From The Page to The Wall
Based in Edinburgh, publishers Birlinn work with Scottish writers such as Robin Jenkins, George Mackay Brown and the author of the No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, Alexander McCall Smith and international writers including Jan-Philipp Sendker, Rita Monaldi and Francesco Sorti.
During the Edinburgh Festival, the Doubtfire Gallery are hosting an exhibition of original illustrations and printed work by some of the artists that Birlinn commission for their covers. The featured artists are Tim Archbold, Jill Calder, Bob Dewar, Debi Gliori, James Hutcheson, Owain Kirby and Iain McIntosh.
The exhibition runs until 29th August at the Doubtfire Gallery, 3 South East Circus Place, Edinburgh EH3 6TJ. View the gallery website
Find can out more about Birlinn via their website.
'Reekie' by James Hutcheson
'Bruce and DeBohun' by Jill Calder
'The Bruce' by Jill Calder
'Bertie Plays Blues' by Iain McIntosh
'Allotments' by Bob Dewar
'The Great Wood' by Owain Kirby
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.
Ultramarine on Northey Island
In early July 2015, Random Spectacular No. 2 contributors Ultramarine played live on Northey Island, a National Trust property in the Blackwater estuary, off Maldon, Essex.
Although the island is generally leased to private tenants, once a year the Trust takes back the island for Castaway, a wild camping experience.
Music has always been an important aspect of the Castway weekends and this year Ultramarine (Ian Cooper and Paul Hammond) performed a live set (accompanied by saxophonist Greg Heath) which included Decoy Point, a track from their 2013 album This Time Last Year, which was inspired by the Blackwater landscape.
You can listen to three of the tracks performed live below.
To find out more about the duo, visit the Ultramarine website. You might also enjoy Ian Coooper's Survey East journal.
LTM Recordings have also reissued a number of early Ultramarine releases.
Thanks to Ultramarine's Ian Cooper and LTM's James Nice for the photographs included here.
Dark Movements
Artist Clive Hicks-Jenkins is currently exhibiting a series of works at Aberystwyth Arts Centre.
The Mari Lwyd or ‘grey mare’, a Welsh midwinter tradition, has been a key influence Hicks-Jenkins' work. Dark Movements is a multi media presentation of works inspired by the story. The exhibition includes a number of works from the original series of large scale drawings which the artist made following his father's death; works articulating a private grief and fear as well as exploring deep rooted cultural beliefs. Exhibited alongside these are new paintings and animated film using the artist’s puppetry figures, as well as examples of the ‘shadow puppet’ models which Clive uses in his painting practice. Puppets and models from the 2013 performance of the chamber work inspired by the artist's Mari Lwyd series, ‘The Mare’s Tale’ (composer Mark Bowden and librettist Damian Walford Davies) are also on show.
The exhibition runs until Saturday 25th July 2015 at Aberystwyth Arts Centre. Full details
Find out more about the artist's work via his website.
The Citadel (2015)
Acrylic, gouache and oil-based pencil on board. 59 x 84 cms
Yarden. The Citadel (2015)
Acrylic, gouache and oil-based pencil on board. 59 x 84 cms
Horse/Man (2015)
Acrylic, gouache and oil-based pencil on board. 59 x 84 cms
Detail of the Dark Movements Toy Theatre (2015)
Mixed media
Veil (2015)
Acrylic, gouache and oil-based pencil on board. 59 x 84 cms
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.
