We don’t see too many new pieces by Turoe these days, so to come across this one was a nice surprise. The writing spells 2REAL, which is a little different, and I wonder if it is a corruption of TUROE – probably not.
Of course, the whole piece is outstanding, as you would expect. The fabulous chrome letters are picked out with little white highlights. What works particularly well is the complementary nature of the chrome and blue colours. Yet another fine example of Turoe’s talent.
Two outstanding writers, Dibz and Turoe, have recently combined to create this wonderful tribute piece for Shimmer. I suspect that the piece may remain for quite some time due to both its quality and also that it is a tribute. This is a collaboration in which both artists have adopted a similar writing style and both are using the exact same colour scheme seamlessly.
To the left is the Dibz half of the collaboration, spelling out SHIMZ and to the right is Turoe’s contribution spelling TUROE. The green and yellow writing is as clean as a whistle and the whole thing set on a bubbly purple background – most eye-catching. In the middle of the piece is a Vaughn Bode lizard character, so much favoured by street artists in honour of the great man’s creations. This is a very, very fine tribute.
It is great that Turoe manages to paint reasonably regularly in spite of some health challenges, and when he does paint he still has the ability to surprise. This rather retro piece is a bit of a beauty down on the cycle path, and I suspect it will be there for some time.
The block letters overlap one another and are on the lean, but each one is perfectly finished with crisp, clean lines and borders. You can date the piece from around the time of the Oscar ceremony thanks to the reference to Will Smith. I love the way that street art does this, chronicling contemporary events before being irreversibly wiped from the ‘canvass’ through being buffed, bombed, tagged or replaced.
Life can be one hell of a battle, and certainly Turoe has had a battle on his hands in recent years. This piece is a perfect visualisation of that battle that he has been fighting.
This is a stunning piece of writing in classical graffiti wildstyle style, in chrome with a nice looking blue outline that cleverly picks out the black 3D shading on a black background. The words ‘battle scars’ hint further at Turoe’s challenges.
This piece makes me laugh a little, because it involved another encounter with two great graffiti writers, Turoe and Hemper, or as I like to think of them, Mr Grumpy and Mr Happy. I got the cold-shoulder treatment from Turoe, which I am getting used to, but Hemper was happy to engage in a little conversation as they worked on this fabulous collaborative piece.
The colour scheme was shared by both artists, but each worked at their own pieces with their own styles, spelling out TUROE and HEMP respectively. The WIP shot was taken on a bright winter’s day with long shadows cast across the wall. When I went back to photograph the finished collaboration, I did so in overcast conditions, which got rid of those pesky shadows.
To the left is Turoe’s piece, which sets the theme of plastic litter in an aquatic setting. Look carefully and around the letters are loads of plastic items and PPE equipment, a sad observation of the polluted world we live in, but also a motivator to take action.
Hemper continues the theme of litter, and the pieces are all the more powerful for sticking to a single colour. The litter becomes more ethereal as it swirls around the block letters spelling HEMS. This is a fabulous collaboration from these two top writers.
Just because I haven’t posted anything by Turoe for a while, doesn’t mean he hasn’t been decorating Bristol’s walls, it is more a reflection of the sheer number of new pieces appearing every week in the city, and I don’t have the capacity to feature them all in Natural Adventures.
On the long hoarding at Greenbank, this is a rather luscious (or lush as we say in Bristol) chrome burner with a gorgeous red 3D shadow giving the letters real depth and lifting them away from the hoarding surface. This is a lovely piece of graffiti writing from a very accomplished artist.
Although I haven’t posted much from Turow for a while, he is still churning out his work pretty regularly and switching it up as he goes along, as you can see from this rather different stylised block writing piece.
Looking like ancient monuments on the lean, these large golden letters with a pink border certainly stand out, and the white line and shimmer across the top of the letters helps to create a nice 3D illusion. Some interesting little blobs across the bottom add a stylish finishing touch. Another one for the gallery.
Birthday paint jams are a bit of a thing, and recently there seem to have been a spate of them. They are a great excuse for a bunch of friends to get out and paint together, and for people like me offer another raft of fabulous work all in one location. The perennial difficulty is having the capacity tom post about them all (an impossible task).
The birthday in question belonged to DJ Perks and these three pieces are by Turoe, Slim Pickings (TES) and Bags. The old-school character given some contemporary treatment is by Turoe and just in case we were any doubt, DJ Perks was 50.
Slim Pickings is metronome-like in his regularity, turning out these TES pieces time and again. Unfortunately these days, more of them end up in my archives than being posted, such is the massive turnover in Bristol at the moment. Bright bold colours and sharp lines, just what you’d expect.
A rather overlooked writer in Natural Adventures is Bags, probably because he doesn’t paint quite as often as his contemporaries, but that is no excuse really. This is a fine piece of writing, neatly done and kind of fun too with the hand bursting out of the ‘B’. All in all a lovely tribute to DJ Perks, who loves painting in this spot. More from this paint jam to come.
There is nothing like a bit of old school graffiti work to remind us where all of this started. This is a lovely collaboration from Veks and Turoe on the M32 cycle path on a wall that has a pretty slow turnover, so I would expect it to be hanging around for quite a while.
On the left is a classic character by Veks, holding a cigarette in his clenched fist and wearing a variation on a flat cap. This is a classy character piece and amply demonstrates Veks’ experience and skill.
The writing is by Turoe and is finished off with nice deep 3D work on the letters. Both elements are nicely bordered with a lime green and white line, cleanly applied. I managed to get these pictures on about my fourth visit – this particular wall usually has a shadow cast across it during the day, which makes photography rather challenging.
Another piece in Turoe’s ‘shyte’ series, this time in yellows and oranges, and a slight variation in spelling. As a reminder, this series began during the first lock down with the sentiment of it’s been a ‘shyte year’, and since then Turoe has stuck with the winning formula.
The letters are in a clear lower case font, beautifully finished with nice red 3D shadows and a blue and a white border. This is another tight piece from the prolific writer.
Natural adventures 