A recently demolished Glasgow townhouse has been brought back to life in miniature thanks to a local artist.
Visual artist Karen Bones used her incredible talents to create a scale model of the Georgian townhouse that, until last week, stood at 141 West Regent Street.
The artist, real name Karen Bonella, created the model of the now demolished building out of foam and recycled cardboard in a little over a week.
The painstakingly-detailed model features ‘no entry’ signs on the boarded up building, with the artist simulating water damage and other external decay, including plants growing out of the stonework.
At first glance, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s the real thing.
READ MORE: Historic city centre building could be demolished and turned into apartments
Karen, whose handmade creations are made to order, sells many of her creations on her Bricks and Bones website and has produced models of a number of historic buildings around the country.
But she says 141 West Regent Street had a special place in her heart as nine years ago the building served as her first art studio.
Karen, who hails from Glasgow, but now lives in Larbert, told Glasgow Live: "I had my first art studio there. I knew this guy, Brian Dunsmore, who had the bike shop in the basement. It was just a wee hub, but it was great
"I think the building has been needing to come down for a while, but it was lovely inside. In its heyday it would’ve been amazing.
"There was always loads of people around and a good buzz about the place. It was great."
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Demolition workers this month cleared what remained of the B-listed building, which had been deteriorating for well over a decade.
Planners at Glasgow City Council gave the green light in December 2018 for the dilapidated building, which straddled the corner of West Campbell Street, to be flattened and replaced with a block of serviced apartments.
The removal of the derelict and fire-ravaged building, which dated back to the 1830s, has been a big talking point on social media this month, with many locals venting their disappointment that the townhouse could not be salvaged and restored.
The state of the decay of the building, which many locals referred to as 'Eczema House' on account of its crumbling façade, allowed Karen to get a little more creative with her paintwork when making the model.
She also admits the fact the townhouse had a basement level and was on a steep incline provided a fresh challenge.
She said: "Although I never personally heard it called ‘Eczema House’, I had friends who called it that because of all the paint and plasterwork peeling off.
"All the decay and detail was great to get my teeth into. There’s just a lot of interesting bits to paint.
"The detail in it was amazing to do. I actually quite liked that it had the wooden board saying ‘keep out’, ‘no floor’, as it just added a wee bit more interest.
"I desperately wanted to include the basement as that was my friend’s bit down there, I just thought, ‘how can I do this’, so I ended up building a bit of pavement so that I could have the basement under the stairwell and sort of behind it. That was a bit of a challenge."
Karen, who works at independent bar Bloc on Bath Street, explained that she would pass the West Regent Street townhouse several times a month and decided to create her model when it became clear the building would soon be demolished.
The original plan had been to photograph the model alongside the building. However, Karen says she was a day too late.
She said: "I work at Bloc on Bath Street and every week I’d pass by the building at West Regent Street and it would be in a worse state.
"I was gutted, because someone told me last week that it was down, and I like to take a photograph of my models at the actual place.
"So I didn’t take it with me and when I next drove round it was still there. I don’t live in Glasgow, but I sent my husband in on the Wednesday and it was gone. We were a day too late."
Karen began crafting her miniatures during lockdown, but has now managed to turn it into something of a business and sells her creations online and in person at weekly markets.
She is currently working on creating models of premises around the historic town of Culross in Fife. She is also planning to create a miniature of Bloc in the near future.
She added: "I used to do a lot of portrait painting, but since lockdown, I decided to do something a wee bit different.
"I’ve never seen other wee models or anything like that, certainly not in Scotland.
"I’ve always liked making things and painting, and this kind of combines the two. It’s really good fun."
You can visit Karen Bones' website, Bricks and Bones, here.
