of his global reputation – he is a street art rock star, no doubt about it.
Stinkfish, St Werburghs, Bristol, October 2021
The St Werburghs piece by Stinkfish is similar to the Dean Lane one, and it is like a mega tag. I wonder how many people know who it is by. It is interesting that Stinkfish would want to spray these little anonymous pieces about the place, but then again, I guess that is all part of the fun of spray-painting. There is another one of these that I will share soon, and of course I have to go and photograph the two renovations too.
Veee seems to be making quite a big noise at the moment, and I know that there will be plenty more pieces from him in Natural Adventures before long.
Vee and Stinkfish, St Werburghs, Bristol, October 2021
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