All Things Considered

The Unsophisticated Arts
Posted by Simon Lewin

Another Barbara Jones post! Our friends at Little Toller have just republished The Unsophisticated Arts in which Barbara Jones records the art of everyday life. She travelled throughout Britain visiting fairgrounds, tattoo parlours, taxidermists, houseboats, high street shops, seaside piers and amusement arcades.

The book was first published in 1951, the same year that Barbara Jones curated the ‘Black Eyes and Lemonade’ exhibition for the Festival of Britain. These two events were definitive in the history of popular art, creating a vibrant snapshot of culture in postwar Britain which has influenced generations of artists and designers ever since.

This new edition includes previously unpublished ephemera and art from Barbara Jones’s studio including watercolour, ink and pencil studies from her sketchbooks which reveal her lifelong fascination with vernacular art.

Find out more about the book or take a look at a few pages from the original catalogue for Black Eyes & Lemonade.

Posted by Simon Lewin on April 30th, 2013

Sheila Robinson
Posted by Angie Lewin

We had the pleasure of printmaker Chloe Cheese's company last week - she was staying with us whilst working on a print for our St. Jude's In The City exhibition in Edinburgh in July.

The week before we'd received of Chloe's mother Sheila Robinson's illustrated book of the Brothers Grimm's fairy tale, The Twelve Dancing Princesses.

This was never published in her lifetime but The Centre for Children's Book Studies at Anglia Ruskin University have worked with the Fry Art Gallery in Saffron Walden (who hold the original artwork in their archives) to publish the book for the first time, instigated by Professor Martin Salisbury with additional design and retouching by Brian Webb of Webb & Webb Design.

The illustrations - with skilfully varied weight of line and texture - are just beautiful. Where she has applied colour it is in a simple printmakerly way and the delicate script text and drawings are combined to fit a landscape format. The dust jacket is lined with spreads from her original sketchbooks. It's a beautiful piece of print.

Printmaker Chloe Cheese says of the book…

"The beautiful pen and ink drawings and delicate text of this book fascinated me when I was a child and drew me into the enchanted world of the fairy tale.



Although she hoped for publication at the time, she was still a young woman and I think other things, such as working on The Festival of Britain, marrying and having children, took over her life so that this book was put to one side.



The princesses in the boats rowing across the lake in particular is an image that fired my imagination and inspired me to emulate my mother to become an illustrator myself. Looking at this illustration now I admire the lightness of touch and the use of light and shade. The picture still takes me to the edge of the lake and into the story."

Copies can be ordered direct from Anglia Ruskin University. You might also like to visit the Fry Art Gallery website to see more of Sheila Robinson's work.

Posted by Angie Lewin on March 11th, 2013

Barbara Jones
Posted by Simon Lewin

Regulars will know we're long time fans of Barbara Jones' work.

Born in 1912, Barbara Jones studied at the R.C.A. and was a pioneer in the field of popular culture, demonstrated by the book ‘The Unsophisticated Arts’ - published in 1951 and described by Peter Blake as “a treasure trove of information about popular art”.

In 2009, Ruth Artmonsky published a book on Jones’ work - “A Snapper Up Of Unconsidered Trifles” which we recommend.

We were very lucky to source a copy of the poster for her 'Black Eyes & Lemonade' exhibition in 1951 and a copy of the catalogue for the exhibition - we've put a few pages of that online.

Our friends at Quad Royal share our passion for Barbara Jones' work as you'll see here and here.

We have a few of Jones' original drawings and sketchbooks which we'll share before too long.

We've been prompted to post this for two reasons.

Until 9th March 2013 there's an exhibition of British murals and decorative painting in London organised by Liss Fine Art which features the magnificent 6' x 12' piece Out in the Hall (below).

The exhibition brings together many of the important murals and decorative cycles undertaken in Britain between 1910 and 1970. Not featured in the exhibition is our gouache piece 'Shelf and Mirror' (below) which we believe was a working drawing for a mural for the ocean liner SS Orsova.

We're also pleased to hear that The Museum of British Folklore are working on a collaborative exhibition at Whitechapel Gallery which will look at Jones' unique curatorial approach to her Black Eyes and Lemonade exhibition. More news on that soon.

Posted by Simon Lewin on February 24th, 2013

Burns Miscellany
Posted by Angie Lewin

Jonny Hannah's 'Burns Miscellany' landed on our doormat today with spontaneous drawings printed onto vibrant coloured pages. Timorous Sassanachs that we are, we didn't indulge in traditional the haggis fare last night but are big fans of Tunnocks of all varieties - including Mark Hearld's collage, exhibited at Godfrey & Watt in 2011 (see last image).

You can see more of Jonny's printmaking over at St. Jude's Prints.

