6296. Muriel Alleyway (7)

Ailish Beadle, Muriel Alleyway, Bristol, August 2024
Ailish Beadle, Muriel Alleyway, Bristol, August 2024

Painted on a sunny and warm day at Bristol’s smallest street art festival, this is a debut piece (in Bristol) by Ailish Beadle, who had only moved to Bristol a few days previously. It was great to be able to chat to her and welcome her to the city and its art scene.

Ailish Beadle, Muriel Alleyway, Bristol, August 2024
Ailish Beadle, Muriel Alleyway, Bristol, August 2024

Ailish Beadle was refreshing/reimagining a piece that had been painted here before by Rtiiika, but which had been tagged and abused. She was able to breathe new life into the great words in her own illustration style, which as it turns out is rather good and totally in keeping with the Bristol Mural Collective’s ‘look’.

Ailish Beadle, Muriel Alleyway, Bristol, August 2024
Ailish Beadle, Muriel Alleyway, Bristol, August 2024

A rather nice touch, and nod to the original piece, is the incorporation of the smiley face. The words in red in the centre are complemented perfectly with an array of designs and patterns in black and a sprinkling of dots, creating plenty of energy and movement. I very much look forward top seeing more from Ailish Beadle on the streets of Bristol.

Rtiiika, Muriel Alleyway, Bristol, May 2021
Rtiiika, Muriel Alleyway, Bristol, May 2021

6290. L Dub (55)

Dun Sum, L Dub, Bristol, August 2024
Dun Sum, L Dub, Bristol, August 2024

Dun Sum is an artist I’d love to see more of in Central Bristol, but he tends to stick to his home territory of Lawrence Weston. Whether it is graffiti writing or his fantasy character pieces, he brings an originality which is hard to better.

Dun Sum, L Dub, Bristol, August 2024
Dun Sum, L Dub, Bristol, August 2024

This extraordinary piece of writing shimmers as if it were molten metal… an incredible effect. The letters spell out Dun Sum and are filled expertly. To me, this looks like the graffiti version of the Terminator character who can morph from solid to liquid. The downside to painting in L Dub is that footfall is incredibly light, and so few people will ever get to see this outstanding work.

6288. Lower Ashley Road (9)

Taboo, Lower Ashley Road, Bristol, August 2024
Taboo, Lower Ashley Road, Bristol, August 2024

It is rare for new hoardings to remain unpainted or untagged in Bristol, and no sooner had these gone up around a new development site, than they were decorated with several throw ups including this fine anti-style graffiti writing and character combination piece by Taboo.

Taboo, Lower Ashley Road, Bristol, August 2024
Taboo, Lower Ashley Road, Bristol, August 2024

Taboo has been reasonably quiet lately, so this piece came as a very welcome surprise. As you can see it is a birthday tribute piece to Ffion, and includes a cute portrait of Simba from the Lion King Disney film. The writing, which is really on-point, spells out TABOO, of which the lion cub makes up the first ‘O’. I love the pink inside the second ‘O’, adding just another layer of interest.

6286. New Stadium Road (57)

Whysayit, New Stadium Road, Bristol, August 2024
Whysayit, New Stadium Road, Bristol, August 2024

This is rather a special piece from Whysayit, because it is unusual to see anything by him quite as big and bold as this one, and to see his work on a (partially) buffed background. The anti-style letters spell out YSAE (why say), which stand out really well.

Whysayit, New Stadium Road, Bristol, August 2024
Whysayit, New Stadium Road, Bristol, August 2024

Although nicely finished, there is something quite raw about this piece, especially in the translucency of the orange colour, a colour, along with yellow, that can (depending on the brand of paint) be rather thin. I don’t know if he was running out of paint, or whether it is a feature, but the tail of the letter ‘E’ is finished off in white, in throw up style zigzags. The letters are finished off with a rather nice 3D drop shadow in dark blue with vertical green stripes and a clean white border. A very nice example of Whysayit’s work.

6284. St Werburghs tunnel (437)

Dirtygypo, St Werburghs, Bristol, August 2024
Dirtygypo, St Werburghs, Bristol, August 2024

Oh what a beauty from Dirtygypo in the tunnel. He has been writing all over the place with his characteristic letter style, but I am still no closer to having any idea what his letters spell out. The only way out of this particular conundrum is to bump in to the artist at some point and ask him.

