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Archive for the ‘Work In Progress’ Category

A SNEAK PREVIEW

24 February 2012

Received a load of photos yesterday from Praxis, the printers who are producing the Yarm mural as a banner for the new Medical Centre.

Thanks for the photos, it looks fantastic! Can’t wait to see it installed.

YARM RESEARCH AND SCANNING

15 February 2012

Here I am (Karen) photographed while contemplating an image just scanned in from the archives in Yarm Town Hall.

We both spent an enjoyable day in Yarm; it’s lovely to get out and about. On our research days, Tony and myself work together to achieve the best results in the shortest possible timescale. Tony photographs 3D objects like shields, trophies, medals, etc., and also helps to take apart framed images so that I can scan them at a high resolution. All images are replaced carefully back into their frames, we take along plenty of tape, a small hammer and a tin of tacks specially for the job!

ILLUSTRATED TOWNSCAPE FOR OUR LATEST MURAL

7 February 2012

I’m just about to start on the final artwork for a large portrait mural that will adorn the entrance of a new Medical Centre being constructed at this very moment in the small town of Yarm in Cleveland.

Dr Neil Reynolds of Yarm Medical Centre expressed his delight in the beauty of his home-town, wishing to display the history of the town as an artwork in the new medical centre. Tony set off for his first meeting armed with notepad and camera and returned later armed with plenty of photos and an initial brief. Unfortunately a photograph would not be able to do justice to the town’s beauty due to all the additions of any modern street scene: bus shelters, parked vehicles, gaudy shop posters. With utter joy I realised I could put my illustrative skills to perfect use! Our concept was to create a modern version of the old 1930s travel posters, using bright colours and dramatic shadows, as shown in detail below.

I had already illustrated half the townscape when Tony returned to Yarm a few weeks later, with me in tow. I needed a few more photos of the town to check what one or two of the buildings really looked like behind that parked van. With Dr Reynolds guidance of what he wished to include, we spent the rest of the day inside Yarm Town Hall researching and scanning historic information, ready to put together a brief history of the town that would accompany the illustration.

A SKY FULL OF HOT AIR BALLOONS

29 March 2011

We are well on the way with the design for the illustrated mural to be sited in the brand new Women and Children’s Centre at King’s Mill Hospital. The project brief stated that the design needed to be attractive for children and young people and at the same time acknowledge the generosity of the local community and the achievements of the Charitable Appeals Trust.

Our concept is to use hot air balloons as a ‘vehicle’ to carry photographs representing some of the most noteworthy fundraising achievements. Trailing from each photo will be a banner giving a brief description of the event. The main mural title will feature on the basket of the large centre balloon, the basket full of excited, smiling children.

I totally adore working on projects like this, and am now onto the next stage of illustrating the country landscape. As requested by the client I have included ‘The Major Oak’ of Sherwood Forest (the large tree on the left). This is reported to be the most famous living tree in the world that according to local legend once used to shelter Robin Hood and his band of merry men. I have also been asked to include some small animals and birds into the landscape.

A CELEBRATION OF THE CHARITABLE APPEALS TRUST – KING’S MILL HOSPITAL, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE

28 February 2011

We are very happy to announce the start of our most recent commission – a heritage display to recognise the very significant achievements of the King’s Mill Charitable Appeals Trust.

Led by Frances Stein, with the help of many volunteers and the local community, the appeal has raised over £2.3 million for the benefit of the hospital since the start of the first appeal 25 years ago.

“We have a total of 21 lever arch files containing photographs and press cuttings which records a huge variety of fund raising events and donations of cash from local clubs, pubs, businesses, local councils and individual members of the public over many years.

“The challenge is to produce a design which is attractive for children and young people and at the same time acknowledge the generosity of the local community and the achievements of the Appeals Trust.” (project brief)

Our intention is to create an illustrated display that is bright, colourful and fun, which will appeal to children and adults alike. The display will be sited in the brand new Women and Children’s Centre at King’s Mill Hospital.

