Artist to destroy paintings in Nelson to create new artwork for charity

Nelson and Colne College student James Carter will then auction off NFTs of the original paintings and donate the earnings to the charity Team Trees.

He said: “The idea of this project is to promote the use of environmentally friendly materials, and encourage individuals to make changes to their daily lives that will not only help the world and environment, but also teach people on how people can save some money making these changes.

“I will have four original oil paintings in the size of A2 canvas that are recreations of an old photograph of the canal in Nelson showing a time before we cultivated the land, with animals running free.

"Another one will show a time during the industrial revolution, as well as one variation of what will happen if we continue to make no change where loads of pollution and plastic is scattered everywhere.

"Another variation shows what will happen if we do make a change to help the environment - clean skies, beautiful trees and the return of the animals.

“These paintings are going to be put through a tree shredder in the town centre. I want to draw in the community for this experience, as the people who come to see the artworks will be the only people to ever see these works live in person.

“After the works are shredded up, I will put the remains into epoxy resin (which will demonstrate a way of recycling, and ‘re-imagining’). This will create an entirely new artwork. The destruction of these works will also be livestreamed of YouTube to a larger audience.

“Alongside this, I have written, and published a book called “Time To Make The Change” which focuses on teaching people how they can make a change to help the environment, and future generations, as well as how they can save money implementing what I’ve written about.

"It teaches people that they don’t just need to rely on large companies and countries to make a change, as if more people make the changes I’ve written about we can make one of the largest impacts to help the environment.”