I managed to sneak another trip underneath the M32 recently and picked up a couple more pictures of work by Sketch, which I might have missed last time. I haven’t seen his work anywhere else in Bristol. We really need to get this boy out and about so that more people can admire his modernist work.
Sketch, Frome Side, Bristol, December 2025
The bright and vibrant piece owes a lot to the inspiring surrealist and cubist movements, with features being spread around the face in an abstract fashion. I love these creative pieces that combine spray-painting with art movements in a brave and exciting way. More please.
Is it really November already? It is all happening too fast for my liking. Over the years, this wall has been dominated by wonderful pieces by 3Dom, and this is another one in a top class series. It is a real ‘statement’ wall which is rarely tagged or spoilt in any way, and most pieces that appear here tend to remain for quite a while, although unusually 3Dom’s last piece here was very short-lived.
3Dom, Peel Street Green, Bristol, September 2025
In pretty much all of 3Dom’s work, there are two notable things going on, firstly, his outstanding surreal artwork and secondly a strong story or message underpinning the piece. The skull is decorated with so many interesting features and details, such as the change of colour within the pink circle, the independently patterned eyes, and the floating lower jawbone. The messages ‘unity is power’ and ‘resistance is fertile’ (an amusing corruption of the Borg’s resistance is futile from Star Trek) speak of activism and speaking truth to power. More strength to 3Dom. A fine piece of street art.
Painted as part of the Bristol Mural Collective’s recent paint jam, this unusual piece is painted by Qubart, an artist I have not come across before. I have noticed that 2025 has been a year in which there have been more ‘debutants’ on Natural Adventures than ever before, which speaks of both the growth in numbers of people who want to paint the streets and that Bristol is a number one destination for street art and graffiti.
Qubart, Lucky Lane, Bristol, September 2025
This modernist piece, that appears to be influenced by several art genres, is bold and eye-catching, quite literally. The primary colours work well with the design and the composition. It might be considered a bit weird, but in the context of everything else that I see in Bristol, it isn’t that weird at all. It is always a pleasure to be introduced to a new artist.
I am thrilled to introduce you to an artist who is gently emerging from the bowels under the M32. I believe he signs his work ‘Sketch’ and although I have met him one time, holding a discussion over a fence, he said he didn’t really have a name as such as he was building up his profile and his work.
Sketch, Frome Side, Bristol, September 2025
This is a really strong column piece that has overtones of the work of Picasso, and both the cubist and surrealist art movements. There is a portrait here with lots of eyes and a strong presence of colours beautifully worked together. There is a ‘black book’ quality to the work, like a sketch (for example the cross-hatches and white space), which I guess is how his name has come about. Lots more to come from this talented young artist.
While I was away on holiday, the Bristol Mural Collective held a paint jam in Lucky Lane. I had been told by Nina Raines, the organiser, that it was happening, and was really sorry to miss it. Because I wasn’t there, I don’t know whether this wonderful piece by Pelmo was already there or was painted on the day.
Pelmo, Lucky Lane, Bristol, September 2025
Pelmo has painted in Lucky Lane a couple of times before, so I am guessing he lives nearby. This is a fabulous composition of a man, with a paunch, sitting on a bench in a rather surreal landscape, including a couple of sunflowers in pots with music 🎵 tumbling from them. A bright, witty and rather peaceful mural by Pelmo.
Sled One, Coach and Horses, Bristol, December 2024
I tend to be very slow off the mark photographing new pieces on this wall of the Coach and Horses pub, but feel that I can take my time to visit, when I happen to be passing because the wall has a very slow turnover and is rarely tagged. I managed to find myself over in the area, after visiting the recycling centre and took the opportunity to check out the fabulous pieces making up the collaboration. This first piece is by Sled One.
Sled One, Coach and Horses, Bristol, December 2024
Sled One has always had a rather surreal take on his characters and scenes, but what makes them so special is his incredible talent with the spray can. One is simply left with the lingering question… how does he do that? The piece, called ‘Shit TV’, features a fly, sitting on a turd, watching TV with a pair of 3D secs on and eating popcorn and drinking a milkshake. It doesn’t get much weirder or obscure than this, but Sled One thinks of these things and brings them to life in a remarkable way. Brilliant work from a brilliant artist.
