A Toast To Woodingdean

Where once a bakery stood in Woodingdean there is now a huge slice of bread! Brighton artist Jon Mills, who has his studio near Preston Park recently completed the powder coated steel sculpture that can be seen from Bexhill Road. uploads/JonMills_toast.jpg
The site where the Woodingdean Business Park stands used to be a Sunblest Factory that employed many local people until it was shut down in the 1990’s and I thought the sculpture should make some sort of connection with the areas history.
When I was doing some research I found a quote ‘Every morning we were woken by the smell of fresh bread’ and I thought that for local people that must have been a very evocative smell. I used this on the Sunblest Plaque on the sculpture. Jon worked with St Modwen who have developed (and are developing) the 12 acre site in Woodingdean that is now considered on of the premier sites for businesses in Brighton www.stmodwen.co.uk/development/.

Jon Mills has lived in Brighton since 1984 and says that he loves the artistic community here * It’s a really creative environment and I have been able to do some really exciting work in and around the city as well as work with schools and youth groups*. The gates of St Bartholomew's School, on Ann Street in Brighton show another example of Jons’ work. The gates were based on the Schools Noah’s Ark logo and includes pairs of animals designed by the children. Jon also designed the railings at Hove Museum – these were designed by children from Peter Gladwin School Portslade.

Jon’s exhibition Mr Watts Grumpy Man of Metal can be seen at Hastings Museum from 30 June. The exhibition that was formerly at the Hove Museum and is based on Jon’s character Mr Watts who lives in a world of metal and makes metal [things]