More Gromits - Sir Quentin Blake's, Axel Scheffler's & SWILLUSTRATOR Chris Taylor's

Chris Taylor's Groscar

Sir Quentin Blake's  Gizmo

Gavin Strange's Stat's the way to do it, Lad!

Axel Scheffler's The Grommalo at Bristol Central Library

Detail from The Grommalo

Leigh Flurry at Red Central's Bark at Ee

 

ChrisTaylor & Blackbeardorilla

SW Illustrator Chris Taylor, who did Bristol Zoo Wow! Gorilla Blackbeardorilla, has done Groscar, an Academy Award-winner with three statuettes in his back pocket. 

Gavin Strange's is outside the Aardman Studios and has lots of facts about Aardman films etc all over it.  Bark at Ee  is covered with 'Brizzle' - Bristol's local phrases and idioms eg 'Gert Lush'.

Photos © Frances Cony

Gromit Unleashed

Gromit template. 

© and TM Aardman Animations 2012 

Today, several SWillustrators will be looking in their Inboxes to see if their designs have been shortlisted to decorate a 'Gromit'.

70 decorated Gromit sculptures will be 'Unleashed' on the streets of Bristol this summer after the tremendous success of the Wow Gorilla sculptures which 'roamed' the city's streets in 2011 to celebrate Bristol Zoo's 175th birthday.  The project raised £427,300 for gorilla conservation & The Grand Appeal. The organisers Aardman & Wild in Art are hoping to raise even more money for the Grand Appeal in aid of Bristol Children's Hospital this year.

It was announced recently that entries had been received from over 500 artists - and some people submitted several designs - 1000+ entries probably?   3 of the gorilla-sized sculptures have been allocated as Gromit's creator Nick Park, and the illustrator Axel Scheffler (The Gruffalo), and author/illustrator Raymond Briggs (The Snowman) have been invited to each decorate a Gromit.

There are long odds against any artist getting a sculpture, but who knows...  SWillustrators have got some 'form' for decorating Bath pigs & lions, Bristol gorillas, Wells swans, as well as elephants.  Good luck to SWILL.

For further information on the Gromit Unleashed project, see their website, Twitter feed and This is Bristol website.

Endangered PJs undercover at Burges Salmon

Burges Salmon helps Bert celebrate Hallowe'en  (c) Burges Salmon

See Bert's progress at www.franwowgorilla.blogspot.com

Gorilla Auction exceeds all expectations: Going, Going, Gone!!!

Ready to GO!  Gorisambard (L) by Tim Miness started a bidding war and went for the highest price £23K.

Banana Shirt (Ivana Svabic Cannon) £6K

SW Illustrators together raised £45 000 of the total £427 300

raised on Thursday night at the auction of 60 gorillas at the Victoria Rooms, Bristol.  That's more than 10% of the total for 10% of the gorillas sold on Thursday!!!!  The money goes to The Wallace & Gromit Grand Appeal in aid of Bristol Children's Hospital and Ape Conservation charities which have been long supported by Bristol Zoo Gardens.

Blackbeard Silverback (Jane Ververis Callan) £10K

Hubert (Anthony Hitchcock) £6K

Guerilla Tourist (Anthony Hitchcock) £7.5K

Endangered PJs (Frances Cony) £6.5K

Blackbeardorilla (Chris Taylor) £9K

See Gorilla Auction LIVE TONIGHT

See the auction live on a web cam via http://www.bristolzoo.org.uk/auction

Tony's are lot numbers 27 & 42
Jane's is 37
Chris's is 38
Ivana's is 47
Frances's 56

(out of 60!)

You can also buy raffle tickets to win a school-size unpainted gorilla, bit of a Formula 1 engine or a ceramic ape.  See zoo site for details.
Frances

Bristol Gorillas back in Bristol - Bristol Zoo (24-28 September)

The Bristol gorilla guys & girls are back in Bristol.  They are now lined up on the central lawn at the zoo.  They can be seen until closing time on Wednesday 28 September.

On Thursday 29 September, 60 of the apes will be auctioned at The Victoria Rooms, in aid of The Wallace & Gromit Grand Appeal in aid of Bristol Children's Hospital, and ape conservation.  There are no tickets left for the auction but there will be a live web cam feed of the events at the auction to the auction page http://www.bristolzoo.org.uk/auction on Thursday evening.

Gorillas in London! (until Thursday 22 Sept 2011)

Gorillas on Parade - with HMS Belfast - Queen's Walk, More London (photo: Liz Shaw)

Endangered PJs (Bert) (photo: Suzy-Jane Tanner)

Guerilla Tourist (Bob) & Tower Bridge (photo: Suzy-Jane Tanner)

Blackbeard Silverback (Ed) & others  (photo: Suzy-Jane Tanner)

Bristol Zoo Wow! Gorillas appear in London 16-22 September 2011

20 of the Bristol Zoo Wow! Gorillas hit the M4 - hopefully not literally - for London today.  They will appear at More London for nearly a week to promote the auction of all 61 ape sculptures 2 weeks today Thursday 29 September at The Victoria Rooms, Clifton, Bristol.  The Gorillas will be along Queen's Walk between London Bridge and Tower Bridge near City Hall.

