Roger Ackling
This afternoon we took a visit to Resistance and Persistence, the current exhibition at the Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, which includes works by a favourite artist, Roger Ackling (1947-2014).
Graduating from St. Martin's School of Art in the late 1960s, Ackling (along with friends and colleagues Richard Long and Hamish Fulton) challenged the traditional notions of sculptural production.
For much of his career, Ackling made work using the same method, using a magnifying glass to focus sunlight onto the surface of found wooden objects, burning lines and dots in a process of meditative mark making.
Born in London in 1947, he studied at St. Martin's from 1965-1968. In addition to producing work that is included in many public collections such as at Tate, the V&A and The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Ackling was a popular teacher at Chelsea College of Art and other schools.
Occasional Papers have published 'Roger Ackling: Between The Lines', the first comprehensive overview of the artist's work.
You can find out more about Ackling's work from the Ingleby Gallery website or in these obituaries in The Guardian and The Independent.
Roger Ackling '6 Unit Stack Piece, Voewood' - sunlight on wood, 1999
Roger Ackling - a group of five works, sunlight on wood
Roger Ackling
Roger Ackling's installation at the Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh in 2012
Roger Ackling 'Voewood' - sunlight on wood, 2010
Roger Ackling 'Bird' - sunlight on wood, 1974
'Between The Lines' published by Occasional Papers
Stopping by Woods
I'm pleased to announce the launch of my latest small wood engraving, Stopping By Woods. Inspired by a favourite Robert Frost poem, this wintry print makes use of a rather unusually shaped end grain block that I'd been waiting to find a use for. Find out more
Mark Hearld’s Horses
Visitors to Mark Hearld's exhibition at York Art Gallery, The Lumber Room - Unimagined Treasures, will have seen the slipcast and hand-painted ceramic horses Mark has created based on a wooden 19th century toy horse the artist found in a Berlin flea market, a reaction to two Leeds Horses in the York Museums Trust's collection.
Mark will continue to make these horses over the coming months and two fine specimens have made their way into the Godfrey & Watt Christmas exhibition in Harrogate.
We'll be featuring the horses in a Random Spectacular publication dedicated to Mark's exhibition. Find out more about Random Spectacular, present and future.
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.
An exhibition in Bergen
We're just about to head off to Bergen for a few days for the opening of a new exhibition of work from long time St Jude's collaborator Alex Malcolmson.
In Møte over Nordsjøen (Meeting over the North Sea) Alex will be exhibiting a new series of box works and birds alongside the work of Shetland based painter Ruth Brownlee and Bergen based sculptor John Audun Hauge.
You can view a range of the work that Alex will be exhibiting or find out more about Ruth Brownlee's paintings.
The exhibition runs from 18th April until 10th May 2015 at Galleri Allmenningen, Bergen, Norway.
Compass Rose Alex Malcolmson
Vega Alex Malcolmson
Ship Spirit Alex Malcolmson
Hail Showers approaching Spiggie Ruth Brownlee
Grey Sky Clearing, West Yell Ruth Brownlee
Emily Sutton at Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Saturday 15th November 2014 sees the opening of 'Town and Country', Emily Sutton's major solo exhibition at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
The exhibition will feature a wide range of one-off watercolours, limited edition prints and a flock of hand painted and embroidered birds.
Based in York, Emily has worked with many distinguished clients around the world, illustrating books for the Victoria & Albert Museum, Faber and Faber, Random House, Penguin and Walker Books and undertaking commissions for brands such as Hermes, Fortnum & Mason and Betty’s of Harrogate.
We're delighted to include Emily's designs within the St Jude's range of fabrics - her Curiosity Shop fabric won the 'Best British Pattern' category in the Elle Decoration British Design Awards in 2011.
'Town and Country' coincides with the publication of Transferware Treasures, a limited edition hand-bound foldout book of the artist’s watercolours of Victorian transferware, published by Fleece Press.
Find out more about the exhibition in the short film below and via the Yorkshire Sculpture Park website. The exhibition runs until 22nd February 2015.
The Making of Nature Table
We’ve just uploaded a new film that looks at the inspiration behind Angie’s Nature Table fabric and wallpaper.
We had worked with the photographer Cristian Barnett before and he offered he making of a short film in return for a donation to the Movember fundraising programme (supporting the work of this global men’s health charity).
We were delighted to take him up on the offer - and here is the result (with special thanks to Ultramarine for the use of 'Within Reach' from their recent This Time Last Year album)
