Blossom, birds and elephants

Joanna Martin is one of a select band of artists who can now call herself an Elephant Parade veteran.

This year’s project Blossom & Birds is her third elephant for Elephant Parade and she has also completed three life-sized cows for similar public art expositions.

She says: “I am certainly more aware of what I am taking on, with these large scale public art projects. I might have done quite a few elephants but you don’t lose any of the excitement. It’s a privilege to be a part of this.”

Her new elephant creation is part of the Elephant Parade tour that intu is presenting around the UK, giving Elephant Parade a nationwide platform to connect with more than 30 million people. The tour aims to raise awareness of the plight of the Asian elephant and the schools programme has already inspired design ideas from more than 5,000 students.

Joanna’s elephant for this year’s intu Elephant Parade is ‘Blossom & Birds’. Its design is quite different to her previous works. “The other elephants have been based on more abstract patterns and with a bright and bold design. But this elephant has a more delicate design - so it been quite a different challenge.”

Joanna said the inspiration for Blossom & Birds stemmed from her interest in gardening and wildlife. “These are the birds I see in my garden or on my allotment, as is the blossom.” But while the design in rooted in the everyday - with blackbirds, robins and thrushes dotting the body of the elephant - the sky-blue background and cotton-wool clouds give it a dreamy, ethereal quality.

“The biggest challenge in painting an elephant is the sheer scale of it,” says Joanna. “The first parade I had two elephants on the go at once, obviously I couldn’t fit them both in my studio, so one ended up in my dining room, which isn’t where I normally work.”

This time round, Blossom & Birds, was in the studio rather than the dining room - with an outlook into the garden. This, she says, made the logistics a little more straightforward, but the intricate design meant that the project was still a labour of love.

“This was a complicated pattern that took time to get right.” She points out that even painting the background can be a time-consuming process. “I have to use acrylic paint and needed around three to four coats just to ensure the background was the right colour.”

In total she estimates she took around a month to paint Blossom & Birds. “It might be possible to do it quicker if you had a much simpler design, or if you didn’t need to sleep! It is a big undertaking, but one that is hugely rewarding. I like having the opportunity to spend so long on just one project. But as ever with these public works of art there is a deadline looming - so you can’t dawdle!”

Joanna is an artist who works across a variety of media. Originally from Manchester, she is now based in Hove, near Brighton. “I was lucky enough to grow up in an artistic household, and have always painted and made things. For a number of years I worked as a teacher, but now have earned my living as an artist for the past 10 years.”

She says she has been sent photographs from friends of Blossom & Birds as it tours the intu shopping centres around the UK and that she is hoping to see it again when the touring Elephant Parade returns to the south east this summer.

More information about Joanna’s work can be found on the website:

http://joannamartinartist.weebly.com/index.html