Chase artist's postage stamp portraits in museum display

AN EXHIBITION of postage stamp portraits, created by renowned Hednesford artist Pete Mason, is on display at the Museum of Cannock Chase.

The painter and illustrator is displaying his works, including pictures containing 2500 stamps up to 20,000 stamps, until November 14.

The exhibition, entitled Post Pop Art Too! includes Whaam!, a tribute to Roy Lichtenstein, and a further tribute to the abstract artist Bridget Riley, as well as portraits of Simon Cowell, Princess Diana, Winston Churchill and Gordon Brown.

A number of smaller canvases have been included with portraits of Terry Wogan, Nelson Mandella, Margaret Thatcher and Madeleine McCann.

"By choosing the ordinary everyday objects of postage stamps and placing them so that their usual significance becomes obscure, it enables the audience to see art with new eyes," said a spokesman for the museum, who added: "In this case Pete takes ordinary things and combines them in extraordinary ways."

A part time teacher of art at Kingsmead Technology College, Mr Mason gets many of his stamps from pupils, parents and the local community and also buys them from a dealer second hand.

The exhibition can be viewed during normal museum opening hours – Monday to Friday from 11am to 4pm with last admission at 3.30pm.

For further information contact visitor services assistant Leon Jevons on 01543 877666.