Cort is an elusive artist, painting as part of the PAD crew which includes Laic217 (what has happened to him?) and Trafficity amongst others in the Polish street art community. His style is really distinctive, and at times his work is exceptional.
Cort, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2025
This is a rather tidy piece that looks like a bit of a sketch, painted or drawn with black and red biros (ball point pens) and a blue fountain pen. The letters are irregular in shape and size, but the whole word conforms to a specific height throughout. Set on a creamy background, the lettering looks rather good to me. I like this piece.
The two most prominent conflicts (although there are countless others) of our time that have mobilised public attitudes in the UK are the Israeli occupation of Gaza and The West Bank, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, both of which are barely out of the news at the moment. The Nobel Peace Prize nominee-in-waiting, Donald Trump has appeased the aggressors and most powerful forces in both conflicts and achieved absolutely no progress towards peace since he took office. Shame on him. Siding with bullies and looking for a favourable deal (for him and his cronies) is all he appears to care about.
Mr Draws, Brunel Way, Bristol, June 2025
Meanwhile, protests continue and are powerfully expressed through graffiti art, which has a capability to commentate on the injustices of the world in a way that has a lasting impact. Mr Draws has done himself proud with this huge ‘Free Palestine’ piece in chrome, sitting on the red white and green colours of the Palestinian flag. I guess the black drop shadow makes up the black from the flag. (Note to self – prepare some protest galleries).
I have continued to dig out Tera pieces that I failed to post at the time they were painted, so this one from June is a little out of sequence, but demonstrates really well his development, which has been so rapid.
Tera, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, June 2025
I’m not quite sure what the overall message here is, but when I see skeletons and gold coins, I think about avarice and comeuppance. A message that I am always mindful of, and one that reinforces my dislike of selfish billionaires, is that ‘you can’t take it with you’. This piece says that to me. It is a well-painted piece that, in part, reflects his accelerated progress, and highlights some of the areas he can sharpen up on, which, in fairness, he has been doing since painting this a couple of months back.
It has been quite difficult trying to keep up with Tera’s incredible output this summer, and I have had to do a little trawl through my summer archive to find some of his pieces that I haven’t yet posted, including this one painted alongside Kid Crayon, back in May this year.
Tera, M32 roundabout, Bristol, May 2025
This is one of Tera’s earliest pieces (he touched the ground running), and demonstrates a certain amount of experimentation. It is an interesting piece of writing spelling out his name, but definitely feels like something that hasn’t yet formed an identity. The technique is good throughout, with some nicely graded fills and some good interlocking letters. Given some of his more recent large character pieces, this one looks like a stepping stone towards improvement.
Fade, Jody, Dibz, Cheo and Acid Face with a Brace, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, May 2025
In Bristol, we are really lucky and get to see a lot of collaborations and paint jams about the place, bringing together local artists who are often joined by visitors, invited or passing through. We get to see all sorts of different styles and levels, and then occasionally a top drawer special production like this one from Fade, Jody, Dibz, Cheo and Acid Face with a Brace.
Fade, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, May 2025
Photographing this production in its entirety was something of a challenge due to its sheer length and some difficult light conditions, with so much open sky above the wall. To start us off on this wall we have a semi-submerged piece by Fade, with the water level cleverly portrayed using different shades of colour above and below the water line, a theme continued by each artist through the production. Some dramatic skies round off Fade’s section nicely.
Jody, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, May 2025
Next up is a portrait piece by Jody featuring a warrior with a deep fur collar and long sword, so I am imagining a Viking theme going on, although I can’t help feeling that the hairdo doesn’t quite match the machismo of the character.
Dibz, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, May 2025
In the centre and holding the whole production together is a piece of typically brilliant writing from Dibz, again, with the water line running through it and incorporating a wonky long sword. The dramatic skies also continue through this story.
Cheo, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, May 2025
Cheo brings a whole different style to the piece, while faithfully following the Viking idea. His cartoon warrior, wading through the water, is festooned with long blonde hair tied up with red bands. His snarling face is made rather comical with the tilt of his helmet. Of course, a trademark bee, also with a helmet, is in attendance.
