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Painting the Town? All in a day’s work for Blackburn’s impressive local artists

22 September 2015

On a rainy day in September this year a group of amateur artists gathered in a disused church in Blackburn to take part in what must be one of the quickest turnaround exhibitions ever. Their mission? To go out and 'Paint the Town...'

Open to artists of all ages, the competition (which was part of this year's Heritage Open Days), invited participants to come down to the Bureau Centre for Arts, Blackburn, bringing their own materials to have their blank canvases stamped - this proved the work was carried out on that same day. They then headed off to creatively capture their town in any medium of any size with the theme of "Old and New". There was another category for those who wanted to explore the town's heritage with a work depicting Blackburn's 'Heritage Townscape area'. And a third offered a prize for the best painting of the Bureau itself.

They had until 6pm to hand in their masterpieces and the results formed an exhibition by, for and about the town the very next day. Get Creative pleased to be able to show you some of the fantastic and diverse works produced for “Paint the Town…”, Blackburn as part of this year's Heritage Open Days.

'King George's Hall' (acrylic)

By Khatija Aswat (First prize in the Heritage Townscape category)

'Shuttered' (acrylic)

By Carole Pugh (Second Prize in the Senior category)

'Landscape' (pastel)

Aloise Diaw (pastels)

'The Bureau' (pastel)

Elliot Cookson age 9 (Second Prize in Junior category)

'Untitled' (pyrography)

By Richard Aspin. Richard used pyrography for this piece which is a technique whereby the image is burned onto leather or wood with a heated metal point. (First prize in the Senior category)

'Untitled' (acrylic)

By Kimberley Aspin

Untitled (collage)

Yvonne Cookson (3rd Prize in the Senior Category)

King George's Hall (pencil)

By Maryam Rehman (Second prize Heritage Townscape category)

'The stained glass window of Jesus' (pencil and watercolour)

By Nell Butterworth, age 8 (First prize in the Junior category)

History on the doorstep

Hundreds of buildings that are normally closed to the public opened their doors from 10-13 September for Heritage Open Days, which aims to help local communities discover the hidden history on their doorstep.

While more familiar buildings like cinemas, theatres, pubs and hotels reveal hidden areas; civic and council organisations put on talks, tours, vintage fairs and family activities.

This year, there were a record-breaking 4,800 events taking place around England, all of them free. Last year three million visitors took part.

Heritage Open Days are a Get Creative Champion.

Find out more on this...

Want to see more amateur art?

Heritage Open Days on Get Creative