David Cass
Opening on 2nd July 2015, 'Tonight Rain, Tomorrow Mud' is the second solo exhibition of David Cass' work at The Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh.
Cass’ 2013 solo show ‘Years of Dust and Dry’ was a great success where he transformed the gallery by installing some 200 found object based paintings which spoke of loss, decay and time.
As well as artworks that describe his travels over the last two years, Cass' newest work is inspired by the devastating floods which swept Florence in 1966 and Paris in 1910. He uses these historical events as point of focus to tackle the extremes of drought and inundation.
Cass explains...
“I began creating these artworks late in 2013: 47 years after the flood which claimed at least thirty lives in Florence itself. I first visited Florence in late 2010, on a Royal Scottish Academy scholarship. I’ve returned several times since 2010, and my artistic response to the city has gradually developed. Inspired by artist James Hogg’s set of letters written from Florence during November 1966 (published in Dear Eddie & Popp by S.A.C.I.) this series of studies are as much an attempt to introduce a new element into my practice as they are explorative responses to the history of this catastrophe.”
Created with semi-hardened vintage paints, on antique papers and framed (in most cases) in antique frames ‘Tonight Rain, Tomorrow Mud’ features paper-based artworks, created in Almería, Florence, Lucca and Paris.
The exhibition runs from 3rd July until 1st August 2015 at The Scottish Gallery, 16 Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ. Find out more via David Cass' website or The Scottish Gallery
Brick House
If you're familiar with the work of Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious you probably will know of the Brick House in Great Bardfield in Essex. This was their home, along with their wives, Charlotte and Tirzah, for a few years in the 1930s.
The illustrator and printmaker, Alice Pattullo, has recently created an ingenious and characterful fold-out replica of the house for Design For Today. With rooms filled with the objects you would expect to find from cats and patterned wallpapers to Bawden's printing press and cast iron bench, there's a wealth of detail. There's even a sheet of cut out extras including the two artists themselves looking rather like Gilbert and George.
Alice Pattullo is an illustrator and printmaker working in East London. Her work can be found at the V&A, The Higgins, John Soames Museum, Cecil Sharp House and in the pages of design and illustration magazines, Alice is inspired by the folk traditions of England and influenced by the mid-century printmaking of artists such as Edward Bawden and John Piper.
Design For Today was founded by Joe Pearson, an established collector and writer on mid-century lithography. As one of the country’s experts in his field Joe has given talks at several institutions such as the Double Crown Club, St Brides Printing Library, The House of Illustration and the University of East Anglia.
Find out more and purchase a copy of Brick House from Design For Today’s website.
Shell Posters
This Thursday (4th June) Christies will be auctioning an incredible collection of Shell posters which belong to Hugh Wickham, ex-head of marketing at Shell. It’s a long story with several twists and turns along the way, but all the proceeds from the sale of the posters are going straight to the Regeneration Fund of St John’s Church in Kingston-upon-Thames to help with the considerable cost of refurbishment.
The collection comprises 20 lots of approximately 42 posters from the Golden Age of Shell advertising and includes iconic images from artists and designers such as Edward Bawden, Ben Nicholson, Duncan Grant, Paul Nash, Graham Sutherland, Richard Guyatt, John Armstrong, Abram Games, Tom Eckersley and Eric Lombers. They are mostly from the ‘You Can Be Sure of Shell’, ‘These people Use Shell’ and ‘To Visit Britain’s Landmarks’ campaigns and date predominantly from the 1930s, with a few from the 1950s. It really is a remarkable group with great provenance and it’s a great opportunity to acquire a piece of classic British advertising history.
To find out more visit the Christies website and look for lots 17 to 37.
Peter Green – Sixty Years of Printmaking
Join us for the opening of Peter Green - Sixty Years of Printmaking at Mascalls Gallery, Maidstone Road, Paddock Wood, Kent TN12 6LT between 14.00 and 16.00 on Saturday 13th June 2015. The exhibition will then continue until Saturday 5th September 2015.
Peter Green has always been anxious to demystify the printing process, making it as simple and accessible as possible. For his relief printing, he does not use a press. Although this was initially a practical response to limitations of space and money, Green soon realised the advantages of printing by hand. Producing work in this way allowed him to explore the full depth of a cut block, and to control gradations of pressure and tone without any limit on paper size. Much of Peter’s work also features the use of paper stencils, rolling colour through a cut shape directly onto the paper’s surface.
Green’s images have a variety of origins, but usually emerge as part of the printing process itself rather than from extensive preliminary drawings. The initial proofed image may suggest, for example, a fantasy dreamlike landscape form, which grows progressively into something more abstract, made up of vibrant colour and shapes.
