All Things Considered

The Yellow Cup
Posted by Angie Lewin

Later this week I'll be exhibiting a new screen print in Ledbury, Herefordshire as part of the St. Jude's At Tinsmiths exhibition.

The Yellow Cup includes an antique shop find featuring a strangely humorous engraved image of a donkey wreaking revenge on his cruel dandyish master which I combined with a number of elements to form this still life in my Highland studio.

Initially available from Tinsmiths, I'll have further copies of the edition available later in April. Sign up to my e-mail newsletter if you'd like details.

The exhibition also features work from Ed Kluz, Emily Sutton, Christopher Brown and Mark Hearld.

The opening event is on Friday 30th March 2012 between 7pm and 9pm but the exhibition then runs until 29th April 2012. Full details

Posted by Angie Lewin on March 27th, 2012

Treehotel
Posted by Angie Lewin

We'd love to visit this unique destination in Sweden.

A collection of architect designed rooms, each suspended 4-6m above the ground in the canopy of the surrounding forest - all with views of the Lule river.

Find out more from the Treehotel website.

Posted by Angie Lewin on March 22nd, 2012

Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Posted by Angie Lewin

It's taken us an embarrassingly long time to visit Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Our last attempt was thwarted by car trouble. But we made it today and were rewarded with bright blue skies.

We were visiting in-between shows - a major show of  Joan Miró's sculpture opens on 17th March 2012. But there was plenty to see within the grounds including works by Henry Moore, Anthony Caro, Barbara Hepworth, Anthony Gormley, James Turrell and David Nash.

If you've never visited, you must. Find out all about Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

Posted by Angie Lewin on March 6th, 2012

An Alphabet of London
Posted by Angie Lewin

We've had the pleasure of working with printmaker Christopher Brown for a number of years now.

And we recently received a copy of Chris' new book, published by Merrell in early March.

In An Alphabet of London, Chris presents a series of linocuts illustrating every aspect of London past and present, including personalities, buildings, monuments, legends, historic events and other metropolitan icons. From Dickens, Dr Johnson, Tower Bridge and the Shard to the Diamond Jubilee, Wimbledon, pigeons and jellied eels, all London life is here. A born-and-bred Londoner, Chris also recounts his own memories of growing up in the capital, and also describes how he creates his distinctive limited edition prints.

View further images from the book or order a copy online.

Posted by Angie Lewin on February 18th, 2012

Naomi Mitchison
Posted by Angie Lewin

Simon and I took a trip to the newly renovated National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh last week.

One of our favourite images was this painting of Naomi Mitchison by Wyndham Lewis.

Naomi Mitchison was a novelist, poet and passionate campaigner for social justice and women's rights. Born in Edinburgh, Mitchison's first novel was published in 1923, when she was twenty-six and she went on to write over seventy books during her lifetime.

Find out about more about the National Portrait Gallery's renovation.

Posted by Angie Lewin on February 11th, 2012

Drawing At The Museum
Posted by Angie Lewin

Choosing just one bird to inspire a print for the recent Ghosts of Gone Birds exhibition from the long list of sadly extinct exotic species was difficult. I chose the Double-banded Argus whose sole relic is a single feather at the Natural History Museum in Tring. It's now thought that this bird may never have existed at all, the unique feather being a mutation of that of a living species of argus.

This, to me, made the feather seem more precious and poignant so on a cold, frosty morning I travelled up from London to the museum to make some preparatory sketches for my wood engraving Drawing at the Museum. As I drew at a desk by the window surrounded by rows of cabinets of preserved birds, I was struck by the contrast with the lively blackbirds hopping from branch to branch in the winter trees in the grounds outside.

Posted by Angie Lewin on February 3rd, 2012

The Curwen Studio
Posted by Angie Lewin

Although most of my prints are linocuts and wood engraving which I draw, cut and print on my own press in the studio, certain images might develop which are better suited to lithography and screen printing.

An example would be Festival Mug (below) which has areas of shading and tone that would be hard to achieve with relief printing methods.

This is one of the prints that I've had the pleasure of working on at The Curwen Studio in Cambridgeshire. Founded in 1958 the studio has now worked with artists including John Piper, Edward Bawden, Graham Sutherland, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Michael Rothenstein and Paula Rego.

Yesterday BBC Radio 4 broadcast a programme about Stanley Jones (master lithographer of the Curwen Studio) that captured the special quality of this highly-regarded print studio.

Artist Susan Aldworth - whilst working on her own prints - interviewed Stanley, revealing his longstanding devotion to lithography and also perfectly describing the inspiring, challenging relationship between artist and skilled printer. It's making me impatient to be back there!

You can listen to the programme over at the BBC Radio 4 website.

Posted by Angie Lewin on January 18th, 2012

Rob Ryan’s Christmas window
Posted by Angie Lewin

Something I'd meant to write about before Christmas is this brilliant window display that Rob Ryan has created for Coutts Bank at 440 Strand - opposite Charing Cross station.

The window has been created to raise fund for Kids Company. There will be an auction of the stuffed elephant, doll's house and rocking horse that form part of the display. But you can also make a £5 donation to Kids Company by texting KIDS HELP to 70700.

Posted by Angie Lewin on December 30th, 2011

Regine Ramseier
Posted by Angie Lewin

The structure of dandelion seedheads has always fascinated me. But I think Regine Ramseier’s installation captures their delicate nature in a wonderful way.

My total lack of German means I can only enjoy the photographs and I just wish I’d a chance to see this piece in reality. I wonder how long it lasted? View further images

Posted by Angie Lewin on December 12th, 2011

Stony Track
Posted by Angie Lewin

Here's one of the new prints that will be exhibited at my show with Rob Ryan in Cambridge which opens this week.

Stony Track is a screenprint inspired by time spent during my residency at Cortijada Los Gázquez in June.

The wild flowers in the Andalucian mountains were amazing. Beside a track lined with pines I spotted these purple-blue tassel hyacinths growing with phlomis in the stony earth.

The exhibition opens at 6.30pm on Friday 28th October at Cambridge Contemporary Art and runs until 20th November 2011.

Further copies of the edition will be available online from St. Jude's soon after.

Posted by Angie Lewin on October 25th, 2011