After a very quiet lockdown period, there seems to have been no stopping Biers, who now writes WD40, from decorating walls all over the city. This piece from a couple of weeks back is on one of the best known walls in Bristol, and a particular favourite of mine – I have even done a special gallery of it, that needs updating.
Biers, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2022
In this lively piece, Biers takes something of a self-deprecatory look and critique of his own work that is not entirely complimentary. I would beg to differ with his analysis, as I think it is a rather tidy piece with loads of activity and movement, and the character with the speech bubble is nicely done too. Don’t be so hard on yourself Biers.
The last time I met these two, Benjimagnetic and Acer, they were painting this exact spot with an epic piece that regrettably had been painted over by the time I went back to photograph it. I wasn’t going to make the same mistake again, and having seen it on Instagram, made the tunnel my first port of call.
Benjimagnetic, St Werburghs, Bristol, April 2022
The left hand of this collaborative wall is a superbly clean and light piece of wildstyle writing from Benjimagnetic, spelling out BEN. The colours and shapes are inspiring, and the little grey shaded areas provide a little bit of solidity to the frame. Lovely work.
Acer, St Werburghs, Bristol, April 2022
On the right, Acer continues to dazzle us with his highly stylised rainbow lettering, spelling out CHAOS. Is this a random word, or a description of the mad, mad world we live in? This is a thing of beauty and great skill, I love the grey shadows of the black shadows. An absolutely fabulous collaborative wall.
Benjimagnetic and Acer, St Werburghs, Bristol, April 2022
This is definitely one of those occasions when you get more for your money, to loosely use an expression, because as we already know, street/graffiti art is completely free… imagine that, completely free art for all to enjoy, no entrance fee required. A double helping from Klashwhensober, which is surely a treat to savour. In this double act, we have two of his monikers, ‘Klash’ and ‘Sober’.
Klashwhensober, St Werburghs, Bristol, April 2022
To the left is Klash written in his long slim lettering and a gorgeous transition fill from blue to pink, with some lovely patterns spanning the letters. The whole thing is coated in a kind of green goo, that Face 1st would approve of.
Klashwhensober, St Werburghs, Bristol, April 2022
To the right of the pair of the work is the word Sober which again has lovely slim curvy letters and a superb red/orange 3D shadow shared across both words – with regard to the 3D shadow, Klashwhensober has a vanishing point somewhere behind the piece and the shadows work in both directions. The imaginative patterns and fills are a joy to behold, and a specialism that Klashwhensober works really hard on.
Klashwhensober, St Werburghs, Bristol, April 2022
I met Klashwhensober again yesterday on the M32 cycle path, and it was another pleasurable experience. We chewed the fat for a little while, and discussed different pieces and styles, amongst other things. I think that we must have similar body clocks, as we keep meeting – three times now in just over a week.
Dopes is an artist who appears to like spraying in tight little spots tucked away on the margins of popular graffiti spots, or maybe I just happen to find his pieces in such places. This one is underneath the bridge in Sparke Evans Park, alongside a Maesyhook piece that until a week ago had been there forever (to make an appearance on Natural Adventures soon).
Dopes, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, April 2022
Set out in chrome on a turquoise background, Dopes spells out his name, with a rather curious character figure making up the ‘O’. A subtle splash of pink decoration and border gives the piece a little bit of zing and lifts it up above other chrome throw ups.
I think that I could quite easily fill up all my posts with work from about four or five artists in Bristol who seem to be unstoppable in their quest to brighten our streets and practice their art. One of those artists is Face 1st, who has been a constant drumbeat through the development and progress of Natural Adventures. Always there, always painting.
Face 1st, Moon Street, Bristol, April 2022
This piece is in my favourite street, for sentimental reasons really, in Bristol, Moon Street. Definitely a quick one from Fac 1st, as so many of his pieces are, but even though it probably only took an hour or so to paint, there is a lot to like about it. The change of pink to orange as you read left to right, and the blending of the colours, works really well. Of course, no Face 1st piece is complete without a girl’s face somewhere, and in this one, she is lurking in the letter C.
A serendipitous meeting with Paul H at Greenbank on my last visit there afforded him the opportunity to show me a spot I hadn’t been aware of before, and something a little different from the usual kind of graffiti/street art spots in Bristol. Greenbank is on the Bristol to Bath cycle path, and a short walk in the direction of Bath takes you to the Bristol to Bath gallery.
Conrico, BB Gallery, Bristol, April 2022
The gallery is a wall and fence, about twenty metres in length, which is festooned with pieces of art on paper, boards, canvass or in frames, all attached to the fence – a truly public gallery that anyone can contribute to. This particular section has been painted by Conrico, and would appear to have been quite a challenge to paint, given the different textures and materials. The scene is a very typically Conrico piece, with plenty of atmosphere and a style that looks more like paint brush strokes rather than spray can work. Some nice writing accompanies the portrait.
‘Milk’ seems to be such an unusual word to choose for a writer, but I guess there is plenty of scope for playing with letters, and it is certainly memorable; I would be interested to know why Wxttsart chose it. Whatever the reason, he has made it his own and Bristol is becoming a bit of a Milk city.
Wxttsart, Greenbank, Bristol, March 2022
Wxttsart creates these script letters that feel quite organic in both the wobbliness of the letters and the fills, in contrast to some writers where it is all about straight lines or solid fills or angles etc, this somehow feels much more free and expressive. Some lovely blue drips to finish the piece off. Nice work from this LRS crew member.
You know when an artist is in high-productivity mode, when the frequency of meetings is high. In the past week or so, I have met Klashwhensober twice, and both times stopped for a nice chat. I had shared links to posts on Natural Adventures, and bless him, he had read them, which was most kind, so we chatted a little about that. This piece is one of several that I photographed a couple of weeks back, investigating all the tunnels under the M32 roundabout, junction 2.
Klashwhensober, M32 roundabout (J2), Bristol, March 2022
I am not a big fan of tunnel pieces, because the lighting is always very tricky, and it is difficult to capture a whole piece in the frame due to the narrowness of the tunnel. The colours used in this ‘FLASH’ piece are most striking, and there is a creative and interesting cow-spot pattern fill. I mentioned to Klashwhensober that I might have to start posting several pieces of his at a time, because there are just too many to do single posts each time – there would be precious little else on the blog.
It is great that Turoe manages to paint reasonably regularly in spite of some health challenges, and when he does paint he still has the ability to surprise. This rather retro piece is a bit of a beauty down on the cycle path, and I suspect it will be there for some time.
Turoe, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, April 2022
The block letters overlap one another and are on the lean, but each one is perfectly finished with crisp, clean lines and borders. You can date the piece from around the time of the Oscar ceremony thanks to the reference to Will Smith. I love the way that street art does this, chronicling contemporary events before being irreversibly wiped from the ‘canvass’ through being buffed, bombed, tagged or replaced.
I was fortunate enough to meet Corupt, just as he was finishing off this wonderful Stick piece. What I didn’t know until I returned a day or two later was that he still had quite a lot more work to do on it, and you can see what he added if you compare the two pictures below.
Corupt, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2022
One thing I have noticed from watching Corupt while at work a couple of times now is that he is very diligent and careful, taking plenty of time to get things just right. In this piece he has absolutely nailed it, with a perfect background, outstanding letter shapes (so Corupt), fabulous 3D shading in black and grey stripes, sensational fills and a wonderful white highlight to help the letters pop.
Corupt, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2022
The final touches included a yellow border and some shout-outs. The piece was a birthday tribute to his friend Rapa.
Natural adventures 