All Things Considered

Emily Sutton’s High Street
Posted by Simon Lewin

As part of our St. Jude's In The City exhibition in London which opens to the public on 24th May 2012, Emily Sutton will be exhibiting a series of High Street paintings.

Born and raised in the depths of North Yorkshire, Emily studied at the Edinburgh College of Art. With a lifelong love of drawing, painting and crafting, Emily uses a combination these approaches in her current work, producing paintings, prints and handmade birds - as featured in World of Interiors magazine.

Emily is inspired by the relics of a bygone era and afternoons immersed in the contents of the Museum of Childhood in Edinburgh and recently illustrated a children's book for the V&A Museum in London - now in its second edition.

View the rest of the series of High Street paintings and find out more about our St. Jude's In The City exhibition.

Posted by Simon Lewin on May 18th, 2012

Brita Granström
Posted by Simon Lewin

Berwick based artist Brita Granström has two exhibitions running concurrently at Northumbria University in Newcastle from 18th May until 29th June 2012.

In Butcher, Baker, Cockle Sweet-Maker, Brita focuses on the town in the same way that painters such as Bawden and Rowntree documented English towns during the 1940s. As well as the buildings, she engages with local traders - the butchers, the bakers and the pub landlords.

A Breath Of Fresh Air is a broad survey of Brita's paintings of Swedish and Northumbrian subjects. These reveal a kind of windswept paradise, a terrain of boundless adventure for children, where they might enjoy fishing, messing about in boats, or discovering a dead seal on a beach.

And in the Gallery Print Room you'll also be able to see original artwork from the children's book Charles Dickens - Scenes from an Extraordinary Life by Brita and Mick Manning. Signed copies of the book will also be available during the exhibition.

For full details on all the exhibition visit the Northumbria University website.

You might also enjoy these short films show Brita at work: One | Two

From top to bottom: Pay Here Please, Brenda On The Phone, The Butcher (screenprint), The Call Of Nature, The Dead Seal and a photograph of Brita drawing on location (photograph by Tom Band).

Posted by Simon Lewin on May 13th, 2012

Julia McKenzie – Open House
Posted by Simon Lewin

Julia McKenzie will be taking part in the 2012 Dulwich Festival Artists' Open House programme on 12th/13th and 19th/20th May.

More than 200 artists in over 150 locations across Dulwich and surrounding areas are opening their homes and studios as part of the Dulwich Festival.

Julia will be including these three box works alongside other one-off pieces and limited edition prints.

Find out more about the event from the Dulwich Festival website or visit Julia's website and Facebook page.

Posted by Simon Lewin on May 9th, 2012

Ed Kluz – Theatre Britannica
Posted by Simon Lewin

Work commitments means that we're very reluctantly able to be in London tonight for the opening of Ed Kluz's Theatre Britannica exhibition hosted by Ben Pentreath and Bridie Hall.

The exhibition features drawings, collages and other works by Ed who is fascinated by the objects of our cultural heritage. He seeks out the eccentric, the lost and the overlooked. Follies, curiosities, vanished buildings and folk lore inspire artworks which explore themes of renewal and reinvention.

Ben and Bridie have very kindly let us display Ed's fabrics for St. Jude's in one of their Rugby Street windows. I have to say we're delighted with how Painswick is looking in situ.

Theatre Britannica runs until 26th May 2012 at Ben Pentreath, 17 Rugby Street, London WC1N 3QT.

Here are some of the works exhibited. From top to bottom: a window display featuring Ed's Painswick fabric, Old London After Canaletto, Dundee Arch, Gothick Cottage, A Norwich Prospect and The Dunmore Pineapple.

Posted by Simon Lewin on May 9th, 2012

Eric Ravilious
Posted by Simon Lewin

Don't think we've ever seen this before - Eric Ravilious' Design For A Plant-house, watercolour over pencil.

Currently on show at The Fine Art Society in New Bond Street.

Posted by Simon Lewin on May 9th, 2012

A First Book of Nature – the exhibition
Posted by Simon Lewin

Opening on Tuesday 1st May at The Foyles Gallery (on the third floor of Foyles Bookshop, London) is an exhibition of the original artwork spreads for A First Book of Nature by Nicola Davies and Mark Hearld.

In this exhibition Mark brings nature's changing seasons and its rich cast of creatures to life - spring hares mid-leap, the buzz of insects in summer, worms by moonlight, starlings in flight and a fox padding through a winter snow-covered garden - in this delightful exhibition.

All of the original artworks will be available to purchase.

The exhibition runs from 1st May 2012 until 13th May 2012. Open Monday-Saturday 9.30am until 5pm and Sunday 11.30am until 6pm. Admission is free of charge.

The Foyles Gallery, Third Floor, 113-119 Charing Cross Road, London WC2H 0EB.

Find out more about A First Book of Nature or purchase a copy online.

Posted by Simon Lewin on April 30th, 2012

David Gentleman
Posted by Simon Lewin

It's been a good year so far for books about London. Christopher Brown's An Alphabet of London is already being reprinted and Spitalfields Life continues to find new admirers.

And this week sees the launch of David Gentleman's London, You're Beautiful. David Gentleman has been drawing London all his adult life, and for the past year has spent his days focused on looking afresh at the city. The resulting book of sketches, drawings and watercolours, arranged month by month, shows a year in the life of London and reveals the city that is hidden in plain view.

An associated exhibition of David Gentleman's work opens at The Fine Art Society on New Bond Street on the 4th May 2012.

Order a copy online via Amazon

Posted by Simon Lewin on April 29th, 2012

Bauhaus at the Barbican
Posted by Simon Lewin

The biggest Bauhaus exhibition in the UK for 40 years, Bauhaus: Art As Life, opens at the Barbican on 3rd May 2012.

From expressionist beginnings to a pioneering model uniting art and technology, this London exhibition presents the Bauhaus’ utopian vision to change society in the aftermath of the First World War.

The exhibition will feature work from Bauhaus Masters including Josef and Anni Albers, Marianne Brandt, Marcel Breuer, Walter Gropius, Johannes Itten, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Hannes Meyer, László Moholy-Nagy, Oskar Schlemmer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Gunta Stölzl.

Find out more about the exhibition and book tickets online via the Barbican website.

Photograph: Lis Beyer or Ise Gropius sitting on the B3 club chair by Marcel Breuer and wearing a mask by Oskar Schlemmer and dress fabric by Beyer, c.1927. Herzogenrath, Berlin. © Estate Erich Consemüller

Posted by Simon Lewin on April 27th, 2012

Paul Bommer – an exhibition in London
Posted by Simon Lewin

Paul Bommer is busy preparing for his next London exhibition, 'Umbra Sumus (We Are But Shadows)' which runs from April 27-29 inclusively in Spitalfields.

As part of this exhibition, Paul has created over 120 faux Delftware tiles, taking their cue from the Spitalfields area, or from the daily blog Spitalfields Life - sometimes directly, sometimes a little obliquely.

Find out more about Paul's work.

Posted by Simon Lewin on April 18th, 2012

Edward Bawden’s map of Scarborough
Posted by Simon Lewin

This wonderful map by Edward Bawden, commissioned in 1931 by hotelier Tom Laughton is now back on display in Scarborough Library.

Friends Of Scarborough Library members raised the £2,000 required to restore this forgotten treasure. Find out more about the project

Posted by Simon Lewin on April 15th, 2012