Christopher John Sidwell - Artist

Christopher Sidwell was born in 1954 and is the great, great, great nephew of the local Coventry artist Sydney John Bunney (1877-1928). Bunney was a late Impressionist artist whose work documents Coventry between the first and second World Wars.

Many of the buildings have now been lost but can be seen in the wonderful book, 'Sydney Bunney's Coventry Impressions of a Graceful City'.

 

Christopher left school in 1971 to work in an architects office run by Rolf Hellberg eventually training as an architect himself and graduating from Birmingham in 1979 and then gaining a Diploma in Architecture in 1981.

 

In 1988 after a period in industry Christopher re-trained as a teacher of Art and Design Technology doing a PGCE at Loughborough Universty. He then went on to  teach in various schools for 25 years the last 20 of which were spent in 'Special needs' education. Christopher retired in 2015 to spend more time with his Grandchildren and concentrate on his various arts.

 

His band Crokodile Tears have recorded 10 albums of his original music all of which are available on Spotify, i Tunes and digital music platforms. In 2021 he and Mary Courtney wrote and recorded, 'Odd Sock' The Spon End Opera as The Singing Sock. Christopher has also recorded with other bands such as the Digital Dinosaurs, Blush and most recently The Trees.

 

His first full exhibition of artwork was, 'All Creatures Great & Small' at the Coventry Telegraph 'pop-up' gallery in 2018 but Christopher has also displayed work and had exhibitions at the Slate Gallery and the Temperance in Leamington as well as the Priory Undercrofts in Coventry.

 

Working with local poet and artist Mary Courtney their joint 'Moira's Wet Fish Shop' installation in Spon End won the National Heritage visitors vote in the 'Art trail' of the Spon Spun 2018 Festival. Christopher and Mary's installation was later re-vived as part of 'Coventry UK City of Culture 2021'.

 

His most recent exhibitions of work have been at the Herbert Art Gallery and the Sitting Rooms of Culture 'pop-up' Gallery in the Coventry Market last year and the LTB Gallery in Coventry.

 

Christopher's 'Mercurial the Market Mermaid' which is made from re-cycled materials is currently on display at the LTB Gallery.