Calling all artists – Please Paint Elmer

Elmer sculpture

Artist Jeff Rowland

THE North East charity behind a free public art trail is calling on artists from across the UK to help make the event a success and raise much needed funds for children with incurable conditions.

Elmer’s Great North Parade will take place in August 2019, with individually decorated statues of the popular children’s picture book character, Elmer the Patchwork Elephant, positioned throughout Tyne and Wear.

It is being held by recently crowned North East Charity of the Year, Newcastle-based St Oswald’s Hospice, in partnership with Wild in Art and Elmer publisher Andersen Press.

And they are now calling on amateur and professional artists to individually decorate the 70 fibreglass statues, which will make up the trail.

Written and illustrated by David McKee, the Elmer books feature a patchwork elephant whose unique colours mark him apart from the rest of the herd – and the Hospice hopes artists will let their imaginations run riot in creating designs of their own.

Not only will those, whose designs are chosen, receive an artist fee of £800, but their work will be seen and enjoyed by the estimated 700,000 visitors to Elmer’s Great North Parade.

The 10-week long Parade is the sequel to Great North Snowdogs, a similar free public art trail staged by St Oswald’s Hospice with Wild in Art in 2016, which raised £367k for its children and young adults’ service.

It will culminate in an auction of the statues on 12 November to raise money for the Hospice, which provides specialist care for North East adults, young people and children with incurable conditions and support for their families and loved ones.

Newcastle-based Artist Amanda Rabey, who designed a Snowdog for the earlier trail, said “it was a major factor in my sales increasing.

“My involvement as an artist gave potential customers greater confidence to buy and helped get my name heard and work seen by vast numbers of people from the region and beyond.”

Along with the 70 large sculptures the trail will feature more than 100 smaller Elmers, designed and decorated by North East schools, youth groups and organisations.

“This is a unique opportunity for artists to see their work being enjoyed and viewed by hundreds of thousands of people,” said project curator Victoria Maddison.

“We welcome original designs from both emerging and professional artists across the region and beyond.

“The successful artists will be expected to transfer their design onto a large, three dimensional Elmer, which will sell at auction. We look forward to seeing a variety of creative designs over the coming weeks.”

Submissions must be made via an online form at www.greatnorthelmer.co.uk/artists and the closing date for entries is 14 February 2019.

Artworks will be presented to the sculpture sponsors in May 2019 and the artists whose designs are chosen will need to transfer their designs on to the full-sized Elmer sculpture between the end of May and the beginning of August 2019.

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