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Warm herby margins
on a disused railway path
alive with insects
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by Scooj

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Warm herby margins
on a disused railway path
alive with insects
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by Scooj

Kosc is surely one of Bristol’s most talented and versatile artists painting at the moment. Whether he is painting portrait pieces of graffiti writing in a collaboration or alone, his work is always immaculate and extraordinarily creative.

This piece on the M32 roundabout is in his metallic/greyscale style and presents the letters KOSC with a little bit of disintegration between the S and K. Some trademark rivets in the letters add to the metallic look of the letter panels. A nicely thought out and executed piece from Kosc.

I am writing this last night in the full expectation that I will be heading off to the Cheltenham Paint Festival this morning, which means that in a short while, Natural Adventures will be awash with fabulous pieces from Cheltenham by artists from nearby and far, far away. On to this fine collaboration from the PWA crew, Chill, Zake, Face 1st and Soap.

There is a bit of a pirate theme going on (perhaps linked to PWA – Pirate Wall Art), and Chill kicks things off perfectly with this wonderful cartoon character wearing a bandana and brandishing a cutlass and crying out ‘AAARRRGH!!!’ The scar on the cheek and terrible teeth finish the character off brilliantly. A superb piece.

Next up, Zake goes a little bit off-topic both in terms of a pirate theme and indeed the colour scheme too. His piece is fantastic and a bit of a return to the kind of faces he was painting a year or two ago. Tons of depth is achieved with clever use of shading, which is a speciality of the artist.

Face 1st duly returns us to the pirate theme with his character, complete with skull and crossbones eye patch, makes off with a treasure chest full of gold and jewellery. It is a brilliant piece full of mischief and movement and so utterly Fac 1st.

Finally, Soap sticks with his graffiti writing, and continues the pirate theme and colour scheme. The letters spell out SOAP, and the Ice King ‘O’ is wearing an eye patch. The letter fills and dynamism of the piece are perfectly presented and add a distinctive element to the quartet of styles. A truly magnificent collaboration, so full of fun and mischief.

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Climate migration
little egrets march northwards
snow-white, yellow feet
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by Scooj

A rather nice bit of bubble writing, but what’s so special about that you might ask. The first thing that you might notice is that it is beautifully finished and much less crude than most throw ups painted in this kind of style. In short the piece has class.

Perhaps the reason it stands out is that it is by the superb SkyHigh, and if you look carefully the letters, with the tiger print pattern, read SKY! with the word ‘high’ written in black script in the middle. I guess that the artist was passing through, as he often visits Bristol with Roo to visit friends/relatives. Often we are treated to a large SkyHigh wall with his unique style of high-end block lettering, but not this time. Great to see all the same.

There has been a noticeable uptick in the quality of Klashwhensober’s work recently, and it feels like he has reached a new level. He is certainly broadening his horizons with letter styles and the introduction of ever-more sophisticated characters accompanying his letters.

In this recent piece from Dean Lane, Klashwhensober has gone for a simpler, smoother letter style which is very tidily finished. The fills of turquoise and orange blend well and are an eye-catching combination. The three little toadstools with faces on the right are a curious addition to the piece. Great work from Klashwhensober.

It is always a great pleasure to see these two collaborate, it is a pity that it just doesn’t seem to happen all that often. I imagine that the limitation probably stems from CD.TC’s availability, as Daz Cat is a constant presence on our streets.

There would appear to be a bit of an Italian theme going on with Daz Cat’s cat holding a little white pendant with the words ‘Bella ciao, bella ciao, bella…’. There is also a shout out to ‘Caroline’ on the cat’s pink shirt – maybe she is the bella. This cat feels very much like ‘old school’ Daz Cat, reminding us where he came from.

CD.TC continues the theme, with his rather cheerful monster character calling out ‘Ciao, ciao, ciao’. There are some nice touches going on with this piece, for example the sun visor glasses and the cross of sticky plasters at the base of the piece. As one might expect, the character has a disproportionately large mouth and gleaming teeth. Always great to see these two painting together.

When a new artist makes it on to your radar, it becomes very difficult not to see their work everywhere, especially if they are as productive as Raid seem to be. Raid made his debut on Natural Adventures back in March this year, and since then he has appeared seven times, and I still have some of his work in my files. Look out for a gallery before Christmas.

The letters RAID, I imagine, are quite fun to play with, and the way that Raid writes with large bold lettering, gives him plenty of scope for interesting fills. The letters are joined at the base, and the fill bleeds from one letter to the next. Some nice swirly psychedelic forms and shapes fill the space nicely Some nice touches include a thin orange border on the right-hand side of the letters and a decent 3D drop shadow capped off with a tight black border. This is another fine piece from Raid.

A short time ago, I published the first post featuring From Bacerlona, a Spanish artist who paints alongside his fellow Sunday Lovers. That first piece was vibrant and exciting, and this one, which I believe might have been painted before the other, has that same excitement about it.

Possibly spelling BACER (or maybe BARCA), the blocky letters are at the centre of numerous graffiti-style arrows, which From Bacerlona seems to favour some. The fills keep the eyes busy and contain a lot of spots and a little brick wall – gotta love a brick wall. There is loads of movement in the writing and I have to say I really rather like From Bacerlona’s style. Lots more to come, I hope.
Doors 228 – Lincoln City doors (Part I)
Following a successful, albeit short doorscursion to York, I was fortunate enough to visit Lincoln a week or two later with work, and once again had an evening to wander around the city and collect some doors and drink in the atmosphere of an incredible city.
I have never been to Lincoln before, and I don’t think it was ever particularly on my wish-list of places to go, but having been there I can’t recommend it highly enough. Lincoln is a small city that lends its name to the county of Lincolnshire on the eastern side of England. The city boasts one of the finest cathedrals in the country, something I didn’t know about until I visited, and I was utterly blown away by its magnificence. Lincoln has a fascinating mix of architecture which appears to run in concentric layers of old to new from the castle and cathedral at the top of the hill.
The next few Thursday door posts will feature doors from Lincoln, starting with these rather unremarkable doors, close to the railway station. They get better, I promise.






There will be more from Lincoln City next week and for the next few weeks, in the meanwhile, may I wish you a very pleasant weekend.
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 Thursday Doors post.
by Scooj
