7889. Cumberland Basin

Nice One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, August 2026
Nice One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, August 2026

Another classic piece from Nice One, who, it has to be said has generally had quite a quiet few months painting on the streets. It can be hard to know sometimes what impacts on the peaks and troughs in activity from different artists, and one can only hope it is for good reasons.

Nice One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, August 2026
Nice One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, August 2026

This combnination piece cleanly separates a superb portrait sketch from the beautifully picked out and typical letters ‘Nice One’. The portrait piece resembles a bust or statue and the sketch-like quality of the lined feels like this piece has been directly lifted out of an artist’s workbook. To create that greyscale pencil drawing look at this scale using spray paints is fantastically skillful and perfectly executed by Nice One. Outstanding.

7888. M32 Cycle path (322)

Mage, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, August 2026
Mage, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, August 2026

About 20 years ago I bought a Nike sweatshirt which didn’t have the tick logo, just the word Nike, and it was the exact same colours as the letter fills in this piece by Mage. This piece reminds me of that top, which I was very fond of, and I can’t unsee it in this piece.

Mage, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, August 2026
Mage, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, August 2026

Sometimes Mage’s execution can look a little rushed, but not in this piece, everything is absolutely on-point. The clean dynamic two-colour fill is attraxctively presented, and supported with a whuite drop shadow and fine black border. Some greeny-yellow dusting creates an interface between the letters and the former occupant of this spot. I am not too sure about the colour selection of this, but I am splitting hairs a bit. A very nice tidy piece of writing from Mage.

7886. M32 roundabout J3 (790)

Minto, M32 roundabout, July 2026
Minto, M32 roundabout, July 2026

Minto has had a great summer, creating some truly memorable pieces around Bristol, and of such a high quality too. His distinctive style has been carried through all of them and this is no exception.

Minto, M32 roundabout, July 2026
Minto, M32 roundabout, July 2026

The heavily disguised letters, spelling, of course, MINTO, are beautifully embellished with swirls, patterns, lines and colour, but all seemingly beautifully balanced and interconnected. Midway through, there is the inclusion of a small character, wearing a helmet with goggles and smoking a cigarette. Such mini-characters often organically emerge fom Minto’s work, augmenting the busy mix. Another very nice piece from the artist.

7885. L Dub (92)

Turoe, L Dub, Bristol, June 2026
Turoe, L Dub, Bristol, June 2026

If you ever want to get a feel for wildstyle graffiti wrtiting at its best, you don’t need to go much further than the L Dub spot, which at any one time will host several superb examples, which tend to be left very much alone by taggers, who rarely venture to such out of the way places.

Turoe, L Dub, Bristol, June 2026
Turoe, L Dub, Bristol, June 2026

This gorgeous piece by Turoe is a great example opf what I’m talking about. His elaborate letters are perfectly filled with a small but strong red drop shadow and clean white border. There is a lilac cloudy background which frames the writing nicely. Simply classy.

7883. Cumberland Basin

Solar, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2026
Solar, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2026

A quick jaunt back into my June archive revealed this beauty from Solar on the long wall at Cumberland Basin. I would offer my subjective view and say that Solar’s work this year has risen to the next level, and he is turning out some outstanding work.

Solar, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2026
Solar, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2026

Solar’s unusual and anti-style work is perversely becoming quite conventional, simply because he has established himself and made a mark. This is no bad thing, because he retains his identity and developing style. In this wonderfully fragmented piece, the outline is incomplete, and the fills drift way beyond the boundaries. A sense of order is maintained by the pink and magenta decorations that have stuck to the script and frame the piece beautifully. Cool work.

7882. New Stadium Road (63)

Mysto, New Stadium Road, Bristol, August 2026
Mysto, New Stadium Road, Bristol, August 2026

Although I haven’t seen all that many pieces by Mysto, I have seen enough to know that he has a certain style. This piece, however, appears to break from his normal convention and presents as something quite different.

