Taking part in a public sculpture trail
A peek behind the scenes of being commissioned for a public art trail…
What is a Wild in Art trail?
Wild in Art organises outdoor public art trails across the UK and beyond, inviting artists to paint their designs onto large fibreglass sculptures, usually in the form of an animal. They’ve raised over £25 million, and counting, for a range of charities.
I was aware of the trails, but hadn’t considered putting myself forward until an illustrator friend mentioned that she’d just completed a sculpture, and this prompted me to think ‘why not give it a go?’ I kept an eye on the Wild in Art website to see what trails were happening locally and when I saw ‘The Big Hoot’ supporting the Chestnut Tree House Children’s Hospice close to me in Sussex, it felt like a good fit.
What’s involved in painting a Wild in Art sculpture?
Submitting your design
All my projects start with setting a timer and writing down as many ideas as possible, then doing rough sketches for the strongest ideas. This was no different and I quickly landed on the association between owls and wisdom. For me, wisdom is linked to curiosity and learning - and what better visual representation of this than a bookshelf? I wanted to include a sense of place, so it made sense to fill the shelves with books and authors with a Sussex connection.
This was my third submission for an art trail and the two before weren’t successful, so it’s worth noting that entering a submission is an investment of time that isn’t guaranteed to pay off. That said - like most people - I learn by doing, and each submission was a little stronger than the one before.
Painting the sculpture
If you’re lucky enough to be commissioned, you’re then given the option to have the sculpture delivered to you, or to do the work on site at a dedicated painting space. At 1.6m height and 92cm width, the owl was never going to get past my front door, but lucky for me, my sister generously offered me the use of her garden office, which wasn’t being used. Added bonus, I’d get to see more of my family while I was at it.
Pros and cons of painting at home:
I was able to paint it whenever I had a spare couple of hours, without having to travel far, which made it easier to fit this in around other work. As this was my first time working on this type of project, I benefitted from extra time and my own space to work through some of the aspects I found more challenging.
On the flip side, it would have been lovely to meet some of the other artists in person, and I know I work more efficiently when I have a fixed window of time to deliver.
Materials
The Big Hoot organisers supplied an artists information pack, which includes lots of useful information on the do’s and don’ts of decorating your sculpture. The materials I used included:
Emulsion paint - I tend to use valspar as you can get a huge variety of colours in a decent size tester pot, but other brands are available. I use these a lot for my window art, so I’ve built up quite the collection!
A variety of paint brush sizes for the big areas of colour, down to the tiny details.
Chalk for marking out the book titles.
Posca pens for the finer details.
The varnish is supplied by the organisers.
biggest challenges and learnings
I had a couple of false starts with colour combinations. Even though I’d done tests on paper, I found that certain colours looked quite different together once painted on a large surface area. It took me a few goes to find the ‘right shade’ of blue, and I ended up re-painting the base a couple of times.
The colour challenge wasn’t helped by the ‘first coat cringe’: just like painting your walls at home, you never quite know how it’s going to look till you get that all important second coat down. My learning here: hold your nerve and keep going!
I spent a lot of time on this project. It was my first experience of creating something at this scale and I was learning on the job. At times I laboured certain decisions and didn’t always feel like I was being efficient with my time.
I didn’t make life easy for myself with my design, which included a lot of details - some of these were integral to the design, like the titles of the books. But there were other time-consuming details like the zig zag pattern on the owl’s head, which probably didn’t have enough impact for the effort required.
It’s physical work: I knew I’d need a step to reach the top of the owl which is about the same height as me. I under-estimated how much time I would be crouching down, or even lying down, to work on the lower parts. I tackled this by working around the owl and varying my positions so I didn’t spend too long in one place.
Would I recommend taking part in a similar art trail?
Absolutely! My painting skills got a real boost on this project: brush handling, precise lines, painting on a curved surface - all skills that I can bring with me to new projects. It was a big confidence boost to have my design selected, to prove to myself I can work at scale, and to see the finished result out there being enjoyed by the general public.
The Big Hoot Art trail runs from 10 July – 1 September 2024 with 30 unique owls in locations across Chichester and Arundel, each designed by a different artist.
You can find out more about Wild in Art on their website.