Posted by Angie Lewin on January 26th, 2013

Lionheart
Posted by Simon Lewin

It's always great to see how our fabrics are used. Although it's printed on an upholstery weight linen, Luke Edward Hall couldn't resist tailoring this shirt from Ed Kluz's Lionheart fabric for Patrick Wolf to wear on his tour last year.

We'll soon be adding a 3rd colourway of Lionheart - sign up for our St. Jude's fabric newsletter for details. And who knows, we might even look at printing this on a lighter weight cloth.

Find out more about Luke Edward Hall and visit Ed Kluz's blog.

Posted by Simon Lewin on January 25th, 2013

Ed Kluz – Open House – Brighton
Posted by Simon Lewin

Artist, designer and illustrator Ed Kluz opens his home in Brighton this weekend with a selling exhibition of paintings, prints, drawings and paper collages inspired by local history and landmarks. His screen-printed fabrics designed for St Jude’s will also be on show with cushion covers available for purchase. A range of Christmas decorative papers and items will also be on sale.

The exhibition is on the third floor of an 1820s townhouse on Norfolk Square. Be prepared for stairs. Find out more

Posted by Simon Lewin on December 12th, 2012

Mark Hearld Birds & Beasts
Posted by Simon Lewin

Yorkshire Sculpture Park have just released this great film about Mark Hearld's current Birds & Beasts exhibition which runs until February.

You can also view our album of photographs taken during a recent visit - or view Mark's fabrics and wallpaper for St. Jude's.

Mark Hearld: Birds & Beasts from Yorkshire Sculpture Park on Vimeo.

Posted by Simon Lewin on December 11th, 2012

Elle Decoration British Design Awards 2012
Posted by Simon Lewin

Here's a short film from the awards ceremony held at St. Pancras Hotel in October. You'll catch a glimpse of Mark Hearld collecting the award for his Harvest Hare wallpaper.

Posted by Simon Lewin on December 6th, 2012

Mark Hearld at Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Posted by Simon Lewin

One of the joys of my job is getting to see behind the scenes when the artists we collaborate with at St. Jude's work on new projects.

Never more the case than for the past couple of years of working with Mark Hearld whilst he's been creating work for his Walker Books A First Book of Nature, his recently published Mark Hearld's Work Book and this forthcoming exhibition at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

Birds and Beasts showcases Mark Hearld’s practice which stems from a love of the British countryside, curiosity for objects and a magpie approach to collecting. He has taken inspiration from YSP’s 500-acre historic estate and its inhabitant wildlife to create new work, all of which is available to buy.

 The Park’s visitor centre and Upper Space gallery are decorated with Mark’s hand-painted wooden animals; three-dimensional, hand-decorated ceramic hares; collages in hand-painted frames, lino-cuts, and limited edition litho prints. A flock of hand-decorated wooden pigeons hang in the concourse and found objects will feature in a characteristically eccentric window display.

We're delighted that Mark's fabrics for St. Jude's will be on display, alongside his award winning Harvest Hare wallpaper (you might also get a glimpse of our forthcoming Harvest Hare fabric - sign up to our newsletter for details of this nearer the time).

The exhibition opens at Yorkshire Sculpture Park near Wakefield on 17 November 2012 and runs until 17 February 2013. On Saturday 17th November Mark will be on hand to sign copies of his new book for Merrell, Mark Hearld's Work Book. For full details please visit the Yorkshire Sculpture Park website.

Pictured below: Mark at work in his studio, his Autumn Fox limitededition lithograph for the exhibition, Harvest Hare - Mark's award winning wallpaper for St. Jude's, the bag and scarf that he has produced for the exhibition and his Bird Garden fabric for St. Jude's. (Images 1, 2, 4 and 5 copyright Jonty Wilde).

Posted by Simon Lewin on November 13th, 2012

Stellar market bags for Maggie’s
Posted by Simon Lewin

We're pleased to announce the launch of these fund raising market bags for Maggie's Cancer Caring Centres.

Designed by Angie Lewin and available in limited numbers of two colourways, the bags will initially be available from the Maggie's stand at the House & Garden Spirit of Christmas Fair in London that runs from Tuesday 30th October until Sunday 4th November 2012.

The bags will be available at the event for £30 each and everyone purchasing a bag there will be entered into a prize draw to win a £200 St. Jude's Fabrics voucher.

You'll also be able to purchase tickets for a draw where prizes include a copy of Angie's Knockando Thrift & Feathers screenprint.

After the event we'll have a limited quantity of the bags available online - again with all profits being donated to Maggie's Cancer Caring Centres.

It's great to have the opportunity to work with Maggie's again, and we'll be donating the profits from the second edition of Random Spectacular (published Spring 2013) to the charity next year.

Posted by Simon Lewin on October 27th, 2012