AN INTERNATIONAL artist with a celebrity clientele is offering a rare chance to see her at work.

Brighton painter Louise Dear, whose clients include Sir Elton John and Rick Stein, is putting on the exhibition Louise Dear and the Elephant in the Room at her pop-up gallery in Brighton Square.

Art lovers can peruse her paintings until August 3 as she renovates a life-size sculpture of a baby elephant called Tinkle.

Ms Dear said: “My 21-year-old daughter Lama-sea Dear, who is also my assistant and muse, collects little elephants and she absolutely loves them. I do too.”

She originally painted Tinkle as part of a 2010 exhibition in which 280 artists decorated elephant sculptures. After the exhibition Tinkle was sold at auction to one of Ms Dear’s clients and has spent the last four years in his Kensington garden.

Now the British climate has taken its toll, Ms Dear agreed to renovate her for free.

She will let the public see the renovation to raise awareness for charity Elephant Family which works to protect elephants in Asia.