Monifieth Art Trail

Follow the Monifieth Art Trail as these beautiful art boards depict images from around the world with drawings created by children and young people and the finished art boards produced by Suzanne Scott from Whimsical Lush.
‘Visit Angus’

Lesley & Morgan from the Monifieth Youth Steering Group helping install the South America board which can be found at the beautiful Seven Arches Viaduct. The designs for this board were created by children from Grange Primary School.

Wow! Against all odds we did it! I can’t believe we managed to create an art trail involving 8 schools and hundreds of children and young people during a pandemic (and all without meeting in person until right at the end too).

(Photo courtesy of Angus Council, left to right, Mr Davies – Monifieth High School, Suzanne Scott – Whimsical Lush, Lesley Rogers, Robyn Jenkins and Morgan McLaren – Monifieth Youth Steering Group and Sylvia Breen, Communities Officer – Angus Council at the Antarctica art board at the Blue Seaway Park, Monifieth).

I’ve really enjoyed working alongside the young people to help create this trail. Their creativity, imagination and determination has been inspiring. The drawings they produced from all their research were brilliant and gave me all the material I needed to pull together the designs. It was quite a challenge trying to incorporate everyone’s ideas. I think everyone has learnt lots about our world and most importantly had a lot of fun doing it.

Located outside the Monifieth Library is our Europe board. Children from Mattocks Primary School helped to create this piece.

Angus Council have written more about our trail if you’d like to have a wee read!

A new art trail designed by children and young people launched today (Friday 23 July 2021) in Monifieth with eight artworks spread throughout the town encouraging people to explore and discover hidden gems as they follow the trail.

The World board that was designed by the Monifieth Youth Steering Group. It is located outside Monifieth High School.

The idea by Monifieth Youth Steering Group (MYSG), Angus Council’s Communities Team and staff at Monifieth High School saw P5-P7 pupils from local primary schools researching and designing a world continent theme before successful artist Suzanne Scott created the art boards.

*The Asia board at the Wild Meadow. The designs for this board were created by children from Auchterhouse Primary School.*

Angus Council’s Communities Convener Cllr Mark Salmond said: “It’s been such a difficult year for children and young people and this art trail is a great way to bring people together to create something fun that gets the wider community and visitors walking and cycling while exploring the local town.

“The art boards are amazing, so bright and colourful as well as informative. Where else can you pass some great landmarks, such as the Seven Archers and Blue Seaway Park while learning interesting facts about the world. The children, Suzanne and all those involved have done a fantastic job!”

Sylvia, Morgan & Lesley with the Antarctica board at Blue Seaway. All the designs for this board were created by children from Murroes Primary School.

Artist, Suzanne Scott said: “I can’t believe we managed to create an art trail involving hundreds of children and young people during a pandemic. The drawings they produced from their research were brilliant and gave me the material I needed to develop the designs. Their creativity, imagination and determination has been inspiring.”

Lesley with her younger sister at the Oceana board, which is located at Monifieth Health Centre/ Pharmacy. This board showcases drawing concepts from the children at Seaview Primary School.

Morgan McLaren, member of the Monifieth Youth Steering Group said “It has been a fun project to be involved in while creating something good for the community.”, with fellow member Robyn Jenkins adding: “I can’t believe we managed to do so much with all the restrictions. Loved how we have been able to involve everyone in this project.”

Lesley and Morgan outside the Gerard Hall/ Parish Church with the Africa board that children from Liff Primary School helped design.

The P5-P7 pupils from Auchterhouse, Birkhill, Grange, Liff, Mattocks, Murroes and Seaview primary schools researched, drew, and designed images around people, landmarks, animals, and places. Artist, Suzanne captured the essence of the children’s drawings and designs to create the art boards in her unique artistic style.

Sylvia, and Angus Council Parks department (who were fab and helped us with installation) with our North America Board. Located at top of Grange Road on the cycle/ walking path. Designs for this board were created by children from Birkhill Primary School.

The route planned by MYSG highlights areas of interests and includes aspects of the walking and cycle network path through Monifieth.

You can find out more about the trail and download a leaflet with a map from the Visit Angus website.

More photos from our installation day, including chats with so many lovely locals… and their gorgeous dogs!

Robyn, Lesley and Morgan being interviewed by STV at our launch event.

Behind the scenes in the studio: Me working on the Oceana board.

Behind the scenes in the studio: Welcome to my wee world! Working on the Oceana, Asia and World boards in this photo. Whilst I wait for colour blocks to dry I focus on all the line work. 📷 by AJ

Behind the scenes in the studio: There’s only room for paint and plants in here! 😆 The colour blocks being painted on Asia, whilst Europe, North America, South America and Antarctica dry in the background. Many of these colours need several coats of paint. It can be a lengthy process before the line work can happen.

A big thank you to pals Louise Forbes (Louise Forbes Design) and Blair McCafferty (Creature Emporium) for helping me keep to deadlines with their top sawing and colour blocking skills. Thanks also to my wonderful dad for helping me transport the boards from the studio to Monifieth.

For more behind the scenes, fun facts about the board designs and video footage of the creation of the Monifieth Art Trail head to my social media channels where I will be posting up wee treats over the next few months. You can find me @whimsicallush on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

Behind the scenes in the studio: Lupin ‘supervising’ the colour going down on the South America Board!

Thanks for reading, we hope you enjoy the trail! 💚🌿

(Oh and we’d love to see all your photos, so please do tag us in any photos you take with the hashtag #MonifiethArtTrail. X)

One Comment Add yours

Anonymous says:

September 13, 2021 at 1:23 pm

enjoyed art trail very mutch . Iruun walking group for forfarLOWSON CHURCH, sssssssssomeone said their is deliberate [ ERROR ON EACH PICTURE,IS THISTRUE/]. Have to do another recky ,actual walk to be 25th sept’