A VISUAL artist from Halesowen has been awarded a £10k Arts Council grant for a project exploring Croome Court and park.

José Forrest-Tennant will receive the lottery cash to create a digital installation at the National Trust property in Worcestershire.

The mum of two, who gained an MA in Fine Art at Birmingham Art School while working at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, fell in love with Croome after visiting it in 2005.

José has already started her research at the property and has established a blog – www.joseforresttennant.wordpress.com.

She said: “Croome is a really magical place - you go there and when you are walking around it makes you feel like you are a kid again.

“Some people if they go to a heritage property they feel as if they can’t touch anything - but because there’s currently no collection at Croome it’s a really open space and you feel like you can interact with it.

“It’s really beautiful.”

Jose, who will be artist in residence at Croome until September, plans to explore ideas surrounding Claude mirrors and pinhole photography techniques to create a digital installation at the property.

The Claude mirror was popular in the 18th and 19th centuries and was used to transform a landscape view into something reminiscent of a painting by Claude Lorraine.

Pinhole photography, known as Camera Obscura, is an optical device which uses light to project an image of its surroundings onto a screen.

Jose said the finished piece of art could be a series of images put together and projected in one of the property’s rooms.

Kate Pryor-Williams, from Arts Council England, said: “This will be an exciting presentation of contemporary work in a heritage setting and will encourage thought-provoking reactions.”