"Design a Lion" competition
Congratulations to 9 year old Toby from Pensford Primary School and 17 year old Elena from Three Ways School for winning the recent Lions of Bath 2010 "Design a Lion" art competition.
Toby & Eleanor with Stephen Bird, Megan Witty, Bob Trollope, Ian Turner and their lion prizes
Toby and Eleanor were presented with their full size lions in front of Bath Abbey by Megan Witty from the Lions of Bath team and Stephen Bird, Head of Heritage Services at Bath & NE Somerset Council, which sponsored the two lion sculpture prizes. The winners were also presented with family passports to Longleat by the safari park's big cat keepers and will be invited to the Lions of Bath media launch at the Royal Crescent Hotel in May with their decorated lions!
With nearly 400 entries to choose from, selecting just two winners was no easy task, but the judges agreed that Toby and Elena's bold and visual designs would make wonderful additions to the "Lions of Bath" pride.
Toby's "Galaxy" lion was very well drawn and the judges particularly liked the contrast between his bright yellow sun mane, the black body covered in shiny silver stars and the large, dramatic planets.
As world famous astronomer William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus from his window in Bath in 1871 it would seem a particularly appropriate design for the World Heritage city!
Elena's 3D design, with its large, colourful flowers made from a range of different materials was also a favourite with the judges and will encourage people of all abilities to use their senses to explore her "La La Sensory Lion's" different shapes and textures.
A number of the competition entries had some very inventive names such as "Napo-lion", "Pride and Prejudice", "Lie-in", "St-roar-berry, "Sea Lion", "A-lion Invaders" and even "Lion-ardo da Vinci" !
As the standard of the entries was so high, the judges also decided to award two highly commended prizes to 13 year old Bhavana from Hayesfield Girls School for her psychedelic "Alexandra" lion and to 8 year old Lizzie from Chandag Junior School for her "Harmony World Peace" lion. Bhavana and Lizzie will receive an adult and child ticket to Longleat and a selection of Lions of Bath 2010 stickers!
A huge thank you to everyone who entered the "Design a Lion" competition for all your hard work and creativity and also to our competition judges, Terry Gazzard (BaNES cabinet member for Tourism, Leisure & Culture), Colin Crumplin (Head of Art at Bath Spa University), Ann Cullis (Senior Arts Development Officer for BaNES) and Annette Martin of Bath Aqua Glass.
Lion sponsors
Nearly 60 of the 100 lions have already been allocated sponsors, so if you would like to sponsor a lion please contact us as soon as possible as the pride is being snapped up fast! Please email info@lionsofbath.com or phone Wendy on 07837 990951 to reserve your lion.
Artists
Twenty of the lion sculptures have now been collected by their artists from the lions' den in Bath and are now marking their new territory in artists' studios around the region! More lions are being collected each week and another mini-pride is due for delivery in Bath from the lion factory near Salisbury.
Happy painting to all our lion artists!
Lion encounter at Longleat!
Following the exciting news that Longleat had become Lions of Bath 2010 event sponsors, the lion team took some of the fibreglass sculptures to Longleat Safari Park where they met the big cat keepers and one brave lion ventured into the lions' den for an introduction to the Longleat pride!
He was driven into the enclosure on the back of a safari jeep with the real life pride running excitedly along behind him. The keepers then bravely unloaded him into the enclosure whilst the pride observed at a distance. After a few minutes the lionesses approached cautiously and before long he was being thoroughly licked, nibbled and pawed by the magnificent Dudley and his fabulous females!
Last summer, Lions of Bath sculptor Alan Dun spent some time parked in the middle of Longleat's lion enclosures quietly sketching and observing the pride as part of his initial research into his lion sculpture design. A big thank you to the Longleat pride for inspiring such stylish and regal "Lions of Bath 2010" sculptures!
Updates
Make sure you keep an eye on the Lions of Bath 2010 website for news of a whole range of exciting lion events taking place this year. We will soon be linking with Twitter, Facebook and Flickr to keep you in touch with the very latest lion happenings!
