There is a simplicity and a joy in Lupa’s work, which makes me very happy. Often her pieces can be slightly untidy, but this one is really nicely finished, but maintains that grounded charm she achieves.
Her letter shapes are great and the fills have a wonderful 1970s vibe to them, especially set on the contrasting yellow background. I love this piece… can you tell?
Having had a wonderful first day of skiing yesterday, I decided to write today’s posts last night so that things weren’t quite so rushed in the morning. This is another banging piece by Pekoe from my archives too last September, another one that slipped through the cracks.
Pekoe and her RBF friends have has a quiet 2025, which I hope is just a blip, because I love their work, especially as they tend to paint together, bringing me lots of pieces to admire at once. This is a delightful portrait piece of a blue_faced lady with wonderful garlands in her hair. It feels like a bit of a throw-back to some of her older work and it is really beautiful. More please in 2026.
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There was a dearth of Christmas street art this year, perhaps we live in a time when there is not too much to be cheerful about, or maybe it is a bit of a cliché that artists steer clear of. It was good, therefore, to stumble across this Christmas paint jam from the RBF crew. Doubly satisfying as the crew have been very quiet in 2025.
Even has been painting these cheeky buttocks for a little while now, but she has added a fabulous festive tone in this piece. Her wit comes through with the words ‘X-mas rated’ and ‘Hoe Hoe Hoe…’. I hope that this late collaboration indicates an appetite for RBF to have a more active 2026… please.
This small piece by Pekoe marks the return of her ‘XXX hates fascists’, theme, which in this instance declares that is it Bristol that hates fascists, and one can be on fairly safe ground that it is indeed the case. It would look odd if somebody raised a hand and said “well, actually, I quite like fascists” – we know that they are out there though.
The piece was painted for Dean Lane Hardcore, I think. I feel that I haven’t seen enough of Pekoe’s work this year, and there has been a period of quiet from the regular drumbeat of RBF (Resting Bitch Face) paint jams this year – Family life seems to be a factor for some members. As ever, I look forward to more from Pekoe.
A gallery of fabulous, bold writing from Bristol graffiti writer and RBF stalwart, Lupa.
Instagram: @lup4_4
All photographs by Scooj
There is never a time when I am not utterly made up when finding a portrait piece by Pekoe. This is a modest piece in the tunnel, which was painted as part of the Wispa birthday celebration paint jam in June.
Pekoe’s subject and style has been a consistent landmark in the Bristol street art scene for years, and her corralling of the RBF crew is admirable. This portrait has some great colour contrasts – I love those glossy green lips, and green eyes. Pekoe has had a relatively quiet year so far, but I live forever in hope to find more of her work.
Wispa’s birthday paint jam in the tunnel is a gift that keeps on giving. The turnout for her birthday was excellent, and about half the wall space in the tunnel was re-decorated, which is a good thing as it needed a bit of freshening up.
This is a wonderful piece by the very talented Unity who is a well-established and important member of the of the all-female RBF (Resting Bitch Face) crew. Although she doesn’t paint nearly as much in Bristol as I would like, it is always a pleasure when she does. I don’t think the photographs do this piece justice, as it was taken in the gloomiest part of the tunnel. Her writing is sublime, with superb blended fills and intricate patterning. A deep, double drop shadow in cream colours rounds the writing off perfectly. Great graffiti writing.
I’m not sure why, but I am always surprised (and thrilled) when I see collaborations between Pekoe and Sepr. Somehow in my head I don’t see them as natural collaborators, but how wrong I am. This delightfully witty piece on the long hoarding at Greenbank took me several attempts to get decent pictures. The fine weather we have been experiencing has a downside which is that full sun causes shadows to be cast everywhere. Eventually I took advantage of an overcast day and made my way to the spot.
The combination tells a story of a headless chicken, and in the left hand side, Sepr has created one of his superb cartoon characters, in this case a ‘one chicken band’. Obviously the festive bird wasn’t to everyone’s taste and the decapitated body marches on as the head complete with party hat watches on.
The perpetrator of the violent crime is a rather charming young woman wielding an axe, which makes one feel a little uncomfortable. Pekoe has done a great job here and unusually has painted more of a full character than her more usual head portrait. I have noticed that recently she has also been painting traffic cones in her pieces, like a little signature. The collaboration is witty, gruesome and really well painted. It would be great to see more of these story pieces from these great artists.
It was great to see this collaboration from Stivs and Pekoe recently, two artists who are knocking out some fabulous work at the moment. To the left, the calligraffiti letters are by Stivs and the character portrait on the right is by Pekoe.
Stivs has written his familiar letters DSC, which stands for Dog Supremacy Crew (formerly Dog Shit Crew – I think). The beautiful letters are not quite as elaborate as some of his calligraffiti pieces, but are nonetheless impressive. From the size and intricacy of it, I would think that he painted this fairly quickly.
To the right, Pekoe, in keeping with the collaboration colour scheme, has painted this wonderful blue-faced portrait of a young woman with a fabulous hairdo. There is a symmetry in the face, and a slightly haunting stare. The piece is beautifully produced, and so very neat and tidy. I am not sure what the significance of the road cone is, but I’ll take it.
Desi has been as busy so far this year as at any time I can remember, which is great news. This piece was painted in Greenway Bush Lane, which is fast becoming a graffiti hotspot, alongside Pekoe and Pura Decadencia.
The orange colours are nicely blended through the VEIL letters, although the paint is a little thin (often the case with oranges and yellows in particular), and there are some nicely reversed out spots for decoration. Desi has added some subtle star bursts, which almost make the piece look slightly out of focus, an interesting effect. Long may this productive streak last!
Natural adventures 