Following the Gromit trail around Bristol

I've previously blogged about my plans to visit all of the Gromit statues which have been placed around Bristol and the surrounding areas over the summer of 2013. 

Headed by Aardman Animations, for ten weeks between 1st July and 8th September, eighty statues of Gromit have been placed in a type of public art display under the title, 'Gromit Unleashed'. These are mainly in the greater Bristol area, but some are further afield. Each statue has been designed or decorated by a different individual and each sponsored by a different corporate entity. After the end of the ten week period they'll then be auctioned off to raise funds for Wallace and Gromit's Grand Appeal, the Bristol Children's Hospital charity.

 

My blog post here is about the first twenty statues we visited, this post is about the next twenty.

These first few carry on from the previous post and are also in the Clifton and surrounding areas of Bristol. This is 'It's Kraken, Gromit!' by Filthy Luker, sponsored by Torwood House School and Nursery and positioned just off the Downs. This is probably the most creative Gromit I've seen, the extra legs can't have been easy to add!

This is 'Five a Day Dog' by Laura Cramer, sponsored by CJ Hole and was on Henleaze Road in Henleaze. I'm not sure why an estate agent are sponsoring a Gromit which looks like he'd be better claimed by a green grocer!

Our final stop of the day was to see 'Feathers' by Dave Bain sponsored by Nailsea Electrical and placed on the Gloucester Road. It's not that easy to see, but he's decorated with parrots, hence the name.

 

The next day we headed into the city centre for shopping and Gromiting. We started in the Cabot Circus shopping centre where we found 'Doodles' by Simon Tofield, the Gromit that the shopping centre are sponsoring. Gromit is decorated with Simon's most well known creation, Simon's Cat.

 We found 'Gromit Lightyear' by Pixar and sponsored by Jones Lang LaSalle inside the Showcase Cinema de Luxe. I loved the Buzz Lightyear design, and that he'd been placed in a perfect location.

'Grosmos' by Cheba was sponsored by and tucked away in Harvey Nichols. This was a challenge, the bright light in the background made it really difficult to get a good photograph of him, but hopefully you can see the galaxy effect.

'Lancelot' by Sir Paul Smith was in Quakers Friars and sponsored by Bluefin Professions. He's clearly had his nose rubbed a few too many times as the paint was wearing thin!

 'Malago' by Dan Collings at Thirty Three and sponsored by the John James Bristol Foundation was in Broadmead, in full sun.

'Gromitasaurus' by Huncan Daskell was in The Galleries shopping centre and sponsored by them. I did like his eyes!

'Collarfull' by Hannah Cumming was in Castle Park and sponsored by TLT. He's covered in cartoon style drawings, a bit of a random design!

'Why Dog? Why?' by Mark Titchner was located at and sponsored by St Nicholas Market. I wasn't convinced by this one, the question mark seemed like an after thought and looked as if it had been coloured in by hand.

'Nezahualcoyotl' by Joseph Dunmore was sponsored by and placed in Stanfords bookshop. Nice design but a nightmare of a name to try and pronounce or type!

'Bumble Boogie' by Sarah Jane Richards was sponsored by Wessex Water and placed at Colston Hall. This also had music composed by Jools Holland OBE. I tried tentatively pressing the red button, but as the Hall was so quiet, didn't have the confidence to press it firmly enough to hear the music.

'Hero' by Tom Deams was placed outside and sponsored by Subway. Bristol is well known for it's graffiti, so I liked the idea of the Wallace and Gromit inspired graffiti behind. Nice Gromit design as well!

'Salty Sea Dog' by Peter Lord CBE, one of the directors of Aardman, was sponsored by Veale Wasbrough Vizards and placed on the Cascade Steps. Pete does love his pirates, so really his design couldn't have been of anything else!

'A Close Shave' by Harry Hill was at the Tourist Information Centre and sponsored by Destination Bristol. I thought this was a clever idea, picking up on the name of a Wallace and Gromit short animation.

'Hound Dog' by Sir Peter Blake was at the Arnolfini and sponsored by the O2 Academy Bristol. This one made me laugh, with his quiff it was clear that he was channelling Elvis.

'Zodiac' by Inkie, sponsored by At-Bristol was outside the Arnolfini and was marked with the names of all of the signs of the Zodiac.

'Bark at Ee' by Leigh Flurry at Red Central was on Queen Square and sponsored by Santander Corporate & Commercial Banking. This was a popular one, he has Bristolian phrases written over him, which were making the Bristolians around me giggle.

'Groscar' by Chris Taylor was sponsored by Business West and placed in Thunderbolt Square (didn't know it was called that!). This one was a bit worse for wear, his gold paint was rubbing off and he had a patch on his ear with a repair in progress.

We did a few more before heading home for the day, but as I've covered another twenty, that seems like a good place to stop.

Hopefully you're enjoying seeing the Gromit statues. If you want to come to Bristol to hunt some down for yourself, there's an app for Apple and Android phones, that you can use to tick them off as you see them. It costs 69p, but most of that goes to the charity. The Gromit Unleashed website is also worth a look. You can download maps there, or pick them up from the passport stops and shops (where you can also get your Gromit Unleashed passport stamped).

If there's anything I can help with, or you just want to let me know which is your favourite Gromit, please leave me a comment below.

The post with the next twenty should hopefully be up before too long.