Broomsticks & Lollies, original altered painting by Heather Castles

“Broomsticks & Lollies”

altered art by Heather Castles
61 x 91.5 cm (2 x 3 ft) canvas
78.5 x 108.5 cm (31 x 42.75 inch) frame

If you are a muggle who lives in Canada, you’ll know that not all winters are sprinkled with white fluffy snow! Some days are downright dreary, with the white snow turned to brown slush, the skies grey, and the trees spindly and bare. On those days, you want to stay indoors, turn on the fireplace, and get cozy with a good book… like “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban!”

The students of Hogwarts enjoy a magical wintertime, with the charming Hogsmeade village nearby to visit over winter holidays. Sitting in my dark office, I love the idea of popping out to Honeydukes for warm cauldron cakes, or over to The Three Broomsticks for a butterbeer. I imagine that there were days that winter wasn’t so pleasant in Hogsmeade village, and perhaps sometimes it was a little more like the winters I experience.

So with this altered painting, I was inspired to share my muggle view of a not-so-magical winter in Hogsmeade. I enjoyed adding wonky chimneys and rooftops, street lights, and of course the local pub and candy shop for the locals to visit to for a treat. I added wisps of smoke from the wonky chimneys to help imagine that the town is full of people, cozy in their homes on this miserable winters morning.

This alteration is on a vintage painting signed Luigi Matti, which I collected locally in Ontario.

Original art quality : This painting was in rough shape, with food splatters, lots of cracking, dents and paint chipping. I spent some time cleaning and touching up paint chips, but did leave the cracking and some of the discolouration as part of the , rewiring, and reinstalling the art in a new better quality vintage frame.

Frame : If you saw the "before" photo, the frame looked nice from a distance... but it was actually disintegrating. It was made of an unusual composite material that I can only relate to insulation/foam of some sort. It had been stored somewhere with animals and had chew marks all along it. I had gone down the path of refinishing it to try to salvage it... but in the end felt that it was a cheaply made frame and wouldn't complement the detail and quality of the artwork. Fortunately I was able to find a solid wood vintage frame that does complement the artwork. The inside trim was painted a crisp white to bring out the new bright whites added to the painting during the alteration. It has been rewired and is ready to display on the wall.

Altered Muggle Art : With this collection, I’m capturing magical moments from my non-magical “muggle” point of view. By taking vintage artworks and altering them to depict magical places and creatures, I am creating a historical fiction around the idea that the world of wizards was real. With this particular piece of artwork I aim to celebrate and memorialize the character of Hagrid brought to life by the loveable Robbie Coltrane.

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