From July till October 2016 a large herd of 58 elephants stampeded through
Sheffield. It was the biggest public art project Sheffield had ever seen. The project
was a collaberation of artists and community working together to raise funds for the
Children's Hospital Charity. The herd was rounded up and Auctioned off at the
famous Crucible Theatre in November, and raised an amazing £410,600.
I was delighted to be chosen to paint one of these fantastic fibre glass elephants. It was an
amazing experience painting the elephant in a huge warehouse alongside so many other
creative people. I met sculptors, printers, designers and fine artists,
all with a unique take on their elephant design.
It was really exciting seeing the elephant for the first time and immersed myself in the
challenge of turning my relaitvely small 2D design into a huge 3D finished artwork.
Working alongside many other creative people in the warehouse was very inspiring and we
offered each other lots of support and the lots of cups of tea. Once our elephants were complete,
we had to varnish them, to give a super protective coat.
Here is the finished elephant. I was really pleased to see how the varnish
brought out the depth of the colours.
Here is the the elephant roaming in the wild in The Sheffield Botanical Gardens.
