Today I got to live most artist's dream. On Friday, I went up to Monarto Zoo in the Adelaide Hills to set up for the exhibition Leigh Rust and I were having. Monarto really have got behind this concept and were extremely helpful. We are donating 35% of all takings to them and the Jane Goodall Institute and 35% to the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Sierra Leone. The remaining 30% is destined to cover costs of framing, transport of Leigh, and Noel who I'll refer to later, from Melbourne, etc etc

I picked up Leigh and Noel on Friday night and had the pleasure of hosting them for the last two days. We went back to Monarto on Saturday to finish setup. This is what it looked like.

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Leigh with his 'frontispiece'

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Me with mine

Then the other four walls of chimps

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and the wall of non chimp pieces

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Then Noel set up his music. He and a friend had put together an amazing sound track that was both sympathetic to the exhibition and inspiring at the same time. There were 45 minutes of music (his own compositions with a friend - together “The Emulaterz”), individual pieces inspired by our individual works and titles, and interspersed with commentary by Lyndal Davies, the producer of the show about Tacugama that inspired the project in the first place. It really added to the show and created just the right atmosphere.

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Then we went back today.

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Firstly Mike Rann, the premier of South Australia wandered through and met us

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And then we met the icon we spent so long trying to get for our opening (persistence pays), Dr Jane Goodall, the world's leading primatologist and the woman who's research changed the way we think about chimps. This woman is an absolute legend, a British Dame, and possibly the finest person I have ever met. She opened the show

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and here with Dr Chris West, the director of both Adelaide and Monarto Zoos and the ex director of London Zoo

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More

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Leigh had done a fabulous portrait for Jane and presented it to her as a surprise. She was genuinely thrilled with this as she was with our exhibition and the work we'd poured into it.

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Then onto the show. The first sale was chalked up to Leigh (bugger :D ). Dr Carla Litchfield bought "Escaping the fires", one of my favourite pieces in the show. This woman knows her primates and vindicates everything we stand for. She's on the board of the Royal Zoological Society and is the president of the Australasian Primate Society. No more credibility needed. This is her with Leigh

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Three more sales chalked up soon enough, Leigh with two

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and yes, I'm on the board :)

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We also sold five prints so it's been an amazing start. The work will be displayed for up to three months. Monarto seem genuinely pleased to have it there and think it's a great addition to what they do. I can't say enough about the staff there, especially a guy by the name of Steve Callery who, along with Belinda Redman, has made it all possible.

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Then onto the demos. Leigh did a pastel and I worked on a scratchboard. These generated massive interest. Leigh knocked his over quite quickly. When we were there yesterday, we went on the walk around the place and at the lion enclosure, Leigh got a really good reference and produced this from it

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Due to his massive heart and generosity, I am now the proud owner of that lovely juvenile male lion piece.

I worked on this scratchboard

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and though it was less than halfway through, I sold it .So now I have to finish it and meet up with the new owner.

Now (if you are still reading), if that's not enough, on the way back home we got a phone call from the staff at the zoo. Jane Goodall has invited us (although unfortunately for Leigh he's now back in Melbourne) to her lecture in the Adelaide Town Hall tomorrow night. Apparently she wants to publically thank us for all the work. I have a free ticket with my name on it at the door and I'll have to report back. At least I'll get to hear her again, and hopefully meet her once more. Sorry Leigh, I'll carry the torch  You may have made the first sale, but I get to meet her again

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Finally, many of you know Leigh's work. If not, he's high up on my myspace page, check him out. It's really amazing. What you may not know is how huge his heart is. I referred to it earlier but it really is. We have other projects in the pipeline with more chimps and other animals and we simply can't wait to get stuck into them

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Thanks for bearing with me :)