Lincoln Railway Station Welcomes Colourful New Art
Lincoln Railway Station has become home to a series of brand new artworks, thanks to an exciting community project.
The ‘Romans to Railways’ project aimed to create colourful new artwork for permanent display at the station. A fantastic and memorable way of welcoming commutors to the city.
These designs would not only brighten the train station but would also highlight locations of interest to discover. They also celebrate areas of Lincolnshire’s history.
How My Railway Journey Began.
My involvement with the Romans to Railways project began back in 2020. That was when I discovered the callout for artists to get involved.
The Rotary Club of Lincoln Colonia were looking for artists who might be intersted in creating pieces a new project. They were planning a series of art pieces for Lincoln Station. I, of course, jumped at the opportunity.
In total I ended up creating 12 design ideas, with the hopes that maybe one or two might be selected.
I was delighted when three of my designs were selected, with the request for me to also create a further three collaborative pieces for the project. These would be in collaboration with students from the Priory Academy LSST, Lincoln Christ Hospital School and Lincoln City Football Club National Citizenship Service, along with Lincoln City Foundation.
Iconic Images of Lincoln
The final designs we created would be digitally printed on to large boards, then permanently fixed to the far platform wall. An excellent opportunity for a community project to showcase some of the talents our city has to offer.
My own designs would be digitally hand illustrated, however the collaborative pieces would take on a real mix. Produced throughout a series of workshops, students created artwork using everything from paints, inks and textiles through to purely digitally illustrated pieces. Along with guiding them through the ways we could build the images, we looked at the problem solving required for a large group to create one piece together.
Once their design elements where finished I would scan their images and edit them together to create each of their final pieces.
The Priory Academy LSST school designed ‘Living The Dream’ to look at the building of the WWI tank. Their students worked in small groups to produce mixed media collaged tiles. These would later fit together to create their final colourful final image.
Lincoln Christ Hospital School students chose Trains Through Time as the theme for their design. They used both digital and traditional drawing methods to illustrate a brief history of the railways. Lincoln City Football Club National Citizenship Service students created a colourful montage of drawings and paintings to celebrate ‘the Imps’. They even managed to include some brilliant portraits of each other in the crowd scene.
My three final designs feature steampunks at Newport Arch, the Red Arrows flying over Castle Square and the iconic Lincoln Cathedral.
Full Steam Ahead for the Artwork
The final artwork went on display at Lincoln railway Station just before Christmas 2021. With lockdowns in place, however, the official launch took place in February 2022.
Being part of such a wonderful project is amazing and so I’m grateful to be involved with it.
Thank you to the wonderful sponsors East Midland Railway, Community Rail Network, North Notts and Lincs Community Rail Partnership, Lincoln City Foundation and the Rotary Club of Lincoln Colonia for making this project a reality.
If you would like to see the new artwork for yourself then be sure to look out for it if you’re travelling through Lincoln.
To find out more about my artwork please visit my Portfolio or feel free to drop me a message for a chat.
You can also follow me on Instragram, Facebook and Twitter to discover my latest designs and projects.