Artist shrinks Glasgow music venues to miniature models

Karen's Barrowland model outside Glasgow's real Barras venue

The Barrowland ballroom and other iconic Glasgow music venues have been shrunk to miniature by a Scottish artist.

Karen Bonella, who works under the name Karen Bones, recreates the city's pubs and clubs where she worked for nearly 20 years.

Among her cardboard models are King Tut's, The Garage nightclub and the bar Nice n Sleazy, which have long been at the heart of the city's music scene.

Karen's tiny venues are a stark contrast to her other artistic inspiration - the quiet streets of Fife's coastal villages.

The two settings are a world apart, but Karen, 51, who lives in Larbert, Falkirk, loves model-making in both of these miniature landscapes.

Glasgow's King Tut's and The Garage nightclub - with its big yellow truck over the entrance door

After swapping painting to try out model-making during lockdown she is now wrapped up in the project.

"My first model of Glasgow was the building where I had my old art studio," she says.

"I wanted to recreate it before it was pulled down.

"The way it had decayed was amazing, covered in posters and graffiti.

"It's a shame what has happened to parts of the city.

"I had to highlight some of these buildings going to ruin before they are lost."

Karen works from her own garden shed studio in Larbert

Karen typically spends a week on each miniature, working on two or three at a time while the glue sets.

She studied illustration and printmaking at art school in Dundee, and happily admits she's learning her model-making skills as she goes along.

Karen builds her models in her garden shed workshop.

Her creations are a mix of recycled cardboard, foam, lollypop sticks and any other useful bits that will help her capture the tiniest details.

They are then painstakingly painted and decorated from reference photos she captures on location.

Karen recreated the derelict building in Glasgow city centre where she once had her studio

The Ubiquitous Chip bar and restaurant in Glasgow's west end

In Glasgow, the former bar manger was drawn to the pubs and venues she loved in the city.

King Tut's - where many bands got their big break and Oasis were famously signed, Bar Bloc - where she still works once a week to help out with admin and Nice n Sleazy - which takes her right back to her youth.

"I'm incredibly sentimental about this wee pub," she says.

"As a teenage Goth, it was the first one where I got to hang out with fellow weirdos

"The decor might have changed but it still has the same great dingy vibe it ever had."

Glasgow's Bar Bloc and Nice n Sleazy - one of her first teenage hangouts.

Soon after Karen began making her pub miniatures, requests for other venues started rolling in.

After delivering a model of The Garage nightclub to owner Donald Macleod, he commissioned her to make a model of Glasgow's Cathouse rock club.

But the big one was the Barrowland - her most elaborate and time consuming model so far.

The renowned gig venue, which originally opened as a dance hall in 1934, has hosted acts on their rise to stardom including David Bowie, The Clash, U2, the Foo Fighters and more.

"The Barras took ages, she says. "It's such an iconic venue, I knew it had to be done properly.

"Having gone to countless gigs there, it's played a big role in my life.

"I researched low-powered lighting, so I could fit tiny LEDs in the right position behind each of the stars on the sign."

"It was a challenge, with lots of trial and error, but I'm really chuffed with it."

Karen's models begin with cardboard, a cutting mat and a lot of patience

Barrowland by night - Karen wired this miniature up with LED lighting

Karen says she's improved her modelling skills since her original miniature creation - a charming waterfront cafe in Fife.

Family life took Karen, her husband and young son away from Glasgow to Fife, where she opened a market art stall in Culross three years ago.

At first she specialised in line drawings of coastal scenes and village's historic streets.

Culross has been used for filming location for Outlander, and her illustrations of the cast have also been a big hit with visiting fans of the US TV drama.

From cottages to castles, many people asked Karen to make models of their own homes

"I love Culross, it's stunning. Full of wonky old buildings, it's like stepping back in time," she says

"I feel part of that community now, any time someone needs some drawing done, a restaurant menu, art for village event, they ask me."

Her model-making began when the owners of Coorie by the Coast in nearby Limekilns invited her to draw their cafe.

Karen was struck by the beauty of the old building and was inspired to turn it into a miniature too.

Coorie by the Coast was the miniature that started it all for Karen

"Being my first attempt, it's far from perfect, but I'm pleased with the result, considering I'd never done anything like it before.

"The owners love it and it's displayed proudly inside the cafe. It couldn't have gone to a nicer family"

After the tiny building went on display, word spread.

Karen began to get more commissions for buildings on the Fife coast and beyond. From cottages to castles - she doesn't like to say no to a challenge.

Karen has now created miniatures in Edinburgh, Falkirk, Dunfermline, Linlithgow and Dundee.

"I've had a fantastic response to my wee buildings and I love making them," she says.

"Who knows where the next one will take me."

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