Always tight, always pretty near perfect. I can’t think of a Dibz piece that hasn’t been meticulous in both design and execution, and if there are any I’ve yet to see them. This is yet another superb piece from Dibz in Dean Lane (his favourite spot) from a week or two back.
Dibz, Dean Lane, Bristol, November 2020
In most cases, Dibz buffs the wall first to ensure there is a focus on his wildstyle writing. The day glow green and pink colours stand out on the blue wall, and the design is simply outstanding. Dibz is an artist with a plan and he paints his plan and he does it well. A fine work.
I have a lot of photographs of graffiti writing by Mest, but have only posted a couple so far. He is an artist who sticks to a fairly strict formula in that his letter shapes are usually pretty similar, but it is his fills and colours that change from piece to piece.
Mest, M32 cycle path, Bristol, November 2020
In this one he treats us with a chrome, grey and green colour palette that works really well, and for good measure he has painted a few bubbles too. There is a lot more to come from Mest, so watch this space.
I haven’t seen a piece by Turoe for quite a while and I understand that his absence may be attributed to a recent illness. Whatever the cause of his absence he makes reference to it with the words ‘back from the dead’ at the bottom right hand side of the piece.
Turoe, Dean Lane, Bristol, October 2020
Turoe has painted a reasonably uncomplicated piece although it has a real feel of a Slim Pickings TES piece, especially the two ovals at the start of the T and the fills drips and letter shading. Both artists belong to the No Frills crew so it is no surprise that their styles impact on one another. Welcome back Turoe.
Within street art circles, the digital social media network is a fairly crowded place, and a fair proportion of the pieces I photograph I have already seen on Instagram and I make a deliberate decision to go and find them. A smaller proportion of pieces I ‘discover’ all on my own and in a strange way this gives me rather more personal satisfaction. I suppose one solution would be to stop using social media (would probably be a good thing in the long run), but somehow these platforms lend themselves so well to the ephemeral nature of the art I love. I found this one without knowing of its existence and what a lovely surprise it was.
Soker, Dean Lane, Bristol, November 2020
Soker has knocked it out of the park with this tight colourful and beautifully designed piece of graffiti writing in Dean Lane. The colours used with the letters complement each other so well whilst contrasting too – how does he achieve that? The whole thing simply oozes class, something I have said so many times when writing about Soker’s work. Classy work, classy artist.
It is time for another short series of posts on this year’s Cheltenham Paint Festival back in September, starting with this lovely collaboration from Bristol artists Inkie and Soker. This is one of those collaborations where the artists share a wall and colour scheme, but each piece is otherwise independent.
Inkie, Paint festival, Cheltenham, September 2020
On the left is a stunner from Inkie full of intricate detail. This is a piece which the artist obviously spent a lot of time on and that time has paid off because in my eyes this is a near-perfect piece of graffiti writing.
Soker, Paint festival, Cheltenham, September 2020
On the right of the wall Soker has similarly smashed it. To anyone seeing this and thinking this is just another piece of graffiti, think again… this is world-class writing from two of the very best, and how lucky are we that they both come from Bristol. The more I look at this piece, the more I enjoy it. Bravo!
Inkie and Soker, Paint festival, Cheltenham, September 2020
I pitched up in the tunnel just as Elvs and a couple of friends were just leaving. Unfortunaetly I wasn’t able to say hello as they jumped into their car and disappeared. Fortunately they had left behind some lovely pieces, including this one by Elvs himself.
Elvs, St Werburghs, Bristol, October 2020
It feels like Elvs has been fairly quiet through the latter part of summer and the walls of Bristol have been all the duller for his absence (or at least they might have been were it not for the abundance of talent in the city, but I think you know where I’m coming from). This is a typical piece of Elvs writing in his unique style with three horizontal fills and a 3D shading with a vanishing point in the centre of the work. Welcome back.
Mr Draws has been turning out some really nice pieces recently and this one is a particularly colourful one. His work has a tendency not to last too long, probably an artefact of the walls he paints rather than any commentary on the quality of his work.
Mr Draws, Dean Lane, Bristol, October 2020
In this piece, as usual, he spells out DRAW! and his fills are a colourful array of lines, spots, stars and squiggles. This is classic ‘make it up as you go along’ artwork and looks like it was fun to do. The streets of Bristol would be duller without Mr Draws.
A couple of weeks ago I bumped into Paul H in St Werburghs tunnel and he tipped me off that Smak was likely to be painting at the M32 Spot, so naturally my next port of call was to my favourite board under the motorway. There I found not only Smak, but Mena too, both busily spraying.
Smak and Mena, M32 Spot, Bristol, October 2020
I have many photographs of Mena’s work, but I think this is the first time I have posted anything, so I guess a bit of a rummage through my archive will be happening in the not too distant future.
Smak, M32 Spot, Bristol, October 2020
On the left of the board is a beautifully worked piece of graffiti writing from Smak. What is noticeable about this is that the light conditions on the two days I visited this piece have presented two different tones, one much yellower than the other – I guess that cameras get pretty goofed up with poor light under the motorway and bright light bleedinng in at the sides. Auto settings simply can’t cope.
Mena, M32 Spot, Bristol, October 2020
On the right is a ‘stock’ piece of writing from Mena. The letters are uniform in size with interesting shapes and Mena really goes to town with some beautiful horizontal fills in wonderful complementary colours. The outcome is very pleasing, and the black 3D shading really helps to lift the whole thing out from the wall. I am really looking forward to sharing more from Mena.
There is a thing at this time of year in the street/graffiti art world and that is to do a Halloween piece. I haven’t seen too many this year, although I have just been out to walk the dog and photographed a whole bunch more. This one is by Biers, who I am pleased to report is writing Biers again having spent the last year or two writing OhYeah.
Biers, M32 cycle path, Bristol, October 2020
This piece is a classic writing/character combination with a rather friendly looking grim reaper popping up to the right hand side of the writing. Biers has been reasonably dormant this year, so it is great to see him getting out and about.
Classy. It is something of an overused word on Natural Adventures, but in this case it is simply the best word I can think of to describe this amazing piece of graffiti writing by Claro_que_sssnoh. To make things a little easier I am going to call the artist Claro, that should save me about five minutes in typing time.
Claro_que_sssnoh, M32 cycle path, Bristol, October 2020
The letters spell out SNOH, but it is the superb way Claro has layered colours onto the chrome structure, with really interesting letter shapes that stands out in this piece. It is clean, creative, complex and he has even thrown in a little character for good measure. It is great to see a quality piece like a this on this wall.
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