IN PROGRESS – THE HISTORY OF THE STEAD MEMORIAL HOSPITAL TO BE PORTRAYED IN THE NEW REDCAR PRIMARY CARE HOSPITAL

23 October 2010

We are very excited to be able to tell you about our latest project for NHS Redcar and Cleveland and the Stead Memorial Hospitals League of Friends. We are creating a unique heritage mural for the new hospital, to enable visitors to discover more about the now closed Stead Hospitals history.

The display will include a written history, photos, memorabilia, documents and artefacts. Hospital staff, former patients and local families, are being encouraged to play their part in the history project by sharing memories dating right back to when the Stead first opened in 1929. Shown above is the approved design visualisation as it might appear; one of four options shown at the very well attended public meeting held at the hospital on the 6th October 2010.

Dr John Stead was not a doctor of medicine but a highly qualified and distinguished Doctor of Science, specialising in metallurgy and specifically in the extraction of iron from its ore. After he died, in 1923, his family bequeathed his home to the local council to turn into a Cottage Hospital.

The landscape of Redcar and its surroundings are dominated by the stunning coastline, with its 8 mile long beach backed with dunes and nature reserve wetlands. This natural beauty contrasts with the dramatic silhouettes on the horizon of the steelworks and blast furnace, the Tees estuary teeming with cargo vessels, and the industrial complex at Wilton.

To do justice to the history of the Stead Memorial Hospital we aim to show its role at the heart of the Redcar community, set within its dramatic industrial and natural surroundings. We also aim to emphasize the impact and importance of the steel industry, without which the hospital would not have existed.

Local history and heritage should be made accessible to all ages and one of the projects aims is to encourage children, both in school parties and individually with their parents, to look at the display, to ask questions and find answers both about the hospital and the local environment. With this in mind we are working with local schools to devise a history project about the Stead Hospital allowing them to find the answers in the mural.

Coatham Marsh is a 134 acre nature reserve which attracts a diverse and important range of wildlife and birds. We are working with Tees Valley Wildlife Trust to include silhouette illustrations of the flora and fauna at the wildlife sanctuary as a border to the mural. The aim being to create a booklet, as a downloadable online resource, in which children can match the silhouettes with full colour illustrations and descriptive text. The digital booklet could also be made available at the hospital, local schools and from the Wildlife Trust.

With the link between the steel industry and the founding of the hospital being so strong, we have designed a polished steel frame incorporating a frieze depicting the dramatic skyline of both the steelworks and industrial complex.

The combination of steel framed frieze, nature reserve silhouette border and the detailed historical mural will, we believe, answer the challenges of creating a dramatic and unique heritage display for Redcar Community Hospital.

IN PROGRESS – THE CHILDREN’S EMERGENCY CARE CENTRE AT KMH

7 July 2010

We were contacted last month by Chas Hickling, Capital Projects Engineer, who we have worked with on the other heritage projects created for King’s Mill Hospital in 2008 and 2009. It’s always a pleasure to work with Chas!

He informed us that a very substantial donation had been made to the hospital from the sale of The Gospel Mission Hall, Goodacre Street, Mansfield, to help fund the new Children’s Emergency Care Centre (CECC) at King’s Mill. The donation has allowed the hospital to buy equipment that simply would not have been possible otherwise. As this donation effectively marks the end of the Mansfield Gospel Mission’s long and proud history it was decided to commemorate the Mission with a display in the CECC and to portray the history in detail as a new section on the existing ‘Virtual Museum’ touchscreen, which is sited on the main ‘street’ of the King’s Treatment Centre.

We attended a meeting organised by Chas, along with Theresa Kilduff, Service Development Manager at the CECC, and several former members of the Gospel Mission including grandchildren of John George Brown, a founder member, and one of the original Trustees. They had already written an overview of the Mission’s history and started to source a collection of images. Barbara Gallon a local historian and member of the Old Mansfield Society has also, very kindly, loaned some material relating to the history of the Gospel Mission.

As a group we visited the new CECC and viewed possible locations for the display. At this point it was clear that a detailed historical display would neither fit the space or be appropriate in that location. It was felt that a bright, colourful and fun display, commemorating the Mission’s donation whilst poignantly hinting at their work with the children of Mansfield would work really well as a display. But it was also agreed that the Mission’s history should be told in more detail and that the existing touchscreen would be the best solution. The touchscreen already portrays King’s Mill Hospital’s history with video, audio, slideshows and detailed text. So the existing equipment and design structure could be relatively easily added to with the history of Mansfield Gospel Mission.

