Rachel Smith Designs Hugo the Highcross Cat

Rachael Smith is a uniquely talented illustrator based in Leicester, her drawings are full of warm humour and bursting with character. She specialises in children's book illustration and character design, but her creations lend themselves to all kinds of creative work such as advertising, merchandise design, and editorial illustrations.

Working with the local community is important to Highcross, so when Rachael approached us with her idea for a Highcross illustration we worked with her to deliver Hugo the Highcross cat (illustration)

Rachael designed Hugo the Highcross Cat especially for this project. "I wanted to create someone a bit cheeky and curious who could get involved with everything Highcross has to offer. Hugo, being a cat, especially likes the sushi!"

Rachael's most popular character to date is Flimsy the Kitten, who has her own blog and range of merchandise. She also designs her own t shirts and sells original work in her online shop. To find out more about Rachael and her many weird and wonderful creations visit www.highcrossleicester.com

Rachel is a former graduate bursary winner as well

Catharine Ashdown Former Bursary Winner Showcased at Curve

As part of Momentum, the new writing festival Catharine Ashdown is having her first stage play 'Bygones' showcased at Curve on 29th October (7pm). It is being performed as a script-in-hand show, along with three other half hour pieces by different writers.

Bygones
A Belfast pub, 1995. As the crowd gathers outside to greet President Clinton's historic visit, Carmel, a Catholic and Dan, a Protestant, each try to make sense of their troubled past

For more information on the festival go to http://issuu.com/theatre-writing/docs/momentum_2010

Creative Leicestershire Bursary Winner Shauna Richardson Wins Saatchi Award

Thirty shortlisted artists from the Art of Giving Competition exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery 7th -9th October with a host of famous artists to raise money for charity through the sale of art. Comedian Vic Reeves, Photographer Terry O’Neill and Artist Christian Furr judged the competition, which was split into three categories: Painting and Drawing, Sculpture and Photography.

Winner of the sculpture category and overall winner is self-proclaimed Crochetdermist Shauna Richardson from Stoughton, Leicestershire. Shauna sculpts life-like animals using crochet hook and wool. Using one simple stitch and one colour Shauna employs her own unique crochet freestyle technique to highlight the anatomy of the animal. Each piece takes months to complete, five months in the case of one 6.5ft brown bear.

Tilla Crowne was awarded first prize in the Painting and Drawing category. Tilla, 23, studied Fine Art at Cambridge School of Art and primarily works with living material. Her work entered in the competition consisted of live snails, with their shells painted in the image of rooms in her childhood home. She says “I relish the dynamism and constant change that living elements lend to my work. My installations change over the time they are exhibited, so each viewing is unique.”

Edward Bowman was awarded first prize in the Photography category. Edward, who graduated from the University of Derby with an MA in Photography, and from the University of Westminster with an MA in Design and Media Arts get’s his inspiration from the past, “My work is entirely about the past. A search for what has been lost - around the theme absence.” He has taken photographs in India, China and Egypt. He currently lives in London.

Shauna, Tilla and Edward all received a cash prize and art supplies.

For more information on the Art of Giving go to www.artofgiving.co.uk.