Two tiled murals by British contemporary artist Clare Woods have been unveiled this summer following her successful installation of two epic tile murals in the Olympic Park, London.
Commissions for Hereford Cathedral Junior School and the Much Wenlock Public Art Trail sited at William Brookes School both feature extracts from Woods' original Olympic designs.
At Hereford Cathedral Junior School 300 paintings by children and staff have been merged with a section of Woods' original artwork. The resulting tile mural celebrates the Diamond Jubilee, the 2012 London Olympics, the school and the county of Herefordshire.
The Much Wenlock Public Art Trail, sited at William Brookes School, was commissioned by the William Penny Brookes Foundation for the people of Much Wenlock, to celebrate the town's heritage and its role in the birth of the modern Olympic Games. The 7m by 2m double-sided mural wall features a section of the Brick Field Olympic Park mural by Woods, was made by Shropshire specialist tile company Craven Dunnill Jackfield.
Clare Woods spent two years creating the two major mural installations, Brick Field and Carpenter's Curve, commissioned by the Contemporary Art Society for the Olympic Park. The scale, the complexity of the designs and the vagaries of ceramic production led to collaboration with the artisan tile company Craven Dunnill Jackfield and the realisation of mural techniques never previously thought possible on such a vast scale.
Woods describes the Olympic project as a collaboration: "I saw the whole concept of the Olympic Park as a modern day Festival of Britain – a platform to show off the best of our artists, craft makers, designers, architects and manufacturers.
"I therefore knew I wanted to work with a British manufacturer and, having worked previously on a very large scale building cladding design, I had learned that the relationship had to work from the outset; you have to be willing to meet up, talk through your ideas and feel confident that everyone understands their role.
"The team at Jackfield immediately understood the history and the importance of the commission – it was a unique collaboration."
