Artwork

Artists worked with patients and staff to develop sculptures and artworks for the opening of our Aintree site in 2011. Funding was provided by Macmillan to create a tranquil garden space for patients to enjoy including oak carvings and a water feature.

The idea for this piece came from the artist watching children playing with leaves thrown into the air. The leaves were taken away by a spiralling gust of wind. Jan states: “The delight and energy in this simple action was my starting point.”

The sculpture is made from stainless steel, with the cherry leaves held in a lattice cut-out frame as if at any moment they will fall to the ground when the wind stops. The leaves are folded along a central metal vein which catches the light reflected from other surfaces in the space animating the sculpture.

For this project, artist Ben focused on areas of coastline around the Liverpool and Southport areas during the hours of dawn and dusk. This is Ben’s favourite time for photography as the light can be warm and the hues present at this time are perfect for capturing images that evoke feeling and emotion. These images portray strong feelings of energy and motion such as a flock in birds in flight, a single bird sprinting down the shoreline or a storm passing over the ocean.

The poem was commissioned as part of the artwork for the new hospital. The creative process included Levi visiting the hospital and holding workshops with patients and staff to hear their thoughts on what the poem should say.

The key request from patients and staff for the poem was that it should be uplifting, positive and hopeful and reflect the warmth and care they feel at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre.

A video of Levi performing the poem is available to watch on the main Arts Programme page or on our YouTube channel. The poem artwork is on display at our three main cancer centres.

The multidisciplinary installation ‘Blossom’ is a site-specific artwork for the Reflection Room at Clatterbridge Cancer Centre – Liverpool. It includes a film collage of biophilic elements; a soundtrack based on patterns, sounds and structures found in nature; a suite of seven colour photographs; and a window screen that diffuses and casts light, providing a sense of privacy whilst remaining connected to the outside world.

The work was created with The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre in mind and how Lubaina felt about the centre as an emotional place. The artwork shows friends supporting each other. She hopes (the picture) can be enjoyed as that, for friends.

Sumuyya created the work to explore the theme of identity, people and place, and is part of her work exploring contemporary life in Liverpool. This work is acrylic on canvas.

This scene was inspired by Burton Woods which is near a bird sanctuary, run by the RSPB on the Dee Estuary. It's a place Hazel often walks through and, in spring, the forest floor is carpeted by a mass of bluebells.

In this scene there is a late afternoon sun, which has cast dark shadows and highlighted all the stunning bluebells.

Leo’s recent work has taken language as its focus and, in particular, the way words are presented in the public spaces we visit. Leo was inspired by the light and architecture of the atrium space of the hospital and the wayfinding that denotes each level with a different shade or colour.

This experience of light, space and colour is something that visitors and patients alike naturally respond to. Leo’s approach was to free these elements from their everyday duties as it were, giving people the opportunity to enjoy their environment in a new and uplifting way.

The ‘Meadow Sweet and Meadow Walks’ diptych was inspired by walking through meadows of flowers and blossoming buds on warm summer evenings. Part of the ‘Sense of Wonder’ Collection, Jessica uses a variety of media including acrylic, oil pastels, pencil and charcoal to capture the feelings of joy and wonder that we experience when spending time in nature.

This work is a site-specific response to its location, creating a new space within the building for exploration and discovery. It depicts and symbolises a physical and metaphorical meeting point of both colours and people within the space.

Covering a section of the walls, this immersive installation helps join together the different paths across the space.

Staff, patients and their companions created artwork through a series of workshops delivered by Rachael at the Teenage and Young Adult lunch club over a number of weeks.

Participants tried techniques like stencil screen printing and carbon printing as well as a poetry workshop with John Hegley. Their work was developed into designs.

The wallpaper is a result of their tree-themed acrostic poems, which forms a backdrop to a variety of artworks made by patients in the workshops. Some of these have been digitally reworked into repeat patterns, creating a series of wonderfully varied and lively posters.

These two paintings are intended to provide patients, staff and visitors with moments of escape, peace and calm and joy. Both paintings reference water, which is a sacred symbol of life spirit across many cultures.

In the painting ‘Pool After Sun’ the hot tones enclose incomplete ovals, which have a symbolic reference to everything, or to infinity. The blue area, the pool is awash with movement or life, although enclosed by an acid lemon. So the hottest colour meets the coolest. The image is referencing relief, and cooling after heat.

In the painting ‘Sun After Rain’ the sun occupies the foreground, being much desired after grey skies. In the sky are corals and pinks that show it is either dawn or sunset and there are dark clouds either arriving or leaving. There is a feeling of repetition and continuity, light and dark, sunshine and rain.

