Quick five with Jeff Evans
Tell us a little bout yourself and what got you started painting ?
I’m in my (ahem) 40’s now so was around when Hip Hop first came to the UK. I loved drawing as a kid so when I discovered Graffiti I was hooked, I never painted any pieces just drew them in sketchbooks for years and years. When I first moved to Exeter, still obsessed with Graffiti I started photographing the pieces I saw and that turned that into a website ….the now ledgendary Spacehop.50g.com! Sadly no longer on line, through that I met some writers who looked through my sketches and told me I had to paint, haven’t looked back since!
Best place you have painted?
The best place I have painted, hands down, without a doubt was on the side of The Duke of Lancaster, which is a huge ship, dry docked up in North Wales. I painted the ships Captain..Captian Jack! My first and so far only experience of being in a cherry picker (just sooo much fun!) and the first time that I felt I was part of something amazing, the other artists who painted this ship were legends to me so and the organiser Paul is such a brilliant guy Yo Du Dug!! I was very blessed to be part of it!
I think my big plans for this year are the same as everyone else’s right now, keep my head down and get through this Covid thing as soon as possible so I can get back to doing fun things like painting at festivals like yours!
Tell us your funniest moments when out painting ?
I genuinely cant think of a funny experience when painting..sounds weird because although its suppsed to be fun its actually hard work!! I enjoy the challenges that painting brings, enjoy the frustration and the pain haha. Painting murals can be the most amazing experiance or it can be utterly soul destroying. (imagine spending 2 days painting something for it to be totally destroyed in 10 mins by a kid with a spraycan and anger issues) People’s reactions to my work are what makes it enjoyable and what pushes me to keep going.
There’s tons of people I would like to collaborate with but I’ll give you three…
My Dog Sighs (obviously with a name like that why wouldnt I !!)
Mr Smoe Nova (You tube Graffiti king and mentor)
Hera (from Herakut) Basically Hera needs to ditch AKUT so I can do the photoreal stuff instead of him! I mean I suppose he could watch while we paint murals together but Im doing the dogs! (Im kidding of course Akut is a legend and Ive learned so much from him!)