.
From Bristol rooftops
carrion crow cannon caws
reverberating
.
by Scooj
.
From Bristol rooftops
carrion crow cannon caws
reverberating
.
by Scooj

It speaks volumes to the popularity of Wispa that there was such an enormous turnout for her birthday paint jam in St Werburghs tunnel, especially as she isn’t even a resident of the city. I know that she is admired by her RBF friends and that she is super-talented.

This is a wonderful birthday piece, spelling out her name. The letter fills are spectacular and so full of ideas, neatly enclosed in as light blue border and accompanied by a black and red drop shadow. I believe the clock character is by Wispa too, as it contains the same lilac paint that surrounds her letters. This is yet another very nice piece of work by Wispa.

What a beauty by Daz Cat. My first thought was who has he been collaborating with? – but there was only one signature and I realised pretty quickly that Daz Cat was trying out something a little new. I can confidently say that his portrait/cat character combination is a huge success, and I look forward to seeing more pieces like this from him.

There is a lot to talk about in this ‘self-collaboration’ and I’m sure I won’t be able to do it justice. Starting with the portrait, there are some obvious Daz Cat trademarks, particularly in the patterning in the eyebrows and hair. The proportions and perspective are near perfect, and I think that it demonstrates what I already knew, that Daz Cat is a very talented artist.
The cat character is more along the lines of what I’d expect to see. There is a story here. The cat is holding a snail which has a flower growing out of its shell – what it means, who knows? But it looks great. I look forward to more of these self-collaborations in the future.

It looks like wheatpastes are having a mini-surge in popularity in Bristol, and these are a couple of little cut-out sketches in Jamaica Street by Bethcub. What I particularly like about these is that they look like original pencil sketches, which somehow gives them a high One-off value (in my eyes).

Bethcub is an artist who is known for her studies, particularly of the human body, but occasionally ventures out onto the streets to paint, and now, it seems, to leave some wheatpaste gifts for us to enjoy. I am no art critic, so I don’t really know what I am talking about, but these line sketches are so beautiful, and capture the poise of the subject perfectly.

To find these little paste ups absolutely made my day, and I was sorely tempted to try and peel one off to keep as a piece of original artwork, but that would be against everything I stand for – public art for all. I’ll be looking out for more from Bethcub in future, and have at least one other of her recent pieces to share… watch this space.

Since the Covid lockdowns, I have worked from home pretty much all the time, apart from occasional visits around the country. Every once in a while I do go to the office and in doing so, walk different routes, in the hope that I will encounter some pieces of street art I’ve not spotted before. I got lucky the last time I made the trip a couple of weeks ago, with this outstanding mural by The Hass.

I have a feeling that the mural, which is painted on a hospital building, must be in celebration of 75 years of the National Health Service. The impressive commission is quite different from some of The Hass’ more creative work, and demonstrates that he has a talent not only for his art work but also for sticking to a brief. A wonderful piece that I had been blissfully unaware of. Perhaps I ought to walk into work more often.
A gallery of fantastic characters and graffiti writing from Bristol-based artist Werm (formerly Eman).
Instagram: @wermpaints
All photographs by Scooj













































































I love finding pieces by artists that I haven’t registered before, and this piece from Zinso is one of a few that I have photographed recently. Although Zinso is new to Bristol, I would suggest that they are not new to painting walls, as this is a tidy and accomplished piece of graffiti writing

The slightly cartoonish letters are bordered with a confident black outline and filled with a vibrant green with orange marginal decorations. A couple of pink symbols thrown in rounds off this tight, unfussy piece of writing set on a splash of blue. Bravo.

I recently found out, from Paul H (thank you), that Mage, who has recently emerged on the Bristol scene, is none other than Raid, who has appeared on the pages of Natural Adventures many times, including a gallery of his work. Commensurate with his name change, I will now refer to him as Mage from this point forward.

This is a nice piece of writing on an iconic wall that has hosted hundreds of pieces and layers of paint which chip off from time to time, as you can see from the base of the wall. The letters are nicely arranged with a fill that reads across the whole piece, with yellow spirals spanning the letters. A nice piece and a puzzle solved.
Doors 312 – Leicester, Leicestershire (part II) – May 2024
This is a second selection of doors from Leicester, a city I visited for the first time in May 2024. I was there for work, but made the most of my overnight stay to explore the city and naturally take some door photographs.
Leicester is not a ‘honey pot’ city that you would necessarily choose as a holiday destination, but it has its own distinctive history, heritage and charm, and is surrounded by some beautiful Leicestershire countryside.
These doors are the middle selection of three, I hope you enjoy them:









So that’s it for this week, with one more selection from Leicester, although that isn’t quite true, because I returned to the city a couple of months later, with my team in to visit the new Bradgate Park and Swithland Wood National Nature Reserve which had just been declared and was the purpose of my visit on this occasion, so expect a second set of doors from Leicester in due course.
If you have made it this far, you probably like doors, and you really ought to take a look at the No Facilities blog by Dan Anton who has taken over the hosting of Thursday Doors from Norm 2.0 blog. Links to more doorscursions can be found in the comments section of Dan Anton’s Thursday Doors post.


This piece by Zake is something a little different, a variation on a theme from the artist. It is rare to see Zake paint anything approximating to letters, but here we are with an unusual combination piece.

Two letters and two faces, making up the vowels, are nicely designed and set on a grey background with watery bubbles. For once, I will forgive the use of brown paint, because it is subtle and in keeping with the ‘slatey’, earthy, feel of the whole composition. It is always a pleasure to see artists try something new.