Posted in: Movies | Tagged: Castle Fine Art, Craig Davison, entertainment, film, fine art, star wars

Things To Do This Weekend In Birmingham If You Like Star Wars

Published Sat, 25 Oct 2014 09:30:38 -0500

By Olly MacNamee

Everyone in Birmingham has love for the city's Children's Hospital and many a charity often aims to raise money for this worthy cause. We have a Zombie Walk that occurs each and every year that encourages people of all shapes, sizes and ages to drag their carcasses through the city centre while dressed up as the living dead, we have Comics4Causes whom I have mentioned a couple of times this year for their celebratory Batman events and now we have another contender in the shape of local artist Craig Davison (well, from Worcester and that's local enough I would say) who will be presenting his collection, In A Backyard Far, Far Away this weekend at Castle Fine Art situated in the ICC.

As the title to the collection would imply, he's got a thing for Star Wars and will be unveiling a new series of original paintings, prints and sketches, which transforms children playing nostalgic playground games into iconic character and scenes from the classic trilogy of movies; so no Jar-Jar Binks thankfully. Davison will be there in person on Sunday 26^th October (between 12pm – 4pm) flanked by the 99^th Garrison (a Star Wars dark side inspired cosplay group) to discuss his experiences and influences. Their visit is intended to raise funds in a number of different ways; from donations to the chance of winning an exclusive print, donated by Davison and Castle Fine Art. I own some original sketches but given the quality and originality of these pieces I am very tempted to break the bank and furtively venture into fine art territory for the first time in my life. To me I feel like this could very well be a one-off that I will never have the chance to see, or buy from, again. And stupidly, I'm telling you all that it's on! I hope this isn't an idiot move but I'll find out on Sunday won't I?

Davison was inspired, not only for his love of Star Wars, but because he was being asked more and more to create commissions around this subject. For Davison it has also meant a break from his more personal work aiming in this collection to, "Take the viewer back to a time in their life when anything seemed possible". He conceded that out of all these new pieces his own personal favourite is BMX Wings, "This painting was always the centre piece for me, and I hope I captured the sense of chaos and ball game based drama".

Limited edition prints of Craig Davison's work are available to buy and start from £450. To attend or register your interest for Sunday 26^th October, when Davison will be making an appearance, please visit Castle Fine Art, ICC or call the gallery directly on 0121 248 8484

Olly MacNamee teaches English and Media, for his sins, in a school somewhere in Birmingham. Some days, even he doesn't know where it is. Follow him on twitter @ollymacnamee or read about his exploits at olly.macnamee@blogspot.co.uk. Or don't.

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