Tag: Unity

6989. St Werburghs tunnel (508)

Unity, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2025
Unity, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2025

Wispa’s birthday paint jam in the tunnel is a gift that keeps on giving. The turnout for her birthday was excellent, and about half the wall space in the tunnel was re-decorated, which is a good thing as it needed a bit of freshening up.

Unity, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2025
Unity, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2025

This is a wonderful piece by the very talented Unity who is a well-established and important member of the of the all-female RBF (Resting Bitch Face) crew. Although she doesn’t paint nearly as much in Bristol as I would like, it is always a pleasure when she does. I don’t think the photographs do this piece justice, as it was taken in the gloomiest part of the tunnel. Her writing is sublime, with superb blended fills and intricate patterning. A deep, double drop shadow in cream colours rounds the writing off perfectly. Great graffiti writing.

6701. Sparke Evans Park (120)

Unity, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, January 2025
Unity, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, January 2025

This is another wonderful piece from the RBF crew paint jam celebrating the birthdays of Desi and Even. It is, of course, by Unity, an artist whose work I just don’t get to see enough. I believe Unity lives in Wales, and comes over to Bristol occasionally, but always smashes it when she does.

Unity, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, January 2025
Unity, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, January 2025

The irregular letters spell out UNITY and are superbly filled with a perfect blend of complimentary colours on the red/purple/blue spectrum. There is a strong Japanese influence going on here as part of the Studio Ghibli theme for the paint jam. The cherry blossoms are a wonderful touch, and probably worth recreating in the spring. Great work from a superb graffiti writer.

5720. M32 roundabout J3 (536)

Unity, M32 roundabout, Bristol, December 2023
Unity, M32 roundabout, Bristol, December 2023

Happy Christmas. Enjoy this magnificent ‘green man’ piece by Unity, which was painted as part of Pekoe’s RBF birthday paint jam in early December. It has a strong Christmas feel which is why I saved it for today. Where pagan meets Victorian Christmas.

Unity, M32 roundabout, Bristol, December 2023
Unity, M32 roundabout, Bristol, December 2023

I mentioned a day or two ago that Unity is painting a little more often in Bristol, and it is so good that she is, especially when she creates something as special as this one. Enjoy your day wherever you are.

Unity, M32 roundabout, Bristol, December 2023
Unity, M32 roundabout, Bristol, December 2023

5710. Cumberland Basin

Bnie and Unity, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, November 2023
Bnie and Unity, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, November 2023

So far this year I have only found one Christmas piece and this collaboration from Bnie and Unity is it. The fabulous duo were painting alongside several other members of the RBF crew during a paint jam in support of the people of Palestine. This piece is absolutely draped in Christmas good cheer.

Bnie, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, November 2023
Bnie, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, November 2023

To the left, Bnie has painted her letters in a festive silver colour with a string of Christmas lights weaving in and out of them. The Palestinian flag features prominently and Father Christmas does what Father Christmas does to the right. I think that Bnie painted him, but equally it might have been Unity.

Unity, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, November 2023
Unity, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, November 2023

Unity has been visiting Bristol a little more frequently recently and that can only be a good thing as it means we get to see more of her brilliant work. Unity continues the themes and colours that Bnie has adopted, with the only real difference being a splash of gold in the ‘I’ of Unity. Another Palestinian flag indicates firmly that the public mood in Bristol, which this art reflects, is with the innocent people of Palestine, who played no part in the Hamas attack but are paying an unimaginably high price by the Israeli response to it. Let us hope for and demand peace in the region.

5692. Frome Side (25)

Unity, Frome Side, Bristol, November 2023
Unity, Frome Side, Bristol, November 2023

Unity is smashing it out of the park these days, and to my huge joy, seems to be painting in Bristol a little bit more frequently than she has in the past… it is probably down to the sheer volume of RBF birthday celebration paint jams.

Unity, Frome Side, Bristol, November 2023
Unity, Frome Side, Bristol, November 2023

This Rugrats piece is simply brilliant, with Chuckie taking centre stage, along with an obligatory spray can. The character is wonderfully recreated, and the letters that Unity has written are outstanding. Polished off with a white flash, blue background and some building blocks, the whole thing is a visual feast, beautifully painted. It is a pity that it is painted in a spot where so few people will get to see it up close.

