Cardboard tubes found inside toilet paper rolls are being turned into miniature masterpieces around the world, thanks to a Norfolk gallery.
Sarah Whittley of Pinkfoot Gallery at Cley next the Sea said she had been amazed with the response to the ‘Pinkfoot loo roll challenge’.
Ms Whittley, who runs the gallery along with fellow artist Rachel Lockwood, said she had the idea when panic buying of loo rolls was in the news.
She said: “It started when I used a biro to draw a version of The Scream by Edvard Munch, as it summed up how I felt at the time.
“I invited others to have a go and the rest is history.”
Scores of jazzed-up loo roll tubes have now been shared on the gallery’s social media accounts, made by people as far away as the USA and Canada.
Different approaches have been taken - with some people using the tubes as canvases for oil paintings, while others have cut them out to craft three-dimensional objects such as a wren and a dinosaur.
Ms Whittley said: “I wanted the challenge to be accessible as possible, hence the loo roll and biro but some of the entries have been mind-blowing.
“We’ve had everyone from professional artists doing the challenge right down a 12-year-old girl doing amazing landscape paintings.
“It proves that anyone can do it - we’re all creative and I think there’s a painting inside everyone.”
Other contributions include a happy-looking seal by Norfolk artist Abigail Mill and a Salvador Dali inspired triptych by Ohio student Edith Mellen.
Ms Whittley said creativity was a useful tonic in these troubling times.
She said: “People are fearful, but to create something is the perfect distraction.
“We’d like to get everyone creating, whether it’s a painting, poem, cartoon, sculpture or anything else. It’s a great way to express yourself, especially as we’re probably heading into an extended lockdown.”
Ms Whittley said she hoped to stage an exhibition of some of the works when the gallery - currently closed - could re-open.
To see more of the loo roll creations, look up Pinkfoot Gallery on Facebook or Instagram.
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