The Wombles are Back in Wimbledon!

Our latest addition to Wimbledon’s budding art scene – a Wombles mural!

Our furry friends are back in Wimbledon, and have come to the rescue to help clean up some unsightly graffiti in the town.

   

Blossoming out of hibernation in January, our favourite childhood characters are back (albeit with a slight new look) to encourage us all to do more for our local environment.

This mural depicts The Wombles painting a wall, to cover the unsightly anti-social graffiti which occupied it, and as always, Orinoco has got in a spot of bother. But of course, the rest of the team are on hand to help out; Tobermory, Alderney, Madame Cholet (with her basket of baked goodies) and Great Uncle Bulgaria (sipping his tea or helping out – we’ll let you decide). You can get yourself a selfie with Great Uncle Bulgaria.

There’s nothing better than a big warm welcome into Wimbledon from The Wombles. The wall art brings smiles to local residents, commuters and visitors entering the town and on their way way to London, by tram and from Croydon and the rest of the South West region.

The mural was brought to life by the brilliant and inspiring Graffiti Kings, via a collaboration between Love Wimbledon and The Wombles, and supported by South Western Railway. 

Love Wimbledon and The Wombles are bringing joint environmental campaigns right to the heart of Wimbledon. If you are passing through Wimbledon Station look at the boards in the foyer below the windows, brightening up the station and spreading the environmental love throughout the community. So Wimbledonians, as The Womble say, this is the time to travel smart, reduce/reuse/recycle, go green and love everything local! 

   

Great Uncle Bulgaria commented:

‘We encourage everyone living, working and shopping in Wimbledon to adopt positive environmental behaviours.  If we all do our bit, we can make the town the greenest in the country.  We hope everyone likes our #WomblesLoveWimbledon message around the town. You’ll spot Tobermory, Alderney, Madame Cholet and Orinoco doing their bit to remove graffiti. I will be drinking a nice cup of tea whilst they are hard at work’.

The Wombles are very much at home in Wimbledon #WomblesLoveWimbledon.

You can find them painted beside the railway tracks in Wimbledon (walk down the side of Little Waitrose, behind Tuition House offices or in Wimbledon station foyer).

Remember that now more than ever, people are recognising the fragility of our planet and the need to be kinder to our environment. So, we’ve put together ideas for how you can shop, eat and live greener in Wimbledon. Visit our Sustainable Wimbledon page.

You can follow Love Wimbledon (@lovewimbledon), The Wombles (@womblesofficial) and The Graffiti Kings (@GraffitiKINGS) on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

*A big thank you to South Western Railway, The Graffiti Kings, The Wombles and of course our Wimbledonians for all your support!

Centre Court’s New Pop Up Art Exhibition


The Wimbledon Group is a collective of local artists based at the Wimbledon Art Studios, who have recently joined Centre Court Shopping Centre for a free pop-up exhibition, showcasing their brilliant work. 

Located on the top floor of Centre Court, the space has been transformed into an open and welcoming gallery for lovers of affordable art made by local artists.

See details of some of the artists featured below.

            

  • Alan Carlyon Smith
    Alan is interested in the relationship of 2D images and 3D form. Figurative images give way to abstractions and then take on a solid format. Narratives suggest that there is a dialogue between things we understand and things we would like to believe.
  • Angela Smith
    Angela is interested in the possibilities of narrative and invoking atmosphere and emotion. Her paintings are rarely portraits but more hybrid figures layered with emotion, experience and imaginings. The figures exist in another world but they are touched with human spirit and nature.
  • Damian Woodford
    Damian’s painting utilizes primary and secondary colours with the arrangement of abstract shapes. He likes to pull apart the components of visual form and reduce them to bare gestures: lines, arcs, circles, and polygons become his building blocks.
  • Emma Forrester
    Emma is drawn to beautiful forms whether they are man-made or natural and her appreciation of the simple beauty of such objects is apparent in their sensitive portrayal in her paintings. Her recent works bear an expressive use of line and an understanding of pattern and form that is fundamental to her work.
  • Jill Sutcliffe
    Jill is a ceramic sculptor whose work captures the essence of positive energy and movement. Strongly influenced by her love for architecture and nature, she pairs the two to provide us with exquisite three-dimensional forms that will enhance any environment
  • Mike Stokoe
    Mike is a published cartoonist and was first appeared in Punch magazine in 1997. He regularly features in Private Eye, The Spectator and commercial advertising for Anglo American Oil Company. He has a cartoon hanging in the National Football Museum and was the set cartoonist for the feature film “Strike”.
  • Alison Groom (Guest)
    Alison’s paintings are concerned with texture and light, using acrylic mediums with granular additives to express the textures she observes in the environment. She then uses oil paint to define and illuminate her paintings. Fascinated by the changes of colour of light she is drawn to early morning and late afternoon light as well as the colours of sunset and gloaming.
  • Graham Hunter (Guest)
    Graham’s most recent work focuses on landscape. He likes to create vibrant, painterly scenes with an emphasis on trees. “Tree’s are our friends and guardians, they speak of ling life, fruitfulness, love and death. Who does not have a favourite tree?”
  • Sarah Ollerenshaw (Guest)
    Sarah’s landscape paintings of bluebell woods resonate and inspire a moment of spiritual transportation, taking us to another place where one feels at peace and connected. Thy recall those with whom we have ‘journeyed’ and remind us of all that is important in order to feel alive, rooted and inspired by creation.
  • Sara Vertigan (Guest)
    Sara works in oils and specialises in landscapes, inspired by places she’s visited. Colour and strong light sources are ever present in her work and Sara is interested in the effect of man-made structures in defining the geometry of landscapes.

           

Exhibition Details

Unit 223, Centre Court Shopping Centre. 4 Queen’s Road, Wimbledon, London SW19 8YA

Opening hours: Tuesday – Sunday 11am  – 5pm