I must’ve walked past this little beauty by Lis several time before I noticed it. It is heavily disguised, sitting on a larger piece, and easy to miss (obviously). I felt rather clever when I spotted it, but later realised, when looking at her Instagram feed, that it had been there for weeks.
Lis, St Werburghs, Bristol, May 2025
The heart with a sword running through it and a snake is a stunning motif, and looks like a tattoo sample. The fine work is a combination of spray paint and she used it as an opportunity to try out some small stencils. This is so typical of Lis, expanding her portfolio and improving her technique and skills.
Since developers moved into the area around Moon Street, I don’t visit all that often, and driving around there is a bit of a nightmare, so I generally only visit when I am on foot. I had a lovely surprise on my last visit, finding this stencil piece by Cartoonneros.
Cartoonneros, Moon Street, Bristol, April 2025
I don’t know if the piece is new or old, but the artist does seem to visit Bristol sporadically – maybe he has friends here. Furthermore, I don’t know who the character portrayed in the stencil is, but it has all the hallmarks of a Cartoonneros piece. The black lines of the stencil are sprayed over a patchwork of orange and yellow paint, creating the unique look that the artist has perfected. A reward for keeping my eyes open.
Part of my work involves a bit of travel around the country supporting the establishment of new National Nature Reserves. I took a trip last month to Godalming in Surrey, where I was running a partnership workshop. Naturally I took the opportunity to wander round town in the evening and early in the morning to photograph the architecture, and doors in particular. I was not expecting to find any street art (it is not that kind of place), but my in-build radar and trained eye brought me to this piece by Hendog, lurking behind some bins. I think it might be the only piece of street art in town.
Hendog, High Street, Godalming, March 2025
Hendog is a stencil artist, who seems to paint around the south-east area of England, from what I could make out, and I haven’t come across before, although I think he might have a piece in Bristol which I will need to hunt down.
There are hints or references to Banksy’s famous ‘mild, mild west’ piece as he features an urban teddy bear up to a bit of mischief with a traffic cone on his head and a beer bottle in each hand. The stencil work has plenty of depth, aided by the clever shadow work. I have no idea what the locals think of it, but it has been there for a while, so I imagine they might be quite fond of it. A pleasurable and unexpected find.
Cartoonneros, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2025
Argentinian artist Cartoonneros has made a few appearances on these pages over the years, and it is always fun to find his diminutive stencil pieces. I think that I might have a bunch of unpublished pictures of his work from trips to London a few years ago too, which I ought to dig out of my archive.
Cartoonneros, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2025
This piece features a black stencil portrait of Lionel Messi (I think), augmented with an underlayer of rainbow colours. This is decent, simple and impactful work that instantly catches the eye. It is the only recent piece I have found by the artist, but I will be keeping my eyes open, because I find it hard to believe that he would visit Bristol and only drop one piece during his visit. I don’t quite yet have enough pieces to make a gallery, but when I do…
Unknown Artist, Braggs Lane, Bristol, December 2024
Sometimes I have no idea who painted a particular piece but like to post it, because it is simply too good not to post. This is an unusual stencil and writing combination piece that I am assuming is by a single artist, but it is quite possible that this is the work of two people.
Unknown Artist, Braggs Lane, Bristol, December 2024
Of course, the point of the piece is to write a one-liner gag, which I have to admit I haven’t heard before, and it made me laugh when I saw it. There are a lot of words in this piece of writing and each of the letters has a 3D shadow, so I would say it is the work of an accomplished writer. The writing is accompanied by a stencil of a woman holding a spray can, implying that she sprayed the writing.
Unknown Artist, Braggs Lane, Bristol, December 2024
I have seen better single-layer stencils, but there is a charm about this one, and the whole combination, that I have slightly fallen for. My guess is that this wall was painted some time ago… I say that, because I rarely visit this area. A bit of fun for Tuesday morning.
It feels odd posting this Banksy piece from the comfort of a Marrakesh hotel room only a couple of weeks after photographing it. I took the pictures in the dark on a cold night walking to a football match with my son after seven hours of driving. It was my son who spotted the famous piece painted last year, and in the spirit of taking pictures, no matter what the conditions, I managed to get these unusual snaps.
