The Ladywellephant- a charity elephant all about Ladywell!

A little while ago (ahem!) the lovely Slater & King in Ladywell asked me to create another painting to go on a model of a baby elephant which could then be raffled off with all proceeds going to charity. This time round the ele was only a miniature (aww!) and to celebrate the lovely area of Ladywell I dedicated the whole design to the area of South East London, my old home not so long ago. The mural features Hilly Fields park, the view into central London, the cafes, several dogs, my cat who sneaked in amongst the flowers and Slater & Kings shop too! Tickets can be bought from Slater & King but hurry there's only a week or so to go as the raffle ends Christmas Eve. All proceeds go to the charity Signal supporting parents of children with Autism.

The Elephant Parade Preview Day

My elephant "An unforgettable Journey" was amongst 14 ele's chosen for the London preview day on the 16th July. It was fantastic to be re-united with my ele and see so many people enjoying them! It was a shame it was just a day, although the eles will be back in London next Summer at the end of their year long tour. The first stop of the UK tour is at Intu Watford from 21st July for 4 weeks, so plenty of time to visit them and my ele will be there with over 20 other ele's this time.


(Pictures from Left to right top to bottom Me and my elephant "An unforgettable Journey, designs by Chris Chun, Sheara Abrahams, Jane Veveris Callan and Patricia Shrigley.)

An elephant never forgets...

On Friday I had to bid a sad farewell (for now at least!) to my elephant as after over a month of painting she is finally complete! I made the last few finishing touches to my painting, tidied up some fuzzy lines and generally made more work for myself by smudging areas that had been fine, until it was time to stop. The parade will start on the 16th July at an as yet secret London location, before moving on to destinations across the UK.

And in case you wondered where my pictures of fellow visitors to St James park were here's a family of swans!

A Mammoth Task (the Elephant Parade part 2)

As I mentioned earlier on this month, I've been busy painting my elephant design in readiness for the start of the first UK tour for the elephant parade. It's great to see the design taking shape (and getting lots of compliments from friends, staff at intu (the tour sponsors) and a team of decorators thanks everyone!) Only a week to go and I am nearly done (apart from a lot of tidying up and a coat of varnish).

Lovely to be able to have lunch and walk home through St James Park too, I've never seen the pelicans this close before!

The Elephant in the Room!

A few months ago my design was selected for this years Elephant Parade UK tour. Over the last couple of weeks I've begun working on the real thing, a life sized model of a baby elephant over a metre high, which has taken over a large area of an office canteen space where I'm painting. It's located near St James Park so is as close to Buckingham Palace as I am ever likely to have an art studio!

Although I've done this before (back in 2010) it's always a little nerve wracking being confronted with a giant white elephant.

I soon got over this and gave it a couple of coats of a bright blue base colour, with the help of my assistant for the day Emma (http://www.emmas-graphics.co.uk/) and 2L of ready mixed Homebase paint!

I've made quite good progress, over the last week or so and the background to the design is finished, now onto the more fiddly bits. Here are a couple of work in progress shots...

and some pictures of some of the St James Park wildlife, a hungry squirrel who was briefy considered following me for more snacks and a motionless heron. I'll post another update soon!