There are a couple of things that are slightly unusual about this piece by Fade. The first is that it is a solo piece and not a collaboration with Dibz and second, it has unfamiliar letters, as it is a tribute to ‘the Mrs’ to use Fade’s words, although I can’t remember her name, and I am struggling to decipher the letters.
Fade, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2025
The graffiti writing is flawless, as you would expect, and stands out on the large wall with a black background. There is a little too much brown for my own personal taste, but I have spoken enough about that in recent posts. Really stand out work from Fade
Keeping up with Dibz and Fade, even over the winter months, has been challenging. Their high-end graffiti writing is creative and imaginative, and some of the best you’ll see in Bristol and beyond. Sometimes the pair paint in themed colour schemes and play off one another, but this collaboration presents two very different pieces with only a shared background to link them.
Fade, Dean Lane, Bristol, February 2025
On the left, Fade has painted a stunning tribute piece for Chaos, who in his own words is ‘lost but not forgotten’. The yellow letters are filled with three horizontal stripes, nicely blended, without any hard edges. The little white trims do a lot to create depth, as does the thick black border. A beautifully finished piece, as you’d expect from Fade.
Dibz, Dean Lane, Bristol, February 2025
To the right, Dibz has painted a crazy colourful explosion of a piece, which is a ‘heavenly birthday’ tribute piece for Benson Much, and knowing this, you can make out the letters BENSON. This is an absolute stunner, there are no two ways about it. Each component of the work has been allocated a different colour, not only on the surface, but also in the drop shadow. This demonstrates Dibz’ complete understanding of light and shade and colour matches and when combined with his extraordinary talent you are left with something that you can’t help but admire. A fabulous collaboration.
One of the best Christmas presents I received this year was a signed Inkie print from my wife, who managed to get down to the ‘Pipe and Slippers’ pub, while I was away, and catch up with the artist and some mutual friends. I don’t think that my wife made the link back to me, which is a pity because it all might have made a little more sense to him at the time. The print is a good one, and awaiting framing, along with dozens of other pieces of artwork I have accumulated.
Inkie, Dean Lane, Bristol, January 2025
This lovely piece by Inkie is a tribute to an old friend of his Paul ‘Peewee’ Miller, who’d recently died. Inkie mentions on his Instagram that he painted this exact wall, presumably with Peewee, 36 years ago. That is going some.
It is always, always a great pleasure to welcome Wispa to Bristol, and finding her pieces (almost always an unannounced surprise) is such sweet joy. This recent piece was painted to celebrate Pekoe’s birthday, hence the shout out top left.
Wispa, Dean Lane, Bristol, December 2024
Wispa’s work is always immaculately turned out, and the clever fills in this piece read across from letter to letter. Simply a wonderful piece.
Vane and Bnie, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, September 2024
This stunning collaboration from Vane and Bnie was painted a little while ago during a paint jam organised to wish Mena a swift recovery from her accident in Thailand. The character on the left is by Vane and the writing, spelling MENAS is by Bnie.
Vane and Bnie, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, September 2024
The colour selection in this collaboration is really quite something, with the purples, pinks and mint green working exceptionally well together. I don’t get to see much artwork by Vane, and Bnie hasn’t painted too much this year, so this collaboration was bonus and a bit of a treat. I hope all the good vibes created during this paint jam have helped Mena on her journey to recovery.
When I first came across this piece, I really wasn’t too sure what it meant, but photographed it anyway, because it is a clean and classy piece of writing with an important message. It turns out that it is by Vane and is a get well shout-out to his friend Holly, AKA Mena – regular readers will know that she is a Bristol writer who had an accident in Thailand recently and is currently recovering in the UK.
Vane, Jamaica Street, Bristol, July 2024
This is a heartfelt and touching piece by Vane, who, although he is a Bristol artist, hasn’t appeared on Natural Adventures all that often. I think it says much about the graffiti/street art culture in the city that so many artists have rallied around Mena and painted messages of support for her over the last few weeks. I hope her recovery continues well.
Bbygwya (Flux), Cumberland Basin, Bristol, September 2024
There have been many ‘get well’ tribute pieces about the place for Mena, who suffered a motorcycle accident (I think) while travelling in Thailand a while back, and this one in Cumberland Basin by Bbygwya, or Flux as she is more commonly known is an absolute beauty.
Bbygwya (Flux), Cumberland Basin, Bristol, September 2024
Bbygwya is something of an enigma who can produce some really high quality pieces in varying styles, but is also rather fond of quick and dirty throw-ups. I particularly like the horizontal fills in this piece and how they give the whole thing the appearance of shiny metal, by design or accidentally. A nice shout out of ‘We love you’ rounds the whole thing off nicely.
This is the second piece I have posted from the paint jam marking Andy Council’s 50th birthday, although I’m not sure how much he would thank me for repeating this milestone with every post. The piece is a lovely trio of dinosaurs on the rampage by T-Rex.
T-Rex, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2024
T-Rex has a way of brightening up even the worst of days. Her mischievous dinosaurs could and perhaps should adorn any children’s picture book, and the crossover between the actual animals and cartoon characters is handled brilliantly. She concludes the piece with a nice ‘RAWrrrr!’, which is a play on the Read and Weep crew name, and a shout-out to Mena, who we all hope is making a recovery.
Goldie, Fade, Acer One, Jody and Dibz, Brunel Way, Bristol, August 2024
All year long, Dibz and Fade have been decorating this wall with alarming regularity, and they have been joined along the way in their endeavours by Andy Council, Jody and Acer One (amongst others) and this time are joined by Goldie, Acer One and Jody. A production tribute wall to honour the musician and DJ, Randall.
Goldie, Brunel Way, Bristol, August 2024
The whole production is very nicely balanced which given the configuration, which starts with a Goldie piece that embroiders the words ‘The R’. This is a really nice dedication and beautifully painted. The colour selection is reflected in the rest of the collaboration. It is always great to see Goldie visiting Bristol for a bit of a paint.
Fade, Brunel Way, Bristol, August 2024
Fade is next up and he has compressed his piece to accommodate Goldie next to him and support the balance I was talking about earlier. With the orange and turquoise letters, Fade has written the letters ‘DJ’ which are as immaculate as you might expect. Both sets of writing are adorned with flames, which extend for the entire collaboration.
Acer One and Jody, Brunel Way, Bristol, August 2024
The centrepiece is a shared space with Acer One lettering across the top of an outstanding Jody portrait of DJ Randall. Acer One has written ‘Too hot to handle’ which I am guessing is part of a slogan rhyming with DJ Randall. Not being a music specialist myself, I am unable to shed too much light on the artist or his work.
Jody, Brunel Way, Bristol, August 2024
The Portrait is a faithful and beautifully painted, and certainly a fitting tribute.
Dibz, Brunel Way, Bristol, August 2024
The production rounds-off on the right with a wide piece of wildstyle graffiti writing from Dibz. The Turquoise and orange letters spell Randall, so the whole production spells out:
“The R, Too hot to handle, DJ Randall”.
Wonderful stuff from this quintet of talented artists.
There have been many tributes to Shimmer, since he passed away, indicating the loss felt by the street art community in Bristol. This is the second tribute piece by Acer One on this wall to Shimmer, who appears to have felt the loss particularly strongly.
Acer One, Dean Lane, Bristol, February 2023
As always, Acer One’s execution is clean and precise, geometry being his modus operandi. As we might expect, the beautifully designed letter font, of hollow letters, has two shadows, one black and one purple, giving the writing depth. Some tight colour transitions in the letters themselves, completes this fine work, which I expect to occupy this wall for some time.
Natural adventures 