Writer – Page 84 – Natural adventures

6131. Upfest 2024 (28)

Luke Smile, Upfest 24, West Street, Bristol, May 2024

Life in full colour! This outstanding Upfest piece, by Luke Smile in a way reflects the previous two posts (Shane O’ Malley and Paul Monsters) in its joyful use of colour and specific reference to colour in the words. Although this is not the first time I have seen Luke Smile’s work in Bristol, he is not a regular visitor, so it felt especially good to see this piece.

Luke Smile is a British artist and designer and has been concentrating on his ‘Smile sans’ font which we see here in this mural. I have lifted Luke Smile’s description of the font from his website, because I am sure his explanation is far better than anything I could write:

‘The bespoke font has a hollow-like quality where the 3D areas of the letterforms leave space for bold colour and texture whilst casting interesting shadows’

I have to say that this piece really struck me when I first saw it and it remains one of my favourites from this year’s festival.

Luke Smile, Dean Lane, Bristol, November 2017

6128. Cumberland Basin

Marckinetic, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, May 2024

Marckinetic has been out a fair bit this year, painting alongside his mate Kid Krishna, and he hasn’t yet appeared to run out of inspiration for his FFS designs – this one being a cracking example. There is a real sense of clarity and purpose in this piece.

You have to have some insider knowledge or a great imagination to know that the letters spell FFS. There is a lovely symmetry and flow in this piece created by the curves of the letters, and the deep black shadow gives the whole thing a monolithic appearance. The fills are very nicely worked and I love the cracks in the blue fills. The piece has been nicely finished and is clean and crisp – an excellent and unusual piece of graffiti writing from Marckinetic.

6125. Dean Lane skate park (724)

Werm and Noise, Dean Lane, Bristol, May 2024

Werm and Noise are no strangers to collaborating with one another and in May, painted this wonderful collaboration in Dean Lane. Both artists have a distinctive style, and although they use different colour palettes in this collaboration, they are joined together with some connecting background characters.

The writing from Werm is busy and electrifying, with brilliant use of contrasting colours and some highly technical skills used to spell out WERM. There is a lot of depth in the piece, with layers sitting on layers. The bright star spots on some of the letters add a twinkle – classy work.

Noise, has been smashing it lately with a host of new pieces during the spring, and does it again with this piece and his characteristic fat letters spelling out NOISE. The two-colour fill transitions nicely using some symbols and patterns where the two colours meet . Both pieces are bookended with little grey characters painted in a cartoon style, but I am not too sure who painted them. All in all a fine collaborative wall from the pair.

6123. Cumberland Basin

Mote and Mr Crawls, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2024

Some more jolly capers from Mr Crawls and Mote, who have been smashing it for months now, and continue to turn out some great and fun character pieces dotted all over the place. This pair of characters were painted on the warehouse wall in Cumberland Basin, and command a majestic view over the river.

To the left is a friendly, toothy monster by Mote whose eyes (in common with the adjacent Mr Crawls character) are simply holes in the head, creating a mask-like effect. There are some nice squiggles and doodles in the fill, something of a trademark of Mote’s work. On the right Mr Crawls has recreated one of his hatted birds, although in a stylised cartoon form that is more angular than some of his earlier work. The pair look magnificent on the white background, and are unusually large, due to the big wall they have chosen to paint.

6122. Greenbank (123)

I find myself sounding like a stuck record all too often when it comes to posting about Mr Draws’ work, in part because he has been an ever-present on Natural Adventures and continues to paint his unique style of writing and his diverse street art pieces, and I have found myself repeating myself a little, which in no way detracts from his wonderful work.

There is a freedom and joy in Mr Draws’ graffiti writing in which he concentrates on his fills, usually with hard edges between colours rather than blended transitions. He has used his customary deep drop shadow, and the whole thing is bordered with a clean white line. A fine archetypal Mr Draws piece that is a key part of the continuing culture of the whole Bristol street art and graffiti writing scene.