Included will be Jane Ververis Callan's Blackbeard Silverback, Anthony Hitchcock's Guerilla Tourist, Frances Cony's Endangered PJs and Chris Taylor's Blackbeardorilla. Here they all are in earlier days:

Blackbeard Silverback

 

Guerilla Tourist



Endangered PJs (Bert); Guerilla Tourist (Bob) in background
and Tony with Hubert (aka Joe)



Bert (Endangered PJs) (pic: Ivana Cannon)

  

Blackbeard (& Chris)

Update (16 Sept): There are 4 photos on Facebook of them in London including Tower Bridge in the background and Endangerd PJs bottom in the foreground.

Meanwhile, Ivana Svabic Cannon's Banana Shirt is still on display in Bristol, now inside its sponsor Waitrose's Queens Road, Clifton store.

Banana Shirt (& Ivana)

Catch a Gorilla while you can!

It's been really great fun being part of Wow Gorillas.

I'm sure my Gorilla isn't the only one to ask 'does my bum look big in this'?

It only seems like yesterday that 'Blackbeard Silverback' was unveiled at Arnos Vale Cemetery by children from St Phillips Marsh Nursery School, who brought along their own mini gorilla to meet his big brother....... but there are now only a couple of weeks left to see them out on the streets. They will be taken in on 7th September.

Following their final farewell at Bristol Zoo on 24-28 September, the Gorillas will find their new homes at the auction to be held at the Victoria Rooms, Clifton at 7pm on Thursday 29 September.

http://www.bristolzoo.org.uk/wow-gorillas-auction-29-september-2011

Hubert, Guerilla Tourist & Banana Shirt

In want of photos of them on the street as yet, here are the guys when they were in the warehouse where they were painted:

Guerilla Tourist (aka Bob) by Tony Hitchcock

Hubert (aka Joe) & Guerilla Tourist both by Tony Hitchcock

Hubert & Banana Shirt

Banana Shirt by Ivana Cannon

Guerilla Tourist (no 60) is at Birmingham Coach Station (to encourage passengers not to go to Edinburgh, Manchester or Norwich, but to change their plans and visit Bristol instead!  Apparently in the past they have positioned such artwork on the top of a Welsh mountain).  Tony is to visit him in situ this week, c/o the sponsor National Express.

Hubert (26) is outside Holiday Inn Bristol City Centre to start with, and then Holiday Inn Bristol Airport.


Banana Shirt (48) is outside The Victoria Rooms, having been sponsored by Waitrose.

They will be on display until 7 September.  After that, they will all gather at Bristol Zoo, before being auctioned on 29 September.  The money raised will be split between The Bristol Children's Hospital (The Wallace & Gromit Grand Appeal), and ape conservation projects.  Sometime before that the artists have to spruce their apes up ready for the auction - getting rid of scratches, graffiti tags and scuff marks from the shoes of kids who've sat on the gorillas!

Download a map of the WOW! Bristol Gorillas at http://www.wowgorilla.org.uk/wow-gorillas.  There are now 61 life-size gorillas (including Doris a new figurehead for The Matthew), and 101 smaller gorillas which have been decorated by local schools.  For more information on the WOW! Bristol Gorillas project and Bristol Zoo's 175th birthday see: http://www.bristolzoo.org.uk/wow-gorillas

Bert spotted...

Frances' Bert - snapped today at Bitton Station

(by my partner Colin, out on a bike ride along
the Bath-Bristol cycle path!)

Endangered PJs finished

See more pix at www.franwowgorilla.blogspot.com

Another Bristol Zoo Wow Gorilla

The first design was not chosen by sponsors.  The second design is being sponsored by Mama Bear's Day Nursery.  See Frances Cony's Bristol Zoo Wow! Gorilla blog.

Frances Cony -  Yet another case of Gorilla Gardening

Frances Cony - Endangered PJs

Bert (aka Endangered PJs) a couple of days ago

WOW! project is a celebration of 175 years of Bristol ZOO

Preliminary sketches for a gorilla sculpture

 This was my first design; Gorilla wrapped in a bundle of hair.

Second design is definitely more commercial!
Sponsor - Waitrose, location - Queen's Road, Bristol.

Banana shirt

My design is influenced by everyday consumerism, where supermarkets become the main places where we ‘hunt food’! I’ve illustrated this by dressing up my gorilla in a shirt patterned with bananas.

I’ve also used my prints in linocut for this design. Rhythm of pattern is an essence of my printmaking work. I’ve patterned gorilla’s head and body with the motif of my print called ‘Twirl’, a stylised twirl of hair. This symbol gives the impression of safety, with the gorilla wrapped in a twirl of hair; strong and ancient like the Sphinx.

Another linocut motif ‘Sparkler’, I’ve placed at the back of his trousers, just to add to its cartoony, comical look.

I just need to paint it now!

Ivana Svabic Cannon