Amy Dennis
I'm about to take part in Airs, Reels and Ballads, an exhibition at The Scottish Gallery in collaboration with St Jude's. I'll be exhibiting a selection of prints including new screen prints, linocuts and wood engravings.
The exhibition brings together the work of nineteen printmakers, painters and applied artists in a celebration of British art.
It's a pleasure to be exhibiting alongside my friend, the painter Amy Dennis.
Amy studied Drawing and Painting at Edinburgh College of Art, graduating in 2000. She is a Jolomo Foundation Landscape painting award winner (2013) and has exhibited with the Scottish Gallery since 2009, in regular Society group shows and has work in public collections. She currently lives and works in Edinburgh.
Airs, Reels and Ballads features six of Amy's paintings. Talking of her work...
"I am interested in creating assembled images combining landscape with still life aspects. This work uses architectural view over the Firth of Forth as an observed backdrop before which real and imagined objects and motifs are arranged and imposed. I use the ancient medium of egg tempera paint (raw pigment bound with egg yolk and distilled water according to a 15th century recipe) on Italian gesso. I am interested in emphasising the craft aspect of painting in my work and paint with tempera techniques both traditional and experimental, using meticulously prepared (pigmented and polished) gesso panels as a ground to build up the work with many thin glazes of paint."
The exhibition opens on 1st November 2017 and runs until 29th November 2017 at The Scottish Gallery, 16 Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ. Find out more
Barnbougle Caste with Navigational Tools by Amy Dennis
Bass Rock with Navigational Tools by Amy Dennis
Calton Hill by Amy Dennis
Inchkeith Island with Navigational Tools by Amy Dennis
Inchmickery Island with Navigational Tools by Amy Dennis
Oxcars Lighthouse with Drafting Tools by Amy Dennis
The Lumber Room: Unimagined Treasures
We're delighted to announce the publication of our latest Random Spectacular project, The Lumber Room: Unimagined Treasures (RS011).
Prior to the reopening of York Art Gallery in 2015, Mark Hearld spent two years visiting the stores of the Yorkshire Museum and York Castle Museum as well as the Gallery researching the objects and artworks to include in his curated exhibition, The Lumber Room: Unimagined Treasures, which engaged visitors from August 2015 until May 2017.
His choices included pottery, costume, oil paintings, works on paper, furniture, and taxidermy, many items of which had not been on public display before.
Alongside these were new works that Mark has created especially for the show which is inspired by the collections.
The exhibition is influenced by a short story called The Lumber Room, by Saki, which was read to him in an English class when he was 15.
Mark explains…
“Since I heard Saki’s story I have always been intrigued by the idea of a locked room that contained treasures so wonderful they are beyond what your mind can imagine. In this exhibition, I wanted to create the sense of excitement and wonder that you get when you discover the key to the room and see the “forbidden” objects for the first time.”
The exhibition closed early May 2017, but we’re delighted to publish this Random Spectacular journal which records and celebrates the spirit of Mark’s curation and creation with contributions from Emily Sutton, Chloë Cheese, Alan Powers, Jonathan Gibbs, Angie Lewin, John Andrews and many more.
Take a look inside The Lumber Room: Unimagined Treasures
Sutton & Hearld at Home
Artists Emily Sutton and Mark Hearld will soon open their doors again as part of the 2017 York Open Studios event.
Running over the last two weekends of April, Emily will exhibit a selection of new paintings, drawings and prints while Mark has created a series of new mixed-media collages, limited edition prints, hand-decorated slipcast cockerels and painted platters.
Emily Sutton and Mark Hearld's Open Studios, 104 The Mount, York YO24 1AR on 21st (6-9pm), 22nd (10am-6pm) and 23rd (11am-5pm) April 2017 and again on 29th (10am-6pm) and 30th (11am-5pm) April 2017.
You might also like to view Mark and Emily's fabrics and wallpapers for St Jude's.
