THE INSIDER'S GUIDE

News and happenings from around the area with Somerset Life

- Andrea Cowan

A PORTRAIT OF FROME

Amateur artist, Phil Salt, has put his newly discovered passion to great use.

Having never found the time to paint previously, he started in earnest at the start of lockdown, using some paints leftover from an old painting by numbers set.

Concentrating on his home town of Frome, Phil began with a painting of Catherine’s Hill, a famous part of the town with an attractive, steep, cobbled hill full of independent shops. This was followed by a painting of ‘Cheap Street’, the main market place and Stony Street.

An overwhelming response to Phil’s painting on the Frome community Facebook site sparked an idea. Phil put his first three paintings up for auction and has raised £250 for NHS Frome Community Hospital.

In addition, postcards, prints and greeting cards will be sold in Postscript, Frome’s independent stationery shop, and online, with a third of profits going to the NHS.

URBAN TREE CHALLENGE

Bristol and North Somerset have been awarded a share of the £10million Urban Tree Challenge Fund from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Forestry Commission.

In due course, communities will be involved in the selection, planting and caring of more than 500 street trees and 10 small woodlands.