Dandelions and Double Yellows

Dandelions and Double Yellows is an arts, nature and noticing project by Helen Thomas. The project is an invitation to reconsider the often overlooked, unplanned plants in our everyday surroundings.
Helen created a new body of paintings, inspired by urban wild plants, which were exhibited at Wakefield Cathedral in Summer 2021.

Sixteen site responsive paintings were exhibited at Wakefield Cathedral, in summer 2021, during Wakefield Council’s Festival of the Earth. Helen painted from direct observation of urban wild plants, on site, in Wakefield and from photographs, field notes and memory in the studio.
The format of each piece was designed in consideration of the internal architecture of the Cathedral.

Dr Judith Tucker, University of Leeds, wrote a beautifully considered essay to accompany the exhibition ‘Groundsel and moss: particularity, time and place in the paintings of Helen Thomas’:

Dandelions and Double Yellows – Your Gallery
Between May and July 2021 people from the Wakefield District were invited to submit pictures of pavement plants, that they saw in their everyday surroundings, to be shown in a digital gallery.
More than 50 people from the Wakefield district, and further afield, submitted over 80 pictures; including photography, painting, drawing, digital images, lyrics and printmaking.
You can see the selected entries in Dandelions and Double Yellows – Your Gallery. The online gallery is hosted by Creative Wakefield and was launched as part of Wakefield’s Festival of the Earth in 2021.

Support and Funding
‘Dandelions and Double Yellows’ was supported using public funding by Arts Council England, and part funded by Wakefield Council as part of Festival of the Earth in 2021. The project was also supported in kind by The Art House, Makey Wakey and Wakefield Cathedral.