Devizesprimary teacher Penny Stanley is one of 100 artists from around the West who has contributed to the amazing Bath lions.

The Lions of Bath follow on from the fibreglass pigs that decorated the city two years ago.

Mrs Stanley, 38, from Longcroft Avenue, Devizes, said: “My husband Matt is working with Midge Ure on a new music website designed to stop people downloading music free. It is due to launch next month.

“The company, Tunited, has sponsored one of the lions and they were looking for an artist to paint it for them. Well, I’m an artist, though not a professional one but I have recently exhibited and they let me do it.

“It was a real challenge. I couldn’t get it into my little summerhouse studio so it has been on the kitchen table for six weeks.”

Mrs Stanley’s design, incorporating the musical notes of Mr Ure’s big hit Vienna, had to be approved, and wrapping it around the three-dimensional sculpture was something Mrs Stanley had never attempted before. She said: “There were times I found the design wasn’t matching up when I turned a corner on the figure and I had to patch it up, but it all worked out in the end.”

The fibreglass lion became part of the family and the couple’s four children became involved in the project, the youngest, two-year-old Eden, intimately so.

Mrs Stanley, who teaches at Nursteed Primary School, said: “I came in one day and found Eden had got hold of my paints and added his own ideas, but I managed to repair what he had done.”