My 'Elmer in the flowers'

My ‘Elmer in the flowers’ in my front garden.

It was several months ago now that I entered my Elmer design into the competition. I was thrilled to have been one of the 40 artists chosen to decorate a large fibreglass Elmer. I had to go to Plymouth to choose my elephant and he was delivered to my home. I wasn’t entirely sure if he’d fit through our front door but he luckily did! I painted him in a little room at the front of the house so my daughter’s friends could keep checking! I chose to use a monochrome theme as it’s what I love and I felt that as I’ve been an illustrator or baby board books for the past few years snd babies love black and white, I thought this could be one to appeal to the little ones. I also wanted him to have a Scandinavian look about him too which fits in with my style. I called it ‘Elmer in the flowers’. Here are some photos that I took over a few weeks.

I gave the elephant a coat of white primer first before sketching a rough design in pencil and then adding black acrylic paint with various size brushes.

I enjoyed sharing the elephant with the neighbours by putting him in the front garden for a day.

I took my family to the launch party which was great fun - seeing all the elephants under flashing lights after they’d all been varnished.

My Elmer is part of the Plymouth Trail to raise money for St Luke’s Hospice. You can find more info here. The elephants each have a sponsor and all the elephants are going to be auctioned off for charity art the end of the summer.