Richard Bawden at 80
An exhibition celebrating the work of Richard Bawden has just opened at The Fry Gallery in Saffron Walden.
Perhaps best know for his paintings and prints, Richard is also a designer, whose work includes book illustration, posters, murals, mosaics, textiles, engraved glass, furniture and cast iron seats (for which he cut the patterns himself).
Richard's paintings are drawn from life, and as a printmaker he works predominantly in etching and lino. He studied at the Royal College of Art, has had over sixty one-man exhibitions at home and abroad, and has work in Royal, public and private collections.
Richard Bawden at 80 runs until 12th June 2016 at The Fry Art Gallery in Saffron Walden. Visit their website for details of opening times.
'Hedgerow' linocut
'Pink Eyes' etching
'Toucan in the Study' watercolour
'Winter Still Life' etching
'Dodo' linocut
Parallel//Paysage
Parallel//Paysage is an exhibition of new work by Rachel Duckhouse and Bronwen Sleigh. In October 2014 they travelled to Quebec City for an exchange exhibition between Glasgow Print Studio and Engramme. While there they undertook a research trip travelling through Quebec, Labrador and Newfoundland funded by the Bet Low Trust. This latest exhibition presents the divergent responses of these two artists to their shared experience of the same landscapes through printmaking, drawing and sculpture.
Parallel//Paysage runs from 9th April to 1st May 2016 at Glasgow Print Studio. You can find out more about Bronwen and Rachel's collaboration via their blog Multiple//Parallel.
A detail from one of Bronwen's etchings
Bronwen editions a new lithograph print
A detail from Rachel's pen and ink drawing 'Saguenay ii'
One of Bronwen's etching plates
Rachel inks up her 'Black Wood' linocut
Rachel's 'Black Wood' linocut and 'White Wood' pen and ink drawing
Pages from one of Rachel's sketchbook
Mark Hearld at Tinsmiths
From 19th March until 23rd April 2016 our good friends at Tinsmiths in Ledbury will be presenting Spring Life, an exhibition of work by painter/printmaker Mark Hearld and ceramicist Paul Young.
You'll be able to get a sneak preview of two new designs we'll be launching soon - the fabric version of Mark's popular Squirrel and Sunflower wallpaper and a new design, Cirque D'Hiver, inspired by time spent in Paris.
Mark has also been collaborating with Ledbury based letterpress printer Martin Tilley on a series of new linocut prints, featured in the film above.
Spring Life runs from 19th March until 23rd April 2016 at Tinsmiths, Tinsmiths Alley, 8A High Street, Ledbury, Herefordshire. HR8 1DS. Visit their website for opening times.
We'll be adding details of Mark's new fabrics to our website soon, in the meantime you can view Mark's existing fabrics and wallpaper for St Jude's.
Mark Hearld's forthcoming Cirque D'Hiver fabric for St Jude's
The fabric version of Mark Hearld's Squirrel and Sunflower wallpaper for St Jude's
BE / ONE
I've been meaning to post something about our friends at Caught By The River's latest audio release on their Rivertones label for a few days. What's been delaying my post is thinking about a way of explaining just how good it is.
I'm still trying to work that out, but as it seems to be (justifiably) selling extremely quickly (the first vinyl edition has sold out) I wanted to get this posted before it sells out completely.
It's the first long player on the Rivertones label and is the soundtrack to Wolfgang Buttress' award winning pavilion at the 2015 Milan Expo. The Hive is an immersive, multi-sensory experience inspired by groundbreaking UK scientific research into the health of bees and the audio release is a hypnotic conceptualisation of their life, work and living environment. The musicians involved in the project improvised in the key of C, playing along to a live feed of sounds from the a beehive.
A series of live performances are underway. Luke Turner has just reviewed the Nottingham debut of the Be collective's performance...
"It’s a genuinely immersive experience, as cosy as if we are in the hive itself. Indeed, there’s an old-fashioned wicker hive on stage, just in front of the keyboards. Although bees communicate by vibration, amplified recordings of their activities are audible to the human ear, and the sound of tooting queens and their subjects’ waggle-dancing hums in and out of droning melodica, Tibetan singing bowls, accordion, cello, guitar and occasional vocals." Read in full
There's not much more than I say other than do what you can to get a copy of the CD or vinyl release before it's too late.
This summer the installation will come to Kew Gardens. Find out more
More from Jonathan Gibbs
Life is But a Dream, Jonathan Gibbs' solo exhibition at the Open Eye Gallery in Edinburgh continues until 27th January 2016.
Jonathan has lived and worked in Scotland for many years but acknowledges the importance of the “churches, fields, shorelines and elements of landscape from East Norfolk, where my family comes from”.
Having trained at Central School of Art and Design and the Slade School of Fine Art, in addition to the creation of new work for regular exhibitions Jonathan is a Head of Illustration at the Edinburgh College of Art.
Writing about Jonathan’s 2006 ‘Flint & Straw’ exhibition at the Open Eye Gallery, Alan Powers suggests that “at first sight, his paintings and engravings evoke a mid-twentieth-century mood, suggestive of territory between Ben Nicholson and Eric Ravilious – fastidious, linear and deeply sensitive to place”.
Jonathan will be taking part in our forthcoming Editions & Objects exhibition at Yorkshire Sculpture Park from 25th June until 30th October 2016. Sign up for our e-mail newsletter for details.
You might also like to see Jonathan's fabric for St Jude's, Herring Moon.
Jonathan Gibbs 'The Baite VI' wood engraving
A wood engraving in progress in Jonathan Gibbs' studio
Jonathan Gibbs 'Owl and Moon' wood engraving
Jonathan Gibbs 'Vessel and Curtain' oil on canvas and board
Previously cut wood blocks in Jonathan Gibbs' studio
Jonathan Gibbs 'Swallow and Dyke' wood engraving
Jonathan Gibbs' studio
Jonathan Gibbs 'Mellis Moat Man' wood engraving
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
Jonathan Gibbs
Jonathan Gibbs' latest solo exhibition at the Open Eye Gallery in Edinburgh opens on 9th January 2016.
Life is But a Dream features a selection of work inspired by his sabbatical leave from his role as Programme Director at Edinburgh College of Art last year. Within this time Gibbs studied riverine literature, songs, and imagery as well as travelling to Italy, India, and Norfolk to further his practice. Whilst in Venice, Gibbs paid great attention to Jacopo de’ Barbari’s woodblocks, used for his infamous ‘Map of Venice’, which inspired Gibbs to start working on a larger scale.
Known for his distinctive approach to illustration through printmaking, this exhibition includes a range of woodcuts with new paintings on mahogany, canvas or oak, and additional pencil drawings. The exhibition is titled ‘Life is But a Dream’ after the largest and most ambitious work in the exhibition, consisting of a woodcut over 4 meters long; a direct response to the children’s nursery rhyme ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat’. The original bloc used for creation will also be on display in the gallery.
The exhibition runs from 9th to 27th January 2016 at Open Eye Gallery, 34 Abercromby Place, Edinburgh EH3 6QE. Find out more
Jonathan Gibbs 'The Baite II' wood engraving
Jonathan Gibbs 'Night Kitchen II' oil and gesso on wood
Jonathan Gibbs 'Kindrochet Still Life' wood engraving
Jonathan Gibbs 'The Baite IV' wood engraving
Jonathan Gibbs 'La Citié' wood engraving
Jonathan Gibbs 'A Store of Gifts' oil and gesso on wood
