A Chester-le-Street artist hopes her much-loved Tales on the Tyne sculpture will raise as much money as possible for charity when it goes under the hammer next month.
Sarah-Lee Bailey, who works as 'SARAH HYPHEN LEE', created Peter of the Pit for this summer’s Tales on the Tyne trail supporting St Oswald’s Hospice.
(Image: SARAH LEE)
Displayed at Richardson Dees Park in Wallsend, the sculpture celebrates the region’s mining heritage and its pit communities.
(Image: SARAH LEE)
Online bidding is open, with the closing weekend on October 10 and 11 before a live auction on October 13.
Sarah-Lee hopes Peter will find a permanent home while raising vital funds for the hospice.
Growing up in High Handenhold near Beamish, she was inspired by the pit villages and mining communities around her.
(Image: SARAH LEE)
Peter features a miner’s lamp, pit wheels and the words “We carried the light” in tribute to mining families across the North East.
Sarah-Lee said: "I wanted him to be something people here could see themselves and their families in, and feel proud of."
The artist spent more than 70 hours painting the sculpture, which has attracted more than 2,000 visits recorded through the trail’s app.
(Image: SARAH LEE)
"It has been lovely seeing something so personal to me become part of other families' days out," she said.
Peter of the Pit marked a major milestone for Sarah-Lee as her first official freelance commission.
The project came just a few years after Sarah-Lee and her family endured one of the hardest periods of their lives.
Sarah-Lee became legally homeless in 2023, three months into maternity leave, and spent almost a year in that situation with her family while pursuing her art.
During that time, she entered the Baltic Open Call and was selected to exhibit her work in 2024—her first public display.
Her first oil painting later earned her a place on Sky Arts’ Portrait Artist of the Year, turning her lifelong ambition into a career.
After appearing on the programme, Sarah-Lee opened a studio at Pelton Community Centre in August 2025.
She credits the centre with transforming her life by giving her an affordable space to build her business while raising her two young daughters.
"Having somewhere to work and build something for myself around raising two young daughters has meant more than I can really put into an email," she said.
"The support from Pelton Community Centre is a huge part of how I got here."
Since becoming self-employed in March, Sarah-Lee has taken on ambitious community projects, including a collaborative painting-by-numbers artwork at July’s Durham Miners’ Gala. As part of Durham University’s Light Years project, she designed and hand-numbered all 9,798 squares in ten days before visitors completed it together.
She is also preparing for her first solo exhibition at Arts Centre Washington in 2027 after winning the space through an open call.
As Peter of the Pit’s time on the trail ends, Sarah-Lee hopes the sculpture’s journey will continue.
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"Being able to use my work to celebrate where I'm from, bring people together and now help raise money for St Oswald's means a lot to me," she said.
"I'd love to give Peter the best chance of making a difference at auction."
The wider Peter Rabbit: Tales on the Tyne trail features 96 sculptures, with 40 being auctioned to mark St Oswald’s Hospice’s 40th anniversary and the 160th anniversary of Beatrix Potter’s birth.