There is something about the work of Elvs that I find rather compelling. His letters are so very distinct and always easy to identify. I love what he has done in this piece, using a little spaceship to create a ray of light over his writing and offer the opportunity to show off two discrete colour variants, one within the arc of light and the other outside it.
Elvs, Dean Lane, Bristol, December 2019
The piece is really clever and I’m not sure I have seen this kind of idea on a wall very often. As always, Elvs has turned out some really tight graffiti writing that speaks volumes to his great talent.
My search through the archives continues with this lovely piece from February 2019 by Warp. I found this one on the back of research that I was doing for the piece I posted by him a couple of days ago, I hadn’t been able to read the letters or signature and so it was languishing forlornly in my March 2019 folder.
Warp, M32 roundabout, Bristol, February 2019
This is another classy piece of graffiti writing from Warp, clean, crisp and in the company of the fabulous Smak (left) and Jaksta (right). I wonder if I have any more of his pieces in my folders…
As you can probably guess from the last post, I have been having a bit of a rummage around in my archive of 2019. Regrettably there are so many great pieces that haven’t made it into Natural Adventures, many of them because at the time of taking the photograph the artist was unknown to me and I try not to post too many ‘unknown’ pieces.
Conrico, St Werburghs, Bristol, February 2019
From back in February 2019 this might be one of the earliest works I have from Conrico but it is a really cracking piece of writing, beautifully designed in a cartoon style and nicely set in a coastal scene with the sea, a beach and palm trees – it is details like these that mark it out as a Conrico piece. Nice to see a reference to ‘the Monday Club’ a loose crew that is now well established in Bristol.
Meeting artists is pretty much always a real pleasure, and a couple of weeks back I got lucky when I met Warp for the first time while he was painting this piece. During the course of our conversation he explained that he has two street personas, Warp (his more commercial tag) and another name that he writes under. He explained that he had been somewhat forgetful and sprayed this Warp piece, when he had actualy intended to paint a different piece under his other name.
Warp, M32 roundabout, Bristol, November 2019
The writing here is seriously good. All the elements have been executed with care and precision. The fills in the letters, the deep 3D red fill, superb slim black lines outlining the letters and a clean yellow surround, all of it neat and crisp. I haven’t seen too many pieces by Warp, but those that I have seen are all of the highest quality. I hope to bump into him again sometime.
At the Farm end of St Werburghs tunnel a little while ago was this beautifully colourful piece by Corupt, in fact I think it is probably my favourite of his ever. The letter shapes are typical of his style, from the sloping ‘C’ to the ornate stem of the ‘T’, but it is the upbeat fills and childish colours that make this piece stand out from the crowd.
Corupt, St Werburghs, Bristol, October 2019
The whole piece looks like a child’s colouring-in book (in a good way) and has a lightness and joy about it. A magnificent work from this quiet and often overlooked artist. I have so much more of his work to share with you.
A stunning piece by Ments on a great wall. This whole area is being redeveloped, and I fear that the wall may have already been demolished, which is a real pity because it has hosted some really spectacular art. The reduction in available walls to paint in this area is going to be a bit of a challenge for street/graffiti artists and is a pattern being replicated all over the city. It will be interesting to see if new areas become popular painting spots in the future.
Ments, Upper York Street, Bristol, October 2019
The piece is so very typical of Ments’ organic style, and this one has a molten metallic feel about it. The letters spell out MENTS (although the T looks like it is missing). I also get a slight sense of the surrealist Yves Tanguy here, or at least the meltinng shapes and shadows reminnd me of his work. A classy and unusual piece.
Rezwonk has had a very busy year, and a particularly busy summer, so it is not really surprising that he has slowed down a little over the last couple of months. In general, the turnover of street/graffiti art slows a little during the winter months, which makes sense really.
Rezwonk, Wilder Street, Bristol, November 2019
This piece at the far west end of Wilder street is on a wall that has been curated by Where the Wall, but I am not so sure if it still is because a few ad hoc pieces seem to be appearing. This whole area though is rapidly being redeveloped, and several walls with some lovely pieces have been knocked down in recent weeks. Of course this is a pity for the street art community, but the buildings were falling into dereliction and perhaps no longer fit for purpose. My issue however is that instead of building affordable housing for the local community, which is far from affluent, all the developments are earmarked for student accommodation.
Back to the Rezer piece which is a thoroughly decent burner and which (I guess intentionally) has an effect of being slightly blurry (around the white accents) – or maybe this is an artefact of my failing eyesight. Always good to see work from Rezwonk.
This is a very neat and tidy ‘quick one’ from Ryder, which I suspect was painted at the same time as the recent collaboration with Decay, which can be seen in the background of the feature image.
Ryder, M32 Spot, Bristol, November 2019
I always expect tidy writing from Ryder and this is a lovely example, I would however like to see a few more of his larger considered pieces like the ones he produces for Upfest. A hugely talented graffiti writer whose work is right up there with the best in Bristol.
Another visit to Bristol from Elvs and this time bringing several wonderful shades of pink. I think that this was painted as part of a collaborative section of wall in St Werburghs tunnel, but I’m not sure ay all who painted the rather fun Pink Panther on the left.
Elvs, St Werburghs, Bristol, November 2019
Elvs has such a unique style which if you look at analytically is based on a solid block of letters and a 3D edge (in black) upon which fine line detail has been added and of course a masterful horizontally graded fill. Seems straightforward, but I’m sure it has taken years to perfect. A really classy piece of writig.
Well, so long as Slim Pickings keeps churning out his magnificent TES pieces, I’ll continue to post them. As always his work is clean, sharp and he has some decent colour selections although I fear there might be just a little bit too much contrast between the letter colours and the green and yellow background.
Slim Pickings (Tes), Dean Lane, Bristol, November 2019
I have a great many pieces by Slim Pickings in my archive and I’m just waiting for a lean period to publish them (the chance would be a fine thing). More to come in due course – maybe I feel a gallery coming on…
Natural adventures 