Painted on one of Bristol’s most iconic walls, the curved wall in Dean Lane skate park, this is a birthday tribute piece to Soker by Dibz. Pieces like this have the capacity to confuse, because the letters do not spell the artist’s name, and I have in the past misidentified pieces because of it.
Dibz, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2025
Dibz really is a master of graffiti writing and is at the top of his game, something he has maintained for such a long time now, without any dip in form. The letters are filled with a solid black fill, and finely written ’50s’ indicating it was Soker’s 50th birthday. Great to see one of Dibz’ small signature tags in red at the top right too. Excellent work, and a fine birthday tribute.
In terms of content, Nice One is one of the most dynamic artists in Bristol, he has created characters, landscapes, animals and here he offers up a dust cart, I mean… who’d have thought it?
Nice One, Stapleton Road, Bristol, April 2025
The piece reminds me very much of Merny’s trucks and cars, in so much as the style is quite naive, with some interesting wheels for example. I love this piece, it is just so unusual, but demonstrates Nice One’s love for art and creativity in his inimitable style. I also love it that he kind of ‘owns’ this hoarding, like it is his private gallery.
This is an interesting wall at the entrance to St Werburghs tunnel. It is a space that can be filled with one or two or even more pieces, because of its length. There is a bit of a difficulty with the full length pieces, like this beauty from Mr Draws, and that is there is quite a bit of street furniture in the way that makes it a little challenging to photograph.
Mr Draws, St Werburghs, Bristol, April 2025
The spot also suffers from shading on sunny days, so being there at the right time is quite important. On the day I took these pictures, it was dazzlingly bright, indicative of the remarkable spring we are enjoying. Mr Draws has written his joined up letters DRAWS with a very nice horizontal striped fill pattern of magenta, turquoise, blue and yellow, which works remarkably well. The letters are broken up with a shower of ‘leopard’ spots, which offer a really interesting texture to the piece. There are some nice drips too. This is a really good large piece from Mr Draws, no messing.
This piece is from another out-of-towner, Eatz, the second post featuring a visitor in a row, which is one of the wonderful aspects of Bristol street art. Because Bristol is nationally and internationally known for its street art and graffiti culture, and its most famous contemporary son, Banksy, a lot of artists from about the place will visit and drop a piece while they are here.
Eatz, M32 roundabout, Bristol, April 2025
Eatz has created a rather interesting monster, with multiple eyes and a hand holding a glowing stick of some kind, emerging from a puddle of blackness. Lots of great colours and a bit of a story behind this alien in a spacesuit. The piece was painted alongside a Lupa piece, and I wonder whether they are friends/acquaintances, or whether they met of the first time as part of the paint jam.
I love this kind of slightly unconventional, not quite anti-style, unconventional graffiti writing, which, although it looks a bit scruffy is actually technically really well thought out, designed and pulled together.
Rozda, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, April 2025
It was painted as part of a large collaboration, with each piece sharing a common background and base colours, but each with its own unique style. I know nothing of Rozda, the artist, so would guess that they were in Bristol as a visitor for this paint jam. I like this a lot.
Mr Klue has been on fire this year and has continued to paint his ephemeral pieces in the tunnel on an alarmingly regular basis. In my view, this is a very good thing indeed, because I like his unique style, and watching him paint gives me an appreciation of how deliberate each ‘brush stroke’ is in his pieces. His work may look random, but it is based around the form of the letters KLUE, and the shading and colour patterns are carefully thought through.
Mr Klue, St Werburghs tunnel, Bristol, April 2025
As far as I can make out, Mr Klue paints each piece in a freestyle way, meaning that he doesn’t paint from a black book, but rather from the heart in a well-rehearsed, but improvised way, if that makes sense. The white and lavender colours gives this one a lightness of touch, and the subtle lime green tints on some of the edges, adds depth and rounds things off nicely. So much more to come from Mr Klue.
I have always struggled with artist naming conventions on Natural Adventures. Most artists have a name and retain it as their brand, especially old school artists like Inkie, Nick Walker, Mr Penfold, Banksy, Cheba and so on. Their Instagram accounts reflect their name – easy-peasy.
However, an awful lot of artists, graffiti writers in particular, may write a word, or sign a piece that is totally different from their Instagram name, for example: Jee See (who writes Seismic and whose Instagram is @jee.see_t.daemonic_luke.solo) or Biers (who currently writes WD40 and whose Instagram is @nofrills40). So you can see that naming artists can be a tricky thing – I blame the hacking of social media accounts, which means people are frequently changing their digital account names.
I say all of this because when I first came across Bbygwya (and it took me ages to master the name), this was her then Instagram account, however, she writes variants of the word Flux, and her current Instagram is @livelaugh_luxe. What is a man to do? The name of an artist is important for me, because it forms part of the tagging and sorting on WordPress which allows me to find past posts and images. So generally I use the first name that I came across and stick with it, even if it seems to be the wrong name now. Did any of that make sense?
Bbygwya (Flux), Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2025
This is a real beauty by Bbygwya (Flux or Luxe – see the problem?) in Dean Lane, with plain white letters and a little bit of black detail sitting on top of a fabulous Conrico piece, featured here previously. Somehow, Bbygwya has skilfully blended her piece with Conrico’s, intentionally or otherwise, but the final look is a good one.
This is another outstanding piece of paste up work from Tian in East Street. Not only is the subject beautifully worked, but the placement, inside a phone booth, is perfect. The cut-out is taken from a piece of work called ‘Combative Jaq’… I’m not sure that I know too much more about it.
Tian, East Street, Bristol, April 2025
I love the sepia tints contrasting with the blues of the woman’s clothes. The selection of the photograph and the alteration of it is superb. I realise that wheatpastes are not to everyone’s taste, particularly the authorities, but they are a darn sight better than the stream of advertising posters and hoardings that we are subjected to on every street in every town and city.
It is very possible that this piece by Rowdy on the shopfront of Don Majors is the closest piece of street art to my home. It is not the first time that Rowdy has decorated this shop, and he has done another great job. The piece is slightly less busy than his last one here, looking a little bit smarter.
Rowdy, Cheltenham Road, Bristol, April 2025
Rowdy is known for his crocodiles and his cats, and has an incredibly distinctive style. His pieces tend to pop up all over the city and are without doubt part of the USP of Bristol’s street art scene, and have been for many years. This cat is looking ever so slightly mischievous – a naughty cat.
Mr Crawls and Mote, East Street, Bristol, April 2025
On my wanderings in the East Street area of Bedminster, looking for Tian Paste ups, I came across this hoarding with a few treats on it. I think that this collaboration was painted last year when Mote and Mr Crawls were in full flow, painting together frequently all over the city.
Mr Crawls, East Street, Bristol, April 2025
To the left, the Mr Crawls character is quite unlike anything I have seen from him before, although his underlying style is unmistakable. The rather strange monster, in great green tones, is perhaps most notable for its psychedelic eyes, and ‘puckered’ upper lip.
Mote, East Street, Bristol, April 2025
Mote is no stranger to painting monsters, and here he has assembled five one-eyed beasts is some of his favoured colours. The chrome background for the collaboration gives me a pretty good date range (a little bit like carbon dating), which they first introduced at the end of 2023. A satisfying find.
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