 

For a start, his letters in this piece are far less disguised than usual, and easily readable. The letters are reasonably uniform and the midline picked out with a dark green colour, providing a little depth, alongside the drop shadow. The piece is rounded off with some ‘lazy’ bubble shapes around the outside. Nice and unexpected piece.

7874. M32 Cycle path (321)

Roma, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, August 2026
Roma, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, August 2026

Roma has had a strong year so far, and her letters can be seen liberally sprinkled at most of the hot spots around the city. Roma sits firmly in the stable of four-letter writers who build and practice and improve with each new piece; others in this group would include Desi (Veil), Mage, Luna and Lupa, all of whom are on an upward trajecory.

Roma, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, August 2026
Roma, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, August 2026

I love the selection of her letters – ROMA, so she starts in a good place as far as I am concerned. In this piece, her letters overlap slightly from left to right and are contained within a black border. It is interesting to note that she hasn’t delineated between the fill and the white drop shadow, which is quite a risky thing to do, but she has done it well. The fills of orange and blue feel free and ephemeral, and I wonder if the lines and squiggles actually added anything. I’ll soon have enough of Roma’s pieces for a gallery.

7872. Stapleton Road

Kid Crayon, Stapleton Road, Bristol, August 2026
Kid Crayon, Stapleton Road, Bristol, August 2026

This particular spot at the very top end of Stapleton Road is fast becoming a favourite haunt of the three-way collaborations from Kid Crayon, Tera and SPZero76 (the UZI crew). Sometimes I present them as a trio and sometimes individually, it depends on how the mood takes me. This post is the individual contrubuition by Kid Crayon to a recent production piece.

Kid Crayon, Stapleton Road, Bristol, August 2026
Kid Crayon, Stapleton Road, Bristol, August 2026

The theme for the wall was the comic book 20000AD, a British weekly science fiction comic that included the most famous character Judge Dredd. This piece celebrates another character, Rogue Trooper. The block letters are in keeping with the larger-than-life style of the comic, and the barren apocalyptic background an added bonus. I never read the comics myself, although I now rather wish I had. A superb example of illustrative graffiti writing.

7870. Cumberland Basin

j9449j, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, August 2026
j9449j, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, August 2026

The sun and shade are once again my enemy in these pictures of a wonderful piece by j9449j – AKA All 4 Nothing. The colour tones are beautifully selected and matched through the whole piece, and while I have no idea what the letters spell, if there even are any, it matters not, the composition is fabulous.

j9449j, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, August 2026
j9449j, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, August 2026

J9449j (the name of his Instagram account when I first started writing about his work) has a wonderful abstract organic life in his work, with plenty of tufts of grass or plants and the odd flower making an appearance. The piece is enigmatic and intriguing – I’ve yet to meet the elusive artist. This is a classy work.

7869. Brunel Way (367)

Fade and Dibz, Brunel Way, Bristol, July 2026
Fade and Dibz, Brunel Way, Bristol, July 2026

After a slow start in the spring, Dibz and Fade have run off an impressive catalogue of collaborations this summer of which this one on the side of the newish skate ramp at Dave Side is a great example.

Fade, Brunel Way, Bristol, July 2026
Fade, Brunel Way, Bristol, July 2026

The hot colours used in the writing are perhaps designed to conjour up the warm Mexican environment to link up with the Speedy Gonzales character Slowpoke Rodriguez. I imagine both artists had a hand in painting the character which is a brilliantly faithful representation. Some great flat lettering from Fade on the left, which is mirrored on the right by Dibz.

Dibz, Brunel Way, Bristol, July 2026
Dibz, Brunel Way, Bristol, July 2026

I have exhausted superlatives desribing Dibz’ and Fade’s work this year, and perhaps it is just better for me to let their wildstyle writing do the talking for me. And still they keep turning out more and more pieces – I struggle to keep up.