Painting a full sized unicorn for the Unicorn Festival was a delightful experience.

60 magical beasts currently graced the streets of Bristol and the surrounding region from July until September 2023.

Artists were invited to submit bids to paint way back in September last year and the final decisions were reached in January and several selected artists were matched with a sponsor.

My sponsor was Cheddar Gorge and Caves, a magnificent tourist destination located in the Mendip Hills in Somerset just 20 miles from Bristol.

The inspiration for ‘Blooming Gorgeous’ comes from the open green spaces that Bristol is famous for and particularly the beautiful meadows that appear in unexpected parts of the City during No Mow May.

After meeting with sponsors at a launch event in February at the Memorial Stadium in Bristol we agreed to include some abstract flowers into my design to represent the Cheddar Pink flower. This flower is indigenous to the steep cliffs of the gorge.

The aim for my unicorn was to inject as much magic as possible by covering her with an abstract meadow bursting with colour. The floral design is typical of my distinctive bold meadow paintings featuring abstract flowers in bright uplifting colours onto a metallic blue backdrop.

I like to work intuitively by building up layers of acrylic paint and adding fine details to enrich the painted surface. I am an intuitive painter which means that my paintings evolve gradually through a series of moves where the imagery is determined by continually responding to the marks as they build up. My art is very process driven.

As the unicorns are the size of a horse it was no mean feat to cover its body. It’s by far the most interesting ‘canvas’ to work on but not the biggest painting I’ve tackled to date. That accolade still remains to rest with my garden art studio that won ‘Shed of the Year’ workshop category in 2019.

The unicorn took about two weeks to complete. Painting with a group of brilliant artists was amazing and it was lovely to make new connections.

Making art is generally quite a solitary pursuit so sharing the experience with other artists was really fun. We worked on our unicorns at an unused shop space in the Galleries in Bristol.

I loved working alongside fellow unicorn painters including children’s book illustrator Paula Bowles, graphic designer and creative Nicola at Nancy and Belle, painters Kim Reed, Susannah Peacock, Emma Catherine and Emma Burleigh and street artists Oshi, Conrico and Ella at Studio Mia.

Sculpture Trails always attract media attention and several of us were interviewed by BBC Point West. Here is a link to the article