"Nature all around us"

A new community art project around Bitterne Station

Our project and art trail is now completed.
We celebrated the official opening with Chris Packham on the 13th of July 2024. 
​We hope the murals will bring joy and excitement in the community for years to come. Below is a map for anyone wanting to walk/cycle around our new community art trail (or the PDF version can be downloaded here)

Funded by SWR Customer and Communities Improvement Fund 2023/24 and led by Friends of Bitterne Station "Nature all around us" is a new project coming to our community.
It is delivered in partnership with Friends of Cobbett Road Library, Three Rivers Rail Partnership and Bitterne Manor Primary School. 

We will work with local artist Local artist Joanna Rose Tidey. Her outdoor paintings (that can be seen around Sholing) are vibrant and colourful reflecting her enthusiasm for wildlife and nature.
Over the next year, Joanna will create 10 art installations around our community. ​

Working with childrens at Bitterne Manor Primary School

During the winter months, Joanna is working with pupils at Bitterne Manor Primary School. She is teaching them watercolour and drawing techniques. Read here via the School blog what the children have been learning. In February they will be hosting an art exhibition of their own works.

Joanna's work with Year 4
Joanna's work with Year 3
Joanna's work with Year 2
Joanna's work with Year 1

1st mural completed (10/07/2023)

On Sunday 09/07/2023 Joanna has completed first mural of our art trail - an amazing butterfly, you can see photos of Joanna in action in our little gallery below, from a sad graffiti wall, to community engagement and an amazing butterfly being celebrated.

THE BUTTERFLY - Meet me by the Bugs Bridge

2nd Mural completed (18/07/2023)
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THE FIELDMOUSE - meet me at the Mouse Meadow

Work in progress photos
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3rd mural completed (01/10/2023)

SWANS - find them on the Birds Bridge

Work in progress

4th mural - Completed (06/10/2023)

RAVEN and Corvus Constellation - find me in Raven Road

work in progress photos

5th mural - (Completed 5/11/2023)

DRAGONFLIES - find them on the Bugs bridge

work in progress

6th mural (Completed 15/11/2023)

STAG BEETLE - find me on the Bugs Bridge

work in progress photos

7th Mural (Completed, May 2024 )

KINGFISHERS (Bitterne Road West)

Work in progress (April 2024)

8th Mural (Completed, May 2024)

HEDGEHOG (Slope, by Bitterne train Station)

Work in progress (April 2024)

9th mural (completed June 2024) 

Honey bee and Bumblee bee
find me on the Bugs Bridge

10th MURAL (Completed June 2024)

White Lippet Snail

11th MURAL (Completed July 2024)

Robin Redbreast

Work in progress

12th Mural (Completed July 2024)

Urban Fox: Knowledge protects nature

The mural is located on the wall of Cobbett Road Library. It is a large scale digital reproduction of the original artwork by Joanna that is located inside the library. It celebrates the work of Chris Packham. Read more

Chessel Bay Local Nature Reserve Mural

As part of the SWR Customer and Communities Improvement Fund 2023/24, we were able to support updating the mural celebrating Chessel Bay (opposite Bitterne Manor Primary). Students from year 10 at Bitterne Park Secondary School contributed time and creativity to depict more of the wildlife in our local nature reserve.

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Would you like to support our project?

Read below about our 'Butterflies fundraiser' and contribute to preserving and protecting Joanna's art work. 

SWR funding supports the project covering the cost of Joanna's work and materials for 10 wildlife art installations around our community. However, we did not include in the budget funds to protect the work with ANTI-GRAFFITI paint. This is essential to make sure the work of Joanna to improve our community is not wasted but very expensive (see here). So we decided to ask help to our community, with a creative fundraiser. We have a large wall to work on (leading to the railways pedestrian bridge by Chessel Bay) and we will cover it with butterflies (see example below, A4 size). Everyone can 'sponsor' a butterfly and for £10 they will see a butterfly appear on the wall with their chosen initials. You can buy a butterfly to celebrate a new baby born, remember someone, celebrate the birthday or big day of a friend. We will include the initial of a person on each butterfly.​
Each new butterfly will be posted on our facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/natureallaroundus) , so you will know when yours is fly out there. 

If you would like to sponsor a butterfly, please get in touch via our facebook page or via email ([email protected]). 
For transparancy, the accounts of the fundraiser will be shared here. We will update regularly this page listing the initials of people who sponsored a butterfly and how the funding are spent. We will use the funds for anti-graffiti paint, if we raise more money than, we will use anti-graffiti paint/coating in other walls around the community, to protect from future vandalism. 

Funds raised (15/10/2023) £100
1) WUZ JIM BoZ BBC KP £50 2) HTCT £10 3) PG £10 4)AA/KA £20 5) FT £10
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Funds raised (19/07/2023): £90
1) LS and OS £20  2) E-MA and EB £20 3) ABI £10 4) T £10 5) NW £10 6) DG and AP £20 

Funds raised (17/07/2023): £70
1) DG and AP £20 2) IBJL £10  3)EM £10  4) AS £10 5) CG and JP  £20

Funds raised (16/07/2023)  £230
1) GM £10  2) SHD £10  3)KM £10  4) IL and AL £20 5)LJ CF and PF £30 6)MD £10 7) FAW £10 8) AJO £10 9) CF and KF £20 10) PC £10 11)MS £10 12) TJ £10 13) GJ £10
14) S & R £10 15) RS £10 16) PC £10 17) TS £10 18) PF and AF £20

Funds raised (13/07/2023): £140
1)  BB, EF, JF, JP and SF £50  2) EW £10  3)  SP and CR £20 4) CB £10 5) SCR £10 6) EFC £10 7) JW £10 8) OB RD £20 

Funds raised  (10/06/2023): £150
Thanks to everyone who contributed so far to our fundraisers, check the photos of your butterflies here on our website:
1) TGJ £10   2) RC,JP and LCP £30  3) S £10  4) GR and MR £20   5) EY and CY £20;  6) TD £10  7) CN and SH £20  8) JF and CM £20 9)  JIA £10

We have purchase the first order of anti-graffiti paint (2 tins for £344.97 see PDF receipt here).
It is hard to know how much wall we will be able to cover with this initial batch - but we will keep you posted on this or any future anti-graffiti paint we purchase with your support. 

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'Nature all around us' bagdes: collect them all !

Photography Competition

Thanks to everyone who took part in our photography competition. You can see the winning photos in the video here below.

Competition winners collecting their prizes at Bitterne Station Photography exhibition

​But which animals should we represent around our community?
To provide inspiration to Joanna for her drawing we are launching a community wildlife photo competition. 
Anyone can enter the photo competition, entering is simple but please respect these rules:
1) Each person can enter max 3 photos
2) The photo should represent local wildlife from in and around Southampton
(from insect in your garden, to birds on the river, from shy hedgehogs to local foxes).  
3) Please only submit original photos that you have taken recently (do not submit the work of others)
4) To submit your entry, download this form and email your photos

We will work with children at Bitterne Manor Primary to select 10 photos and 10 animals to represent our 'Nature all around us' . The authors of the final selected photos will be acknowledged in our webpages and will each receive as prize an A3 art print by Joanna Rose Tidey to keep. 

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