Mark Hearld 'Wood Pigeon' mixed-media collage, 2017
Emily Sutton 'Allotment with Cardoons' watercolour, 2017
Mark Hearld 'Crows' mixed-media collage, 2017
Emily Sutton 'Swans on the Seine' watercolour, 2017
Mark Hearld 'Cockerel' slipcast and hand-decorated, 2017
Emily Sutton 'Glass House, Jardin des Plantes' watercolour, 2017
Mark Hearld 'Mandarin Duck' mixed-media collage, 2017
Emily Sutton 'Pont Neuf Finches' watercolour, 2017
Emergent Landscapes
Over the past couple of years we've had the pleasure of working with artist, writer, musician and cultural geographer Rob St. John on several projects. Rob and Tommy Perman contributed to our Random Spectacular No. 2 journal, discussing their Water of Life project and we've since collaborated on the Concrete Antenna 12" vinyl/print release and the Creative Edinburgh Awards shortlisted Score Tae The Toor book/CD.
Emergent Landscapes is a collaborative installation at Tate Modern Switch House, exploring the boundaries between art, geography and the Anthropocene. Between 9th-11th December 2016, Rob invites the public to participate in the creation of new visual and sonic sculptures that will continue to evolve beyond the Tate Exchange space.
From the layering of a soundscape echoing visitor contributions, reflections and perceptions to the collective construction of a cairn, piles of stones that historically act as markers of time and space, Emergent Landscapes will act as a beacon; marking the newly-built Switch House and re-situating its emergence within an ever-changing London landscape.
Once the installation period is over, the whole structure will then be transported to Hooke Park woodland in Dorset, where in collaboration with the Architectural Association and Common Ground charity, it will be made freely accessible to visitors and documented for years to come. Over months and years, the spores and seeds ‘painted’ onto the cairn materials will germinate and grow; to emerge, pattern and even destroy the structure created together.
On 10th December 2016 between 17.00 and 18.00 Rob will introduce the project with an artist's talk and on 11th December between 16.00 and 17.30 Rob will discuss the future of the project with writer, curator and artist Amy Cutler.
Find out more about the project and the free (but ticketed) talk and discussion.
The Lost Watercolours of Edward Bawden
Widely admired today as an illustrator and printmaker, Edward Bawden (1903-89) is hardly a ‘forgotten artist’. Yet one aspect of his career has been neglected until now: his role in the 1930s as a critically-acclaimed modern painter.
The Lost Watercolours of Edward Bawden sets the record straight by bringing together the largest collection of the artist’s pre-war watercolours ever assembled. Most were originally exhibited at one or other of Bawden’s major solo shows – at the Zwemmer Gallery in 1933 and the Leicester Galleries five years later – exhibitions that impressed critics and delighted collectors. Continues below...
It has taken three years to assemble this remarkable collection of pictures, many of which were, as the title of the book suggests, lost. The remarkable quest to find and identify Bawden’s pre-war watercolours is described by publisher Tim Mainstone in an amusing, informative essay, which forms the third part of this richly illustrated volume. James Russell, author of the popular series ‘Ravilious in Pictures’, contributes an introductory essay exploring Bawden’s life and career in the 1930s.
The watercolours themselves are grouped by exhibition, with additional sections of works from the mid-30s and from the decade’s end.
Find out more about The Lost Watercolours of Edward Bawden and purchase a copy from our St Jude's Prints website.
Camera Ready 1983
Matthew Rich, Master Printer at Jealous has just created Camera Ready 1983, a new nine colour screen print which painstakingly recreates a piece of rediscovered artwork from Matthew's time printing fly posters in Manchester for Factory Records and their Haçienda club. Matthew explains...
"I started screen printing in the early nineteen eighties at a Manchester print shop called Community Expression. I printed posters, stickers and t-shirts for local bands and clubs, political groups and the students' union. Our first premises was in a university building on Oxford Road and then I can remember 3 or 4 more places before we moved to a bigger shop called Lola Publicity on Claremont Road in Moss Side.
I joined forces with the Manchester fly posting crew so as well as being poster printers for the Manchester music scene, we would pick up record company posters sent from London to the Piccadilly station Red Star depot. We would (not entirely legally) paste them all over town, sometimes travelling as far afield as Sheffield and Leeds. Continues below...
