Year of the Bus Auction
Year of the Bus Auction
Liverpool Echo, 28 February 2015 By Olivia Rudgard original here
Merseyside artists are set to raise thousands of pounds for charity in an auction of colourful London buses.
Last year artists from across the country were asked to create a design for a bus for the Transport for London Year of the Bus sculpture trail.
And the Liverpool artists involved have admitted that there is some healthy rivalry over whose work will raise the most for charity.
City centre artist Sophie Green had three buses in the display, called ‘Crystal’, ‘Dazzler’ and ‘Push Once.’
She said: “The bus has been brilliant – it’s great because it’s a big, high profile project. It’s a London event so more people see it, and the Olympic Park was an ideal place to be.
“A lot of my work is quite character-based, whereas the Dazzler bus was a little bit more contemporary.”
Sophie’s studio partner Kristel Pillkahn also designed a bus, called ‘Spectrum’, for the project.
Another artist whose work was included in the project was south Liverpool-based Stephen McKay, whose 60 Years of the Bus sculpture, strikingly decorated with London telephone boxes, was displayed in Parliament Street.
Like Sophie Green he had a ‘Dazzle’ bus inspired by the camouflage used on First World War ships, and he said that the pair supported each other during the project.
He said: “The Liverpool artists, we help each other out. There’s quite a bit of friendly rivalry going on between us – when we enter these projects we help each other ship the works around the country.
“It’s giving amateur artists the opportunity to display their art alongside nationally recognised artists.”
Stephen’s partner Janet Fishwick also designed a bus, Pearl, inspired by the London tradition of Pearly Kings and Queens.
Warrington-based artists One Red Shoe were also commissioned to design a bus for the project.
Art trail veterans Neil and Fiona Osborne have raised thousands of pounds for charity participating in art trails over the years.
The pair are also in-demand interior designers, and worked on a design in Steven Gerrard’s house.
Their bus was inspired by the map of the London Underground.
Fiona Osborne, who is from Runcorn, said: “These trails are really good to be able to do because lots of our work is in houses and places that people don’t see. It’s really nice to get them out so people who are walking past might stop and look.
“We were given a list of themes, one of which was the Underground, and we were delighted to find that the letters in the underground has the same number in as the number of lines.”
Their bus spent four months on display outside Westminster Cathedral and is now in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park alongside the 57 other buses designed by artists from across the country.
An online auction is open until noon on March 24 2015, and it will then reopen at 7pm to run alongside a live auction.
Proceeds from the sale of the buses will go to children’s charity Kids Company, Transaid, which helps people in developing countries access transport, and the London Transport Museum.
ENDS
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Read more about Sophie's Year of the Bus artwork in the Liverpool Echo here.
Watch Year of the Bus sculptures in the studio at Sophie's You-tube channel
The Transport for London auction details can be found here. Place your bids!
