Gorilla comes to Living Coasts

A top local artist has come to the English Riviera to paint a gorilla in public.

Cleo Heard is painting the life-size figure between Monday 26th and Friday 30th May, during half term. She is working in the entrance hall of Living Coasts, on the quayside, where people can watch her progress.

Last year Cleo painted the popular Bananarilla for the Great Gorillas Project. Her design for this gorilla uses the Living Coasts penguin logo in a striking all-over pattern. She has dubbed this gorilla Penguilla.

Hayley Gibson, from Living Coasts, said: “This is part of the legacy of the Great Gorillas Project. We hope this piece of free public art will attract attention and bring people down to the end of the quay. It may become an unofficial mascot for Living Coasts or even for Torquay!”

Cleo will also run mini penguin painting workshops. The sessions, on Thursday 29th and Friday 30th May, will be for children of all ages. For a donation they will be able to paint their own six inch tall plaster penguin and take it home with them when they have finished.

The new gorilla will stand on the quayside at the entrance to Living Coasts, in the place where Hippocampus guttulatus, created by artist Deborah Treliving for sponsors Cavanna Homes, stood during the Great Gorillas Project. For more information go to www.livingcoasts.org.uk or ring 0844 474 3366.