A gallery of bright and colourful graffiti writing from Bristol artist Donz.
Instagram: @mrcrisp_donz
All photographs by Scooj
Donz
Tag: Writer
7491. St Werburghs tunnel (573)
It has been a very lean start to the year in terms of new street art pieces, which I attribute to the appalling weather that we have had so far this year. It isn’t only difficult to spray paint in the rain, it is also rather unpleasant. The tunnel has provided some refuge from the weather, and this is a nice recent piece by Hire which was painted alongside Sait Bare.
These days, it is more common to see the letters ODIAH than it is to see HIRE from the artist – perhaps it offers him more scope to play with form and colour. In years gone by, Hire used to create much more jagged and spiky pieces, and this feels like a softened version, showing his transition over time. I love the colours and love his work.
7488. River Avon (112)
I’ll be in meetings in London today, so I wrote this post quickly last night. Kush has been appearing more frequently in the pages of Natural Adventures recently. Whether it is because he is painting more or I am seeing his pieces more is open to debate.
This is a rather nice straightforward piece on a new stretch of rather horrible white shiny hoarding around a new development alongside the river. The letters. KUSH, are nicely filled with grey and gold colours with reversed out bubbles and a touch of pink. A confident red border finished the piece well and separates it from the ghastly hoarding.
7484. St Werburghs tunnel (570)
Sait Bare is an artist I haven’t yet met, so I can offer little insight into him or his motivations, but his unusual work is constantly developing and improving. Recently he has switched things up a little and changed from writing the letters SAIT to writing the letters BARE, as in this case.
The colours he ha selected for this piece have a wonderfully rich quality, with the two tones of deep red and the reversed out spots contrasting really well with the sandy yellow. . The letters are set in a grey buffed wall with some nice pink and blue (that winning combo) spots. This is a lovely looking piece from Sait Bare.
7482. M32 roundabout J3 (743)
Here we have a lovely Desi piece which reverts back to her DESI letters, rather than her VEIL letters that she has been favouring in recent months. If you look closely, you will notice that she has been joined with an impish addition by Posh.
Desi’s letters are filled with four shades of purple containing reversed out spots through the colour courses. The letters are finished well with a black drop shadow and fine yellow border.
The addition of a Posh character exclaiming the words ‘eh up’, perhaps betraying a Derbyshire or Yorkshire origin, is a bonus bit of fun. Different artists, different styles, most likely painted at different times.
7480. Dean Lane skate park (904)
Two artists that have had a great and productive year are Asre and Zinso, and I guess that their friendship/collaboration has in part helped each to keep at it. This is a nice, gentle piece by Asre in one of his favoured spots in Dean Lane.
The large letters are forgiving in form and filled with a subtle combination of lilac and soft pink ‘bubbles’. Two further things come to the aid of the letters, the black drop shadow and the vibrant green providing contrast. An uplifting piece from Asre.
7479. Cumberland Basin
I was so pleased to find this piece by Werm, who like many other artists has struggled to paint this winter, I assume, because of the rain. Werm painted this spot some years ago with a skull piece, and I think that this is a throwback piece to the original painted in February 2023.
I guess you could call this a combination piece, although the skull and letters are discrete. On the left, the skull (from the cat family I guess) is beautifully observed, with some great shading to bring out the form and depth. The proportions work really well – skulls can be very difficult to paint. The writing on the right spells out WERM stacked, two letters on top of the other two. Overall, this is a fine work from Werm and almost like a study to practice his craft.
7477. Dean Lane skate park (903)
There was a time when finding a Trafficity piece was something of a rarity, but it feels like he has ever so slightly turned up the dial over the last couple of years and is in a good rhythm. Trafficity’s work is quite remarkable in that he sticks to his intricate design piece after piece, with only colour changes and minor decorations. His consistency is his trademark.
Like Cort (see previous post), Trafficity belongs to the PAD crew, which is mainly composed of Polish artists. Bristol is full of these little communities of artists, sometimes defined by nationality, sometimes by gender, sometimes by friendship or sometimes a combination of all of these. The letters spell ZIOS, which is reasonably easy to see once you know. It is always good to find pieces by Trafficity.
7476. Dean Lane skate park (902)
Cort tends to bring some lovely colours into his work, often choosing ones that both contrast with and complement each other well. This approach brings into focus just how important colour selection can be, and that it is not a random process for most artists, but a carefully considered process.
The sunlight on this piece isn’t very helpful, but I think you get the picture. The KORT letters are so typically written in his unusual style, and pairs of letters are filled in common. It looks like he was running low on some colours, or the piece has been badly rain affected, because it is possible to see the paint lines in some of the fills. Another nice piece from Cort.
7473. St Werburghs tunnel (569)
This was a piece from a little while ago by Kool Hand, celebrating his own birthday with some friends in the tunnel. For some reason, my iPhone was playing up that day, and my photographs a little blurry – some kind of auto-setting might have kicked in because of the low light levels.
The combination piece has the letters KOOL accompanied by a trademark orangutan head, and the whole thing is very nicely presented. Kool Hand is an artist whose work just keeps on developing gradually but consistently. A very nice birthday present to self.
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