Patients and visitors to Livewell Southwest’s Thornberry Centre, which is home to our specialist Prosthetics team, are now receiving a colourful welcome thanks to a collaboration with students from Plymouth College of Art.
Students Camsell Downing and Jo Haskins have transformed the very clinical looking waiting space at the Centre, turning one of the walls into a large painting inspired by Brixham, a village with a working harbour and fishing port in Devon.
Emma Perkins, Prosthetic Deputy Workshop Manager, said: “We’ve been wanting to create something like this for years, especially considering that we see children as well as adults at the Thornberry Centre.
“When people come to see us their appointments can be lengthy due to the specialist nature of what we do, and so we wanted to enhance the environment for them. Our patient feedback also welcomed this.
“From there, I got in touch with the college and a couple of teams of people then pitched ideas, which is how we met Cam and Jo.”
Camsell Downing said: “The original idea came from my colleague Jo. We knew that the Centre wanted a Devon theme, and Jo thought we should incorporate a working fishing village as a nod to the heritage of the area, so we then spent around two months visiting Brixham where it’s very picturesque but still an active fishing community.
“We did a lot of sketching and got a sense of the area, before coming back to the studio to start work on the large piece. Jo then had to return to France, so I continued with the painting element.
“It took a couple of months to complete, with lots of layers of painting which we then turned into a vector for printing, which was necessary for compliance with Livewell’s Infection Control policies.
Emma continued: “We now have the painting in place, and it’s amazing to see. Because of the scale – it takes up the whole side of one of our rooms – the more you look at it, the more you see, and we’ve had really positive feedback.
“For children particularly, it’s important to have something that can act as a distraction, as appointments can be scary, but it’s a painting that can be enjoyed by all.”
Camsell added: “As a practising artist, it’s really nice to have a piece of work that’s going to be seen regularly that’s in a public space, rather than inside a gallery.”
The Thornberry Centre are now planning to add a plaque crediting Camsell and Jo with the work, while Camsell is now working on an exhibition for November – you can see more of his work at camselldowning.co.uk. You can see more of Jo Haskins’ work at johaskins.co.uk.
Emma said: “We really appreciate the work that Camsell and Jo have done for us which has greatly improved the environment at the Thornberry Centre for the people who use our services, and hope to be able to work on similar projects again in the future.”
