I have met Mr Draws a great many times, which is not surprising, given the frequency with which both of us are out and about in the more popular graffiti spots of Bristol. I can honestly say that he is a gentle and really decent man, who’s good nature comes out in his light-hearted writing.
Mr Draws, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2025
This transition piece was painted at the end of 2024 and start of 2025 (I hope not on New Year’s Eve itself). Some nice letters spelling out DRAW, and a rather tired and emotional looking Smiley positioned in the centre of the piece, perhaps representing some exuberant celebrating and welcoming of 2025.
Jevoissoul and Omie, Stapleton Road, Bristol, January 2025
The new hoarding at the very top end of Stapleton Road has been colonised pretty quickly, and I can see it becoming a popular spot over the coming months. Omie and Jevoissoul have teamed up to paint one section of the virgin hoarding, and started off with a rather fetching pink background.
Jevoissoul, Stapleton Road, Bristol, January 2025
Jevoissoul is fast becoming one of the most active street artists in Bristol, with his stylised character faces and ‘SLOW’ writing appearing pretty much all over the city. Hardly a day passes without stumbling on another new piece. Since I first became aware of his work, his pieces have become much tighter, with strong, tidy black lines and solid fills. This is a good example of his improvement.
Omie, Stapleton Road, Bristol, January 2025
Having met Omie over the Christmas break, it is so nice now to visualise the face and person behind the great writing. What I particularly like about Omie’s work is that every piece is utterly unique and different from anything else I have seen by him before. His creativity is admirable. I like the colours and the brush-stroke effect he has achieved with this piece. I wonder how long this collaboration will remain before others get to test out this new spot.
After a reasonably quiet winter season, Acer One has pulled this beauty out of the hat. The piece is painted on a wall that Acer One has made his own over recent years, and this is a rather special instalment.
Acer One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2025
The stylised letters spell out ‘peace and love’ which are placed over a swirling ribbon of colour and a neutral grey background. Acer One specialises in his stylised fonts, and tends to execute them to perfection. A nice sentiment and great piece.
I love the way that street and graffiti artists are so quick to find new hoardings, a job, in fairness, made much easier when they are adjacent to an existing known spot. So it is with these hoardings near the M32 Spot. Nice One has painted another of his stunning landscape pieces on this virgin board and it looks fantastic.
Nice One, Stapleton Road, Bristol, January 2025
The winter scene features a rural landscape with bare trees and a church tower, all covered in snow. It is a pretty scene and one that is rarely seen in street art. Nice one is an interesting character who combines a subversive edge with a fine art and design style, and he is producing some of the best artwork in Bristol at the moment (in my opinion). A wonderful piece.
Another piece from the archives, and it is one from Grimes that I must have photographed before I knew who the artist was, and held back as I rarely post unattributed work. This one was taken back in January last year, and may have been the first time I became aware of his outstanding graffiti writing work.
Grimes, River Avon, Bristol, January 2024
The fruity colours are ones that he really seems to enjoy using, and I have to say that it is the colour palette decisions that he makes that have drawn me into his work, that and the energy that emanates from his pieces. There is a busyness about this piece with the colours and all of the fill patterns, but somehow he gets away with it and it doesn’t feel like hard work viewing it, which can happen sometimes with busy pieces. Nice work from Grimes, who incidentally is a really lovely bloke.
This is a neat and tidy piece of Winter writing from Werm painted in his symmetrical theme design. What is particularly attractive about this piece is that the proportions work really well, and it is really tight.
Werm, River Avon, Bristol, January 2025
Orange and green are common colour combinations in graffiti writing and are colours that work extremely well together. It looks like Werm too his time with this piece, as all the lines are nice and straight, the fills accurate and the highlights very nicely placed. First-class writing from Werm.
Many times in the past, I have described Mr Draws as being the beating heart of the Bristol street/graffiti art scene. Regular and dependable, his artwork could not be described as ‘high end’ and there is nothing pretentious about what he does, and there is a Bristol charm lurking in his work.
Mr Draws, Brunel Way, Bristol, January 2025
This piece is obviously inspired by the latest Aardman Wallace and Gromit film that was screened over Christmas, and featured the penguin villain ‘Feathers’. The combination of chrome writing and the penguin character surprisingly combine rather nicely, and Mr Draws has done a great job.
Mr Draws, Brunel Way, Bristol, January 2025
I haven’t seen the movie, but I am guessing that the diamond has some significance in the plot line. Great fun from Mr Draws.
Kool Hand and Werm, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, January 2025
I am tired, really tired. Returning to work from a week on leave is tough, and expectations on me are high. Over the Christmas period, I was informed that I would be ‘on loan’ to another team for 2 days a week. I was given no clear instruction, there was no discussion, and today I will be finding out what the tasks expected will be. I am unhappy about the situation, and it is causing me all sorts of unnecessary anxiety, but I will of course be professional and try to do the best job I can. My biggest concern is that I was already working at maximum capacity, and I am worried about the work I will have to drop, and the ‘clients’ I will have to let down. On a more cheery note (thank God I have street/graffiti art to lean on) here is a fine Christmas collaboration from Kool Hand and Werm.
Kool Hand, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, January 2025
A frosty, cold background is a fine setting for both pieces, and Kool Hand has gone for some big KOOL letters which are nicely filled and have some snowy white accents to give a little bit of a 3D perspective. Very festive.
Werm, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, January 2025
Werm presents his letters in the symmetrical form he has been painting throughout 2024, but it is the festive colour selection that is the talking point of this piece. The two-red colour stripes are slightly reminiscent (consciously or otherwise) of Christmas candy sticks, and the green 3D drop shadow completes the holiday mood. Some nice star bursts complete the piece very nicely indeed. A good Christmas piece in a year when there were fewer than usual around the city.
Unknown Artist, Braggs Lane, Bristol, December 2024
Sometimes I have no idea who painted a particular piece but like to post it, because it is simply too good not to post. This is an unusual stencil and writing combination piece that I am assuming is by a single artist, but it is quite possible that this is the work of two people.
Unknown Artist, Braggs Lane, Bristol, December 2024
Of course, the point of the piece is to write a one-liner gag, which I have to admit I haven’t heard before, and it made me laugh when I saw it. There are a lot of words in this piece of writing and each of the letters has a 3D shadow, so I would say it is the work of an accomplished writer. The writing is accompanied by a stencil of a woman holding a spray can, implying that she sprayed the writing.
Unknown Artist, Braggs Lane, Bristol, December 2024
I have seen better single-layer stencils, but there is a charm about this one, and the whole combination, that I have slightly fallen for. My guess is that this wall was painted some time ago… I say that, because I rarely visit this area. A bit of fun for Tuesday morning.
It isn’t all that often that you find graffiti writing by 3Dom, and I had to do a double take when I saw this piece to remind myself what his writing looks like. One of the very first pieces I posted by 3Dom was a piece of writing not unlike this one.
3Dom, Greenbank, Bristol, December 2024
The letters spell out the artist’s moniker and are elaborately filled with intricate patterns and incredible detail that 3Dom specialises in. The colour palette is nicely chosen and cleverly distributed within and around the letters. A wonderful surprise on one of the last walks I had before going off on my holiday.
Natural adventures 