We had a good relationship with local promoter Alan Wise, making posters for his acts the Fall, The Blue Orchids and Nico for the brief time she lived and worked in Manchester. But most of our work came from Factory Records, firstly making fly posters for the original Factory club (AKA the Russell or PSV Club) in Hulme and then, from 1982 onwards, gig posters for the brand new Fac 51, The Haçienda.
Arriving at the club with a roll of freshly screen printed posters guaranteed free entry, strolling smugly past the queues and some cash in hand to spend at the bar. There were many memorable nights like Einsturzende Neubauten attacking the pillars holding up the roof with a jack hammer, Madonna's first ever show in the UK and William Burroughs on stage reading from his new book, 'The Place of Dead Roads'. Continues below...
Back in the printshop we set out the poster artwork with Letraset, Rubylith and Rotring pens. Shot negatives onto Lith film using a huge horizontal process camera - all brass hinges and ground glass screens - and hand printed onto MG poster paper with very smelly old solvent based inks. No health and safety back in the eighties!
Many many years later I found this bit of poster artwork in a box in the attic. So many people of a certain age remember that era of the Manchester music scene with such fondness and a few suggested I do something with my bits and pieces of memorabilia. Continues below...
I scanned the ancient artwork and dissected it layer by layer. The ageing off-white card of the artwork sheet. The palest blue lines (invisible to the camera) of the layout grid, some scribbled notes in pencil, a bit of Tippex covering a mistake and the matt black of the Letraset itself. We definitely ran out of letter Ys but that's fine, make a negative and print off as many new ones as you need.
There's a story here of my journey in screen printing from knocking out one colour posters on the cheapest stock to this nine colour, limited edition print in expensive Swiss water based inks on 100% cotton mould-made Somerset paper."
Find out more about Camera Ready 1983 over at Jealous Prints.
Albion – A Celebration of Britain in Print
We’re delighted to be returning to The Town House on Fournier Street in the heart of Spitalfields for an event co-curated with The Town House proprietor Fiona Atkins.
The building dates from 1720 where silk weavers originally worked and plied their trade.
In addition to a showcase of our artist-designed fabrics and wallpapers we’ll be presenting an exhibition entitled ‘Albion - A Celebration of Britain In Print’ featuring limited edition prints by St Jude’s co-founder Angie Lewin and printmaker Christopher Brown.
Christopher Brown was born in London in 1953. He attended the Royal College of Art where he was introduced to, and eventually assisted, Edward Bawden, the master of the linocut. It was Bawden who encouraged him to explore this medium.
Since then, Christopher has exhibited at the Michael Parkin Gallery, The Royal Academy, The Fry Gallery, The Fine Art Society and the Victoria & Albert Museum.
We’ll also be launching Christopher Brown’s ‘Albion’ wallpaper, his first for St Jude’s, along with Mark Hearld’s ‘Squirrel and Sunflower’ fabric and Sheila Robinson’s ‘Monkeys and Birds’ wallpaper.
‘Monkeys and Birds’ was designed in 1958 by printmaker Sheila Robinson (1925-1988) and was printed by hand to decorate the walls of Cage Cottage, the family home in Great Bardfield. The design originates from Sheila’s hand cut linocut blocks.
A chapter profiling Sheila's work features in 'Bawden, Ravilious and the Artists of Great Bardfield' published by the V&A.
As well as the original colour way, we've worked closely with Sheila’s daughter, the printmaker and painter Chloë Cheese, to create two additional colour ways.
Visit us at The Town House, 5 Fournier Street, London E1 6QE from Tuesday 20th until Sunday 25th September. Open Tuesday 11am-8pm, Wednesday-Friday 11am-6pm, Saturday and Sunday 11am-5pm.
Christopher Brown's 'Albion' linocut
Christopher Brown cutting his 'Albion' linocut
Angie Lewin's 'Sea Pinks' wood engraving
Mark Hearld's 'Squirrel and Sunflower' fabric
Sheila Robinson's 'Monkeys and Birds' wallpaper
