Mural project at Port Sunlight

I spent a nice week over at Bridge Cottage, the new community hub run by Port Sunlight Trust on the Wirral, where I painting a mural looking at life then and now in the village. 

I wanted to make the piece about the people who lived here rather than the soap factory legacy (have a read here if you're interested, it's fascinating stuff) so the design features the finer, undocumented details, such as the black and white cat which hangs about the Lyceum, the weddings that go on here, the boules tournaments, dog shows and allotment prizes, the annual 10K race, the old fashioned prams which are paraded around, the couple of ducks which return each year and more of what residents get up to here...

The building has some beautiful original features and has also undergone some unsympathetic modern alterations over the years as a residence too, so the colours I chose hopefully work with the building's history and appeal to the young and the old which will now use the space. It'll now play host to all sorts including book clubs, coffee mornings, toddler groups, has a craft room upstairs and board room too, and with community spirit and volunteers behind it, should become a real success story and pride of the community. 

I'm going to be in Port Sunlight again on the 1st July at Landbaby's Handmade Fair there, come and say hello and have a look for yourself!

If you'd like to commission me, let's talk! See my website for details and more projects.

S x

Introducing Luna Hops

I spent last week painting one of Cotswold March Hare Festival's large hares, you'll know already if you keep up with my sporadic blog posting or social medias. My sponsors at New Brewery Arts, Cirencester kindly let me use the pop-up studio as I wasn't convinced the fibre glass creature would make the journey up to Wilmslow in one piece. It was cosy and peaceful and I had a wonderful stream of folk popping in to see what I was up to. Lovely week!

I went about designing the hare in flat profiles in the hope that the design would wrap around the hare nicely- of course my mural projects are generally on a flat surface so that's what felt most natural to me, and luckily worked ok.

Along with New Brewery Arts the project was also sponsored by Corinium Ales and Geoffrey Carr Garden Design, so between us had a dream brief drawn up with the theme of this year's trail as 'heritage'. I looked at the history of brewing in Cirencester and old images of New Brewery Arts with it's former large chimneys and the Barrel Store which I'd already worked on the branding of, it was a no-brainer. 

After pencilling on where everything would sit, I went about painting in acrylic wreaths of hops and barley for making the ale, pub relics, brewing equipment in the most amazing copper and a couple of Cirencester ties- the hare mosaic from Roman times and Sophie Ryder's beautiful grey hound sculptures which (used to) sit outside.

My wonderful sponsors, Geoffrey Carr Garden Design, Yours truly, Tracey from New Brewery Arts and Lucy of Corinium Ales. All excellent people.

You'll notice I've only really got images of the hare from one side, but with any luck I will have a time lapse video of the whole process I'll be able to show you soon, excited for that.

I'm feeling a bit love sick since I finished up if I'm honest! Over the course of the week 'it' became a 'she', and we all finally settled on a name, 'Luna hops'. Luna, Latin for moon- being a moon gazing type stance, again with the local Roman links and a nod to Lucy's fabulously named (delicious) beers, and Hops, used to make the beer and a play on hares-a-hopping! Clever, eh? She's off for a high shine varnish at the car garage so she'll be able to withstand whatever the British summer throws at us, and goes on show with the rest of the 80 hares throughout the Cotswolds from March 25th this year, before getting auctioned for charity in the Autumn. Hope you like her, I can't wait to see the rest of the 'Flick'.

S x

Cirencester March Hare Trail

A belated happy new year to you! I hope you had a wonderful festive time, I'm easing myself very gently into 2017 and have some nice plans to tell you about...

I've been working on something quite different since Christmas, a departure from my usual flat walls, a large fiberglass hare! He'll form part of the Cirencester March Hare Festival where, once finished he'll join many others and become part of a public art trail which will encourage people to explore the beautiful Cotswolds. Why a hare, you ask? Hares have historical ties to the area, for instance the hare motif in mosaic works dug-up close by. You know I'm rather fond of them anyway, they crop up quite regularly in my work which means I'm pretty thrilled to be asked to paint a huge one! For details on when the trails are a-go, check the website here. I believe the launch is around Mother's day- what could be a nicer thing to do indeed? The hares will be auctioned in Autumn this year where they'll hopefully raise a tonne of cash for charities including National Star and historical renovation works in the towns and villages the hares have appeared in. I'm all for that.

Next week the nice folk at New Brewery Arts are letting me take over the pop-up studio next door, where you can catch me painting the large creature. Pop in and say hello! They are also the sponsors for my Hare, along with Corinium Ales and Geoff Carr Garden Design. Dream team. It's been quite a challenge thinking in dimensions and I'm not even sure how long it'll take me, but am sure up to doing something different to start the year off...

Will show you the progress shots soon, have an excellent weekend! S x

Mural work at Gloucester Services Petrol Station

I didn't show you what I was up to before coming back to Finland a couple of weeks ago. More mural work at Gloucester Services, this time across in the petrol station...

I worked with Westmorland and came up with the above design, a story about the company, the site and architecture of the building and surrounding area, and the stream of traffic from the M5 which will use the station. It took me a week to paint onto the till area of the build...

I've had real fun over in the services as I've been slowly bringing different areas some colour and life, mural work is my absolute new favourite pastime! It's so rewarding to see a large area transformed, and also feels the perfect paring as we share the same 'eat-well' and local, green values. You can read about some of the other projects I've painted at Gloucester services by clicking on the photos below...

The A-Z of Gloucestershire, cafe area at Gloucester Services

The Anatomy of an English Picnic, Deli area at Gloucester Services

Map of South-West Suppliers, Shop area at Gloucester Services

Do get in touch if you'd like me to paint something on a wall for you!