Art in Bloom

Sunday 4th July was gripping to say the least. For those of you who followed the on-line auction you will know that as the bidding kept going the closing time for the bids got later and later. Just Joey, originally due to close bidding at 10.30 finally closed at 11.10 with an astounding £12,250 final bid price.

The 260 elephants raised a grand total of over 4 million pounds for charity which is amazing in the current climate. There are some very generous people out there.

It is sad that Just Joey is no longer available for us all to look at but hopefully his new owners will be very happy. It has been a great experience for me, as an artist, to be involved in something that has been a source of such joy to people in London and I know for a fact that a lot of tourists will come across a picture of Just Joey on their camera when they get home..

So it’s goodbye to the elephants and time to get back to the canvas….

Well Just Joey has finally made it to his home for the next 6 weeks. He’ll be at Hay’s Galleria on the Southbank. The nearest tube is London Bridge. There’s a map of where all the elephants are on the Elephant Parade website ‘Download the Route Map’. Just Joey is number 140. For those of you who can’t make it here are a few photos.

Just Joey and artist, Karen Hollis

Just Joey with some admirers

Just good friends

Just Joey, number 140

Just Joey, Elephant Parade London

Coming up on the last weekend in April is the Reading Contemporary Art Fair. This is the first time that this Art Fair has been to Reading, it’s more usual location being Windsor.

Art in Bloom has taken on quite a large stand, number 31, where we should have room for a full selection of framed prints as well as about 18 original oil paintings, all available to purchase.

Please come along and have a look and a chat. We’re always interested in peoples favourites and any suggestions of flowers for future paintings.

The show is open Saturday 24th & Sunday 25th April from 10.00 until 17.00 at The Rivermead Leisure Complex, Richfield Avenue, RG1 8EQ. If you think you might be able to make the Private View on Friday night then send me an email as I have a few tickets available.

Well Joey has finally left us. We’re going to miss him but normal life resumes today. Eco man and Van came on a particularly slippy day and got stuck around the country lanes of Upper Basildon. So well done to them for making it. I shall keep you informed of any other elephants that I come across so do carry on watching this space.

Joey being carried very carefully

Joey enters the van

I hope you all had a great Christmas and you’re groaning under the weight of all that food.

We had lots of visitors who were pleased to see Joey in the flesh and I had a serious break from the painting although I’ve spent the last few days on the stems and highlights. I’m happy that he’s now presentable, so just a couple of coats of varnish to protect him and he’s ready to go out into the big wide world.

We’re hoping the weather will dry up enough to take him out into the garden for a final bit of filming…watch this space.

Hello again, so soon. Just like buses nothing for ages and then…..

Today we took Joey for a walk. There’s talk of doing a miniature so we needed to take some detailed photos even though Joey’s not absolutely finished he’s close enough. And to do that we needed to get further away from him than the kitchen sink!

So we cleared the snow away and put down some plastic and we had a nice bit of sunshine. Unfortunately that melted the snow on the roof and it all came crashing down onto Joey (we were having a cup of tea!) So we called it a day.

But here’s a couple of pics…

Out for a stroll

Enjoying the December sunshine

Firstly, I must apologise to those of you who have been following the blog and nothing’s been happening. I have been painting but there hasn’t been a noticeable change for a while. Also by the time I finish I can only get photos by using the flash. Anyway enough of the excuses! Here are a couple of images of the top of Joey so that you can see the flowers. They’re almost complete. I have another idea for the top but it may not work so I won’t say anything yet.

I need to get him photographed properly soon so we want to take him outside. However we had 6 inches of snow last night so that may not happen yet!

In the meantime my friend Gary Hodges has finished his elephant ‘Tattoo’. Check it out.

Bottom to top

Top to bottom

Had a good day today adding the extra flower so that I now have a whole side covered. A boost for morale! I will be going over every inch of him at the end to ‘tweak’ until I’m satisfied but I’m happy that as he is at the moment you’ll certainly be able to see him in any environment!

One side covered