Have Yourselves A Merry Little Christmas!

Helmeted Guineafowl

I recently spent an incredible 5 days at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, where I saw plenty of these beautiful, but odd looking birds.

The Ol Pejata Conservancy is a not-for-profit organisation situated in Kenya's Laikipia county. It boasts the largest population of Black Rhinos in East Africa, and also plays home to 4 of the 7 remaining Northen White Rhinos on the planet. I thoroughly recommend a visit:

http://www.olpejetaconservancy.org


(Thank you to Scoth Macaskill for supplying the reference material for this piece).

Dr Had's Jazz

Canvas & Cream Gallery in London is hosting an evening of jazz and art in aid of the Dr Hadwen Trust on Tuesday 2nd October (from 7.30pm). 

Tickets are £10 and can be bought on the door, or reserved prior to the event by emailing Alex Carter: alex@alexandracarter.com

I will be showing a small selection of recent pastel works in the gallery space, which will be available to buy, with part of the proceeds going to the Dr Hadwen Trust.

Exhibition at the Carspecken-Scott Gallery

20 of my most recent works will be on show at the Carspecken-Scott Gallery in Wilmington, Delaware, for a period of two weeks from Friday 28th September 2012. 

There is a preview reception on Thursday 27th, between 5.30 - 7.30pm.

Please contact Fred Carspecken at the gallery for details:

fred @ carspeckenscott.com
(302) 655-7173

Pandora

The Fabergé Big Egg Hunt in London is in full flow, and Pandora has taken up residence in Duke of York Square, a two minute walk from Sloane Square station.

My inspiration for the design was born from an interest in dinosaurs at a very young age. I grew up in central and eastern Africa, but with family ties to the UK, we would make an annual trip back during the summer. I always insisted on visiting the Natural History Museum in London, and would marvel at the incredible collection of dinosaur skeletons on display. The image of "Dippy", the famous Diplodocus in the entrance hall, has been etched on my mind ever since that first visit.

Having been involved with the London Elephant Parade and Edinburgh's Jungle City I've enjoyed watching how people, and in particular children, react and interact with the sculptures. For this campaign I wanted to produce something that would appeal to audiences of all ages, and hopefully spark and interest in people for a subject that gave me a great deal of pleasure growing up.

Pandora is up for auction, and available to bid on until 9th April 2012. Click on this link to place a bid:

http://auction.thebigegghunt.co.uk/lots/pandora-by-martin-aveling

























The campaign is raising funds for 2 charities; Elephant Family and Action For Children. 30 of the eggs were auctioned during a special event at the Royal Courts of Justice on Tuesday evening, raising a grand total of £667,000 for the two causes. The Humpty Dumpty egg, signed by Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, and designed by students at the Prince's Drawing School, went for an impressive £51,000.

I would also like to thank Krishanthi Williams for giving up her time to take these pictures of Pandora:

The Big Egg Hunt

The Big Egg Hunt is coming to London! From the 21st February 2012, for 40 days and nights, the capital's streets will play host to 200 3ft fiberglass eggs, painted by different artists from across the country.

I've painted the following dinosaur inspired egg, which I've named 'Pandora':




























(Photo: Being transported in a @tweetalondoncab taxi)


The video below gives a brief run down of the painting process:



When the exhibition is over, all 200 eggs will be auctioned off to raise funds for two charities; Elephant Family and Action For Children.

An Urban Safari

Here are a selection of photos from my exhibition at The Gallery On The Corner between 11th - 14th December 2011.
Photography by Krishanthi:





































Click here for more photos. Please feel free to email me on martin.aveling@gmail.com with any questions or sales enquiries.