It’s no big secret that we loved living in Manchester and it’ll always hold a very special place in our hearts. We still visit as often as we can and the one thing that we usually end up going home with is some Manchester-themed art.
Over the years we’ve built up a bit of a collection (although I’m disappointed to say that I still don’t own an original Lowry ). It’s high time that we shared some of our favourite Mancunian art and artists with you, so here’s a Manchester art tour of our apartment!) and moving to Berlin hasn’t stopped us adding to our ever-growing collection!
In my study, you will have probably already seen the Manchester worker bee mosaic by Amanda McCann. We bought it a couple of years ago at Levenshulme market and I still love it!
There’s a full-on Manchester art overload going on in our dining room and living room. Our favourite print of all is the Manchester skyline print by Meha Art. It has a huge personal meaning as we bought it on St Ann’s Square in Manchester on our very last day in the UK before moving to Berlin!
I love her art because it’s so colourful and vibrant but it’s also full of lots of little details and I seem to discover something new every time I look at it. We love Meha’s art so much in fact, that we also bought a Las Vegas print to remind us of a fantastic holiday with friends there a couple of years ago.
Our newest art by Meha is an amazing Berlin print which now hangs in our guest bedroom / Airbnb (yes, that’s still happening and we hope to be open at the end of October!). It looks amazing in the room and I absolutely love how it stands out on our white panelled walls.
I guess you can tell we really love Meha’s art! She has beautiful prints for loads of different cities and recently also started a fun homeware collection which is definitely worth checking out, too!
Back in the living room, we have more Manchester art including the fab Lion King illustration by Ink Inc, the Manchester town hall by Kathryn Edwards and the Peak District painting by Northern Scapes.
We bought all of these (except Meha’s Artwork which you can get here) at the Manchester Craft & Design centre where the artists have studios and if you’re ever in Manchester it’s a place you have to check out! Just be warned – it’s very difficult to resist spending a small fortune while you’re there!
In our hallway, we have some fab Stockport prints by Eamonn Murphy. The Stopfordia collection was a housewarming gift from some amazing friends. They have such personal meaning as they all represent places that we either used to pass daily or have significance like our little local cinema!
I really need to rehang them as I don’t think the current layout does them justice. The fact that they’re all wonky doesn’t help and I’m thinking of possibly moving them to the living room where we’re currently working on a big update (more on that soon!).
In our bedroom we have a lovely Heatons print (I don’t know who the artist was but let me know if you do!) which was a leaving gift from our fantastic neighbours (seriously, that had to have been the best street in Manchester!) and you’ve probably already spotted one of my favourite new arty additions – the Glamour of Manchester print from the Manchester Bee Company when we shared our finished bedroom makeover last week!
I love it! So much so, that on our last visit to Manchester I decided that I had to have one and made Jan walk around town for hours dragging him to different museums and galleries hunting for one! Nowhere had one in stock (so we just bought some bee cufflinks) but luckily for me, the Manchester Bee Company was kind enough to gift us one of their iconic prints!
The Manchester Bee Company also have loads of other fantastic Manchester-themed products and it’s always worth popping over to their online store!
We always love to buy new art and supporting your local artists has got to be a good thing! And, as much as I hate to say it, December is just around the corner, so maybe some of these are worth bookmarking for then!
Do you have a favourite artist? Do you know any other Manchester artists that we should be following?
Eric Jackson says
You might like to take a look at my Stockport-Berlin poster at http://www.statementartworks.com.
Cheers – Eric Jackson
Christine says
Oh wow, that’s genius, Eric! It’s like it was made for us (even if we’ve now moved from Berlin and live near Amsterdam). Thanks for sharing.
Cx