Art in Bloom

Sorry to all of you who have been regularly looking for an update but I’ve had a week away from Joey. He was left house sitting and seems to have scared off any intruders.

But it was good to get back to him today even if it was the dreariest day on record. I’m moving from front to back now and thought he would look more presentable with his face painted. It’s a less flamboyant rose than the ones covering his back but it’s a little emblem that say’s he’s a rose lover.

He also has his feet painted now, well first coat anyway. He’s walking through soil, so in aid of the weather at the moment we’re making it nice and muddy!

Nice nose

Joey's muddy feet

Well painting is cracking on even though the light is really poor at the moment. I’m really enjoying doing the flowers. It’s almost as if you need the pain of leaves, leaves, leaves to have the pleasure of bright orange flowers. Although it’s amazing how big Joey is. I’ve half done three of eight roses so I have got a way to go yet. My own fault I suppose as I do keep going back and tweaking the ones I’ve done.

Joey's hat

Joey gets dressed

Today Joey had a taste of Hollywood.

We wanted moving pictures of the work in progress so Steve Bale, a professional cameraman, came over to do the honours and as producer/director we had Lawrence Harvey in the hot seat. So after a hearty lunch we all set to work.

Space was very tight as Joey needs most of it but the guys did well and hopefully you might get a little movie soon.

As to painting progress… we’re quite well up on the leaves now and we’ve started adding stems and buds, all thanks to a couple of fellow artists who came around at the weekend to help. The orange of the flowers is cheering up these drab winter days and the more we add the more we’ll be reminded of summer.

Joey becomes a movie star

Painting for the camera

Okay so admittedly painting grey isn’t the most interesting job in the world so I thought I’d move onto a bit of foliage. Well actually there’s more than a bit of foliage, there’s a whole rose bush. So I confess that I’ve been painting leaves for a week.

I’m only using three colours for the leaves with a little bit of grey for the shaded area but I’m getting through quite a lot of Sap Green. I like the way they’re turning out quite bright and cheerful hopefully that will give them quite good contrast when the roses come into bloom – hopefully Monday I’ll get to add orange to my palette.

But Joey’s been just standing by quietly while I tickle the bristles!

Joey goes green

Isn't he adorable

Joey gets a face

My next move is to get some paint – masses of paint. I currently work in oils but because of the time factor I don’t have time to do it in oils as they need a minimum of 6 months to dry so it’s over to Acrylics. A friend helps out and brings a selection of colours which I have a good root through.

Where to start? Well if I’m going to spend the next month with Joey he needs a face so that I can at least welcome him in the morning and curse him when it’s not going well!

Easy, a selection of Grey’s are chosen. You may think that one would be sufficient but no I have three. I’ve decided that the sun is shining on him from above and ahead so the underneath will be darker than the front and his underbelly darker still.

Now what about the eyes. Okay I’m searching through the web photos from the September parade in Amsterdam and I decide that I want quite realistic eyes so a thorough search on the internet and I’m ready to put paint to elephant….

Roses all over his back

So for the first week after he’d arrived I just looked at him. I couldn’t actually believe the size of him, actual baby elephant sized!

I knew as a design I was going to cover him with English roses – my favourite being ‘Just Joey’ so I thought okay so that’s his name sorted then.

Then it came to the day when I decided I just had to get going. The deadline is the end of 2009 and I had no idea how long it would take…I still don’t!

So I spent 3 days just drawing and here’s the result. Sorry it looks a bit faint but they’re thin lines on quite a big elephant.

Leaves on his legs

Just Joey, just arrived

Hello everybody. This is my new toy. I’m hoping to keep you all up to date with all the weird and wonderful things I’m doing. First up is the elephant. Those of you on Facebook will already know about ‘Just Joey’ but for those of you that are not I shall be posting my work in progress as I create a painted baby elephant for Elephant parade 2010 to be held in London next summer. Watch this space….For more information see ‘About’ on the purple bar at the top.