Not long ago, I said that Stivs was rather underrepresented on Natural Adventures. This post is a deliberate effort to address this imbalance, and there are more pieces in the pipeline. This piece was painted in Sparke Evans Park alongside Counterfits and Maesyhook.
Stivs, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, May 2021
The beautiful calligraffiti spells out ‘Dirty Soul’ and is composed of large red letters with some nice pink shading on the upper surfaces and a black surround, set on a background of tiny white grid work, which must have taken a while to paint. A high quality piece of writing.
Never too far from my mind are the exploits of Soap and Face 1st, hardly surprising really considering that I see their work on such a regular basis. I must admit though that I was a little surprised to find this collaboration recently, because this isn’t a wall I would normally associate with the pair.
Soap, New Stadium Road, Bristol, August 2021
I would start by saying I don’t think that this is one of their best collaborative efforts, but I think that is mainly down to the colour selections which are a bit muted, they don’t really shout out from the wall. On the left are the letters SOAP from Soap with some nice little details like the sun and the little face in the O. There is a quality and an assuredness about Soap’s work that makes it quite easy on the eye.
Face 1st, New Stadium Road, Bristol, August 2021
To the right is a classic face from Face 1st. He certainly seems to be enjoying his ‘splats’ at the moment, and the girl’s face has a blue mess about her mouth. Surrounding the face are the letters FACE. It looks like the PWA boys had some fun painting this one.
This is a curious collaboration from painting pals CD.TC and Daz Cat. I don’t know why, but the whole thing doesn’t quite work for me. I love the work of both of these artists, so it is surprising to me when I see something that looks a little bit clunky.
CDTC, M32 roundabout, Bristol, August 2021
The piece on the left is by CD.TC in which he combines his letters, in full caps, with one of his trademark monster faces breaking the letters up in thee middle. The monster is nicely done and the letter details and decorations well thought out.
Daz Cat, M32 roundabout, Bristol, August 2021
To the right is the Daz Cat contribution, and I think that this is where I have a bit of an issue. I don’t like the letters in the mouth, and I’m not too sure the paw clutching an arrow adds much to the piece. Also, the way that the two pieces join I feel is a bit average really. I can only put this down to Daz Cat having a bit of a bad hair day when he painted this, because it bucks the trend of some truly outstanding pieces he has painted recently.
There is nothing like a bit of old school graffiti work to remind us where all of this started. This is a lovely collaboration from Veks and Turoe on the M32 cycle path on a wall that has a pretty slow turnover, so I would expect it to be hanging around for quite a while.
Veks, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, August 2021
On the left is a classic character by Veks, holding a cigarette in his clenched fist and wearing a variation on a flat cap. This is a classy character piece and amply demonstrates Veks’ experience and skill.
Veks and Turoe, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, August 2021
The writing is by Turoe and is finished off with nice deep 3D work on the letters. Both elements are nicely bordered with a lime green and white line, cleanly applied. I managed to get these pictures on about my fourth visit – this particular wall usually has a shadow cast across it during the day, which makes photography rather challenging.
For the last year or so, there has been absolutely no stopping Dibz. I don’t know what happened (apart from the obvious pandemic impacts), but his occasional, sometimes rare, appearances turned into something approaching weekly. Of course this is simply great news for those of us who like his work.
Dibz, Dean Lane, Bristol, August 2021
There are several key hints that help to identify Dibz’ work and this piece illustrates them nicely. He usually preps his wall nicely so that everything is neat and tidy. The overall form of his writing is diamond shaped, starting and ending small with a fatter middle. His wildstyle letters usually spell out DIBZ but this can be tricky to make out sometimes. He usually adds depth to his letters with a well worked 3D shadow without a border.
So beautifully turned out, this piece is an archetypal Dibz work. Utterly brilliant.
There are times when you get lucky, right? And I got so lucky with this early evening ‘dog walk’ in Bedminster and Dean Lane in particular, as SkyHigh was just finishing off this remarkable block graffiti writing piece, that he is so well known for.
SkyHigh, Dean Lane, Bristol, August 2021
I don’t know what we in Bristol have done to deserve this, but this is the second visit by SkyHigh in as many months. We chatted for a while, as he tidied up the piece and it became blindingly obvious that I was in the presence of a perfectionist. Every small blemish was addressed and made good.
SkyHigh, Dean Lane, Bristol, August 2021
The block letters have become second nature for the artist and he makes what looks terribly complicated, simple… he paints with the confidence and ease of someone at the top of their game. I love the inclusion of the ‘Hello my name is’ sticker in the letter ‘I’, a common icon in street art. Another stunner from the London artist.
Well, I figured it has been quite a while since I last posted a Hemper piece, so here is a reasonably new one for good measure. Of course, it is a beautifully crafted piece of graffiti writing, with great letter shapes and a cool colour palette.
Hemper, M32 Spot, Bristol, August 2021, Upfest 21
I don’t know where these writers get their inspiration from, but their unwavering high quality is just something else. In this piece Hemper spells out the letters HEMS, each letter with a different colour combination. A couple of arrows and stars finish off the piece nicely. I always look forward to finding these, there is something just a bit special about them.
Rather embarrassingly, and I had the slightest concern about this, this piece is not by Pl8o after all, although I don’t know who it is by. Everything I have written about Pl8o still stands. I will change the captions to reflect this.
An artist I used to write about quite a lot was Ysae, but he seemed to disappear off the scene for a while. Maybe this is by him, there is a signature, or is that a shout out. The dangers of thinking I know more than I actually do. It happens.
I am rather looking forward to producing a gallery of work by Pl8o and when I have collected a few more pieces by him I will do so. The reason I say this is that he has been playing with all sorts of ideas around his letters and is going through something of a script writing phase, but it is the development of these ideas that is fun to witness.
Unknown, Ysae?, St Werburghs, Bristol, July 2021
In this piece Pl8o has gone with a much more curvy and flowing script style and incorporated some drips and floating ovals to embellish the letters. The colours are perhaps not my favourite, but work well together and certainly stand out in the orange gloom of St Werburghs tunnel. A nice piece.
Daz Cat has been a rather busy boy lately as you will probably notice over the coming week or two with several posts of his work in the pipeline. This particular piece on the roundabout features two cats and some writing, which is not something Daz Cat does a lot of.
Daz Cat, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2021
As always, the cats are beautifully painted, but I think this is the first time I have seen a boy and girl cat in the same piece. I know that Daz Cat has been keen to do more female cats and there has been some recent evidence of this. The writing is quite elaborate and clean and tidy, but on balance I think I prefer his characters. Some superb pieces to follow soon…
