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If you love the first ‘Petrolheads’ piece, then this 007 edition should get your engine revving as there is a sense of calm and mystery to the composition. What I love is there is a ‘Storyteller’ quality to the scene, a stunning building that clearly has so much going on within, yet we can’t see from looking. Yet, open your mind and your imagination and you’re up the stairs and through the doors.

If you love the first ‘Petrolheads’ piece, then this 007 edition should get your engine revving as there is a sense of calm and mystery to the composition. What I love is there is a ‘Storyteller’ quality to the scene, a stunning building that clearly has so much going on within, yet we can’t see from looking. Yet, open your mind and your imagination and you’re up the stairs and through the doors.

There is a message on the shopfront warning people that objects in the shop window appear larger in your head - playing on the fact that when you think back to getting a present the box was so much bigger than it actually was, castle greyskull for me was just that, the box seemed to be 10ft wide. There is a grabber placed in the window above the display, the idea here is that it represents your brain where it can grab an object and it’s memory and plant it in your head - the shop is exactly that - it represents your memories hence the sign saying the shop is always open.

It is these deep rooted memories that stay with us and are ageless regardless of everything outside that changes over time. To support the street scene there is also a hint of an old cinema and arcade that shows the overlaid posters to give that sense of time passing. There is so much to see, some blatant, some really subtle like the family photos that have been engrained into the wood. I have used maple leaves to add detail to the scene, these work nicely to interact with the objects and have featured green to red to further signify time passing. I will leave you to spot everything else.

The piece was about 80% done and saved ‘locally’ and due to go to print in two days’ time, oh how I wept like a baby. Blubbering and crapping myself aside I luckily was saved by ‘iCloud’ and was able to finish it to what you now see today. There’s a story for the Grandkids right there.

‘The Memory Remains’ focused on an intriguing, classic toy shop – a million miles away from how we shop for our kids nowadays. So, what we see in the follow up is inside the toy shop, a nostalgic feast of pretty much every toy that you can think back to owning or wanting to own. The room is full to bursting with classic games, toys and sweets in the hope that I have created the ultimate shrine to our childhood playtime. This is without doubt the most labour-intensive piece that I have created to date, with in excess of one hundred hours going into the scene. There are subtle qualities that link visually with the first piece in terms of composition and I am keen to see if you spot them.

I am always keen for my pieces to link together and this is done here by some of the toys and teddies being referenced in the toy shop that are also shown in my 2019 ‘Skool’s Out’ piece where the Summer holidays are in full swing (can’t help myself with the puns). This shows that everything revolves around the toy shop that you see here now, there was none of this shopping around or click and collecting – it was that trip in with you family or friends to the toy shop in town and you loved and lived every minute of it.

So, for everyone who owns the first piece or missed out but hoped for a great follow up I genuinely hope that you love what you see and that I have done justice to your memories. I have loved every single minute of creating this piece (with the exception of paragraph 1!) and on a personal level it has reinforced what a cracking childhood I enjoyed and without doubt those memories burn more vividly than before, the best memories will always remain.

The piece was about 80% done and saved ‘locally’ and due to go to print in two days’ time, oh how I wept like a baby. Blubbering and crapping myself aside I luckily was saved by ‘iCloud’ and was able to finish it to what you now see today. There’s a story for the Grandkids right there.

‘The Memory Remains’ focused on an intriguing, classic toy shop – a million miles away from how we shop for our kids nowadays. So, what we see in the follow up is inside the toy shop, a nostalgic feast of pretty much every toy that you can think back to owning or wanting to own. The room is full to bursting with classic games, toys and sweets in the hope that I have created the ultimate shrine to our childhood playtime. This is without doubt the most labour-intensive piece that I have created to date, with in excess of one hundred hours going into the scene. There are subtle qualities that link visually with the first piece in terms of composition and I am keen to see if you spot them.

I am always keen for my pieces to link together and this is done here by some of the toys and teddies being referenced in the toy shop that are also shown in my 2019 ‘Skool’s Out’ piece where the Summer holidays are in full swing (can’t help myself with the puns). This shows that everything revolves around the toy shop that you see here now, there was none of this shopping around or click and collecting – it was that trip in with you family or friends to the toy shop in town and you loved and lived every minute of it.

So, for everyone who owns the first piece or missed out but hoped for a great follow up I genuinely hope that you love what you see and that I have done justice to your memories. I have loved every single minute of creating this piece (with the exception of paragraph 1!) and on a personal level it has reinforced what a cracking childhood I enjoyed and without doubt those memories burn more vividly than before, the best memories will always remain.