Banksy, Hornsey Road, North London, December 2024
I had wondered where this piece was, but love the fact that we accidentally walked past it rather than sought it out. The misty night scene adds a different perspective on the piece, which was a clever work by Banksy, who replaced the foliage of a tree on the wall behind it, after it had been heavily cut back.
Banksy, Hornsey Road, North London, December 2024
In the bottom left of the piece is a stencil figure with a spray gun in his hands who presumably had been spraying the foliage on the walls. The figure is now behind Perspex. Last year was a good year for the Bristol born artist, and maybe on future trips to the old smoke I’ll find some of his animals from 2024. Arsenal won a tricky match against Ipswich 1-0, so overall a good day out.
The last stencil piece I saw by Man-X was a rather cute west highland terrier painted at the entrance to Leonard Lane, so it was somewhat surprising to see this irreverent portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II sitting on a different kind of throne.
Man-X, Backfields, Bristol, November 2024
The portrait piece is a nicely worked five or six colour stencil, set within an oval frame, and is really rather unusual in many ways. The colours incorporate gold, which I guess is in part to represent the royal setting (golden throne). There is some extra fun in the detail, with the Queen reading a magazine entitled ‘Corgi’. Edgy and offensive to some, this piece is nicely executed, on a tricky stone surface.
Rory Paints, Nine Tree Hill, Bristol, November 2024
I have a feeling I should have clocked this wonderful stencil piece by Rory Paints some time ago, and maybe I had, but I never got round to posting it. It is obvious that it has been around for a while, because rather unfortunately a bench has been attached to the wall in front of it.
Rory Paints, Nine Tree Hill, Bristol, November 2024
The charming black and white stencil features a little boy in a stripy top holding his hand up, perhaps holding something, but it is a little obscured. I love this kind of street art that just gets absorbed into its environment and becomes part of the furniture. I don’t know the artist, and don’t believe I have seen any of his work before, although I may be mistaken. Great piece.
Northbanksy, (Mikel Arteta), Hornsey Road, North London (Forever), September 2024
A short while ago I went up to London for my first football match of the season, to watch the mighty Arsenal play at home to Leicester City. I had arranged to meet a friend in a pub before the match and passed by a wall of black and white stencil pieces by the brilliantly named artist Northbanksy. The North Bank was the north stand at Highbury, the former home of Arsenal FC, where the nosiest home fans would congregate. You can see what Northbanksy has done with his name. This first piece features the Arsenal Manager Mikel Arteta, and the quote is from his song, which is as follows:
We’ve got Super Mik Arteta,
He knows exactly what we need,
Kieran at the back, Gabi in attack,
Arsenal on the way to Champions League.
I have seen better stencils if I am honest, but I can’t help loving this.
Northbanksy, (Emile Smith-Rowe and Bukayo Saka), Hornsey Road, North London (Forever), September 2024
There are about a dozen or so stencils and this one features two of Arsenal’s home grown players, starboy Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith-Rowe, who moved to Fulham at the start of this season. Northbanksy has selected a shot of the two that epitomises their friendship and reproduced it for all fans to admire. More to come from Northbanksy soon.
Hardy, Upfest 2024, Greville Smyth Park, Bristol, May 2024
It was a real pleasure to catch up with Hardy at Upfest 24 at the time that he was painting this piece, and he had plenty of kind words to say about my posts on Natural Adventures, which I always find a little bit surprising, because I really have no idea (beyond the core readership of the blog) who reads this stuff, and whether they value it. The function of my street art/graffiti posts is to keep a living record of contemporary street art in Bristol, if people visit and enjoy, then I am doubly satisfied.
Hardy, Upfest 2024, Greville Smyth Park, Bristol, May 2024
Hardy has used this space well to spray four of his distinctive stencils, in two sizes and in different colours, and decorated the rest of the area with symbols and patterns, without which the stencils might look a little stark. Brightening up this space for Upfest.
Natural adventures 