The new mosaic project!

Christmas is here again and the Art Collective won't just be celebrating the holidays - we have been awarded nearly £1000 from Team London's Microgrants to run our mosaic project! We plan to create the new entrance sign for the animal centre which will feature images created by Art Collective artists and attendees of Ealing YOT's Summer scheme projects. We also plan to creat a second mosaic to brighten up a wall elsewhere in the animal centre.

We will be off from today (18th December) until our next Sunday session on the 8th of January. Below are 2 fantastic paintings by 2 members of the collective:

Grey Squirrel by Keith

Christmas Card design by Vince

A huge thank you to the funders of the mosaic project:

October images

October was a busy month for us. Unfortunately we had a flood in the studio and had to throw out some materials, but didn't lose any of our finished work, which was lucky. We have a number of commissions on the go and some of the artists have teamed up to work on a peacock mosaic which we hope will take pride of place near the park entrance.

Our free weekend sessions are usually full to capacity now, but we have space for more participants on our weekday sessions, so if you know a disabled artist who has an 'individual budget' from the council and is looking for activites during the day, let them know about the Art Collective!

Nigel working on the peacock mosaic - designed by Zubin

People by Hope - Hope is happy to take commissions for individual images which can be used to illustrate 'Easy Read' documents. Please contact the Art Collective for more information.

Sunset by Judith

Blue Bellied Roller by Gemma

Countryside background by Lynda

Abstract Art by Mary

Peacock by Matt

Giraffe and Chair by Keith

More recent images

Angel with wolves by Hope

Kune Kune pig by Lynda

Moth stamp by Vince

Dophins by Zubin
Kingfisher by Judith
Spreo Starling by Matt

Basket of puppies by Keith

Trustees meeting

2 weeks ago we held our first meeting since we elected the new trustees. We discussed new ways to make money, commissions we are currently working on and future plans.

We have been working on Christmas card designs and a sign for the new Kune Kune pig enclosure and are about to begin work on an entrance sign for the animal centre.

Where is our artwork?

You can find our signs and banners all around Brent Lodge Park Animal Centre. See if you can spot them next time you visit.

New signs

A sneak preview of some more of our signs - these ones haven't been put up in the animal centre yet!

Pictures from Hanwell Carnival

Some pictures from the BLP Stall at Hanwell carnival:

Berge, John, Keith and Sarah staffing the stall


Hope and Lynda

Berge getting carried away selling bags!

Phew!... it has been a busy few weeks, but our grant application forms are finally in and we managed to get our brochures printed and hold a stall at Hanwell carnival yesterday. It was wet, but a lot of fun and we had a fair amount of interest from potential artists and volunteers. We also recently appointed trustees and now have 2 co-chairs (Lynda and Sukhi), 2 co-treasurers (Matt and Berge) and 2 co-secretaries (Sarah and Hope).

Here are some recent pieces by BLP artists:

Wallaby by Keith

Design for a plant pot by Sukhi

Mara by Keith

Guinea Pig by Lynda

Woman in blue by trees by Hope

Butterflies

Last week the new butterfly house was opened in Brent Lodge Park by Steve Pound MP. As well as being a fantastic space where visitors can walk among exotic butterflies in a tropical environment, they can also see some our artwork!
Hope's picture of butterflies by the sea has been made into a badge

Sarah put together a collage of butterflies created by lots of different artists.

This picture is being used as a backdrop in the butterfly house. The background image was painted by me (Matt) and the butterflies were painted by various artists.

There are plans for a stall to be set up in the butterfly house where we can sell merchandise designed by artists.

Photographs courtesy of Cheryl Burke