3250. Turbo Island

Well I’m not sure how I missed this one first time round, but I just had a little potter around in my archives and once I found it I couldn’t really ignore it. It is a tidy collaboration from Mr Klue and DNT, who quite often get together to paint, from those heady days before coronavirus was a thing in the UK… remember that?

Mr Klue and DNT, Turbo Island, Bristol, February 2020
Mr Klue and DNT, Turbo Island, Bristol, February 2020

I can’t decide whether the shopping trolley is really annoying or actually adds a little bit of character to the photograph. No matter, it is there. The very ‘DNT’ monster embedded within the Mr Klue writing is a window into the artist’s mind and like so many of his characters is part organic, part mechanical. It looks likes the puffs of yellow smoke are puffing out of one of the legs of the character. A nice collaboration.

3247. Brunel Way bridge (63)

There are two graffiti writers that I am really enjoying seeing at the moment and they are Phour and Pl8o, both emerging as great writing talents to add to the long list in the city. This is a recent piece by Pl80 on the long wall facing the river.

Pl8o, Brunel Way, Bristol, September 2020
Pl8o, Brunel Way, Bristol, September 2020

Pink is a colour that seems to be coming back into fashion and as with other pink pieces about the place it works very nicely indeed with blue. The 3D shadow is nicely done and the red details and yellow stars work very nicely in this piece. Probably Pl8o’s greatest asset though is the shape of the letter/number combination he uses it is very pleasing to the eye and full of lovely curves.

3245. St Werburghs tunnel (198)

It would seem that this piece from Smak was painted at the same time as Inkie and Tizer painted it recently and that there was something of a paint jam going on. I think that Hemper and one or two others might also have been involved. I have to admit that paint jams in the tunnel are not my favourite because the poor lighting never does justice to the artwork.

Smak, St Werburghs, Bristol, October 2020
Smak, St Werburghs, Bristol, October 2020

As always the work of Smak is of a consistently high quality and there is a lot here to admire in both shape and colour. Each letter is painted with care and attention and there is a phenomenal amount of detail and design behind each one. Another great piece of graffiti writing.

3243. St Werburghs tunnel (196)

What a lovely surprise to come across this Tizer piece so soon after his last visit to Bristol. I rather hope that this is going to become a bit of a ‘thing’. This one was painted alongside Inkie and is in the expected writing/character format that Tizer favours.

Tizer, St Werburghs, Bristol, October 2020
Tizer, St Werburghs, Bristol, October 2020

The colours are a little comprimised due to the lighting in the tunnel, particularly on the left side of the piece where the yellow tones start to dominate. Consistent with his way of working, I suspect that the piece is freestyled, which gives the letters a freedom that some rather more formulaic writers might struggle with. The multi-coloured fills are superbly well done and the female character on the left is sporting a fine pair of specs. More please.

3240. St Werburghs tunnel (196)

You know that the world has gone all topsy-turvy when Inkie hits so many walls in Bristol in such a short time. I am not complaining mind, and it is perhaps one of the few upsides of the coronavirus epidemic that Inkie seems to be spending more time in his native Bristol.

Inkie, St Werburghs, Bristol October 2020
Inkie, St Werburghs, Bristol October 2020

This is a recent piece in the tunnel painted alongside Tizer who has made two visits to Bristol in as many months. This is a lovely four-colour filled piece blended horizontally in two contrasting hues. Slightly less elaborate than some of his Oieces, but beautifully decorated with hearts and stars. Always, always great to find an Inkie piece.

3239. St Werburghs tunnel (195)

Yep, he’s back. This is just one of several new pieces by Slim Pickings (Tes) to appear over the last couple of weeks in Bristol. After a long quiet period, he has let loose again and there seem to be one or two adjustments to his ‘normal’ form of letters.

Slim Pickings, St Werburghs, Bristol, October 2020
Slim Pickings, St Werburghs, Bristol, October 2020

This one in the tunnel is slapped over another piece, almost like a sticker, in the fine tradition of throw ups, but this is a classy and beautifully finished type of throw up. Unfortunately the light in the tunnel kind of bleaches out any colours, so the piece looks a little bland. One of the variations that has crept in is the tightness in the curve of the S, an interesting development for those who study such things.

Slim Pickings, Dean Lane, Bristol, January 2020
Slim Pickings, Dean Lane, Bristol, January 2020

3237. Alfred Street (7)

This wall has been something of a treasure trove since it was painted at the Raw Wax paint jam at the back end of August. It is great to have a business in Bristol, in this instance Dare To, that welcomes street artists to decorate its walls, particularly in this rather dreary industrial estate.

Ware, Alfred Street, Bristol, September 2020
Ware, Alfred Street, Bristol, September 2020

This piece is by Ware who is one of the RAW artists that seems to paint less regularly than some of the others in the crew. Such rarity adds value, and it is great to see a piece of intricate writing like this. The character is the Cheshire Cat from the Disney adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. Each piece in this particular wall is composed of writing with a character and it is so worth a visit.

3234. M32 roundabout J3 (256)

The work of Benjimagnetic is so very distinctive, but as I mentioned before, I find it very tricky to decypher the letters in his writing. The density and compactness of the work with so many intricate lines and patterns make it hard to pick the letters out.

Benjimagnetic, M32 roundabout, Bristol, September 2020
Benjimagnetic, M32 roundabout, Bristol, September 2020

Sometimes with certain artists, your eyes become accustomed to their style and you become better at translating or working out the words, but I have a total fail when it comes to Benjimagnetic. My guess here would be ‘B, X or M, R’. The letters do not matter too much, the colour selection is great and those white-bordered angular shapes, so unique to the artist, are superbly done. A nice piece.

3232. Brunel Way bridge (59)

It is always good to return to my old favourites from time to time, keeping Natural Adventures grounded and not obsessed with high-end pieces, which could be very tempting but nowhere nearly as representative of the Bristol scene. The beating heart of graffiti and street art lie in the hands of people like Mr Draws and Face 1st – the unsung heroes of our city.

Mr Draws, Brunel Way, Bristol, September 2020
Mr Draws, Brunel Way, Bristol, September 2020

This is a piece from a short while back  by Mr draws that has a rather lovely feel to it. The colour fills are rather interesting and unruly, but somehow work really well and the whole thing, spelling out DRAWS, lifts nicely off the wall and the vibrant colours make it nice and lively. A decent piece that many might ignore and walk past.

3231. St Werburghs tunnel (194)

I was lucky enough to meet Frank Riot as she was working on this fabulous tribute piece to a friend of hers who had passed away a couple of years ago.

Although he hadn’t started his contribution at that point, the whole thing was actually a collaboration with Stivs albeit not necessarily painted at exactly the same time. Frank Riot is from London but had come to Bristol specially to paint this tribute. I chatted with her for a little while as she was working on the bottom half of the design using a lot of masking tape to get those superb straight lines.

Frank Riot WIP, St Werburghs, Bristol, September 2020
Frank Riot WIP, St Werburghs, Bristol, September 2020

Unfortunately I didn’t get to see her or Stivs completing the piece, but returned a couple of days later to check it out. It has turned out wonderfully well and the huge contrast between the artist’s styles somehow doesn’t seem to matter too much.

Frank Riot and Stivs, St Werburghs, Bristol, September 2020
Frank Riot and Stivs, St Werburghs, Bristol, September 2020

Frank Riot is a designer and that comes across clearly in her work Whereas Stivs is a specialist in beautiful Gothic type script graffiti writing. This wall usually has a high turnover, but I hope this tribute piece receives a little bit of respect for a while, it certainly deserves it.