Symmetry – Natural adventures

7520. River Avon (114)

Werm, River Avon, Bristol, February 2026

Werm has been on fire this year, turning out a variety of tight pieces, each with a slightly different look. This piece brings us back to his favoured structural letter style with a solid bilateral symmetry.

What makes this one stand out for me is the superb colour selection and freshness of the piece. Everything is near perfect. The letters are beautifully proportioned. The turquoise fill with its contiguous pattern of blue circles joined with lines has a molecular model feel to it, and is simply amazing. The red border is regular and clean and the piece sits on a beige buffed wall with superb red bricks randomly distributed. A very classy piece from Werm.

7499. Dean Lane skate park (905)

What a superb piece from Werm in the Deaner. The symmetry created from the letters WERM is excellent, and something Werm plays with a lot in his work. This might be the tightest one yet. The brownish fill is in two tones and is best described as a chocolate mousse look – regulars will know that I am not fond of brown, but I’ll let it go in this instance.

The deep drop shadow veering to the left provides depth and the light blue background plenty of contrast, bit devices lifting the letters nicely. The red border creates a nice boundary between the letters and background, and I like the ‘cloud’ detail in the blue background. This is an interesting piece that deserves a while to enjoy it.

7246. Frome Side (60)

Totosoapcity, Frome Side, Bristol, September 2025

Frome Side, as I like to call it, is a spot that runs underneath a stretch of the M32. The concrete walls are on either side of the canalised River Frome, and crossing from one side to the other is perilous to say the least, across slender concrete slabs, about 2ft wide without a handrail. I tend to remain on the east bank, where the access is, and photograph the west bank from there, looking across the river. This piece from Totosoapcity was on the far west bank.

Totosoapcity has a unique and easy to recognise letter style which tends to remain pretty much as standard from piece to piece, and it is the decoration and fill that provides variation. The letters ARS(Z)A have a symmetry about them, and are filled with an unusual selection of colours in a radiating geometric pattern. The background is decorated with what looks like piles of rocks. Interesting stuff from Totosoapcity.

7206. Frome Side (55)

Totosoapcity is one of those graffiti writers whose letter shapes remain broadly constant and whose magic happens with his colour selections and patterns. The letters ARSA or ARZA have a symmetry about them, which really establishes Totosoapcity’s ‘brand’ or presence.

The letters are given depth with the 3D drop shadow in red and white stripes, and further uplifted by the four ‘starbursts’ whose contribution should never be underestimated. The colour scheme has a bit of a confection feel to it, maybe trifle or rhubarb and custard chews. An all-round nice piece from Totosoapcity.

7126. M32 roundabout J3 (701)

Sait Bare, M32 roundabout, Bristol, August 2025

In Bristol we have so many different styles of graffiti writing, and a lot of these fit into certain defined categories such as wildstyle, anamorphic, calligraffiti, anti-style, script, bubble writing and so on, but with some artists, it is really difficult to stick them in a particular pigeonhole, and I think Sait bare is one of those,

This is a nice piece painted alongside Hire, a pairing that seems to be increasingly common. There is a bilateral symmetry emerging in this piece, which is perhaps the key focal point, as the fills are quite plain. The drop shadow converging on a central vanishing point and the glowing green border highlights provide plenty of depth. Also, the eyes, which are common to both this piece and the adjacent one by Hire, definitely add interest.

7028. Sparke Evans Park (135)

Totosoapcity, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, June 2025

What is a little peculiar is that if I look back through my archives I would probably find half a dozen or so pieces by Totosoapcity, but it is only recently, once I found out the artist’s name, that I have actually started to post his distinctive writing.

There is a symmetry to Totosoapcity’s writing, and I am never too sure what the letters spell, but I think it is ARSA. There are some good blues, pinks and purples in the piece with a deep 3D drop shadow vanishing in the centre, below the wall. There are a few decorative circles filling and breaking up the white space around the background. A nice piece. I will have to trawl through my archives and dig out some old ones.

6896. Peel Street Green (40)

Werm, Peel Street Green, Bristol, April 2025

I am chronically short on time for today’s post, indeed I was short of time when I wrote it yesterday. This is another intricate bilaterally symmetrical piece piece from Werm, to bolster his catalogue of such pieces. I feel that he might move on to another theme before too long, especially as he has been painting these types of pieces for a while now.

This set of letters spelling WERM are rather nicely filled with a white and off-white colour and a contiguous pattern that runs through the piece. A deep pink drop shadow is bordered with a blue line and the whole thing is set on a blue splash, also symmetrical. Nice work.

6822. River Avon (83)

Werm is becoming one of those consistent, drumbeat graffiti writers whose work is always there and reminds us what the Bristol street/graffiti art scene is all about. His current style takes us through his playing with symmetry of the letters WERM, forever striving for perfection.

In addition to his beautifully presented letters, Werm has set the piece on a pattern of pixelated cubes, adding just enough interest to lift the piece. Unfortunately, the afternoon sun has crept into the right-hand half of these pictures, but that is a daily hazard when photographing street art… and bins, and parked cars etc.

6799. Cumberland Basin

Werm, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, March 2025

Werm is continuing along his journey, experimenting with bilateral symmetry in his writing. The symmetry in this one is notable, but I think that it might be the colour scheme that initially attracts the eye, with some nice contrasting reds, greens and oranges.

What baffles me about writers like Werm is how they manage to get everything ‘right’ if you know what I mean. For example, in this piece the green drop shadow veers off to the right, but it needs to be perfect across all the letters otherwise something would look out of kilter. I suppose the old adage, practice makes perfect, applies here, but it is still an admirable talent.

6790. Cumberland Basin

Werm, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, February 2025

Today’s posts will have to be the quickest ever. I am staying in Godalming and running a workshop today and forgot to write the blog posts last night, so am squeezing these ones in before breakfast. This is a fine symmetrical piece by Werm on the long wall at Cumberland Basin.

At first glance, this doesn’t look too much different from many of his other pieces, but look a little closer and you can see that the subtle fill to the letters is contiguous throughout all the letters, which is a tried and tested technique by graffiti writers, and executed really well here by Werm.

	M. on 7522. M32 roundabout J2 (…
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	M. on 7522. M32 roundabout J2 (…
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