From time to time in the past I am sure I have seen the letters EMCE before, but it appears that I haven’t posted anything from the artist before, so this is, I suppose, a debut piece on Natural Adventures, and one of two, at least, painted in Bristol recently.
EMCE, Brunel Way, Bristol, August 2025
The overlapping letters, in a solid style with pointy bits, each have their own colour presented in a pleasing transition. Lift is provided by a thin orange border and some nicely painted white highlights,, all finished off with some decorative drips. A nice piece of graffiti writing.
Without doubt, the paint jam celebrating Ulow’s birthday was the best I have seen this year, fending off some very stiff competition. The whole wall on the western side of the roundabout was colour themed and coherent and each contributing artist absolutely nailed it.
Minto, M32 roundabout, Bristol, August 2025
Starting at the right hand side of the wall, the collaboration begins with this superb car piece by Minto. The old Citroen vehicle has been brought to life as an animation full of character. The van is one of those converted for street food, selling Mexican food… I love the sombrero on the roof. The words read ‘Ulow, Me, High, Tacos’, which obviously makes some kind of sense to Minto.
Minto, Sled One, Cheo, Hypo, Ulow, Dibz, Soker, Rusk, Shade One and Turoe, M32 roundabout, Bristol, August 2025
I managed to get a wide-angle shot of the whole wall, which I will share at the end of each post from this paint jam. A real humdinger.
I said a week or two back that I would try to feature Bags from the No Frills crew more often, and true to my word, here is another piece by the graffiti writer. I am writing this post yesterday, because at the time of publishing, I will be somewhere in the air between Bristol and Madeira.
Bags, River Avon, Bristol, August 2025
As with the last piece I featured by Bags, He has separated the BA and GS of his letters with different colour regimes, a device that sems to work rather well for him. The solid fills are decorated minimally by some reversed out circles and a white star. Bags has added a little extra interest with some red zigzags that look like they have come from an oscilloscope (does that age me?). Addressing underrepresentation one day at a time.
Please excuse the next week of posts, they are likely to be a little haphazard while I am on holiday.
A little while back I was walking home from the wonderful Italian deli in Montpelier, when this toadstool caught my attention. I instantly recognised it as a fungi piece by Dobz, who made a visit to Bristol earlier in the summer. I don’t know if she painted this one then or whether it has been her for some time.
Dobz, Station Road, Bristol, August 2025
I like it when artists leave behind a trademark character or object in spots around a city, almost as if they are ‘collectables’ to be sought and found. This toadstool is nicely presented, with some great blended shading, and the gills are very nicely observed. Artists like Dobz are always welcome in Bristol.
Slim Pickings, M32 roundabout, Bristol, August 2025
It is a very long time since I last posted anything by Slim Pickings (TES), not because he hasn’t been painting, but because I have been so squeezed by unbelievable volume of street/graffiti art being painted over the last few months. To make up for lost time, here are two pieces painted during the same session in August.
Slim Pickings, M32 roundabout, Bristol, August 2025
For a long time Slim Pickings would repeat the same basic form of his TES letters, rarely deviating from the archetypal form other than adjusting the fills and the odd accessory decoration. With these two pieces he has thrown in some slightly different designs. The one with the pink background is a bit of beauty.
I have mentioned a couple of times recently that Cort has been having a surge this summer, not only in the quantity of his graffiti writing pieces, but also in the quality of them. This is another example of his unusual writing style on one of the large wall spaces at Peel Street Green.
Cort, Peel Street Green, Bristol, August 2025
Cort has been playing with all sorts of variants of his letters this year, and this one spells out KORTOS. The irregular shaped letters are verging on the ‘anti-style’ form, but have enough regularity and recognition to remail as conventional graffiti writing. The fills are nicely designed to run through the letters in a coherent pattern. I love the two characteristic black spots on the ‘T’. The wall is sensibly buffed, helping the letters to really stand out on the irregular white background. This is a beautifully designed and presented piece of graffiti writing.
Gunlaw (or gun law) is not a widely standardized term, but it can be interpreted in different contexts.
In the Old West or “Wild West” sense, the phrase can suggest a situation where: Law and order are dictated not by courts or formal justice, but by who has the most firepower.
Violence or threat of violence determines authority — i.e., might makes right.
I have waited a long time to see this wonderful piece from Biers. Over the last few months, Biers appears to have lost his mojo a little and has been painting infrequently and tending to use the short-form version of his WD40 moniker. It happens for artists from time to time – you can’t be on top of your game all of the time.
Biers, M32 roundabout, Bristol, August 2025
I hope this piece marks a return of the longer form combination pieces that are so typically the wonderful work of Biers. I don’t know who the character is meant to be, but I really like him (looks like a teddy boy to me) and I love the way he contrasts with the colours of the letters and background. The fills in the letters are outstanding With some nicely done reversed out circles in black and gold. The res patterns look like little viruses wafting over the piece. All in all a great piece and one, I hope, that encourages Biers to return to his former glory.
Scrapyardspec, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, August 2025
When I look through my archives from this summer, I keep finding pieces by Scrapyardspec, and so what you see here on Natural Adventures is only a proportion of the pieces he has painted in Bristol. This one is a relatively recent piece created at a paint jam celebrating Werm’s birthday, and at which I met Scrapy for the first time.
Scrapyardspec, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, August 2025
The most notable thing about this piece is the inclusion of hair and the addition of rudimentary arms and feet. Scrapyardspec and I discussed his development a little and I think that now he has grown in confidence and has his archetype nailed, he can play around a lot more with his characters and improve as an artist. I am very much looking forward to watching his onward journey.
This is another clear and unambiguous message painted at the Bristol Mural Collective’s Palestine protest paint jam held last month on the long hoarding at Greenbank. The piece is by Rtiiika, which, although unsigned, is so characteristic of her style.
Rtiiika, Greenbank, Bristol, August 2025
‘Gaza is starving’ – ‘Let aid in now’, two messages that have been persistently ignored by the Israeli Government. Every day brings new stories of the war crimes being committed by the Israeli Government, and still the international community does nothing to stop this. Trump is impotent and has been played by Netanyahu. Is it only me that sees the parallels between the Israeli state’s behaviour now and their justifications, and the behaviours and justifications of the Nazis during WWII? Surely the irony isn’t lost? One might have expected more compassion from a people who experienced some of the worst persecution in modern history. BTW, this does not make me an antisemite, just in case anyone was wondering, but it makes me very much opposed to the fascist elements of the Israeli Government.
Sorry, but I had to go there. Normal service will resume immediately.
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