Writer – Page 76 – Natural adventures

6255. M32 roundabout J3 (609)

Although Cort tends to have a presence in Bristol most of the time, I don’t find myself posting his work all that often. He is an artist who definitely likes to do things his own way and although he can come across as a little unfriendly, I suspect that he is probably quite introverted and likes to keep himself to himself.

It is very difficult to describe Cort’s style, but am going to have a go anyway. His letters are often quite unruly and veer towards anti-style, except that there is an irregular regularity about them. I always rather like his fills, which feel quite artistic to me, and I can see links to the art of Miro (is that just me?). Cort has included a little line drawing cartoon character, which adds a little bit of fun to the overall work. This is a nice piece from Cort.

6253. M32 roundabout J3 (608)

Raid, M32 roundabout, Bristol, June 2024

Raid has slowed down a little, only a little mind, but his presence is felt whenever he paints one of his RAID writings. This one has to be marked out as being slightly different from his usual work on account of the inclusion of a character – a welcome addition.

The glaringly obvious feature of this piece is the camouflage fill, which is something I have seen quite a lot of, I would guess that it is probably easier to do than some fills, because the shapes and colour patchwork are quite random, and forgiving of little mistakes. The character is a bit of fun, but has very different characteristics to the confidence demonstrated in the writing. It will be interesting to see if Raid continues with the inclusion of characters. I noticed that his Instagram account appears to have disappeared, which is a pity.

6250. Cumberland Basin

Awor1, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2024

This piece, by visiting artist Awor1, was one of at least three painted in Bristol, but is the only one I managed to photograph in time. The graffiti writing was painted during a small paint jam on the long wall of Cumberland Basin.

I don’t know where Awor1 hails from, and I am not familiar with any previous work by the artist, so don’t have any benchmark to compare this piece with. Certainly, Awor1 is an accomplished writer, and the clever use of brown shades (not my favourite colours) running through the letters combined with fine white highlights creates an almost metallic feel to the fills. The whole thing is set on a black background and decorated with green plasma and purple spheres. Nice work from Awor1.

6247. M32 roundabout J3 (607)

Trafficity, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2024

Trafficity is an artist who paints just often enough to keep him in mind. His winning formula of letters with variations in horizontal colour bands is consistent and unwavering. I wonder if he could produce a chrome version of his writing, and if so, would it work?

The colours selected for this one on the roundabout, are broadly speaking his favoured colours, he likes greens purples and light blues, only occasionally turning to the ‘warmer’ colours of the spectrum. The letters spell ZIOM, and I can still see the word MUMM in the top lime green section. Tick tock.

6243. St Werburghs tunnel (435)

Grimes, St Werburghs, Bristol, July 2024

An important part of becoming established in whatever field you operate in is presence and consistency, without either of which it is all too easy to fall off the radar. Grimes, since his arrival in Bristol, has been both present and consistent and has been noticed for it. A third element is quality, because you can be both present and consistent, but also rubbish, like a lot of taggers for example, but Grimes’ work is fabulous and lifts him above the norm.

This is a really fabulous purple and orange piece which, like all of his work I have seen, is full of energy and movement. It is interesting to note the impact the texture of the wall has on a piece, for example the right-hand quarter of this piece sits on a more bumpy surface, whereas the left-hand side is painted on a smoother rendered section, and you can see the difference. Everything about this piece is god, and I continue to enjoy this journey.

6242. M32 roundabout J3 (606)

Minto, M32 roundabout, Bristol, July 2023

Minto has been painting a string of fabulous pieces recently, most of which are following this style of what I would describe as deconstruction. The architecture of the piece is there, with the scaffolding still left up (metaphorically speaking) and lots of parts are exposed. We are more used to seeing conventional graffiti writing with solid fills and continuity – Minto has blown this convention apart with his fragmentation approach. The overall effect is not unlike Benjimagnetic’s work.

The letters MINTO can be reasonably clearly seen, with some hint at symmetry (with the exception of the ‘T’ which breaks things up in space and colour). A couple of faces make an appearance, and there is a rather nice little shout out to Soker there too. Really great and different stuff from Minto.

6241. Greenbank (129)

Just when I think that Haka has gone all quiet, he pops up with another piece, and so it was with this one on the long hoarding at Greenbank. The piece is a rather nice writing character combination, where the letters HAKA occupy most of the body space, behind which is a rather cheerful-looking stegosaurus.

I have tried to find out who the dinosaur is, as most of Haka’s characters tend to be from children’s picture books, but there are an awful lot of them and my Google search was fruitless. The whole thing is a really nicely composed conflation of graffiti writing and children’s illustration. Charming really.

6240. Dean Lane skate park (736)

One of this summer’s pleasures has been the reasonably regular appearances by Kid Crayon and his painting pal, I am Ian. This wacky piece features a large cartoon-style character, with tears flowing from his exaggerated eyes, and the caption ‘Ain’t easy being macho’, which is really funny.

Although it isn’t necessarily intended to be topical or political, this piece and the caption speaks to me about a growing and disturbing phenomenon of disenfranchised white males, often poorly educated and with limited prospects, turning to the far right of politics, encouraged by the untruths and promises of divisive and disingenuous politicians and activists. The perfect example of this was the man in a grey tracksuit at the race riot in Southport this week, who was posturing and puffing out his chest in front of a line of police with their riot gear, only to be hit on the head with a brick and another large item, thrown by other rioters at the police, and then on retreating back to the fold, got struck in the bo**ocks by another missile. ‘Ain’t easy being macho’.

6239. St Werburghs tunnel (434)

I happened upon Dusce while he was painting this piece, and immediately deduced that he was not an artist I have seen before. As I always do, I gently struck up a conversation, and gathered that he was visiting from London and this was the first piece he had painted in Bristol. He was very young and despite having obvious talent appeared to be on the quiet side, not giving away very much – perhaps he thought I was going to shop him for painting an illegal wall (they are all illegal in Bristol).

The illustrative piece with his writing front and centre tells a story of pollution, framed in a rather 1970s way – this kind of imagery was much more common when I was growing up than it is now. There is a little smattering of The Simpsons about the theme too. The writing is very nice if a little understated. I expect we’ll be seeing more of Dusce as he progresses.

6238. Cumberland Basin

Donz, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2024

A rare trip into the centre of Bristol, from his native Lawrence Weston, brought Donz to this spot in the Cumberland Basin. At first I had a little difficulty working what was going on here, because Donz has painted directly over a Mr Draws piece, without buffing the wall or masking out with a background design, in the spirit of a throwie, but this is better than your average throw up.

Donz has a very particular style, probably governed by his letter in part, where his letter surfaces are quite flat, without midlines or accents, and the depth is provided by the 3D drop shadow. This piece reminds me very much of one he painted about a year ago in L Dub, which used the same colour combination.

	paulh121 on 7474. Canons Wharf
	scooj on 7474. Canons Wharf
	paulh121 on 7474. Canons Wharf
	Cethru Cellophane (a… on 7474. Canons Wharf
	Sheree on 7474. Canons Wharf

	paulh121 on 7474. Canons Wharf
	scooj on 7474. Canons Wharf
	paulh121 on 7474. Canons Wharf
	Cethru Cellophane (a… on 7474. Canons Wharf
	Sheree on 7474. Canons Wharf

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