5441. Greenbank (90)

Unity, Greenbank, Bristol, August 2023
Unity, Greenbank, Bristol, August 2023

Popular culture has had a bit of a renaissance recently with the release of the Barbie move, which I must confess left me a little cold. For all the hype, clever role-reversals, and funny one-liners, I can’t help feeling that Mattel will be laughing all the way to the bank and that their self-deprecating and rather too knowing involvement has paid off. I guess there is a failure on my part to connect with Barbie as a concept, as her world and mine never collided until now.

On the upside though, Barbie has been an inspiration in the street art world, and this piece by Unity, is one of many from an RBF- Barbie paint jam on the long hoarding at Greenbank (more from this paint jam to follow).

Unity, Greenbank, Bristol, August 2023
Unity, Greenbank, Bristol, August 2023

Unity is an artist in the RBF crew who lives in Wales and occasionally comes to Bristol to paint with her friends. I managed to have a short chat with her at the Cheltenham Paint Festival recently, and she is a lovely lady. Her working of her name in the Barbie font and colours is brilliant and very tidy indeed. She totally captures the spirit of Barbie in her own way and carries it off very well. Plenty more to come from this fun paint jam.

3035. Brunel Way bridge (41)

Possibly the most difficult piece I have tried to photograph. This is a magnificent column piece by the wonderful Skor85 who organised a small paint jam last weekend under Brunel Way. She had invited various folks along via FB Messenger and so I was able to get along and get some WIP pictures.

Skor85, Brunel Way, Bristol, June 2020
Skor85, Brunel Way, Bristol, June 2020

Before I say anything else, I have to share that Skor85 is without doubt the nicest and most enthusiastic street artist I know and when I arrived she made me feel so welcome and seemed genuinely pleased to see me, which after months of lock down felt really good.

Skor85, Brunel Way, Bristol, June 2020
Skor85, Brunel Way, Bristol, June 2020

Her piece is all about balance, equality and unity which is an understandable theme in these troubling and uncertain times. Two fish sitting on a set of balance scales illustrate this theme and remind me a little of Al Gore’s film ‘Inconvenient Truth’ where he puts the earth and money on either side of a scale and poses the question ‘which is more important’. I digress.

Skor85, Brunel Way, Bristol, June 2020
Skor85, Brunel Way, Bristol, June 2020

Skor85 has a lovely touch to her artwork that almost looks like brush strokes rather than spraycan art. I have always liked her work and can’t wait to see more as the summer unfolds.

2271. M32 roundabout J3 (148)

It would seem that artists from Cardiff like to swing by Bristol every now and again, and when they do come they tend to paint together, I suppose a bit of a paint jam on tour really. This is a really lovely piece by Unity, a graffiti writer I met at Upfest last year whose work I don’t get to see too often so it was nice to find this one down at the M32 roundabout.

Unity, M32 roundabout, Bristol, June 2019
Unity, M32 roundabout, Bristol, June 2019

Her work is quite organic in appearance, and this piece looks almost edible, like icing on a cake or something. Unity blends her colours very nicely and this piece drops from yellow to brown to pink without any harsh lines. Great work. It is a pity we have to wait so long between visits.

Unity, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2018
Unity, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2018

1680. Dean Lane skate park (155)

Just as Upfest was waking up to the Saturday morning influx of visitors, I took a look in Dean Lane to see what was happening, because it is usually pretty busy down there during the festival. I took shelter from a downpour with a couple of artists who worked on this lose collaboration.

Unity, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2018
Unity, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2018

On the left was a half finished piece by Unity, an artist from Cardiff. I very much liked what I saw, but regrettably it had been painted over by the time I came back to see it at the end of the day. I had a great chat with her while we waited for the rain to abate and discovered that I probably have one or two of her older pieces in my archive…time to dig them out.

Rusk, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2018
Rusk, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2018

The middle section was by Rusk who had already finished and left the scene – maybe to work on his ‘official’ piece in South Street park. This quick one was of the high quality you expect from Rusk – he never disappoints.

Cyst, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2018
Cyst, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2018

Finally, on the right of the collaboration was a piece by Cyst, from Cheshire. I was pleased to have been able to meet him, because it can be difficult sometime to identify work from visiting graff writers. All three pieces were very short-lived, but that is what you expect in Dean Lane, especially so during Upfest. Nice collaboration