Tom Miller, Cheltenham Paint Festival, Cheltenham, July 2022
Tom Miller is no stranger to these pages and remains one of the most wildly creative and surreal forces in the Bristol fine art and street art scene. There is so much going on in this colourful explosion of thoughts and ideas, but it looks like a conflation of a motorcyclist with a bird with a lamb?
Tom Miller, Cheltenham Paint Festival, Cheltenham, July 2022
There is so much movement in the piece and a blurring of the real with the abstract that confuses our senses a little. You could study the piece for hours and still wonder at the end what on earth it is all about. The best way to find these things out is to ask the artist, but unfortunately I didn’t get to meet him this time… perhaps when I next see him.
I believe that these arches at The Carriageworks are on borrowed time, as the developers of the site have plans to build retail outlets as part of the overall redevelopment of the site, so let’s make hay while the sun shines. Two of Bristol’s most recognised street artists, Sled One and 3Dom, have paired up to give these two arches a bit of a makeover.
Sled One, The Carriageworks, Bristol, May 2022
On the left is yet another spellbinding piece from Sled One, featuring a skull-like character in a red hat next to a pond with a rather arrogant-looking duck swimming about. Sled One has created this surreal scene with such extraordinary detail and clarity. For me there is something of a retro feel about the piece, perhaps it is the colours or the overall way the elements in the water and foliage around the pond are presented, but it looks like it could be a poster from the 1950s with a surreal 2020s twist.
3Dom, The Carriageworks, Bristol, May 2022
On the right hand arch 3Dom has painted an incredible dreamy piece where the main character, unlike anything we know or understand, is curled around the shape of the archway space. There is something most endearing about this smiley faced, reptile-humanoid creature, but look a little closer and there is something a little intriguing too. A love arrow runs through the character, although I’m not entirely sure what it signifies. I get a feeling that much of 3Dom’s work is about cherishing our beautiful Earth and a warning about its decline and losses in the natural world, he tells these stories through his ‘otherworldly’ characters almost as if warning us about the perils ahead. Of course they might simply be beautiful images without any hidden meaning, but I doubt it.
This magnificent collaboration between Paul Monsters and Tom Miller was painted a little while back, but I couldn’t work out where it was. I found it by accident when returning from a trip to Greenbank. Although it is a large piece, it is easy to miss if you are not looking out, and is pretty much invisible if driving in the opposite direction.
Paul Monsters and Tom Miller, Queen Street, Bristol, May 2022
I’m glad that I did find it though, because it is a truly spectacular collaboration from a pair of artists who are unafraid of using a ton of colour in their work. The two styles, one geometric and the other surreal, are a perfect match because of the blending of colour palette. The elaborate geometric pattern is by Paul Monsters and is as complex as I have seen from him. The frenetic explosion of objects spilling out of a portrait is by Tom Miller, whose work I have been following closely and admiring for several years.
Paul Monsters and Tom Miller, Queen Street, Bristol, May 2022
A closer look at Tom Miller’s piece gives us a small window into the busy mind of the artist, with at least three portraits, a car, a rubber duck and some crystals. Heaven only knows what it all means, but it matters not, it is the work of an enormously talented artist. This is as fine a collaboration as I have seen this year.
Elton Street paint jams are something that, until last year, have passed me by a little. Some five or six ‘billboard’ panels fixed to the wall of a building are painted simultaneously, by a selection of artists, usually with a colour theme running as a golden thread between the pieces.
Tom Miller, Elton Street, Bristol, April 2022
This panel is by the magnificent Tom Miller, whose surreal and busy creations continue to thrill and bemuse in equal measure. Here we have a dog or wolf bursting out of the picture in a splash of colour, with a pan or bowl suspended in front of him. This is a real work of art, brilliantly executed. I miss his occasional pieces in the Bearpit, where he first announced his entry onto the Bristol street art scene, but he makes up for it with walls large and small all over the city.
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