The Big Hoot is Open!

Back in May/ June time I was busily painting a space themed design onto a giant model of an owl for a charity exhibition in Birmingham. I'm pleased to announce my owl made the journey safely to Birmingham and is now on display alongside over 80 other owls. If you're in the city between now and 27th September you can enjoy a fun day out spotting all the owls on the trail  (Mine is no.6) 

My friend and fellow owl painter Kate Leonard took these photos at the launch. Thanks Kate! 

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.

The Big Hoot Owl in progress

Earlier on this year I created a design for the Big Hoot (a charity art exhibition to be held this Summer in Birmingham). He or she is entitled One Giant Hoot for Owlkind to reflect the space theme of the design. Although I don't want to give away the whole piece now (and spoil the excitement!) here are a few shots of the owl developing over the last 3 or so weeks. To find out more visit www.thebighoot.co.uk

(This last photo isn't an owl, it's my cat Cleo "helping" with morale, by pretending to be a shrub.

The Elephant Parade- Bangkok

I've been asked by the great folks at Elephant Parade to submit another design- this time its for a parade taking place this year in Bangkok. I wanted to create something brightly coloured, tropical and exotic, so came up with the idea of using lots of exotic flowers and butterflies. However there is a twist, these butterflies are actually little elephants. The design is called An elephants Dream as the main little elephant, asleep in a flower is dreaming about what it would be like to be able to fly around like a butterfly! I'll find out in May if it is chosen- wish me luck!

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. 

Brighton Whalefest Whale Tails

Last month I was contacted by World Cetacean Alliance and asked to paint a design on a whale tail as part of this years Whalefest, held in the Brighton Centre. The campaign is to keep whales and dolphins in the wild rather than in captivity. All artists were given a blank tail and a little biog about the orca whose story their tail needed to represent (mine was a baby orca called Kamea whose family came from the warm tropical Atlantic). The tails are on sale on Ebay with all proceeds going to charity (but not for long mine expires tomorrow!) 

Here's how my tail developed...

Cosmic Kitty & Astro Girl Microsoft #TileArt Illustrations

I was asked by Mircrosoft (through my agent Illustrationweb) to create some new designs for their Tile Art App which allows users to create their own artwork for their phones. I was given a really open brief and decided to create my range based around the retro space inspired adventures of a girl and her cat (called Cosmic Kitty and Astro Girl). One of the really exciting aspects of this project is that bits of the design can be transparent so you can see the background clearly through the helmets as you move the designs on the phone. I created all the images as paper collages with a bit of splattered paint to create stars for good measure! As you might be able to tell the kitty is based largely on my cat Cleo and I do own a purple top a bit like the one below!

You can see a Youtube clip of my images on a phone here
And read up on the thoughts of Tile Art Guy.