Once Upon a Tyne

My Peter Rabbit™ sculpture took over 100+ hours of happy painting time before it landed in Northumberland Park, North Shields, for the duration of the trail. That this happens to be the park of my own childhood, just around the corner from where I grew up, made its location feel all the more special.

MY DESIGN

Sponsored by Tyne Tunnels

Inspired by my lifelong love of children’s literature and reading, my design transforms Peter Rabbit into an illustrated map of stories, tracing the River Tyne from the city centre to the sea. Along the way, local landmarks and favourite spots become the setting for encounters with familiar characters from fairy tales, nursery rhymes and fables – plus a few from my own imagination! Just some of the stories you’ll find woven across my sculpture are: Little Red Riding Hood reading at Seven Stories, The Three Bears off to the Baltic, The Fairytale of Fenwick unfolding not far from Rapunzel, who is stuck on top of Monument. Then there’s Jack, whose beanstalk has grown from the soil of the Town Moor.

There’s also a Cow Jumping Over the Toon, sharing a Northern sky with Hercules and The Angel of the North. Meanwhile, The Little Mermaid has found her way to the mouth of the Tyne, just along from The Owl and the Pussycat who, on their way to sea (in a mushy pea green boat no less), have stopped off for fish’n’chips at the Fish Quay (where else?). At its heart, my design is a celebration of children and childhood, of the power and joy of storytelling and reading, and I hope you love looking at it as much as I loved creating it!

THE MAKING OF IT

Across April 2026, I dedicated over 100 hours to painting my Once Upon a Tyne design into being. To be able to commit such long periods of time to one creative project felt such a gift. It gave me the opportunity to exist in a near-constant state of deep flow, to completely surrender to the process, trusting, hoping it would work out as my illustration unfolded across the 3D form. Not to mention, the joy of being able to listen uninterrupted to a great many books along the way (and with two young daughters, this really is a rare treat!).

What made it especially meaningful though was painting alongside fellow artists. It’s not often in freelance life you get to share a project and space for such a stint. I met new creative pals – special shout-out to Sarah Hyphen Lee, who I painted alongside for many hours, and her handsome Peter of the Pit, and Julie Fleming, who although painted her beautiful Midsummer at home, was a great support throughout via insta DMs! It’s left me feeling that I want to be in community with my art more often, creating alongside, together, with, other artists. So here’s hoping the next year brings more opportunities like this along.

If you’d like to see more of my creative process, I shared lots of ‘behind-the-scenes’ content along the way, like this video (which features Sam Fender, as opposed to the ‘copyright-free’ music here!). You’ll find them all saved in an Instagram highlight called TotT Art Trail here.

My sculpture, Once Upon a Tyne (28), was located
in Northumberland Park, North Shields. You can view the full trail map here.

Photo credit for cut-out image at top of page: Lee Gibbins, on behalf of St Oswold’s Hospice.