Artists

Go Elephants! Artists

Almost 400 designs were submitted to Go Elephants! for selection by the event sponsors. Nearly 40 artists worked on the elephants along with a host of community groups culminating in 53 finished pachyderms that will be on the streets of Norwich until 31 August 2008.

The blank elephant provides an ideal canvas for artists, offering large, flat flanks and an intricate face and head. Many of the commissioned artists were surprised by the size of the elephant and how long it took them to paint. Most artists were used to working on a flat surface so translating their design to a three dimensional surface was a challenge, but the results are fantastic.

We’re delighted to have worked with some of the regions finest artists in producing Go Elephants!. Some of the artists used a public painting space to work in which meant their work was permanently on view.

Amy Dibben working on The Tree of Life

Ben Stokes at work on City Scape
 

Hilary and Lewis Davies painting The Ancient Mariner

A few of our artists have kindly let us feature them on these pages – so if you like their work you can find more about the inspiration behind their work. There are also links to their websites

Illona Clarke

Artist of The Educated Elephant and children’s book illustrator Illona Clark worked with the UEA on her elephant. Originally Illona wanted her elephant to be camouflaged by its surroundings but loved the way the design developed as she went along. It shows the UEA as a centre of learning with the four legs of the elephant representing the four schools of the UEA.   See if you can guess which leg represents which school.

To see more of Illona’s work visit her website at http://www.illonaclark.com/

Peter Rodulfo

Inspired painter of  A Day Out with Stephen Fry, Peter Rodulfo was born in 1958 and studied at the Norwich school of Art and Design from 1975 - 1979. The son of, Monty Rodulfo, a British Intelligence Agent, Peter spent much of his childhood travelling across India and Australia, before later settling in Norfolk.

With a professional career now spanning over twenty-five years, Rodulfo has produced a prolific and constant output of work. Utilising a variety of mediums and techniques his work crosses, painting, sculpture, collage, relief and construction. His elephant was inspired by days in his youth when he would spend afternoons drinking coffee and doing crosswords with Stephen Fry in the legendary ‘Just Johns’ in Norwich.

To view some more of Peter’s artwork visit either of these links:
http://www.rodulfo.deviantart.com/
http://www.gwilliams.org.uk/rodulfo/index.html
http://www.londonart.co.uk/sales/view_art.asp?artistID=247

Susan Gunn

Susan won the inaugural Sovereign Art Prize in 2006 and took time out from preparing for a major exhibition at Norwich Castle Museum this November to create Jemima. Translating her fascination with cracked earth to the elephant canvas proved a challenging and entertaining task – and one Susan undertook with great enthusiasm.

To view some more of Susan’s artwork, visit:    http://www.commissionseast.org.uk/Stay/Comms_East/html_content/artists_susanGunn.htm

Matt Reeve 

He worked with Pret a Manger on his elephant ‘Feeling Fruity’ and is really proud of the finished article. His style is very graphic and stylised imagery plays a big part in his design. To see more of Matt’s work visit his website at :
http://www.mattreeve.co.uk/