It's a jungle out there

And so the jungle mural at Grafton Junior School is complete. I've had such a great time at the school. The kids have been brilliant, and the staff so welcoming.

It's been a challenge coping with weather extremes (we've had pretty much every type of weather except snow), but I've loved every second of the experience and I think it's the best mural I've painted to date. I only wish I could bring it home with me.

Here's some pics, the first few show the mural panning from left to right.

As the foliage is growing down onto the wall, I decided to carry on painting the leaves onto the wall post.

I added a little gekko to one of the trees.

Each of the trees has the year of the children whose handprints created the "leaves."

420 handprints = 4 palm trees

The Grafton Junior School mural continues apace.

At last, after being rained off for days (I know, in English summertime, who'd have thought it?), I was finally able to get round to painting the children's hands to form the leaves of the trees. I'd painted one tree for each year, years 3-6 at the school. All 420 children got involved, with each child adding their own handprint to the wall for posterity. Most of the teachers and staff at the school joined in too, including the headmaster.

I've also added a few details to the leaves, plants and flowers, and painted the giraffe and the chameleon. Though you may not be able to spot him. He's very good at hiding you know.

Miss Holloway from Year Six gets involved

Can you tell which band she'd been to see the night before?

The red flowers on the plants are also handprints

Bringing up Baby

So, my tiger has caused quite a stir in the school playground. After the fifth child shouted "Your tiger is sick!" at me, I asked a passing eight year old if this was a good or bad thing, and was assured that "sick" means "good" in Young Person Vernacular. Phew.

Today I painted the snake and the leopard. I usually have a song in my head relevant to whatever I'm painting (when I started painting the lions, a group of children helped me out by singing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"), and when painting the leopard it was Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant singing "I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby", from Bringing Up Baby. If you haven't seen it, you really must, it's a brilliant screwball comedy and one of the best films ever made.

Anyway, may I suggest you click on this link to a Youtube video of the fabulous Hepburn and Grant singing to their leopard to accompany the latest paintings below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dTBdhmvjrQ&feature=related