Jonny Hannah’s Main Street
If you've yet to visit, we'd recommend you head up/down/across to Jonny Hannah's Main Street exhibition at Yorkshire Sculpture Park which runs until 28th February 2016.
Jonny has transformed the YSP Visitor Centre, creating three pop-up shops made entirely from his 2D and 3D artworks.
The exhibition – a tribute to high streets of the past, lined with independent retailers stocking an assortment of curiosities – features a collection of new linocuts, screenprints, and paintings. Incorporating strong colours and typography, and inspired by Hannah’s love of jazz music, the works are reminiscent of 1940s shop signs and concert posters. The exhibition also features Heavy Wool Products Come to McVouty’s – a limited edition screenprint printed at The Penfold Press in Selby, created exclusively for YSP – together with a small hand-painted and printed edition of unique wooden ukuleles. View a selection of the works exhibited
Find out more via the YSP website - you might also like to take this expert's guide to the exhibition or book a ticket for The Darktown Valentine's Cabaret.
Jonny Hannah at YSP
Here's a great little film featuring Jonny Hannah talking about his current exhibition Main Street at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
The exhibition features three pop-up shops made entirely from the artist’s 2D and 3D artworks, all of which are available to buy. Navigate Main Street using Hannah’s traditional hand-painted signs suspended above the YSP Centre concourse; natter with the owner of the Record Store; and nip to The Hand and Heart junk shop to pick up anything your heart desires!
You'll even spy Jonny's wallpaper for St Jude's, The Darktown Billets-Doux.
The exhibition runs until the end of February 2016 at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, West Bretton, Wakefield WF4 4LG. Find out more
Nature Study, Late Summer
Earlier in the year I was delighted to be asked by The Pallant House Gallery in Chichester to produce a new screen print to celebrate the opening of their latest exhibition, David Jones: Vision and Memory.
I've written about the inspiration for this new six colour print in the latest Pallant House Gallery magazine, but you can find out more online.
I was particularly influenced by David Jones' Flora in Calix-Light (1950) and Briar Cup (1932). Whilst working on the print I visited Kettle's Yard, focussing on the collections of natural objects such as pale grey-brown feathers scattered upon a shallow glass dish, a small glass jug of asters beside a twist of seaweed stem and Jim Ede's pebble spiral on a simple wooden table.
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
Christmas at Camelot
We're delighted to announce the launch of a new screen print by artist Clive Hicks-Jenkins, another collaboration with our friend Daniel Bugg of the Penfold Press.
Christmas at Camelot is the first in a series of fourteen prints based on the medieval poem 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'.
You may have seen Clive's 'Hansel and Gretel' contribution to our second Random Spectacular journal. We'll be publishing a Random Spectacular special expanding on this in 2016. We recently had the pleasure of talking to Grafik magazine about our Random Spectacular imprint. Read in full
Find out more about Christmas at Camelot
Clive Hicks-Jenkins - Christmas at Camelot
Type
We've been busy getting our letterpress studio back up and running, cleaning type and getting ourselves organised. We'll keep you posted with our progress. Here's some Signal and Gill Sans Condensed wood type, along with some freshly cast Scotch Roman from our friends at Hand & Eye.
Moku-hanga
As part of my curation of The Masters - Relief Prints at The Bankside Gallery I was pleased to see a number of prints made using the moku-hanga technique. Unlike many relief printmaking methods which make use of oil-based inks, this traditional Japanese woodblock printmaking technique uses water-based inks which are applied to the cut wooden block. Handmade Japanese paper is then placed onto the block which is then hand burnished using a baren.
Below are prints from two artists who make use of the technique in their work.
Paul Furneaux is based in Scotland and exhibits his prints globally. His website includes some excellent notes about his approach to the moku hanga technique.
Born in Osaka, Japan, Nana Shiomi studied oil painting and printmaking at the Tama Art University (BA, MA), Tokyo. Shiomi came to London to study contemporary art and received an MA in printmaking from the Royal College of Art in 1991.
The Masters - Relief Prints run until Sunday 15th November at The Bankside Gallery, 48 Hopton Street, London SE1 9JH. Find out more
Paul Furneaux 'Sunlight Garden' (54 x 74cm)
Nana Shiomi 'Garan-Do, Autumn' (80 x 107cm)
