Emily Sutton
In November 2015 Emily Sutton will be exhibiting a series of new watercolours and drawings at The Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh as part of 'Four Women Artists' which also features work by Elizabeth Blackadder, Victoria Crowe and Alison McGill.
Edinburgh College of Art unites these four women artists. Elizabeth Blackadder graduated from the college in 1954 and was a dedicated teacher from 1962-1986. Victoria Crowe graduated from the Royal College of Art, London before being invited to teach drawing and painting at the college from 1968 until 1998. Alison McGill and Emily Sutton are part of a younger generation who continue to fulfil their journey through art, and in very different ways represent an ongoing painting and graphic tradition.
The exhibition runs from 4th to 25th November 2015 at The Scottish Gallery, 16 Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ. Find out more.
You might also like to view the fabrics that Emily has designed for St Jude's or view a selection of her limited edition prints.
'Rocking Horse'
Watercolour, 76 x 56cm
'The Garden Room at 104'
Watercolour, 76 x 56cm
'Still Life with Coral Teacup'
Watercolour, 22 x 27cm
'Front Room at 104'
Pencil, 84 x 59cm
'Cap Oceane, Trouville'
Watercolour, 29.5 x 42cm
Mark Hearld’s ‘The Lumber Room: Unimagined Treasures’
Visitors to the newly reopened York Art Gallery will be able to pick up one of these souvenir broadsheets, created by the artist Mark Hearld as part of his curated exhibition The Lumber Room: Unimagined Treasures.
The Upper North Gallery has been transformed to reflect one artist’s vision of a Lumber Room – a room of miscellaneous stored objects and artefacts.
For the past two years, York-based artist Mark Hearld has been visiting the stores of the Yorkshire Museum and York Castle Museum as well as York Art Gallery researching the objects and artworks to include in the exhibition.
His choices include textiles, costume, oil paintings, works on paper, furniture, and taxidermy, many items of which have not been on public display before.
Alongside these are new works that Mark has created especially for the show which are 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.”
Visit the exhibition at York Art Gallery, Exhibition Square, York YO1 7EW. Find out more from the York Art Gallery website.
You might also like to view Mark's range of artist design fabrics and wallpapers for St Jude's.
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.
Our Highland studio
Earlier in the year we were visited by our friends from Country Living, along with our photographer and friend Cristian Barnett.
Some of Cristian's photographs appeared in the April issue of Country Living but several more are published in Country Living Modern Rustic which is available from magazine stands now.
Cristian also made this short film about the making of my wallpaper, Nature Table.
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.
