Urban – Page 40 – Natural adventures

7047. M32 roundabout J3 (696)

Subtle, Ulow and Minto, M32 roundabout, Bristol, May 2025

This fine trio of pieces was painted as part of Hypo’s birthday celebrations, and brings together Subtle, Ulow and Minto – quite a line-up. There is a whole lot of colour and talent on display, marking out this section of wall as being a bit special.

Subtle, M32 roundabout, Bristol, May 2025

To the left, Subtle has created a masterclass of colour and design, with some wicked letters spelling HYPO, set on a fabulous red background with pink spots, looking like wrapping paper around the writing. Outstanding stuff.

We don’t get to see Ulow’s work all that often, so it is always a great pleasure to come across one of his characters. The superb presentation of different tones and shades create a wonderful 3-dimensional effect as if the character is walking straight out of the wall. A combination of simplicity and complexity all in one character piece.

Minto, M32 roundabout, Bristol, May 2025

Rounding off the trio is this busy piece of writing from Minto. The style here has as much to do with what is absent as it does with what is present, a little bit like Benjimagnetic’s writing. Lots of colourful splashes and unfilled spaces combine to spell out MINTO, in a complex arrangement. Altogether an outstanding collaboration. Bravo!

7046. St Werburghs tunnel (515)

Mr Klue, St Werburghs, Bristol, May 2025

The emphasis of this post will walk through how augmentation works. In street art circles, augmentation (adding to an existing piece) is relatively rare and can be considered as a little insulting to the original artist, or lacking in creativity. On the other hand, it can be seen as flattering and complementary to the original work. Here is a wonderful example of a piece by Mr Klue that has been augmented by Posh.

This rather nice purple ‘KLUE’ abstract writing has been hanging around at the entrance to the tunnel for quite a while, which doesn’t really come as much of a surprise as he kind of ‘owns’ this spot, by occupation at least. The purple is beautifully picked out with white and yellow highlights that create wonderful depth to the piece. Now all is just fine and dandy, and then along comes Posh!

Mr Klue and Posh, St Werburghs, Bristol, July 2025

Quite a while after this piece was painted by Mr Klue, Posh came along and added into it three posh characters, in yellow, picking out some of the colour in the original piece. These ‘toffs’ have a strong political message, one that picked up a lot of coverage at the Glastonbury Festival, ‘Death 2 the IDF’. Once again, street art acts as a wonderful commentary on contemporary issues, and has an important role to play in free speech and expression. This is a great example of how augmentation can work really well, and Mr Klue thought it was rather funny.

7045. Dean Lane skate park (849)

Hire and Sait Bare, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2025 — Hire, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2025

This piece from Hire had me raising my eyebrows, in a good way, because it is quite unlike anything I have seen from him before. I would normally associate his work with quite intricate, spiky, angular letters, but here he has gone for something altogether softer and more fluid – to be honest I hind it a little disorientating. (Update – I am being particularly dense, the writing is, of course, by Sait Bare, which is why it is so different in style. I couldn’t see the wood for the trees.

The combination of letters and two characters works well, with a face on the left and one of his trademark rabbits (see, it is spiky) to the right. The letters have a traditional 3D drop shadow with black and red stripes. This whole thing looks like Hire is experimenting a bit, departing from his customary style, and that has to be applauded.

7044. Brunel Way (320)

Zinso has made a big impression in Bristol in recent months having burst onto the scene earlier this year. He took over this entire wall, buffed it out with white paint and then painted six pieces, in pairs, each with a small and a large piece. I guess it is one way of getting in some practice. I have split the total production into three posts of which this is the first.

Both the small and large piece are in a bubble-writing style, although the larger one is rather more sophisticated. The small piece has alternate colours for the letters, has a tidy drop shadow and neat red border. Great work. As for the larger piece, the fills are absolutely magnificent. Big, bold colours and some really nice shapes resembling calligraphy, create an outstanding overall impression. This is the work of a skilled, technical artist having a great day out. The full wall is shown below:

7043. Cumberland Basin

Squarms, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2025

I think that this year, perhaps more than any other year, I have seen an increase in the number of visiting artists painting in Bristol, which tells me that it is very much a destination city for street/graffiti artists. This is, in my view, a really great thing and opens up opportunities to get acquainted with a huge diversity of artwork from across the country and beyond.

