More Owls!

A couple of months ago (before I began the Big Hoot Owl) I was busy painting a banner for my friends Open Mic all day event held at the end of May. It was for an all day event at the Northern Lights pub in Brighton and my brief was to paint a design that represented the night. I chose to create a camp fire design surrounded by musicians (and seagulls) with a friendly owl flying overhead. I created the piece on a piece of black fabric (quite thick!) with acrylics. Cleo is not impressed.

Barons Charter Design to celebrate the Magna Carter

 I recently submitted a design for the Barons Charter to celebrate 800 years since the Magna Carter. There are going to be lots of baron sculptures decorated by artists dotted all round Lincoln to celebrate. My design idea is a healthy eating baron humorously titled Baron Von Munchies who is wearing a variety of brightly coloured fruit and vegetables, milk, cheese and other healthy foods. 

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.

My Elephant on Tour!

A bit later I know but here are a few pictures (courtesy of Elephant Communications) of my design in the first couple of stops on the UK tour. There are also a couple of me painting her back in the Summer. 

My elephant and the rest of the herd are currently at Intu Eldon Square, Newcastle till 16th November.

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!

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.

My Booky Wook!

I'm honoured to be in a new book published by Hong Kong company Victionary called Illustration and Play. It features many of the best contemporary illustrators from around the world who work in mixed mediaincluding Ian Wright, Catalina Estrada and Miles Donovan from Peepshow. Thanks for finding me Victionary! (http://www.victionary.com/)