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!

Pretty Nostalgic Magazine

I illustrated an article for the lovely vintage inspired Pretty Nostalgic magazine. This particular piece was about the rise of the underground supper club. I wanted to get across the magical and fantastical nature of the supper club happening in secret locations in cities all round the UK (hence the cityscape with the world of the supper club happening beneath our very feet!). The illustrations are in May’s issue.

The Elephant Parade

Exciting news! I submitted a design for this years Elephant Parade and it's been selected as one of the 40 or so artists taking part. I'll soon be starting to paint the real thing in a studio near Victoria station. (Onto a life sized model of a baby elephant). This time round the elephants are going to be on display not just in London but to towns and cities all over the UK for the next 12 months! Once again they will be sold to raise money for the Asian elephant.

Mail Me Art

I was very happy to be selected as one of this years Mail me Art project artists (and also rather nervous as I had to pop my collage in the post and hope it didn’t disintergrate). Happily it arrived virtually unscathed and will be part of an exhibition in central London and art book. My design celebrates spring and the countryside and the joy of receiving a letter (from a bird!).