A gallery of three letter graffiti writing documenting the rise and rise of Bristol-based artist Sub.
Instagram: @subsprays
All photographs by Scooj
Sub
Tag: UK
7696. Kensal Road
When Upfest comes around, I tend to do a lot more exploring around south Bristol than usual, often trying to find outlying Upfest pieces. The upshot is I not only make contemporary Upfest discoveries, but also find a host of other pieces in streets that I rarely visit. This beauty by Farrah was one such lucky find.
This wonderful piece was painted by Farrah celebrating World Earth Day (22 April 2026), so I actually found it quite soon after it was painted, and it was looking wonderfully fresh. Using her special paint brush technique, she has painted the Earth with rainbow colours (not in the correct sequence, but very beautiful) drifting off into space. Cleverly, the eyes are drawn to a solitary bee in the middle of the piece, which becomes a physical and symbolic focal point. Brilliant work from Farrah, who is very present in the Windmill Hill area of the City.
7695. M32 roundabout J3 (775)
Silent Hobo and Logoe have been painting together for a few years, and are obviously paint buddies. The first of their collaborations that I photographed was way back in April 2017, but I imagine they had been painting together for some time before that. This is a wonderful, colourful combination collaboration.
The character by Silent Hobo, looks like he is standing in the face of a force 9 gale with his cap blown off, his hair pushed backwards and his hands in front of his face. I am guessing that this force is coming off Logoe’s bright writing.
This beautiful script writing by Logoe was painted on a recent visit that was a precursor to the pair painting for Upfest (to come). Perhaps this was a practice session, although these two don’t really need much practice to be fair. The script letters spell Logoe and are decorated with vertical pink and bronze stripes. The piece is set on a white patterned cloud with purple borders. Altogether this is a high-impact collaboration.
7694. Sparke Evans Park (152)
This is a wonderful collaboration painted by Conrico, Noise and Stivs, who were participating in the World Wall Stylers challenge (Chapter 26) on reggae legends. Although these were painted in April, they were still looking pretty fresh in May.
First up is a lovely portrait piece by Conrico of Pablo Gad, a lyricist of ‘when I was a yout’ by Ed Solo. I grabbed that information off Conrico’s Instagram thread, without which I wouldn’t have known any of this. The red, gold and green are well represented, and the portrait presented in Conrico’s distinctive brush stroke style.
The middle section is a lovely bit of chunky graffiti writing from Noise that also carried the red gold and green colours that stand out beautifully against the black background.
The collaboration is rounded off with an outstanding portrait of Lila Iké by Stivs. His portrait work is hitting new levels at the moment, which makes for very enjoyable viewing. Stivs is a little more subtle with his incorporation of the red, gold and green colours, incorporation them as part of the border surrounding the portrait.
All round, this is an outstanding collaboration.
7693. Brunel Way (358)
Logoe has painted a fair bit in Bristol this year, and as writing goes, this is one of his more conservative pieces without frills and decorations, just a straightforward example of script writing that he excels at.
The ‘wall’ in this case is actually a piece of canvas fabric that has been stretched between some fence posts, quite why I don’t know, in fact I’m not too sure what that bit of fence is doing in the first place, stuck under the flyover. Most of the pieces painted here tend to be fairly modest, perhaps it isn’t particularly inspirational. More to follow from Logoe.
7692. West Street – Upfest 2026 (15)
Where to begin? Liam Bononi is one of my favourite artists painting in the UK at the moment, and I have been lucky enough to find several of his outstanding portrait pieces during my travels around the country over the last couple of years. This piece, on one of the established Upfest walls is a real beauty.
Liam Bononi’s photorealistic portraits are so beautifully detailed, and he has a particularly refined talent for painting hands and faces, which are full of lines, wrinkles, blemishes and the like, presenting us with identifiable characters that look like they have lived a life.
In this piece, a mushroom collector is inspecting some mushrooms before I imagine he drops them into his plastic bag. An ordinary scene transformed into something spectacular. The artwork on the plastic bag is incredible, with every fold and shadow so detailed and a clever translucence about it. This is an incredible Upfest piece by Liam Bononi.
7691. Greenway Bush Lane – Upfest 2026 (14)
Octofly Art has visited Bristol a few times for Upfest over the years and her work has improved significantly over that time. She comes from Italy, from Valle Camonica in the North of the country, and graduated from the “Santa Giulia” Academy of Fine Arts in Brescia in 2014.
Her cartoon style is endearing and witty with a positive vibe and uplifting outlook. This caricature piece on the new wall at the back of Aldi, shows a sardine tucked up in its tin, with a pillow. The tin is tagged with Bristol to recognise the host city of Upfest. A fun piece, perfectly presented for this space. Below are a couple of her previous appearances at upfest:
7690. North Street – Upfest 2026 (13)
Mr Cenz is a well known British street artist based in London, whose work features portraits of women augmented with multiple layers of colour and design that are so distinctive that no signature is required on his pieces.
I love this elevated Upfest wall. Because of its aspect it can be viewed from some distance and has a great impact when walking towards it. When a spectacular piece like this one from Mr Cenz is painted there, it has a real wow-factor. Such a great artist balancing photorealism and abstract colour fusion in an outstanding way. A great Upfest piece.
7689. Greenway Bush Lane – Upfest 2026 (12)
At Upfest this year, there was a strong contingent of local artists, and some wall space made available to showcase everyday talent that I am privileged to see every time I walk out to take pictures, but that visitors to the festival might not be so exposed to. This balances out the presence of high-end murals in harmony with authentic street and graffiti art.
Ments is a Bristol artist who spans the gap between graffiti art and something more sophisticated. I spent a while chatting with Ments as he was finishing off this piece, and he explained that it was loosely based on the letters MENTS, although the ‘T’ kind of melted away. He was interested in the soft shapes and colours, presenting as an abstract form, being simultaneously both familiar and alien. A brilliant artist, and a fine Upfest piece.
Thursday Doors – 4 June 2026
Doors 357 – Doors of Shrewsbury (part VII) – April 2025
I am writing this in advance, because I will be on a train on my way to Cheltenham today to celebrate the declaration of another new National Nature Reserve in England. I do have a great job, and although incredibly busy is very rewarding, and chimes with my personal interests and values. This introduction is in part to excuse my brevity for this week’s selection of doors which were photographed back in April last year (while preparing for the declaration of the Stiperstones Landscape National Nature Reserve, in August 2025).
This week’s doors might feel a bit samey as some of my other posts from Shrewsbury, but there is one picture in particular that is one of my all-time favourite Thursday Doors images – can you guess which one it is? I hope you enjoy them:
You can find out more about this building and the wooden dragon on this great blog post from the Memories of Shropshire website.
Something of an eclectic selection this week. Did you spot my favourite? It was the man in pink shorts painting a pink door white – moments like that don’t happen often, and I am so pleased that I captured it. May I wish you a very happy weekend when it finally comes along.
If you have made it this far, you probably like doors, and you really ought to take a look at the No Facilities blog by Dan Anton who has taken over the hosting of Thursday Doors from Norm 2.0 blog. Links to more doorscursions can be found in the comments section of Dan Anton’s weekly Thursday Doors post and his Sunday recap.
Natural adventures 