UK – Page 102 – Natural adventures

6717. Frome Side (53)

Pekoe, Frome Side, Bristol, January 2025

Pekoe is my heroine for coming up with this series of portrait pieces with the wonderful words ‘hot girls hate fascists’. We live in an uncertain time, when nationalism and the far right are on the rise, and we need look no further than to Trump and Musk to see the devastating effects and chaos caused by self-interest and populism. Pekoe provides a powerful and simple message for these people – it is not a good look.

I have always admired Pekoe’s work and every single time I find one of her pieces I get an endorphin kick, which I guess is why I like finding and photographing street art, it is my rest and recreation. In this portrait piece the lady is either a devil or is wearing a devil hairband. I love the white streaks in the hair, providing gloss, and the lady’s face has a wicked smile. A wonderful piece under the M32.

6716. M32 Cycle path (281)

TLB, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, January 2025

This is another fine piece from Jaksta’s birthday paint jam alongside the M32 from a few weeks ago. Another artist who I watched at work, but didn’t get to chat with and who I don’t know well at all is TLB and his fine DNTS (ANTS as corrected by Paul H) letters.

This is a classy piece of writing with only one small blip, which is the thin yellow paint, and I blame the manufacturers for that. Yellows and Oranges are often thin, and even the best artists can’t remedy that. The letter shapes are very pleasing and the themed green/yellow fills done nicely, a cream and black drop shadow adds some variation. The whole thing is set on a red burst background (the red paint is also a little thin). Great work.

Brace

Heavy day ahead

and heavy week following

in survival mode

by Scooj

6715. M32 roundabout J2 (9)

Face 1st, M32 roundabout J2, Bristol, January 2025

I don’t tend to venture to the Junction 2 roundabout on the M32, because there isn’t often much to see there, but my most recent trip was rewarded by finding this nice Face 1st piece in one of the multitude of tunnels. This was more special than usual, because as I have said here before, Face 1st has moved out of town, and his pieces appear less frequently.

The piece itself is a classic combination from the artist, with a Girl’s face (somewhat mucky around the mouth), and big hair, with the word FACE in glorious gold, wrapped around. The letters are painted in a chunky block style that Face 1st rather likes to paint, and the whole thing is a bit of a blast from the past. It is great to see that Face 1st is living up to his word of returning to Bristol reasonably regularly to paint a little.

6714. Dean Lane skate park (804)

Jevoissoul, Dean Lane, Bristol, January 2025

As if it were needed, this combination piece is further evidence that Jevoissoul is on an upward trajectory. Probably the most noticeable aspect of his improvement is the tightness of his work, and by that I mean his lines are clean and his fills tidy. When he first started out, His work felt a little cluttered and hurried, but I don’t get that feeling so much now.

To the left, our familiar character, complete with grimace, appears to be losing his cap, which creates a sense of movement in the piece. Jevoissoul’s artwork is becoming more sophisticated, with a two-tone light/shade aspect to the face. The letters also have a sense of movement, indicated by the black accent lines around the outside. Good colours and nicely blended horizontal strips fill the letters nicely. Perhaps there could be a little bit more interest in the letters themselves, but now I am just being picky.

Glorious

One of those mornings

all troubles evaporate

glorious blue skies

by Scooj

6712. Cumberland Basin

Lupa, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2025

With some artists, there is a simple honesty, integrity and a resultant authenticity that makes their work so attractive. There is nothing pretentious about Lupa’s work, and this great big chunky presentation of the letters LUPA ‘does what it says on the tin’.

The big yellow letters stand out on the deep red background. The fills have an electric plasma shock running through them, and I love the black swirl on the ‘P’ and the sad/angry face on the ‘A’. With this piece there is nothing but the letters and the joy. Nice shout-outs to Klofe, Lee Roy and RBF.

6711. Frome Side (52)

Jest Soubirquet, Frome Side, Bristol, January 2025

When I see pieces like this one from Jest Soubriquet (@likes12_art), I wonder how incredible our brains are at normalising and making sense of a patchwork of colour (all the wrong colours) to build an image of a tiger. Our capacity to ‘fill in the blanks’ is awesome.

Equally awesome is Jest Soubriquet’s ability to paint a tiger portrait in a multitude of colours, and he has done a superb job in this challenging spot underneath the M32. I always find it interesting that artists come here to paint, because footfall is practically zero, and these pieces won’t be seen by many people. Perhaps this simply emphasises the point that many street artists paint for the pure joy of it.

6710. Cumberland Basin

Hire, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2024

January is usually quite a quiet month for street/graffiti art, with activity building into the spring and summer months. However, this year it was an incredibly busy month, and I still haven’t posted more than half of the pictures I took – unfortunately they will likely not see the light of day, unless get more capacity to post in years to come (a retirement project?).

This rich piece of writing is by Hire, one of my favourite graffiti writers in Bristol, and spells out BF, although I am not entirely what it stands for. Set on a dark background, the letters are painted in black (blue-black?), with fine midlines in red. The sumptuous red border and drop shadow (in a slightly different tone of red) round off this very attractive work.

6709. M32 Cycle path (280)

Neddy Ned Neddy, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, January 2025

This outstanding, colourful piece by Neddy Ned Ned was painted as part of a paint session celebrating Jaksta’s birthday. Although I was present to watch him paint some of this piece, he was a little bit too preoccupied to stop for a chat, and having never met him before, I didn’t want to interrupt him.

This really is a top-drawer piece of wildstyle graffiti writing. The letters spell out Wiska and are filled with a quite superb blended yellow, orange and red colour combination which has a marble effect, really clever. The contrasting blue and black drop shadow has a vanishing point in the centre of the piece. The letters burst out of the wall and bedazzle.

	Sheree on 7522. M32 roundabout J2 (…
	hitandrun1964 on Warmongers
	Suzette Benjamin on 7520. River Avon (114)
	beth on Warmongers
	Laura Newhampshire on The Art of Sok

	Sheree on 7522. M32 roundabout J2 (…
	hitandrun1964 on Warmongers
	Suzette Benjamin on 7520. River Avon (114)
	beth on Warmongers
	Laura Newhampshire on The Art of Sok

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