I’m not too sure exactly when these colourful skeletons, painted by Squarms, appeared, but it was probably around the same time as some others under Brunel Way, perhaps in late June. These skeletons are brilliantly presented and have a feel of graphic design about them, as if they could be found on cards, posters, t-shirts etc.. Something a little different to enjoy.

7042. Cumberland Basin

Scrapyardspec, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2025

Scrapyardspec has returned to Bristol recently and dropped a whole load of pieces at spots all over the city, which seems to be his modus operandi when he visits. This multicoloured goofy face is in the little ‘tunnel’ area alongside the long wall at Cumberland Basin.

There is something completely loveable about Scrapyardspec’s characters. You pretty much know that you are going to get a wobbly face with lots of teeth and googly eyes, but there is enough variability within that formula to ensure that each piece is interesting and unique in its own way. The background colours are what mark this piece out from some of the others, being much more colourful ‘a la fruit salad’ I would say. More to come from our welcome visitor soon.

7041. St Werburghs tunnel (514)

I was rather hoping that this lovely turtle piece by Lis was going to last a while at the entrance to St Werburghs tunnel, but alas it was painted over after about a week. I was surprised, because it was painted on a bit of wall which has had a rather low turnover in recent years, and it was a fine and rather iconic piece, very much in keeping with the zeitgeist of the area.

I would say, with a touch of bias as a former marine biologist, that this is one of her best pieces to date. The Turtle itself is accurately represented, and the lines pretty clean and decorations tidily done. Lis’ inexorable progress continues apace.

7040. L Dub (72)

Two things immediately leap out at me about this piece by Posh; first, I am always happy to find ANY pieces by him, because he paints quite infrequently (although he has been more active lately), and second, I have never seen his work at L Dub before, so was mildly confused and surprised to see it there.

This is a combination piece in which Posh has incorporated his little ‘posh’ characters into his letters. I can’t work out what the letters spell, and a glance at his Instagram doesn’t help me with that particular piece of detective work. His little monocled figures are so full of character, mischief and fun and are an endearing element of his work. Looking out for more great work from Posh.

7039. Dean Lane skate park (849)

If ever you wanted an example of contemporary wildstyle writing at its best, you wouldn’t need to go any further than this exquisite piece by Dibz. The subtle tones and dark background are in harmony with this piece being a tribute to the late Tickz, hence the ‘rest in peace’ writing to the top left.

Everything about this piece is near-perfect. All the lines are sharp and clean, the fills tidy and unfussy, the white highlights consistent and bringing about a uniform 3D effect across the whole piece, and of course the halo in contrasting yellow. As tribute pieces go, this is about as good as it gets.

7038. St Werburghs tunnel (503)

J Archer, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2025

There were a lot of ‘out-of-town’ artists who converged on St Werburghs tunnel for Wispa’s birthday paint jam, many of whose work I haven’t seen before, including J Archer. I know little of the artist and haven’t been able to find out very much either, so I will stick to what I can see.

This is a beautiful portrait of a woman in blue and purple tones. The proportions of the face are all good, and the features nicely picked out with light and dark shading. Although the portrait doesn’t look very big, It is probably about 7-8 foot square, which is actually a decent size. The squiggles through the face break up the piece and add to what might be a straightforward portrait. A fine tribute to Wispa – there were so many on the day.

	scooj on 7414. Cumberland Basin
	scooj on 7412. BB Gallery (11)
	Cethru Cellophane on 7414. Cumberland Basin
	Cethru Cellophane on 7412. BB Gallery (11)
	scooj on 7408. Greenbank (177)

	scooj on 7414. Cumberland Basin
	scooj on 7412. BB Gallery (11)
	Cethru Cellophane on 7414. Cumberland Basin
	Cethru Cellophane on 7412. BB Gallery (11)
	scooj on 7408. Greenbank (177)

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: