Ben Huson

Poole Harbour’s stunning sunsets are the inspiration for a contemporary and highly visible light display on Poole Quay this Easter. The blueness of distance is a highly imaginative piece of public art created by artist Simon Lee Dicker, a graduate of Bournemouth & Poole College.

Dicker uses LED lights to produce over 250 colours that will illuminate the old marketing suite office building adjacent to the Thistle Hotel. Over a period of three months Dicker has used a series of web-cams to capture images of sunsets and has re-presented his findings as a rolling wave of colour that will re-create the many different moods stimulated by dusk over the world’s second largest natural Harbour.

The project has been possible thanks to sponsorship from local Queens Award winning engineering company Air Bearings Limited (main sponsor), Think Signs Limited, and funding from the Art Council England’s grants for the arts programme. It is also being supported by the Council’s Arts Development office and Poole Tourism, and will run from Good Friday 21st March to Sunday 13th April, dusk till 10.00pm daily.

“Contemporary society is distanced from the ‘natural’ world through the prevalence of screen based working practice and leisure activities,” says Dicker. “this installation appropriates the technology that distances us from that world and uses it to capture and represent images of the natural world through the filter of human experience.”

For further information visit www.fireandicecreative.com.

The sale of my canvas for The Dog Project raised £2000 for Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital charity.

To see all the canvases, including some by celebrities and well-known artists such as Damien Hirst and Gary Hume, and find how much they raised, please visit The Dog Project web site.

Last chance for you to bid on my Dog Project canvas!

You have until the end of today to bid on my dog canvas. Bids will be updated online until 5pm today, any bids after that will be blind. The earliest, highest bid will win. Make sure you get your bids in asap.

Click here to bid…

The canvases will now be remaining at The Hospital Gallery until Friday 9th February.

The BBC website today featured a photo of Ricky Gervais with his canvas at the Dog Project auction. The sale of his canvas raised £2,200 for Great Ormond Street Hospital.

You can visit the Hospital Gallery to view the entire collection of dog canvases, and bid on the remaining canvases at the gallery or via the Dog Project web site, until the 7th February.

www.dogproject.co.uk

(PS. You can still bid on my dog canvas until 7th February)

The Alive + Well Dog Project auction on Wednesday the 31st was a huge success, raising over £132,000 on the sale of 30 pictures. Kylie’s achieved £3,500 and Damien Hirst’s hit a whopping £27,000.

There are still 100 paintings available from the silent auction online that are at anything from £100 to £1,500 at present. Have a look and bid on the remaining canvases at:

www.dogproject.co.uk/dog-project-gallery.php

The online auction will end on Wednesday 6th February at 5pm. Bids will be updated online until 5pm on the 5th, any bids after that will be blind. The earliest, highest bid will win.

Here are some photos from the live event:

From the top: My Dog Canvas, The Gallery, Celebrity Dog Canvases (x2)