After his short absence, Kid Krishna is well and truly back in the groove, although his recent pieces, a handful of them, appear to be reasonably simple in their construction, and perhaps he is returning to first principles before building up into another crescendo.
Kid Krishna, St Werburghs, Bristol, October 2023
At the entrance to St Werburghs tunnel, this piece is about as basic as you can get from Kid Krishna. You’ll have to take it from me that it most likely spells CRIE, and the writing was probably painted with small rollers. There is a contemporary message ‘no more wars’ which I expect will chime for most of us. What is happening to our world?
I don’t know if I am imagining it or whether it is a thing, but it feels like Smak isn’t painting as frequently as he used to and that when I find a piece by him these days it is a rather nice surprise. This is a stylish piece of graffiti writing from a couple of weeks ago, painting alongside some of the RBF crew.
Smak, M32 roundabout, Bristol, October 2023
The writing is painted in a stylised font, which is not what I am used to seeing from Smak who tends to prefer a more wildstyle approach. Just by looking at the writing, you can see that it is of the highest quality, with sensational letter fills and a beautifully subtle 3D drop shadow. I love the design of the ‘S’ in particular. Sheer class from Smak
Joe Webster Art, Guildhall Shopping Centre, Exeter, October 2023
One of the primary reasons I started posting graffiti and street art on Natural Adventures was to provide a little bit of background information and opinion about the pieces I found, because there was very little documented (it is the nature of the beast) anywhere. I have really only scratched the surface of this gargantuan task as a recent visit to Exeter highlighted. I found several pieces in the City, but searching the Interweb to try and find out more was incredibly difficult, and I had to work very hard to find out anything about this amazing piece by Joe Webster Art. There is a tiny signature hidden at the bottom of the piece, but that was pretty much all I had to go on, and I couldn’t find out anything about the display of three pieces in the Guildhall Shopping Centre.
Joe Webster Art, Guildhall Shopping Centre, Exeter, October 2023
Joe Webster is a ‘landscape graffiti artist’ and has found himself a bit of a niche combining the outdoor natural experience with graffiti. In this powerful piece, Joe Webster has created a kind of word cloud superimposed or rather integrated into a landscape with a tree. The red/orange colours have words like Fire, Smoke, House fire, Ignite, Ember, Hot, Blaze and so on, and the sky carries the word Hope. There is a lot of texture in the piece too. There is a story, probably of climate catastrophe, being told in this intriguing piece.
Maes is a writer who I have featured a couple of times on Natural Adventures, and whose work peppers my archive. He is rather underrepresented in this blog, and I will need to find a way to feature his work more often. He is on the early stages of a steep learning curve, and is out there a lot, seeking to try new things out and improve. I fully expect to be writing about his improvement in a year’s time and, given his productivity, a gallery of his work.
Maes, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, October 2023
Maes’ work is getting tidier and his fills more imaginative, although his can control is perhaps still developing, and that will come with practice and confidence. The letter design is interesting and colour selection eye-catching. He is working on his details and has created an interesting piece. Could we be witnessing a diamond in the rough? Time will tell.
The Resting Bitch Face crew is an all female crew largely, but not exclusively, centred around Bristol. There are quite a few members of the crew, and it is always a joyous occasion when they congregate for a paint jam. This piece, by Lupa, was painted at one of two paint jams over the last month.
Lupa, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, October 2023
Lupa has a very distinctive style in which she usually makes a feature of the letter ‘U’, which she has done to good effect here. Her letters are large and bold, and everything about her work is quite raw. While there is definitely room for improvement, I am not so sure if that is what Lupa is all about. I get the sense that her work is mostly about joy and happiness and decorating a wall, and that enthusiasm comes across in bucket-loads. A fun and uplifting piece by Lupa.
Saor, Kosc and Mudra, M32 roundabout, Bristol, October 2023
Some of the most gratifying pieces are the ones that you stumble upon, without knowing about them and which are total stunners, like this outstanding collaboration from Saor, Kosc and Mudra on the roundabout.
Saor, M32 roundabout, Bristol, October 2023
To the left of the triptych is an extraordinary piece by Saor, which is characteristically sharp and clean. What I particularly like about his work is that he doesn’t use borders to tidy up his work, everything is achieved through extraordinary can control and cutting back. Incredible really.
Kosc, M32 roundabout, Bristol, October 2023
Kosc’s portraits just get better and better, and he has painted something super-special in the centre of the three pieces. I rather like it that he hasn’t moved into the realms of photorealism, but has an amazing sense of touch, tone and depth. The orange hair is pretty eye-catching, too.
Mudra, M32 roundabout, Bristol, October 2023
To the right, Mudra has painted another cracker, spelling MUDRA with letters in a uniform ‘font’, which is different to his last few pieces, where each letter has had a different design. A flower and a CCTV camera are thrown in for good measure. The whole thing benefits from having a buffed wall painted in a complementary colour that works well with the colour selection of the collaboration. This is another outstanding collaboration from the NTS crew.
This is the second Cobo piece I have posted in a short space of time and the second featuring a cat, which is nice to see. His big fat chrome/grey letters spell out Cober and are full of depth and character, and resemble large monolithic rock formations.
Cobo, Greenbank, Bristol, October 2023
The cat is not exactly what I would call cute, but is a really nice addition to his writing. Overall, this is an impressive and imposing piece from an accomplished artist, who has a preference for decorating transport vehicles, but who has done a great job here.
This is the third piece of graffiti writing that I have posted today. I do make efforts to try and mix up writing with street art and character pieces in my posts, because I completely get it that graffiti writing isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and is definitely an acquired taste. However, there are a lot of writers out there and sometimes there is just a lot to publish.
Werm, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, October 2023
Werm is quite slow to change his basic designs, preferring to lock on to a particular idea and bash out dozens of quite similar pieces, before moving on to a slightly different design concept, and I think that this piece is a bit of a new transition. The yellow and purple colours are a good combination, and are actually ‘opposite’ colours, and the green glowing background accompanies them well. The letters spell WERM and are much bigger than of late, without quite so much expansion and fuss. It will be interesting to see where this transition takes us.
At one end of the long wall in Dean Lane, we can see Rusk doing what Rusk does best. It is a pity that he doesn’t paint as much as he used to, but his considered and meticulous approach to his writing is something that never changes.
Rusk, Dean Lane, Bristol, October 2023
There is nothing fussy or flashy about this writing, which spells out RUSK, but it is a high-class and beautifully neat piece of work. The winning combination of colours, green and orange, are magnificent, and the 3D drop shadow is excellent, with a vanishing point bottom centre of the piece. The writing definitely benefits from the grey buffed background and is finished with some nice green and yellow spots, although I am not convinced yellow was the right choice, although actually it might have been the perfect choice. It was a real treat to stumble upon this one.
Collaborations between Dibz and Fade are fast becoming the most frequent on Natural Adventures, and they seem to be turning out at least one piece a week, which certainly keeps me on my toes. I try to post them all, simply because of their outstanding quality. Perhaps they will slow the pace a little over the winter months and I can turn my attention to other less well represented artists.
Dibz and Fade, Brunel Way, October 2023
This piece, quite small by their standards, features Scrooge Mc Duck, holding not a bag of money, but instead a spray can. The writing says FADE, but it is difficult to disentangle who painted what in this collaboration, but I am pretty certain Dibz painted the character and Fade the writing. Another very nicely executed piece from this productive pair.
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