Street art – Page 102 – Natural adventures

6446. Redcliffe Way

Mote, Redcliffe Way, Bristol, October 2024

I arrived at Bristol Temple Meads station a little early recently, on my way to a football match in London, and had a few minutes to kill in the area around the station and managed tom photograph some pieces that I have been meaning to capture for quite a while, one of which was this monster piece by Mote.

I have given up hunting down Mote pieces, and tend to embrace them as and when I come across them, so sometimes they are already quite old by the time I get to photograph them. This is a rather attractive looking character with the trademark cross lines for pupils in the eyes, a very Mote motif. This whole panel was decorated a while back by various artists, I think to celebrate the Bristol Tattoo Festival.

6445. Dean Lane skate park (769)

Dibz and Fade, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2024

Keeping up with Dibz and Fade can be a difficult thing to do… they are a combined force of nature with an energy and enthusiasm for graffiti writing that is unsurpassed in Bristol. This piece, entitled ‘Explosive material’ kind of does what it says on the tin, and contains writing from both artists amidst an explosion.

Dibz on top in blue and Fade below in red complement one another perfectly with their styles, and the fills are nothing short of miraculous, incorporating the clouds of the explosion behind. This is a well-worked graffiti writing piece from two artists who keep raising their level notch by notch.

For good measure, they both left behind quick throw ups painted at the same time as this piece:

Dibz, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2024

Fade, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2024

6444. River Avon (66)

Werm, River Avon, Bristol, September 2024

Werm is a graffiti artist who can divide opinion with his carefully thought out and intricate pieces. I am rather enjoying his recent designs though and I consider this to be a first-class piece of graffiti writing.

The curves Werm has designed in to the letters take away the stark edges that the letters WERM naturally have. He has also endeavoured to create some clever bilateral symmetry to the piece, which is a device he has been working on for a little while. The fills are coherent throughout the letters, and the colour scheme works well. This is an admirable piece from the versatile artist.

6443. Hornsey Road, North London

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.

6442. River Avon (65)

Todoaciem, River Avon, Bristol September 2024

After a short spell away from Bristol, I think in his native Spain, it would appear that Todoaciem has returned recently and started dropping pieces in his favoured haunts. Alongside Stivs and Wxttsart, Todoaciem is a wonderfully accomplished calligraffiti artist, whose work is as tight as a nut.

I would like to say that this is a particularly elaborate example of his writing, but looking back at his work, I would simply say that it is typical and no more elaborate than most of his work. The letters are beautifully filled with a blended gradation of reds. The white border is augmented with a fine 3D drop shadow drifting to the left of the letters. There is enough of a background to mark out the whole piece from the graffiti writing beneath. Great to see Todoaciem back in Bristol.

6441. Dean Lane skate park (768)

ESKA, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2024

Ooh, it was a genuine pleasure to meet ESKA and his partner while he was painting this absolute beauty. I have not come across the artist before, but that is not all that surprising, because he travels around the country on a barge, which is currently docked in Bristol Floating Harbour – I understand that his boat is easy to seek out, because it has his artwork festooned on the outside.

While ESKA was painting I struck up a conversation with his partner who told me that there is a lot of symbolism in his pieces and that everything has a meaning – unpicking this might be quite difficult, so I will probably stick with talking about the aesthetic quality of the piece.

Unfortunately I never got a photograph of the full completed wall, because by the time I returned, somebody had painted over the left-hand edge of the piece, but you can see from the WIP shot what it might have looked like. The colour palette is gorgeous, and I love the way ESKA has incorporated his letters into the magical scene. This piece is a real feast for the eyes. More to come from this itinerant artist.

6440. Church Road

Dave Bain and David J. McMillan, Church Road, Bristol, September 2024

I find myself in a bit of a rush this morning, because I have a dental appointment before work. I’m slightly anxious about what is going to happen with my tooth, having lost quite a large section of it a week or so ago. I guess I have to yield to the professional and just get on with it.

I drove past this mural a few weeks ago, coming back from the dog sitter who lives in a part of town I don’t go to all that often. I don’t know how long it has been there, but I can’t recall ever having seen it before.

The large mural on Church Road is by Dave Bain and David J McMillan, and not being overly familiar with the work of either artist, I am not too sure who is responsible for which parts of the mural. The piece speaks of recreation and connecting with nature, which is always a welcome theme in my view. I love the execution of the mural, but I fear that the colours look a little washed out, but that might be an artifact of the rather overcast weather when I took the photographs. It is always great to find new pieces, especially significant murals like this one. Nice work from Dave and David.

6439. St Werburghs tunnel (450)

Omie, St Werburghs, Bristol, September 2024

In a post only a couple of days ago I mentioned how no two Omie pieces are the same, and this one in the tunnel rather supports my assertion. In this one, Omie presents some irregular letters in a stunning three-layered red fill, decorated in the top half with some ephemeral blue dots.

It is the 3D drop shadow that really grabs the eye in this piece though. The shadow is nice and deep, and veers off to the left of the letters in a blue tint with black stripes. If I were being picky I might note that not all of the black stripes are parallel, but fortunately it doesn’t spoil the overall effect, and most people probably wouldn’t even notice. I must say that I am very much enjoying Omie’s work, and am never quite sure what could be coming next, which is fun.

6438. Dean Lane skate park (767)

Awkward, Dean Lane, Bristol September 2024

It would appear that Awkward is going through a bit of a purple patch, having made only occasional appearances for several years, he is now painting regularly in the Deaner. This one was part of a wider collaboration, or at least it was painted at the same time as some other pieces on the wall.

In Awkward, perhaps more than with other artists, we see a strong crossover between his art and music – perhaps Benjimagnetic could give him a run for for his money – and indeed Awkward promotes Sentinel793 (Benjimagnetic) in this piece. The two cartoon characters appear to be rather ghoulish, with empty eye-sockets that are connected by wisps of smoke. Nice work from Awkward, although it might not be to everyone’s taste.

6437. St Werburghs tunnel (449)

Hypo, St Werburghs, Bristol, September 2024

Hypo has been on fire for a couple of years now, re-emerging during Covid, and keeping up a regular rhythm of fine graffiti writing that just seems to be getting better and better. His letters lend themselves to bilateral symmetry like those of Werm, but there the similarity of graffiti writing between the two artists ends.

The colours in this piece are its crowning glory. Set on a neutral cream background, the wildstyle letters ‘HYPO’ are festooned with a beautifully blended selection of rainbow colours that manage to remain reasonably subtle, and whilst a colourful piece it avoids being gaudy. Very fine work from a lovely graffiti writer.

	scooj on Cocoon
	hitandrun1964 on Cocoon
	scooj on 7422. Stapleton Road
	scooj on Thursday doors – 22 Janu…
	scooj on Thursday doors – 22 Janu…

	scooj on Cocoon
	hitandrun1964 on Cocoon
	scooj on 7422. Stapleton Road
	scooj on Thursday doors – 22 Janu…
	scooj on Thursday doors – 22 Janu…

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