swindon – Alex Crump

Meant to post this last week but forgot to press ‘publish’! (can’t get the staff!)

I thought I’d ‘finished’ my illustration inspired by “The Tempest” but I felt it had ‘something’ missing (as well as a proper title). Then I remembered the immortal line delivered by Ariel “Hell is empty and all the devils are here” – and so they came!

There’s a total of 11 devils to be found in the picture, all inspired by 16^th century depictions of demons, the ‘Wave devils’ and the ‘Boat chewing devil’ are probably my favourites.

As the image was painted digitally (the video only shows the first 40% of the illustration process – you’ll have to come and see it at the Wyvern Theatre for the finished article) It’s getting printed in its full A2 size by the fabulous. This will be the only one of its kind (although there will be a very limited smaller image size print run for @swindonopenstudios in September)

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This has been an idea in the back of my mind for a long time, so I’ve used the news about Swindon’s intended bid to become a ‘City of Culture’ as an excuse to finally bring it to realisation.

I’ve been fortunate to work for and with different creative organisations in the Swindon area and the desire is certainly there to encourage the right conditions to allow creativity to flourish. Hopefully even the fact that it’s being considered can cast a spotlight on what is already thriving in the town and places of heritage, like Lydiard.

I know I’m not the first (or certainly the last) to wax lyrical about this special place and I’ve always thought it would make a great setting for ‘Wind in the Willows’ with the beautiful house (Toad Hall), a lake for ‘Ratty’, a charming underground ice house (for ‘Mole’ to move in to) and the ‘Wild Woods’ for ‘Badger’ and the ‘Stoats’ – bigger with black on their tail + the ‘Weasels’.