Urban – Page 124 – Natural adventures

6262. Ashton Road

The Art of Sok, Ashton Road, Bristol, July 2024

I think that this piece by The Art of Sok has been around for a little while, but I was pointed in the direction of it by the artist himself, which was lucky, because I don’t visit this spot as a matter of routine. It was painted as part of a collaboration with Smak, which makes sense because they are friends and share a Welsh heritage.

The Art of Sok has done here what he does so well; he has created an outstanding comic-book style cartoon of a young man wearing a baseball cap and smoking. The piece is perfectly clean and tight as a nut. Even the smoke coming from the cigarette is stylised, and you can see the two styles meeting where the much more wispy smoke drifts across from Smak’s adjacent piece. Wonderful work from The Art of Sok.

6261. M32 roundabout J3 (611)

Elvs, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2024

I have been suffering from Elvs withdrawal symptoms… it seems such an age since he regularly visited the city, although this is his second piece painted in July, so there is some hope, I guess. This piece feels like classic Elvs, and I think I know what I mean when I say this, because his writing remains similar from piece to pieces, but there is something here that reminds me of some of his older work.

The colour selection, including the background colours, just seem to work so well together, with the break in red tones disrupted through the central section. The writing spells ELVS and the letters are created with the thin highlight lines, so typical of Elvs’ work. There is a lovely grey drop shadow with a central vanishing point which rounds the piece off nicely and without which it would all look pretty odd. Excellent stuff from Elvs.

6260. Leonard Lane (48)

Grimes, Leonard Lane, Bristol, July 2024

He gets absolutely everywhere, does Grimes, and what a delightful thing that is. He has even made it into the narrow Leonard Lane with this fine chrome piece. You might spot some double yellow lines, that could possibly be the most useless yellow lines in the country, given that it is a dead end, incredibly narrow and if a driver was stupid enough to drive into the lane, they might never get back out again.

Even when he paints in a single colour, Grimes manages to generate great energy from the form of his letters and in this case some orange ‘flame’ decorations around the perimeter. The letters spell out GRIME and are beautifully finished with a decent 3D drop shadow border. Still more to come from this relative newcomer to Bristol.

6259. M32 roundabout J3 (610)

Rusk, Ulow and Corupt, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2024

At first glance, this piece might look like a collaboration between Rusk and Ulow, but regular readers will have seen the figure (by Ulow) on the right before in a collaboration with Hypo a short while ago. What has happened here is Rusk has gone over Hypo’s piece, but worked carefully to retain the Ulow character. It is rather nice to see Corupt getting in on the act too, with a nicely delineated piece sitting atop the others.

Rusk, who has written RUSKY, has produced a banging piece of graffiti writing. It looks like there are five horizontal colour transitions in the letter fills, with some tidy lines in white and brown breaking things up a little. A tried and tested 3D drop shadow with ‘glowing’ yellow spheres dotted around the place lift the letters nicely. This is a nice and tidy piece from Rusk.

Hypo and Ulow, M32 roundabout, Bristol, June 2024

6258. M32 Spot (190)

The Art of Sok, M32 Spot, Bristol, July 2024

The flurry of The Art of Sok pieces continues with this beautiful column portrait. There is a clarity and clean finish that the artist manages to perfect with every single piece he paints. Everything is exactly where he wants it, the lines are crisp and the fills solid and bold.

The character in this piece is nicely worked into the tall thin column and beautifully presented on a lilac background. The simplicity and accuracy of The Art of Sok’s work is his USP, and is something we don’t see too much of in Bristol. A really wonderful comic-book style design, with still more to come from the artist…

6257. Dean Lane skate park (738)

There is no doubt in my mind. I simply have to publish a gallery of great graffiti writing by Noise, because his work is now so completely bedded down in Bristol, something he has managed to do in a relatively short amount of time. As well as working solo, he has also teamed up with a host of other Bristol artists in his celebrated collaborations, which has helped him to become super-established.

This magnificent gold and red piece, painted on one of my favourite walls, is big and bold, and has the tiniest nod to calligraffiti on the up ticks on the tops of some of the letters. I like the shout-outs to Dibz and Fade, who were probably painting other walls in Dean Lane at the time, and interestingly the words ‘Joburg-Bristol’ which makes me think that perhaps Noise has South African connections.

6256. Dean Lane skate park (737)

Foksymoron, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2024

Living in Bristol (as I do) and tracking down street/graffiti art (as I do) it is impossible not to be familiar with a stylised fox mega-tag that appears in all corners of the city. The foxes are painted by Foksymoron, and this is by far the largest one I have seen yet, in Dean Lane for Dean Lane Hardcore.

This skate ramp has often been decorated by Feek for the Dean Lane Hardcore event, but not this time, and Foksymoron appears to have done a pretty good job, filling the space. Foxes have a long and studied history in Bristol, and it is great to see so many featured on the street art scene. I have a host of foxes by Foksymoron in my archives, and feel that perhaps I ought to dig them out and post them all together… watch this space

6255. M32 roundabout J3 (609)

Although Cort tends to have a presence in Bristol most of the time, I don’t find myself posting his work all that often. He is an artist who definitely likes to do things his own way and although he can come across as a little unfriendly, I suspect that he is probably quite introverted and likes to keep himself to himself.

It is very difficult to describe Cort’s style, but am going to have a go anyway. His letters are often quite unruly and veer towards anti-style, except that there is an irregular regularity about them. I always rather like his fills, which feel quite artistic to me, and I can see links to the art of Miro (is that just me?). Cort has included a little line drawing cartoon character, which adds a little bit of fun to the overall work. This is a nice piece from Cort.

6254. Brunel Way (283)

Abbie Laura Smith, Brunel Way, Bristol, June 2024

I think that this is the last in my recent series of wonderful paste-ups by Abbie Laura Smith – some I found, all of which I have now posted, and some I didn’t. The good news is that I believe Abbie is going to be ‘out and about’ in her words, soon, so that will be a lot of fun trying to hunt them down.

This portrait paste-up is notable for its inclusion of a pink/blue/purple colour wash in the subject’s hair. I have a feeling that there might be some concealed writing in the girl’s hair, although I can’t be sure. The portrait is beautifully drawn, and the girl has the faintest sultry look about her. This is a nicely crafted piece, well placed on one of the concrete columns underneath Brunel Way. I have a feeling it might still be there.

6253. M32 roundabout J3 (608)

Raid, M32 roundabout, Bristol, June 2024

Raid has slowed down a little, only a little mind, but his presence is felt whenever he paints one of his RAID writings. This one has to be marked out as being slightly different from his usual work on account of the inclusion of a character – a welcome addition.

The glaringly obvious feature of this piece is the camouflage fill, which is something I have seen quite a lot of, I would guess that it is probably easier to do than some fills, because the shapes and colour patchwork are quite random, and forgiving of little mistakes. The character is a bit of fun, but has very different characteristics to the confidence demonstrated in the writing. It will be interesting to see if Raid continues with the inclusion of characters. I noticed that his Instagram account appears to have disappeared, which is a pity.

	paulh121 on 7430. Frome Side (68)
	paulh121 on Mont Blanc
	beth on Mont Blanc
	scooj on Cocoon
	hitandrun1964 on 7422. Stapleton Road

	paulh121 on 7430. Frome Side (68)
	paulh121 on Mont Blanc
	beth on Mont Blanc
	scooj on Cocoon
	hitandrun1964 on 7422. Stapleton Road

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