Ryobi recently sponsored one of Elmer’s herd of elephants during the Belfast Big Trail event held in aid of the Northern Ireland Childrens Hospice to celebrate its 21st opening anniversary. All elephants were produced by local artists and took pride of place around the city for 10 weeks over the summer.
Elmers Big Belfast Trail concluded on Wednesday evening with an auction of the individual elephants in Belfast Crumlin Road Gaol. The auction raised an unbelievable sum of £121,700 for the Hospice.
Name: Belfast Belle
Created by: Created by: Anne-Marie Byrne
Design Inspiration
A trip down memory lane, Belle remembers the many great concerts hosted at The King’s Hall. Designed by Leitch and Partners from Glasgow, and built in 1933 by J & R Thompson from Belfast, King’s Hall opened in 1934.
On her back, the iconic building has been turned into a juke box, the sides show various albums by a few of Belfast and N Ireland’s most famous bands, while a roll call of some of the bands who played at the venue is shown round her feet. The front shows the Beatles arriving at Shannon Airport in 1964. This is one for music fans!
About the Artist
After many years in non-creative fields, Anne-Marie rediscovered her love of art when the Wild in Art Pigs came to Ipswich. Since then, Anne-Marie has painted for many charity trails across the UK. Her designs include a lion disguised as a tiger, sun bears, flying hares, a prehistoric giraffe, a biker bee, an underwater gorilla, a superhero wallaby, a Monty Python cow and a herd of sporting, magical, nautical and holiday-themed elephants. Other projects include otters for Dartmoor National Park, and a Jaguar car which drove to Monte Carlo and back.
Auctions of Anne-Marie’s work have raised over £135,000 for the various charities.