Thursday 19 May 2011

Painting Lions at Lighthouse

In April I was commissioned a lion for Pride in Bournemouth, an exhibition of artist decorated lion sculptures that will form part of a huge art event at the end of June this year in Bournemouth to raise money for Julia’s House and Born Free charities..

My design Britannia was selected for Leatherbarrows, travel and removals company. I began working on the lion in the ‘Den’ in Bournemouth but at the beginning of May Britannia travelled to Lighthouse for me to finish work on him in my own little den in Lighthouse foyer.

The theme is travel, and the main inspiration for the design is a flowing connection between Britain lots of different countries, mainly Europe, USA, Canada and South Africa. The mane sees the union Jack flowing down the body and blending into the different colour flags and shapes of the various countries. All of the flags and shapes are interconnected creating an abstracted design. My signature style comes through in the striking lion design with my use of lines and merging forms.

Over the past two weeks I have been painting my way through the design in public view, enjoying the interaction of many interested onlookers coming to chat to me about my work. Last week I finished Britannia, complete with three coats of shiny varnish. Now finished ready for the exhibition Britannia has left Lighthouse, but was replaced on Tuesday by another blank white lion as I had the great news last week that I also won the commission for a new lion Gemdeco for the Cumberland Hotel in Bournemouth.

I started work on the new lion, Gemdeco, design today and will be updating my progress here on the lighthouse blog, so keep visiting the website and blog for more information and pictures of my exciting new design. You can also drop in to Lighthouse to see the work in progress over the next two weeks. I aim to have completed Gemdeco by the end of the first week of June, so pop along and have a look.

Posted by Hazel Evans, Visual Artist in Residence at Lighthouse.