Acid Face with a Brace, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, May 2025
Rounding off the production is some more writing from Acid Face with a Brace, whose collaboration with Dibz and Fade in Dean Lane from earlier in the summer is still very much intact. The theme is beautifully embraced by Acid Face with a Brace, and he has included a wave breaking over his letters, mirroring the Fade piece at the other end. Awesomeness all round.
I was very happy to see that Creamylines dropped two pieces under Brunel Way recently, probably in the same session, one of which I posted a week or so ago, and this is the other, which was painted low to the ground on the end of a wooden skate ramp.
Creamylines, Brunel Way, Bristol, July 2025
Once again, Creamylines has presented a colourful landscape view, with fields and hills leading up to a sky dotted with clouds and a large yellow sun. There are plenty of figures or sentinels throughout the piece, which is given a serene and natural look, courtesy of the birds in flight. A calming piece in a crazy world.
Kid Crayon and Tera, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2025
This is a wonderful character collaboration from Kid Crayon and Tera, otherwise known as the Doordie crew (do or die). What is extra special about this is that it has lasted a couple of weeks, which is quite rare for a Kid Crayon piece these days, and should be celebrated.
Kid Crayon, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2025
The character on the left is by Kid Crayon and on the right by Tera, between the battling zombies we see a collection of bones spelling UZI (Undead Zombie Infection). The green zombie looks very much like the characters from Plants vs Zombies, a game that my kids very much enjoyed a few years ago. There is so much detail and expression in this zombie, brilliantly crafted by Kid Crayon.
Tera, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2025
Tera, continues to amaze with his rapid progress this summer with this fantasy style zombie, a little more menacing and scary than his counterpart. There is, once again, plenty of detail in the piece, with the bony fingers taking a prominent role. Altogether a fine and fun collaboration. It is so good to see Kid Crayon out so often this summer, with a regular painting partner.
Dirtygypo and Posh, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, July 2025
Although this superb piece of graffiti writing from Dirtygypo isn’t really a collaboration, it does have a cheeky collaborative element from the inclusion of one of Posh’s distinctive characters, of which there appears to have been an outbreak of across Bristol in the last couple of months.
Dirtygypo and Posh, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, July 2025
As with many of Dirtygypo’s pieces, each of the letters are assigned a different colour and the word it interspersed with bolts of lightening. I won’t drift into trying to interpret the word this time, I’ll simply have to wait until I meet him to find an answer. All good stuff, and another fine piece from Dirtygypo.
Joe Greenaway s not an artist I know much about at all, so I went to his Instagram account to see if I could find out more. I didn’t find much, but I did discover that this paint jam arranged by Mind 49 was organised to raise funds for @thegrandappeal Children’s Hospital Charity. Further searches on the Interweb revealed that Joe Greenaway is an up-and-coming artist from St Ives in Cornwall (a place with a rich artistic heritage).
Joe Greenaway, Knowle West, Bristol, July 2025
The stunning greyscale portrait piece features a woman with a date ‘1958’, and I wonder if it might be a relative of the artist. Alongside the stunning portrait is a superb reference to Bristol in the form of balloons drifting over the Clifton Suspension Bridge. This is a beautiful piece that deserves to be shouted about. Oh, and damn the car!
This is a gorgeous column piece under Brunel Way, from visiting artist RA. Several wonderful pieces were deposited by the artist, all in the same area, and each of which really appeal to me. Anything to do with nature, and in particular insects, is going to grab my attention.
RA, Brunel Way, Bristol, July 2025
In this strip, RA has used a stencil of an insect and overlaid it three times on a tall rectangle of lime green, which works perfectly for the dimensions of a column. The detail within each of the insects has been hand painted, probably using a Posca pen for the finer detail. The pink and green colours draw attention to the piece on a grey background. Very effective and quite different.
Natural adventures 