Peter Green is a teacher as well as a printmaker, having studied at Brighton College of Art and later at the Institute of Education at the University of London. He was Head of Art Teacher Training at Hornsey College of Art and then Dean of Art and Design at Middlesex University. Alongside teaching he has always continued to make his own prints, and in 1958 he was elected to the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. In the 1960s and 70s he made a series of prints, mainly woodcuts and stencils, for London Graphic Arts. In 1988 he was awarded the OBE in recognition of his work.
We're delighted to be working with Mascalls Gallery and with the Emma Mason Gallery on this exhibition which brings together work from the past sixty years, alongside many new works produced this year. Find out more about the exhibition.
We'll be publishing a book about Peter Green's printmaking later in the summer, under our Random Spectacular imprint. Sign up for our newsletter if you'd like to receive details of this.
If you're unable to visit the exhibition, do keep an eye on our gallery website - we'll be adding further prints during the summer.
And you might like to find out more about our first fabric collaboration with Peter and Linda Green, Colourdrome.
Ravilious
I was lucky enough to attend the opening of the major show of work by Eric Ravilious at Dulwich Picture Gallery, curated by James Russell, but the show deserved a second visit at a slightly quieter time.
I’ve always found Ravilious' work totally absorbing, whether his watercolours (which are the focus of this exhibition), his lithographs and wood engravings or his designs created for ceramics, glass and other commissioned work.
On my recent second visit to the exhibition it became so much clearer to me that these watercolours were made by a printmaker and designer. There's a sharpness and a clarity to the objects in his compositions and the palette is perhaps purposely restricted. Closer inspection reveals Ravilious is creating textures and patterns in the same way that he might when creating a lithograph.
It's hard to single out one single painting but a firm favourite would be 'Ship's Screw on a Railway Truck' (1940). Not a promising subject perhaps. The sculptural propellor gleams out from the blue and grey landscape. The top left had corner is a beautifully composed scene of ship moored by a curved harbour and tree which in itself would make a perfect engraving or motif on a Wedgwood plate. In the foreground there's a playful pattern of footprints in the snow and in the grey sky above, soft white snow flakes and diagonal marks depict this bleak winter scene in the same way that Ravilious might have drawn on a lithographic stone.
James Russell has brought together watercolours of landscapes, interiors, still lifes and Ravilious' work as a war artist too. There’s much to see that I think a third visit is definitely on the cards.
'Ravilious' is at Dulwich Picture Gallery until 31st August 2015. Visit their website for full details.
And find out more via curator James Russell's website.
Mark Hearld’s Horses
Those visiting Mark Hearld and Emily Sutton’s recent Open Studio event in York will have had a sneak preview of the new hand painted ceramic slip cast horses that Mark will be creating for his exhibition at York Art Gallery when it re-opens on the 1st of August 2015.
Mark will be curating and creating The Lumber Room: Unimagined Treasures which will feature objects from across York Museums Trust’s collections, including oil paintings, works on paper, taxidermy and social history.
Mark will also create new work in response to the objects including individually decorated ceramic slip cast horses made in response to the Leeds Horses in the collection.
We’ll be posting further details about the horses and Mark’s exhibition closer to the opening - do sign up for our e-mail newsletter if you’d like to find out more.
In the meantime, you might like to take a look at Mark's fabric and wallpaper designs for St Jude's.
A Natural Selection – new watercolours
I'm pleased to be exhibiting a series of 18 new watercolours at The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh from 1st to 30th May 2015.
Christina Jansen, director of The Scottish Gallery, explains:
"We are delighted to present Angie Lewin’s first solo exhibition with The Scottish Gallery. She is best known as a designer and printmaker whose sensitive patterns and motifs are inspired by the English Arts and Crafts movement and the work of Bawden and Ravilious. She divides her life between homes in Edinburgh and Speyside and this geographic diversity is reflected in her plant observations and interweaving of the natural and domestic worlds.
She walks, looks and draws; she collects and assembles and her studio is full of reference material, beautiful in itself witnessing a life lived in art and nature. Her chosen medium for this exhibition is watercolour, that most sensitive and difficult medium and her virtuosity is complete but should be no surprise in the context of her rigorous apprenticeship. The playful title for this show hints at her obsessive observing, refined through the artist’s editorial eye to make order out of chaos."
All of the watercolours are available to purchase prior to the exhibition opening. Please contact The Scottish Gallery for further details.
The exhibition runs from 1st to 30th May 2015 at The Scottish Gallery, 16 Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ.
View all of the watercolours that I'll be exhibiting
Spey Still Life with Yellow Book
Wild Garden, Seedheads (detail)
Coneflower with Spanish Seedheads
Sutherland Shore
New Town Cup (detail)
Weavers' Union
