2025 has seen Nice One upping both the frequency and quality of his game. He has painted several new pieces full of imagination and something quite refreshingly different from what we are used to seeing about the place.
This piece in the new spot, Greenway Bush Lane is in two halves. Nice One teases us with his letters, which disappear behind the second part, which is a striking picture of a tall ship sailing on a choppy sea and a headland in the distance. Classy work from a nice man.
In my view, Grimes has been one of the real joys of the Bristol street/graffiti art over the last year, and he is already smashing it in 2025. This is a wonderful piece on the Cycle path behind the Black Swan, and is really a beauty.
When Grimes sets about his work, it feels like he has thought very carefully about how it is going to look. The colour selection is near perfect, and the letters, spelling GRIMES have been stretched a little to fit the proportions of the wall. There is so much energy in the piece, and tons of beautiful detail throughout. Another fine piece from the artist.
One of the great ‘walls’ in Bristol, this monolith rises out of the St George skate park like something out of ‘2001 A Space Odyssey’. On the other side of the wall is a slim ramp. Pieces that are painted here tend to be higher-end works and usually have quite a long lifespan. I think I probably need to do a ‘One Wall – Many Faces’ post for this wall, simply because it has such a great heritage of artwork.
This piece is a collaboration by 3Dom and Sled One, and is a top drawer work, so typical of the artists, who have collaborated before, but perhaps not so intimately as in this skull work. There is often a lot of symbolism or a story to tell in their work, but I am not sure that I can interpret it – ideas breaking out of a soulless brain, perhaps. The top half is by 3Dom and the lower half by Sled One. And just to add to the magnificence of the piece, they have painted some amazing water droplets for good measure.
Jaksta is the best caricature street artist around, and on his birthday he painted this wonderful piece opposite a collaboration (already posted) with Ryder created on the same day. The cartoon character is Donkey Kong, from the Mario Brothers video games stable. The DK on the tie has been changed to NK, although I don’t know the significance of these letters.
The piece itself is a loyal reproduction of the gorilla character, complete with a barrel over his shoulder. What is quite funny is that in spite of being a superb caricature artist, Jaksta hasn’t done a caricature of Donkey Kong, instead keeping him as he is represented in the video games. Nonetheless, this is a fine birthday piece from Jaksta.
Because of the frequency of my ’rounds’ around street art spots in Bristol, I try to get in three to four walks a week, I am more likely than not to bump into artists while they are painting, which usually ends up with a quick five-minute chat – enough time to build a rapport, but not too much to distract them from their painting. I was blessed to bump into Trafficity while he was painting this piece in Dean Lane, and had a good chat, with his broken English
I learned a thing or two during our conversation. I had often wondered whether there was a hidden word on the upper level of his letters, but he confirmed that there wasn’t, and said he’d never seen it that way before. Also, he informed me that the letters spell out ZIOS – I had always thought they said ZIOM. These things are always good to know. The form of his letters remains largely unchanged from piece to piece, only his colour schemes and decorations seem to change. This is a lovely piece, especially the shout-out, which says Stephen. Even if it isn’t me, I am going to claim it. Thank you Trafficity.
Sait Bare is a wonderful graffiti writer who paints just often enough to get himself notices, and has a style of writing all of his own. He tends to present irregular letters that have an organic feel about them, as there were a live being in there somewhere.
This writing, which was painted alongside some Hire piece, has a wonderful deep, rich colour palette. The letters, spelling SAIT, merge with one another and it is the fills that drift through the piece that pick out the individual letters, but in an ephemeral way. Sait Bare’s work is really unusual and quite unlike anything else we see in Bristol.
It feels like the RBF crew have got of to a great early start this year – it must be the birthday paint jams. Bbygwa joined in the celebrations for Desi and Even in Sparke Evans Park with this lovely combination piece.
The theme for the paint jam was Studio Ghibli, a Japanese animation studio, so I am guessing that Bbygwa’s character is somehow connected to that. Her letters spell LUXE, (a corruption of FLUX – her moniker). The letters are beautifully presented, but alas, contain too much brown for my liking (regular readers will know that I am not a fan of brown in graffiti writing). Almost time for a gallery of her work – she’s in the pipeline.
We long for those sunny winter days, they offer us a taste of a spring to come and provide a break from the monotony of overcast and wet weather that is typical of an English winter. The only drawback in my mind is that sunny winter days spell trouble for photographing art on walls, and that explains the long shadows on this piece by Lis (Le Imposter Designs).
Recently, Lis made the switch from her usual brushes and paint materials to spray paint, and has started ‘going large’ with her street art. It is a fascinating transformation, and what she has lost in the fine detail of her work, she has gained with ‘in your face’ impact. This portrait of a cat appears to be full of symbolism, with the character sitting in front of a crystal ball and wrapped in a stellar coat. Her spray paint work at this stage is a little one dimensional at this stage, but that is to be expected. I am full of admiration for her perseverance, and I am hoping to see much more of her work this year – she certainly appears to have the bug.
I love the fact that this long hoarding in Green Bush Lane is becoming a ‘spot’ having been colonised initially by Mote and Mr Crawls – great work from these pioneers. This represents the ever-changing mosaic of graffiti spots around the city, as areas become gentrified and old spots disappear, new opportunities appear.
This is a sensational piece from Solar, and an instant winner with me. With this piece alone, the PLB artist has raised his game to the next level. He has cleverly used the ‘clean’ hoarding as his background colour and painted his piece directly on to it. No need for any buffing. His irregular letters spelling SOLAR have an organic feel to them and are beautifully outlines with a pink border. Some fabulous decorative work, including bubbled inside and outside the piece contribute to its magnificence. A piece out of the top drawer from Solar.
Argentinian artist Cartoonneros has made a few appearances on these pages over the years, and it is always fun to find his diminutive stencil pieces. I think that I might have a bunch of unpublished pictures of his work from trips to London a few years ago too, which I ought to dig out of my archive.
This piece features a black stencil portrait of Lionel Messi (I think), augmented with an underlayer of rainbow colours. This is decent, simple and impactful work that instantly catches the eye. It is the only recent piece I have found by the artist, but I will be keeping my eyes open, because I find it hard to believe that he would visit Bristol and only drop one piece during his visit. I don’t quite yet have enough pieces to make a gallery, but when I do…
Natural adventures 