Tag: Urban

6722. Cumberland Basin

Sait Bare, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2025
Sait Bare, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2025

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.

Sait Bare, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2025
Sait Bare, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2025

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.

6721. Sparke Evans Park (122)

Bbygwya, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, January 2025
Bbygwya, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, January 2025

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.

Bbygwya, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, January 2025
Bbygwya, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, January 2025

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.

6720. Greenbank (151)

Lis (Le Imposter Design), Greenbank, Bristol, January 2025
Lis (Le Imposter Design), Greenbank, Bristol, January 2025

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).

Lis (Le Imposter Design), Greenbank, Bristol, January 2025
Lis (Le Imposter Design), Greenbank, Bristol, January 2025

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.

6719. Greenway Bush Lane (2)

Solar, Greenway Bush Lane, Bristol, January 2025
Solar, Greenway Bush Lane, Bristol, January 2025

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.

Solar, Greenway Bush Lane, Bristol, January 2025
Solar, Greenway Bush Lane, Bristol, January 2025

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.

6718. Cumberland Basin

Cartoonneros, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2025
Cartoonneros, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2025

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.

Cartoonneros, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2025
Cartoonneros, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2025

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…

6716. M32 Cycle path (281)

TLB, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, January 2025
TLB, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, January 2025

This is another fine piece from Jaksta’s birthday paint jam alongside the M32 from a few weeks ago. Another artist who I watched at work, but didn’t get to chat with and who I don’t know well at all is TLB and his fine DNTS (ANTS as corrected by Paul H) letters.

TLB, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, January 2025
TLB, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, January 2025

This is a classy piece of writing with only one small blip, which is the thin yellow paint, and I blame the manufacturers for that. Yellows and Oranges are often thin, and even the best artists can’t remedy that. The letter shapes are very pleasing and the themed green/yellow fills done nicely, a cream and black drop shadow adds some variation. The whole thing is set on a red burst background (the red paint is also a little thin). Great work.

6715. M32 roundabout J2 (9)

Face 1st, M32 roundabout J2, Bristol, January 2025
Face 1st, M32 roundabout J2, Bristol, January 2025

I don’t tend to venture to the Junction 2 roundabout on the M32, because there isn’t often much to see there, but my most recent trip was rewarded by finding this nice Face 1st piece in one of the multitude of tunnels. This was more special than usual, because as I have said here before, Face 1st has moved out of town, and his pieces appear less frequently.

Face 1st, M32 roundabout J2, Bristol, January 2025
Face 1st, M32 roundabout J2, Bristol, January 2025

The piece itself is a classic combination from the artist, with a Girl’s face (somewhat mucky around the mouth), and big hair, with the word FACE in glorious gold, wrapped around. The letters are painted in a chunky block style that Face 1st rather likes to paint, and the whole thing is a bit of a blast from the past. It is great to see that Face 1st is living up to his word of returning to Bristol reasonably regularly to paint a little.

6714. Dean Lane skate park (804)

Jevoissoul, Dean Lane, Bristol, January 2025
Jevoissoul, Dean Lane, Bristol, January 2025

As if it were needed, this combination piece is further evidence that Jevoissoul is on an upward trajectory. Probably the most noticeable aspect of his improvement is the tightness of his work, and by that I mean his lines are clean and his fills tidy. When he first started out, His work felt a little cluttered and hurried, but I don’t get that feeling so much now.

Jevoissoul, Dean Lane, Bristol, January 2025
Jevoissoul, Dean Lane, Bristol, January 2025

To the left, our familiar character, complete with grimace, appears to be losing his cap, which creates a sense of movement in the piece. Jevoissoul’s artwork is becoming more sophisticated, with a two-tone light/shade aspect to the face. The letters also have a sense of movement, indicated by the black accent lines around the outside. Good colours and nicely blended horizontal strips fill the letters nicely. Perhaps there could be a little bit more interest in the letters themselves, but now I am just being picky.

6713. St Werburghs tunnel (473)

Bloem, St Werburghs, Bristol, January 2025
Bloem, St Werburghs, Bristol, January 2025

Carrying on the theme of female artists today, this is a superb piece of graffiti writing from Bloem. There seems to be no stopping her so far this year, and that can only be a good thing. What is so unusual about Bloem’s work, for an artist who is relatively new to graffiti writing, is the precision and clarity of her lines, which comes with incredible can control.

Bloem, St Werburghs, Bristol, January 2025
Bloem, St Werburghs, Bristol, January 2025

The irregular letters BLOEM pop so well from the wall, thanks to the brilliant white drop shadow. The red letter fill is blended so brilliantly, it isn’t possible to be sure where one shade ends and the next begins. On top of that, the circles and spots are perfectly applied throughout. Wrapping the whole piece up is a black and green border, which has a life of its own with ‘flames’ and drips. Every component of this piece comes together so well, and in Bloem we have an emerging superstar.

6712. Cumberland Basin

Lupa, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2025
Lupa, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2025

With some artists, there is a simple honesty, integrity and a resultant authenticity that makes their work so attractive. There is nothing pretentious about Lupa’s work, and this great big chunky presentation of the letters LUPA ‘does what it says on the tin’.

Lupa, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2025
Lupa, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2025

The big yellow letters stand out on the deep red background. The fills have an electric plasma shock running through them, and I love the black swirl on the ‘P’ and the sad/angry face on the ‘A’. With this piece there is nothing but the letters and the joy. Nice shout-outs to Klofe, Lee Roy and RBF.