Year of the bus update

The Year of the Bus sculpture trail was launched last month with a spectacular display of decorated buses in Trafalgar square. The 60 buses all individually designed by artists, now form 3 trails in the capital, in Westminster, by the river and at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

Organised by Wild in Art and Transport for London,  the project celebrates 60 years of the routemaster bus. The buses will be auctioned to raise money for 3 charities, Kids Company, Transaid and the London Transport Museum.

My 'Brollybus' inspired by the iconic London Transport posters of the past, and featuring St Paul's Cathedral and the Millennium Bridge to represent the past and the present, is situated by the Millennium Bridge on Bankside, near the Tate Modern.

More information can be found at Transport for London 

Farewell to the Hares

FAREWELL TO THE HARES & THE GALA AUCTION

Arrangements for the end of the Festival

13th September – “A Concert for the Hares” by the Corinium Players Guitar Ensemble
8pm in the Parish Church. Tickets (£10) from the Visitor Information Centre in the Corinium Museum

14th September – “A Blessing of the Hares” in the Parish Church.Service starts 6pm. Open to the public.Therefore, from the 12th of Sept we will begin to gather in all the hares and we intend to have as many hares as we can in the Parish Church for these two events

27th September – 3rd October – “Farewell to the Hares & Gala Auction Preview”Open to the public with small charge with Free access to Auction ticket holders.
The Assembly Rooms will be open from 10am to 4:30pm (TBC)

4th October – Gala Auction in the Assembly Rooms, Kings Head Hotel from 6pm.
This is a ticketed event so for details of how to register for the auction, secure a ticket and obtain a copy of the ‘The Little Book of Hares’ (Auction Catalogue) please email cirencesterharefest@gmail.com and we will send you details.

Year of the Bus

It's been a very busy year for me with public art projects. After painting half a dozen hares and a book bench I was lucky to get the opportunity to paint a bus for another fantastic Wild in Art project.

They are working with Transport for London and the London Transport Museum to bring 60 of the 8ft long bus sculptures to the streets of London in the autumn. 2014 has been designated the 'Year of the Bus' to celebrate 60 years since the creation of the first Routemaster. The sculptures are based on the new Routemaster bus which was launched earlier this year.



My design was inspired by some of the iconic London Transport posters of the past, which featured decorative umbrellas. The 'Brolly Bus' has 56 ( I think!) colourful umbrellas against a sunshine and showers rainbow sky and autumn leaves. Old London is represented by St Paul's Cathedral and new London by the Millennium Bridge.

The sculptures will be auctioned at the end of the year to raise money for charities Kids Company and Transaid and the London Transport Museum.

London Rd Gateway Regeneration Project

I have recently been commissioned by Bath & North East Somerset Council to work on some designs that will be laser cut onto new CorTen steel tree planters. These will be sited on the A4 London Rd in Bath, in the Snow Hill area, as part of the London Rd Gateway Regeneration project.

I'm delighted to be working with Alan Summers and Karen Hoy of With Words on the community consultation phase of the project.
We have called this 'Words on the A4' and are inviting the local community to get involved. Alan will be visiting the Gateway Community Centre, local shops and businesses, and roving round the area gathering spoken and written words which will inform my designs. Alan specialises in the Haiku and Renga forms of poetry and can also help you create a poem from your words if you wish.

Have you got something to say about what this area and its community means to you?

You can contact Alan at a4@withwords.org.uk or me at wordsona4@gmx.com

You can follow us on twitter @WordsonTheA4 or blog WordsontheA4.blogspot.com which will be going live very soon.

Hare and Seek in Cirencester

The wonderful Cirencester Hare Festival trail of around 50 giant hares, is now adding the new 'Hare and Seek' trail of small life size hares.
This will be great fun for hare-spotters! From 24th of May until 27th of June small decorated hares will be hidden inside Cirencester shops, cafes and offices open to the public. You will need to collect a ‘Hare and Seek passport’ from the Visitor Information Centre or Information Point at the Town Council Offices in Binhgam House. This passport  will be available from the 27th of June once all the small hares have gone into hiding!.
Then you can set out to find them all! Your passport will be stamped by the retailer each time you successfully locate a small hare. Enter your accurately stamped passport into the prize draw!  The ‘Hare and Seek’ trail will end on September 14th and the result of the prize draw will be announced on September 30th.

I have created a special life size hare for the Hare and Seek trail called 'Party Hare'! He's a colourful fun character who likes to go to every party and even help out while he's there. His black coat is a magnetic blackboard so he's very useful for writing special messages on or holding little notes!
BUT WHERE WILL HE BE HIDING?

LOOK OUT FOR HIM IN CIRENCESTER.......AND GOOD LUCK!

Books About Town

My Charles Darwin  bookbench design is now finished. It will be winging it's way to London  very soon to become part of the wonderful Books About Town trails.

Organised by Wild in Art and the National Literacy Trust the project will see dozens of book benches  placed on the streets from 4th July to encourage people to read and support the work of the Literacy Trust.

The special book benches painted by artists and illustrators are all celebrating books that have a connection with the capital, and  they will be auctioned in the autumn to raise funds for the the Literacy Trusts's many important projects.
The bookbenches will be out until 15th Sept, so take a book and enjoy the summer in London!

Charles Darwin inspired book bench design progress

My book bench design inspired by Charles Darwin's 'On the Origin of Species', is progressing well. The design is based on the 'Tree of Life' metaphor that he used to explain the connection between all organisms.

I have used a great variety of leaves on the tree to symbolise the human race. The roots of the tree hold images that represent the history of evolution.... from microscopic life, to fossils and man's ancient early artefacts.

Books About Town is organised by the National Literacy Trust and Wild in Art and aims to celebrate stories linked to London and promote reading for enjoyment.

The benches will start to appear on the streets of London from 4th July and will be in place until early September. They will then be auctioned to raise funds for the work of the National Literacy Trust in helping to raise Literacy levels for people of all ages.