Dirtygypo, St Werburghs, Bristol, August 2024
Dirtygypo, St Werburghs, Bristol, August 2024

This is a really colourful piece with each letter element containing a different colour fill, and there is a special treat in the letter that looks like a reverse ‘t’ with a mosaic of colour shapes creating interest and variation. This, like his other pieces, is lively and vibrant and a very welcome contribution to the Bristol street/graffiti art scene.

6283. Sparke Evans Park (101)

Pl8o, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, August 2024
Pl8o, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, August 2024

I haven’t seen an awful lot from Pl8o for quite a while, so it was really great to come across this recent piece in Sparke Evans Park. There is something rather different about Pl8o’s work that helps it to stand out from the crowd, and I think that can be attributed in part to the aesthetically pleasing letters P L 8 O… it just kind of works.

Pl8o, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, August 2024
Pl8o, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, August 2024

This is a bit of a cheeky one featuring a character who makes up the letter ‘P’ and who happens to be doing a fart. This is quite a common theme with street art characters and usually provokes a chuckle or two. The point about this piece is that Pl8o draws attention to to the gaseous emission with the text “is it art, or is it fart”. Great fun and skilfully done.

6282. L Dub (54)

Acer One, L Dub, Bristol, August 2024
Acer One, L Dub, Bristol, August 2024

L Dub (Lawrence Weston) is a funny old spot, really. It involves a 15-minute walk alongside the M5 motorway on a pathway which runs through a kind of brownfield site of scrub and thickets. The place is absolutely bursting with wildlife, which thrives in and around the drainage ditches, which I presume take excess water away from the motorway. It is interesting that these dilapidated ‘forgotten’ spots are often some of the most biodiverse in the country. The place is festooned with all sorts of interesting plants, dragonflies, beetles and butterflies,,, an unlikely nature hot spot.

It also plays host to a water pumping station which offers several walls for painting, and a pedestrian underpass which takes you under the motorway and some other roads and provides plenty of graffiti opportunities, for those that can be bothered to find the place. Acer One has recently painted a couple of pieces here, away from the crowds.

Acer One, L Dub, Bristol, August 2024
Acer One, L Dub, Bristol, August 2024

This is a complex piece, which demonstrates how his mind works (in his own words) and is also a little bit experimental. The letters spell out ACERONE, but are alternately coloured, so it starts with a dark blue A, followed by a gold C, then a blue E and so on. Fascinating stuff that can take a little while to work out and keeps those brain cells ticking over.

6281. Leicester

Inkie, High Street, Leicester, July 2024
Inkie, High Street, Leicester, July 2024

It is always great to see work by Inkie, but especially so when outside Bristol, it feels like a home from home. This is an outstanding piece of writing with some flat pink, stylised portraits and silhouetted urban landscape in the background.

Inkie, High Street, Leicester, July 2024
Inkie, High Street, Leicester, July 2024

The letters BTP, which form a kind of print backdrop, stand for Bring the Paint, a street art festival hosted in Leicester every now and again. This piece was painted by Inkie for this year’s festival, and accompanies others that he has painted in previous festivals here. This a really nice, tight graffiti writing, and a superb example of Inkie’s work.

6277. M32 Cycle Path (273)

Nips, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, July 2024
Nips, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, July 2024

What better way to start the day than with a nice, crisp chrome piece from Nips. What a pity I didn’t get there before the tagger, but that is all part of the way of life in this jungle. Everyone knows what the rules are, and whatever existing rules can be broken at any time by anyone.

Nips, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, July 2024
Nips, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, July 2024

There is an uncomplicatedness about this piece that speaks of an artist who is comfortable with their work. No need to embellish or over-decorate. Sometimes less is more, and I would suggest that is the case here. I haven’t yet met Nips, and look forward to the day when I might just be in the right place at the right time to do so.

6276. New Stadium Road (56)

Conrico, New Stadium Road, Bristol, July 2024
Conrico, New Stadium Road, Bristol, July 2024

Conrico has been so productively lately with commissions, painting walls and the Cheltenham Paint Festival. It is lucky really that he is so passionate about what he does and that he really enjoys it. He is currently going full tilt on his Japanese influenced pieces, including this lovely landscape/writing combo.

Conrico, New Stadium Road, Bristol, July 2024
Conrico, New Stadium Road, Bristol, July 2024

Conrico has a great story behind his moniker, which is essentially a school corruption of his name which has stuck, a bit like Scooj which I use as my pseudonym. The letters CONRICO are dominant in this piece and are influenced by the katakana alphabet, and float over a stunning landscape of a snow-clad volcano (Fuji?) and cherry blossoms in the foreground. A wonderful piece.