Earlier on this month, there was a very well attended RBF (Resting Bitch Face crew) paint jam in Sparke Evans Park, celebrating Desi and Even’s birthdays. This piece is one of the birthday girl’s offering, and it is really rather good.
Even, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, January 2025
This combination piece, brings together some lovely curvy letters in Even’s classic style and the ‘V’ is replaced with a fabulous smiling Cheshire cat. The piece is really bright and joyful, and certainly stood out on a rather cold and wintery day. There is so much more great work to post from this particular paint jam.
Evey, Pekoe and Bnie, M32 Spot, Bristol, March 2024
This is a pleasurable post to write because it involves one of my favourite walls with one of my favourite groups of artists. The RBF ladies have been a little quiet this month, but this collaboration from Evey, Pekoe and Bnie has laid that to rest pretty well.
Evey, M32 Spot, Bristol, March 2024
Evey continues to smash it each time she paints and her improvement from piece to piece is so gratifying to witness. The letters here are nicely designed and cleanly finished, with good fill transitions and well organised spotty details. She appears to be building her confidence with is an important part of improvement.
Pekoe, M32 Spot, Bristol, March 2024
In the middle is another Pekoe portrait piece, full of fun and style. The subject has beautifully painted big hair and a rather smart yellow cap or beret. The blue face is rather RBF, if you know what I mean and the whole piece has an interesting dot – dash border. For me though, the hoop earrings steal the show, they are brilliant.
Bnie, M32 Spot, Bristol, March 2024
Finally, Bnie never ever disappoints with her beautiful letters. This is classy writing, with stunning fills, a wonderful drop shadow and yellow border complete with drips. The colour selection of pinks and oranges works really well against the green patterned background. It is good to note a small Palestinian flag under the ‘B’, should we forget what is happening in Gaza right now. A wonderful collaboration from this RBF trio.
What a wonderfully playful and cheeky piece by Evey alongside the M32. This is the second time I have seen her use this device of replacing the ‘V’ in EVEN with a saucy bottom, and I have to say I rather like it. If anything, I would say that the Bristol street art scene is quite earnest (and sometimes up its own backside), so it is great to see a bit of seaside postcard humour being injected from time to time.
Evey, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, March 2024
The letters are nicely presented in what looks a bit like a neon display sign – one could almost imagine this piece hanging over the door of a seedy nightclub in a red-light district. It is refreshing and imaginative, and yet another great piece in a string of excellent work from thee prolific Evey.
This is a really interesting paint jam piece from Evey, celebrating Desi’s and her own birthday a few weeks back. The reason that it is interesting is that Evey has gone with a totally different style of graffiti writing from her comfort zone. This piece is a little bit more ‘hard-core’ and traditional, demonstrating her growing confidence and skills with a spray can.
Evey, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, February 2024
I would say that this is a really great piece of writing, although I feel the bottom half is stronger than the top half, which may have something to do with the colour selections. The bottom half pops, the top half less so. This phenomenon is not peculiar to Evey, I see this in quite a lot of pieces of writing, where the top half drifts a bit. More contrast with the background might do the trick… but what do I know?
Bnie, Pekoe and Evey, Greenbank, Bristol, January 2024
It is always a great pleasure to see any combination of RBF artists collaborating, and this is an early year beauty from Bnie, Pekoe and Evey. Unfortunately the photographs are a bit rubbish on account of tree shadows cast on the wall by a low winter sun. Fortunately, the girls declare that ‘2024 is going to be sexy AF’.
Bnie, Greenbank, Bristol, January 2024
Bnie starts the triptych, writing her letters with a certain amount of expression, and looking wonderfully free. The clever drop shadow appears to surround the letters as well as giving them depth. Bnie has used a three shade fill which is topped off with some darker bubbly shapes. A very nice piece of writing indeed.
Pekoe, Greenbank, Bristol, January 2024
There is something very different from Pekoe in the middle of the collaboration, which features a smartly dressed woman with a fancy green and yellow scarf wrapped around her neck. It is quite unusual for Pekoe to paint full (or even half) body characters, and it will be interesting to see if this is something she continues with this year.
Evey, Greenbank, Bristol, January 2024
Rounding off on the right is some tidy bubble writing from Evey, with a rather saucy ‘V’. Her fills are very nicely worked and the flow of colours through the letters are most enjoyable. I am not too sure about the drop shadow, which doesn’t quite hit the mark for me. Certainly a great start to the year though. I am looking forward to a whole lot more from RBF in 2024.
The Natural Adventures accolade for most improved and diligent artist in 2023 goes to Evey, whose work last year has been nothing short of inspirational. A regular member of RBF paint jams, Evey has gone from strength to strength and appears to be a much more confident artist than she was a couple of years ago. Practice really does make perfect.
Evey, M32 roundabout, Bristol, December 2023
This superb piece was painted during a paint jam celebrating Pekoe’s birthday back in December. She has painted some solid letters with wonderful fills in three shades of green, and a host of decorations and squiggles. The exclamation mark at the end makes reference to the people of Palestine and their struggles in the face of daily Israeli bombing raids. A great piece to round off her excellent 2023.
Desi, Lupa, Pekoe and Evey, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, November 2023
The Resting Bitch Face (RBF) crew have been seriously busy this year, and giving PWA a good run for their money. In this recent paint jam, the ladies have shown their support for the people of Palestine, by incorporating the colours of the Palestinian flag into the piece. There have been so many protest pieces about the war in Palestine, and as I have mentioned many times before, street art captures the mood of the moment and provides a running social commentary, which I have the privilege of photographing and recording before it disappears under ever-increasing layers of paint. This grouping of four of the artists, Desi, Lupa, Pekoe and Evey was in addition to others from RBF (posts to follow).
