A Newbury artist has created a life-size and life-like sculpture of Paddington author Michael Bond who was born in the town nearly a century ago.
Kate Oppel, an 80-year-old yoga teacher who lives in Donnington, created the impressive likeness as she thought Newbury needs to recognise the importance of the famous children’s author’s connection to the town.
She previously painted a portrait of Paddington Bear alongside the late Queen after watching the popular Platinum Jubilee sketch involving the unlikely duo.
She then sold prints of this image and raised £1,350 for charity in the process.
Mrs Oppel said: “There was a letter in the Newbury Weekly News about two years ago saying that it should be celebrated that he was born here.
“The fact that he was born in Newbury is important.
“Nobody has done anything about it and I love doing portraits and catching people’s character, so I just wanted a challenge.
“It has been an incredible challenge. It’s very difficult.”
Mrs Oppel began the artistic project last September, starting with creating a bust of Mr Bond’s head out of clay, using photographs taken from the internet as reference.
She had been in contact with Mr Bond’s daughter, Karen Jankel, who has been guiding Mrs Oppel in making a true-to-life likeness of her late father.
She then made a mould of the clay bust, and took a plaster cast from this, which she has painted to look like the acclaimed writer, who died in 2017 at the age of 91.
His head, along with plaster hands and some removable feet, are all contained within a suit that sits on a bench next to a little Paddington stuffed bear.
“It’s the first time I’ve ever done anything like this really,” Mrs Oppel said.
“I could go on improving it indefinitely but I’ve just got to stop somewhere.”
Mrs Oppel now wants her project to bring joy to others, especially children, and she hopes she can put the word out to let people know that her Mr Bond statue can be borrowed for events.
She said: “It’s not a money-making project. If anybody wants to borrow him, they can do. I don’t want to charge for it.
“There’s another [Paddington] film coming out in the summer, so it would be nice if he went and was put outside the entrance to the cinema and children can sit there and have their photos taken.”
