STORY WALL

In January I was asked to paint an illustrative tree mural in the infant library at Compass Point School, Bristol.  This picture would form a backdrop to the 'story chair'.

It was a lovely open brief, so I was able to put in all sorts of fun creatures and choose the style of design.  Which meant I could be very organic about how I painted the tree and change and add things as I went along.

























Here are some photos showing the work in progress:

A bit of a close up of some of the details in the mural:

This was a lovely project to work on.  If you would like to commission me to paint an uplifting mural for your school, hospital, church or work space please get in touch.

Frida Baa-hlo

I am excited to be able to share my designs for the Shaun in the City sculpture trail, starting with 'Frida Baa-hlo'.  Based on the Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo and the portraits she painted of herself with her pet monkeys and parrots sitting on her shoulders. 

 

Shaun in the City is a 'trail of two cities', where 120 giant sculptures of Shaun the Sheep, created by artists, celebrities and designers, will go on display across London and Bristol, before going to auction to raise money for children in hospitals across the UK. 

 

Here are some photos of Frida in progress:

I particularly enjoyed painting her distictive plaited hair-style and the flowers she wore in it. 

 

 Frida Baa-hlo will be displayed in a prime location at the BFI [British Film Institute] on the Southbank in London from 28th March until 25th May 2015.

Counting sheep

Its been a bit of a blog-free zone round here the last six months or so, but I'm back with lots of news and so I plan to blog daily over the next week with a series of 'catch up' posts to get myself back on track.......starting right now:

In September I was delighted to discover that one of the designs I submitted for the Shaun in the City project was chosen from over 2000 entires.  This is a Shaun the Sheep sculpture trail, following the huge success of the award winning Gromit unleashed  art trail in 2013 which raised an amazing £2.3 million for the Bristol Children's Hospital when the sculptures eventually went to auction.

By November I was happily back at Aardman HQ [where I spent time in the summer of 2013 for the Gromit Unleashed project see here] painting my sheep sculpture.  Whilst working here I was commissioned to paint more Shauns, some my own designs and some for other people. So, I have found myself installed in the Aardman painting space off and on for the past 5 months, which is no bad thing in my books!  At this point in time I am unable to disclose any of the designs.

Shaun in the City is 'a trail of two cities', organised by The Grand Appeal and Aardman, this time to raise money for children's hospitals across the country.  There will be over 50 'Shaun' sculptures on display across London during March, April and May, and then another flock to be exhibited in Bristol over June and July [both 2015].  I am chuffed to bits to be part of this brilliant and fun event and for such a good cause.  I can't wait to see all the other designs and have back the happy buzz that the Gromit trail created in Bristol.

Gromit Unleashed [part 2]

Gromit number 1 was designed and painted for wind-up radio inventor, Trevor Baylis.  It was suggested that I based my design on Baylis himself, incorporating his trademark moustache.  My design has Gromit as a 'wind-up merchant', wearing overalls with pockets filled with inventor's tools and a blueprint.  The badges on the overall show some of Baylis'  inventions  and achievements including his 'electric  shoes' and his time as a professional swimmer and aqua stunt man!

The images below show work in progress.

 






















Gromit number 2 was designed and painted for milliner to the rich and famous, Philip Treacy.


Treacy's brief was to paint butterflies [which reflects his butterfly hat collection]  I lost track of how many butterflies I painted, but I estimate that there are well over 300.

Gromit number 3 was a smaller one designed and painted for David Sproxton, one of the founders for Aardman.

Sproxton's brief was to show Gromit as a phrenology model. Using Gromity words instead of the traditionally used ones, it is visually a very simple, subtle design.  This Gromit will ride the ferry for the whole summer.

I really do feel incredibly fortunate to have been involved in this project.  I made a corner of Aardman HQ my studio space for the best part of June, and was sad to leave when it was over.  As a print maker a paint brush is not my usual weapon of choice, but I actually found this rather liberating and enjoyed all the things that made this job different from my usual work.   Creating the work was comical at times getting into almost yogic positions in order to paint the hard to reach places!  I have had time laps photos taken whilst I was working on the butterfly Gromit - I haven't seen it yet, but I'm sure the editor will have had a laugh!