Desi, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, November 2023
On the left, Desi ha painted another of her VEIL pieces, and it now feels like an eternity since she last painted DESI – she appears to have well and truly moved on. Her colours are those that are adopted across the whole collaboration, namely chrome and gold, a very striking combination. This is a nice tidy piece from Desi, enhanced with some pink and purple spots and circles around the writing.
Lupa, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, November 2023
Lupa, I guess like all the RBF artists, is painting more often, and I am enjoying seeing more of her work about the place. This is a nice tidy piece incorporating her trademark ‘U’ character – her work certainly lends itself to the saying ‘less is more’, where her big fat letters with simple designs, hit home. A little bit more practice with her white boundary lines would lift the whole thing to another level.
Pekoe, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, November 2023
Pekoe has been turning out some exceptional work this autumn/winter, and this portrait is right out of the top drawer. There are minimal decorations on the face, which is a simple solid gold face with features picked out in black. The lips are painted with the Palestinian flag, and the colours are repeated as peace symbols around the portrait. The highlight of the piece for me is the bunches, studded with gold balls – it just looks brilliant and is a really memorable image.
Evey, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, November 2023
Finally, Evey, whose work has stepped up a level this year, has painted a clean and crisp piece with some fabulous features. Evey has chosen to write all her letters in chrome and to accompany them with some golden touches to bring them to life, including a crown and an exclamation mark, the dot of which has the colours of Palestine. A nice red, white and green RBF rounds off the right-hand end of this impressive wall. Bravo RBF!
Desi, Peggy and Evey, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, October 2023
I don’t know how old this lovely triptych by RBF bedfellows Desi, Peggy and Evey is, but I think it slightly predates the much larger RBF Halloween collaboration just to the left. A rather pleasant appetiser to its immediate neighbour. Desi has adopted her joined up writing for this piece which is neatly and tidily presented.
Desi, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, October 2023
Desi leads off on the left with another Veil piece using the light blue and yellow colour palette adopted for the collaboration. I have to say that I don’t think the colour combination is an especially good one, looking a little anaemic against the autumn leaf litter in front of it. Desi has some nice horizontal fills and subtle dot details and the 3D drop shadow helps it to pop out from the wall.
Peggy, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, October 2023
Peggy has made an oblique reference to the colour scheme with the incorporation of a yellow colour in some of her details. The floral display, complete with an eye at the centre of the flower is exactly what you’d expect from Peggy, containing some nice detail in the levels and petals. I don’t know what the letters AIZH stand for, but you can make them out at the base of the piece. Peggy’s work lends itself very well to being the decorative filling between two pieces of graffiti writing.
Evey, Sparke Evans Park, Bristol, October 2023
To the right, the effervescent Evey has knocked it out of the park once again. Her letters are nicely thought out and she has reflected the horizontal fill regime in Desi’s work on the other side, and has come up with some decorations in the letters that make them feel substantial without being too busy. More great work from these three who appear to enjoy painting together.
Pekoe, Vozie, Bnie, Wispa and Evey, Cheltenham Paint Festival, Cheltenham, July 2023
The Resting Bitchface (RBF) crew appeared to have a ball at the Cheltenham Paint Festival, painting this long collaborative wall, and then going on to decorate the multi-storey car park, which was opened up as a CPF venue for the first time this year. The dayglo colours of the piece give is a bit of a 1980s look, but with a contemporary RBF twist.
Pekoe, Cheltenham Paint Festival, Cheltenham, July 2023
On the left and starting off the collaboration is a writing/portrait combination from Pekoe. This is as good a piece of writing I have seen from Pekoe and the character to the right is something a little different, a punk or skinhead girl with a plaster on her head. Vibrant stuff.
Vozie, Cheltenham Paint Festival, Cheltenham, July 2023
Next up is a classy piece of writing from Vozie, spelling out her name and breaking up different sections of the letters with different colours from the paint jam colour palette. The overall design is top class and the execution brilliant. Amazing stuff.
Bnie and Wispa, Cheltenham Paint Festival, Cheltenham, July 2023
The next section has Bnie and Wispa snuggly side by side. Bnie’s writing picks up on the colour palette, but designs in the colours in a completely different way to Vozie. Bnie has gone for some horizontal layers, and a horizon line running through the midpoint of her BNIE. Finished to perfection, this too is an outstanding piece. Wispa has gone for a character piece overflowing with attitude. She has also decided not to go with the ‘corporate ‘colours and the impact of that is her character stands out as being a bit different. I get a feeling that the attitude isn’t constrained to Wispa, but runs through the whole collaboration in its loud colours and boldness.
Evey, Cheltenham Paint Festival, Cheltenham, July 2023
Finally, the right hand end of the collaboration is represented by a fabulous piece of writing from Evey. In recent posts I have spoken about her rate of improvement this year, and this piece only goes to reinforce my view. Great letter shapes and delightfully eclectic fills that somehow work incredibly well together. This collaboration has all the hallmarks of a very successful and enjoyable day out for the RBF Crew. Outstanding.
It is through sheer hard work and application that some artists improve week on week and month on month, and as I have said many times before, one of the most improved artists in Bristol recently is Evey, who is quite simply knocking it out of the park with each piece she paints.
Evey, M32 Cycle path, Bristol, October 2023
Painted during another RBF paint jam, This piece from Evey is notable for at least three things; She is having a lot of fun with the letter shapes and pushing the boundaries, The colour selection is bold and effective and her fills and details are full of life and vibrancy. Looking forward to more and more from Evey.
Natural adventures 