6120. M32 Cycle path (268)

Hemper, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, June 2024

In Bristol we are spoilt and have become accustomed to seeing extraordinary wildstyle graffiti writing from Hemper on a regular basis. This wonderful organic piece is simply the latest in an outstanding series from the talented artist.

The letters spell out HEMS and have remarkable depth to them created through both incredible design and technique using light and shade. The whole thing almost looks like a metal plate or buckle slapped onto the wall. Subtle colours, shiny light and a cool drippy border all contribute to the overall 3D effect. What a beauty.

6118. St Werburghs tunnel (428)

A quick couple of posts today, because I am writing this in advance of my niece’s wedding party today, and have a rather squeezed timetable. There is something rather special happening with Benjimagnetic’s work at the moment, and I can’t quite put my finger on exactly what it is, but he seems to have stepped up a level recently, with some great designs and a cleaner look to his pieces.

Benjimagnetic, St Werburghs, Bristol, June 2024

This one in the tunnel is an absolute belter and the colour selection is sublime and may, in part, be what is contributing to his new level. Ordinary Benjimagnetic writes BEN, but I am struggling a little to read this piece. I am very much enjoying this strong surge of pieces from Benjimagnetic.

6117. Cumberland Basin

Solar, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2024

Although I have been featuring Solar on Natural Adventures since 2021, it wasn’t until May this year that I actually got to meet him while he was painting this piece. As with pretty much all the artists I meet he is a really nice person and managed to instantly dispel some of my imagined preconceptions of members of the PLB crew, which were largely based around not having met any of them.

I would categorise Solar’s writing style as soft anti-style, meaning that while he bucks the trend of conventional graffiti writing, there is some order and consistency to his letters, nothing too chaotic or anarchic. The letters are nicely done but the star of the show is the ‘implied’ drop shadow in blue and black, which is a very clever mechanism I haven’t seen deployed before. You’d think that the colour scheme wouldn’t work, and at first that was my impression, but actually it seems to work remarkably well.

6113. Sparke Evans Park (98)

Stivs, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, May 2024

Stivs has utterly smashed it with this outstanding writing/character combination piece, which was painted alongside a Kosc piece (featured a few days ago) on the long wall at Sparke Evans Park. Stivs is an artist of many talents, and although he in well known predominantly for his calligraffiti, he isn’t half bad at painting characters, as this piece demonstrates.

Although he is a bit of a ‘potty-mouth’, this piece reads ‘FUK PIG’, he dresses the letters up so beautifully, that it kind of creates a profanity filter of sorts. The cartoon-style character, probably lifted from a film or cartoon series, is beautifully presented and makes you wonder why he doesn’t paint characters more often. Together with the Kosc piece, this is one half of a very fine collaboration.

Kosc, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, May 2024

6111. Dean Lane skate park (723)

Unfortunately, I missed Soker when he was painting this unexpected piece in Dean Lane, because he had disappeared for a break, and I couldn’t hang around too long. This was extra unlucky (so near and yet so far) because he doesn’t paint all that often these days.

As I would expect, the writing from Soker is outstanding, with some quite thin script-like letters spelling out his name. What transforms a good piece into a great piece is the attention to small details, such as the yellow and orange tips to the letters. A beautiful drop shadow lifts the letters away from the luscious pink background, and the whole piece is an exemplar of great graffiti writing. Soker remains one of the very best in Bristol.

	Cethru Cellophane (a… on 7474. Canons Wharf
	Sheree on 7474. Canons Wharf
	hitandrun1964 on 7472. Surbiton Station, L…
	scooj on 7472. Surbiton Station, L…
	scooj on 7470. M32 roundabout J3 (…

	Cethru Cellophane (a… on 7474. Canons Wharf
	Sheree on 7474. Canons Wharf
	hitandrun1964 on 7472. Surbiton Station, L…
	scooj on 7472. Surbiton Station, L…
	scooj on 7470. M32 roundabout J3 (…

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: