The second part of my commission for the Lidl store in Kingswood, South Gloucestershire has just been installed following the sort of massive delay that has happened a lot over the past year. You can just see the new tile panel next to the Lidl sign in the photo above, for a description of the windows that make up the earlier part of the commission see my previous blog here.
The tile panel links to my designs for the windows that are set along the back of the building on this busy residential street (Cecil Road). It is made of Italian porcelain tiles in a range of beautiful colours, overprinted with layers of detail in ceramic enamel. The oranges are so much more orange than the ones you get in glass, as well as being a great match for the spirit level during installation (below left)
Tile panel during installation and completed: dimensions 1.6 m (h) x 2 m (w).
4 stages of the design on squared pape
I call this commission "battleships" because when I was working out the design, concerned about balancing the blocks of detail in the overall composition, I realised I was drawing out a sea full of cruisers, destroyers and battleships as if I were playing the game, with none of them touching each other. I was pleased to find that the printed tiles came with a numbered plan (below) that you could probably use to play battleships as well as getting each tile in the right position.
There was another lovely sky on installation day, the colours looked great on the side of the building and were much admired by passers by. They are behind the green grid of a mesh fence, but you can get down the side of the building for a closer look.