This piece denotes the season of early spring and the inspiration for the sculpture is from a phrase – ‘After the winter must come the spring’. Emma thinks this describes all life and nature simply but beautifully – growth, renewal, hope, love.

The leaves on the sculpture from afar appear to be foliage on the tree, but on approach you realise they are actually silhouettes of doves flying through the landscape.

The flock of birds will grow over time as doves are added from donations to the Clatterbridge Cancer Charity. This artwork was kindly funded by Medicash.

Seaspray’ evokes the calming rhythm of the water, the refreshing ebb and flow of the tide as it cleanses the ground beneath it and ‘View’ considers the romantic notions of distant lands, space and freedom whilst looking across the vast sweeping beaches of Liverpool Bay and the River Dee Estuary as they flow gracefully into the Irish Sea.

Susan's paintings begin as a response to her physical and emotional experience of a place, the interaction of the elements on the land, sea and sky. She loves the freedom of working spontaneously on location, watching the changing moods of the view as slices of colour tear through the sky and reflect on the land or sea below.

Part of an ongoing series of work reflecting Jo’s deeply felt connection to nature, honouring both its fragility and majesty. These paintings are part of the ‘Spring Magic’ collection, a joyful time of renewal and vibrancy.

This series began during lockdown when Jo spent a great deal of time in her back garden, planting and painting, nurturing and nourishing her garden and herself at the same time. It is Jo’s hope that the joy and sense of wellbeing experienced while creating the work is communicated to and experienced by the viewer, offering a contemplative space in which to rest in the moment, as in nature.

‘Timeline’ is a fascinating artwork that reminds us of the events which took place along the journey of The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, from the establishment of the first cancer hospital in Liverpool in the 1860s to the opening of Clatterbridge Cancer Centre – Liverpool in 2020.

Professor Arthur Sun Myint has worked for the Trust for more than 45 years and has seen many changes and events in that time, some of which are included in the artwork.

Taking the textures and shapes of trees – especially their fruits, nuts and blossoms – Rachael has made distinctive tree motifs relating to the colours of each floor level, and to the trees’ symbolism and connection with health and wellbeing.

Rachael began with the strong and dependable oak tree, focusing on its fruit of the acorn as a motif for the entrance level of the centre.

Inspired by Xitina’s passion for colour, the diverse landscapes and seemingly infinite gradations of light in places on the UK coast and her native Catalunya, especially the Wirral and Costa Brava, represent and ongoing exploration of light, colour and motion.

Xitina invites the viewer to consider the powerful connections that exist between colour and emotion through paintings and mix media collages.

Teenage and Young Adult (TYA) patients at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre created characters to reflect their unique personalities across a series of workshops delivered by Sean at the TYA lunch club over a number of weeks.

They explored hobbies, passions and personalities to create ‘You’ characters that represent each young person and staff member who took part in the sessions. Sean took the character designs, refined them, added colour to create a series of collaborative prints displayed in the frames along the corridor of the TYA ward.

This decorative ceiling was one of two therapeutic ceilings designed by William Mitchell for the radiotherapy treatment rooms.

The original murals were placed so patients could gaze at them and, with a push of a button, coloured lights would accentuate the abstract patterns. The ceilings were commissioned as points of distraction for the patients and to reduce the risk of movement which might hamper treatment.

This ceiling is a mosaic of stone, wood and pebbles set into plastic. The pattern is designed as a symmetrical but complex pattern which could solved by the observer. William Mitchell is known for large scale concrete murals and public works of art, including in Liverpool city centre. A number of his remaining works in the UK have been granted protective listed status.

The bronze sculpture standing three metres tall takes the shape of Professor Myint’s outreached hands – a flutter of 730 butterflies are flying from his palms upwards towards the sky.

The sculpture’s 730 butterflies symbolise the patients Professor Myint has treated with the groundbreaking Papillon radiotherapy technique which The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre became the first UK centre to introduce in 1992.

Artist Emma Rodgers wanted to create the piece as a thank-you to The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre and Professor Myint who treated her mother at the centre. Emma is a currently a Patron of Clatterbridge Cancer Charity, stating: “It gives me a chance to do something positive as a thank you for all they have done for us as a family.”

‘A view from Francisco’s garden O’Jen’, ‘Low Tide’, ‘Reflections’ and ‘Santosa’ are a series of paintings on canvas by Professor Arthur Sun Myint, a consultant at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre.

Professor Myint established the Papillon unit at the centre in 1993. He has been interested in art since he was a child. He continued to paint during his medical studies and as an artist regularly exhibits and sells his work.