I'm really excited to be blogging about a great artistic opportunity, and it will all be kicking off this Saturday at Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery.
About a month ago I was contacted by Stuart from Peterborough's Blok Collective, a group of local artists. He'd seen some work I'd done for a local competition and wondered if I wanted to be one of four artists who get to paint their own design on a life-sized statue of a lion. Guess how long it took for me to leap into the air, shouting YES!!!
For those of you that haven't seen, it's become a bit of a craze in the last couple of years to have statues of various animals dotted about British cities, all uniquely decorated by different artists. In London there were elephant statues all around the city, highlighting the plight of the Asian elephant. Go here for the whole story. There's also been gorillas in Bristol, as well as the SuperLambBanana statues in Liverpool some years ago.
Now my city is getting Lions and Unicorns! They will all be standing on the platform to welcome the Olympic torch when it arrives by train into Peterborough on July 3.
This is the lion I will be painting this weekend. Isn't he a beauty?
I've got some preliminary ideas shown below here in acrylic, basically I think my lion is going to made up of many different brightly coloured illustrations, all connected to Peterborough, spread over him like a patchwork blanket. The illustration of a pomegranate represents Katherine of Aragon, who is buried in our cathedral. To this day people still leave flowers and pomegranates (the symbol of her family) at her grave.
if you live in Peterborough, come to the Museum this weekend to see me and the other artists painting our lions. I'm nervous but also really excited. The painting will be taking place over the next couple of weeks. I'll post pictures of his progress as I go.
About a month ago I was contacted by Stuart from Peterborough's Blok Collective, a group of local artists. He'd seen some work I'd done for a local competition and wondered if I wanted to be one of four artists who get to paint their own design on a life-sized statue of a lion. Guess how long it took for me to leap into the air, shouting YES!!!
For those of you that haven't seen, it's become a bit of a craze in the last couple of years to have statues of various animals dotted about British cities, all uniquely decorated by different artists. In London there were elephant statues all around the city, highlighting the plight of the Asian elephant. Go here for the whole story. There's also been gorillas in Bristol, as well as the SuperLambBanana statues in Liverpool some years ago.
Now my city is getting Lions and Unicorns! They will all be standing on the platform to welcome the Olympic torch when it arrives by train into Peterborough on July 3.
This is the lion I will be painting this weekend. Isn't he a beauty?
I've got some preliminary ideas shown below here in acrylic, basically I think my lion is going to made up of many different brightly coloured illustrations, all connected to Peterborough, spread over him like a patchwork blanket. The illustration of a pomegranate represents Katherine of Aragon, who is buried in our cathedral. To this day people still leave flowers and pomegranates (the symbol of her family) at her grave.
if you live in Peterborough, come to the Museum this weekend to see me and the other artists painting our lions. I'm nervous but also really excited. The painting will be taking place over the next couple of weeks. I'll post pictures of his progress as I go.
