Books About Town Progress on my Bookbench

My fantastic Bookbench was delivered by Charlie from Wild in Art last week. We only just managed to squeeze it through the gate! 

Books About Town  will place a number of Bookbenches around London this summer, which will feature artwork based on books and stories that celebrate links to London and aim to encourage reading for enjoyment.

This is my design inspired by Charles Darwin's 'On the Origin of Species'. 

Darwin moved to London in 1837 to concentrate on publishing his journal and findings from his voyage on the HMS Beagle. He also became a Council member of the Geological Society of London. After 20 years of exhausting  research and work, his theories on evolution, 'On the Origin of Species' was published in 1859. 

It is one of the most important pieces of scientific literature ever written and yet I doubt many people have a copy on their bookshelves!

Here is a work in progress photo...... hoping it won't take me 20 years to finish!

My studio will be open to the public next weekend as part of the Newbridge Arts Trail so anyone can come along then and see how it's progressing.

Gorilla swinging his way to the English Riviera

My gorilla 'Five minutes to midnight' for Great Gorillas will be swinging his way down to the English Riviera very soon.

 

The trail runs from 3rd August until 13th Oct and will include the wonderful miniature version of the trail at Babbacombe Model Village

 

 

There will also be a spectacular Gorilla Flotilla along the coast on 23rd July which I hope to get along to and meet everyone from the hard working Great Gorillas team and my kind sponsors Wollen Michelmore.

Really looking forward to the summer, I'm sure Great Gorillas will be hugely popular and hopefully raise lots of funds for the brilliant gorilla conservation work of Paignton Zoo

Great Gorillas

From  Wild in Art comes another wonderful public art project which supports endangered animals.

Great Gorillas is organised to celebrate the 90th birthday of Paignton Zoo . Funds raised by the sale of the gorilla sculptures will go to support wildlife conservation including the Cross Rivers Gorilla Project.
The gorilla sculptures will form a trail around Exeter and the English Riviera for 10 weeks starting on Aug 3rd.

My design 'Five Minutes to Midnight' aka Smiley has kindly been sponsored by the South Devon Law Firm Wollen Michelmore

The concept for the design is inspired by the saying 'Five minutes to Midnight' from the symbolic Doomsday clock which heralds impending disaster.....in this case the urgency to conserve the endangered Western Lowland Gorilla. It incorporates a variety of clock faces showing the times as five minutes to midnight. The smiley face watch with no hands symbolises hope and action!

Watch this space for work in progress pics and news updates about the project.

Gorilla update

I'm getting stuck into painting my gorilla, the surface isn't quite a big as the elephant but it's more curved!

Here are some pics of my progress since Friday.

Day two

Day one

Arrival...move over ele!