Something wild, wonderful and incredibly colourful will be bounding across the Isle of Man this summer.

All around the island, starting from May, ’Wallabies Gone Wild’ will see brightly decorated wallaby sculptures turning up in some unexpected places, creating an exciting and fun art trail to follow.

The wallaby art trail is a public art event, organised in partnership by Hospice Isle of Man, to help them celebrate their 35th anniversary, and the community art organisation Wild In Art.

There will be 26 large wallabies, standing higher than_ seven foot, and hand-painted by a select group of artists, positioned all over the island, which will be located in easily-accessible, outdoor locations, along with troupes of 40 baby wallabies, designed and painted by some of the island’s school and youth groups, which will be found gathering around some of the island’s landmark buildings.

Wild In Art is a global organisation which creates mass participation public art events all over the world, bringing together charities, schools, community groups and the private sector to create positive and lasting art displays.

They have been responsible for the Bee in the City trail in Manchester last year, and the Shaun the Sheep trail, which featured in cities across the UK in 2016, and has since been recreated in Tokyo.

While most of the large wallabies will be painted by island-based artists, Donna Newman hails from Sutton Coldfield.

She is a painter of bright, vivid murals for community projects, and has participated in many of Wild In Art’s projects over the past few years.

’I have painted some quite unusual animals for wild in art, so I am getting quite used to them by now, but I have never painted anything like a wallaby before,’ said Donna.

’I normally paint at my home, in my own studio.

’This is quite a nice change to come here and paint one of these wallabies in the Isle of Man.’

More information on ’Wallabies Gone Wild’ is available from hospice.org.im

by Mike Wade

twitters:@iomnewspapers