The Gospel Mission was first built in 1913 and sadly due to increasing vandalism had to finally close its doors in September 2005. It was always known that if the building ceased to be used to preach the Gospel it was to be sold and the proceeds used for the benefit of local children. The mural and additional section on the touchscreens will be a lasting reminder of all the good work that The Gospel Mission has done for the population of the area – especially the children. This project is planned for completion in September 2010.

IN PROGRESS – THE JOHN COUPLAND HOSPITAL HISTORY MURALS

2 June 2010

In June 2009 we were contacted by Matron Jill Anderson at the John Coupland Hospital in Gainsborough requesting details on the heritage displays we create specifically for hospitals.

Having provided Jill with case studies and planning guidelines we heard nothing more till January this year. In the meantime Jill had set up a history group made up of past and present staff and other interested parties. They researched the history and with the help of the Gainsborough District and Heritage Association and the local library and newspapers, obtained news cuttings and photos covering the opening and development of the hospital.

We were then invited to review the information, and following this put a detailed proposal together. It was decided to create two distinctly different heritage displays. The first, which will be officially opened on the 10th July this year, will portray the history from the planning and official opening of the hospital in the early 1900’s to the birth of the NHS in 1948. The second display will follow when the hospital’s new wing opens, and will bring the story right up to date.

The first heritage mural will be a little over 20ft wide and almost 6ft high at its apex. The mural will feature a solid oak frame to replicate the beautiful aged oak panelling of the original hospital. The impressive Georgian exterior will feature at the centre of the display on a separate section that will appear to float in front of the sections to left and right. This effect will be emphasised by using contrasting reflective and non-reflective finishes. Selected images, within the non-reflective left and right sections, will also be over-mounted with a reflective finish to stand proud, adding to the three dimensional effect.

The mural’s overall design has been approved and we are now in the process of writing the final text and preparing high resolution artwork.

It looks great and we are all really excited!

PROJECT IN PROGRESS – THE NOC HERITAGE MURAL, OXFORD

23 April 2010

Our first contact with ’the NOC’, or Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, was via a direct contact email from our hospitalartstudio website on 17 July 2007. It stated: ‘I am the arts co-ordinator for the hospital and I am looking into putting together a mural about the history of the hospital’.

The arts coordinator, Tom Cox, was already working on securing a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and our first involvement was a site visit to talk about design options and view potential locations for the project. Tom then set about securing funding and started the process of researching the history of the NOC. This included the involvement of local schools and the hospitals’ arts group.

Historical photo of the Nuffield Orthopaedic CentreIn June 2009 Tom Cox visited us to review the archive and after collating this we created a draft design highlighting the hospitals’ main achievements. Using this as a starting point we were then able to steer the way forward, highlighting gaps requiring more information. Over the last few months we have updated the draft designs to reflect the approved themes, whilst staff, chosen for their specific knowledge and expertise, were tasked with checking the content and filling any gaps where they felt more information was required.

Glass fronted atrium at the NOCPROJECT SCOPE
As visitors enter the NOC from the car park they are faced with the dramatic scale of the glass fronted atrium that comprises the main reception area. This imposing glass frontage will depict abstract images of the stem cell research carried out at the NOC in a design we are creating that will be bright, dramatic and colourful. The semi-transparent images will be applied using high quality window film that can be viewed from inside and out.

Location for the NOC Heritage MuralAt the centre of the atrium, the reception desk and security office are housed in a large circular column reaching up high into the roof structure. The main heritage display will be wrapped around this circular column. Six feature panels will each focus on different subject categories and will be separated by brushed stainless steel semi-circular columns. The columns will include captioned anatomical and skeletal images, focussing on specific orthopaedic treatments carried out at the NOC. They will also include audio pods, adding an extra dimension to the visual displays. Captioned buttons will allow users to select audio recordings featuring personal reminiscences of former staff and patients.

Completion and installation is planned for this Summer, 2010.