All Things Considered

Edward Bawden’s map of Scarborough
by Simon Lewin on April 15th, 2012

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

Happy Easter!
by Simon Lewin on April 8th, 2012

Hope you're enjoying a good Easter break.

Here's an image by Edward Bawden for Fortnum & Mason - one of the many you'll find in the Mainstone Press book Entertaining À La Carte.

The CH24 chair
by Simon Lewin on April 6th, 2012

We've just taken delivery of two CH24 chairs - also known as the Wishbone. Designed in 1949 by Hans J. Wegner, the chairs have been produced by Carl Hansen & Son without interruption since 1950.

We'd wanted these for a number of years but kept finding other more pressing uses for our funds. Whilst there are cheaper reproductions out there, we wanted to purchase Hansen-made originals.

And they have been well worth the wait. Beautifully made and incredibly comfortable.

If you're tempted, our friends at Shannon would be happy to advise.

The whole issue of reproduction furniture is being explored by Elle Deocration's Equal Rights For Design campaign. The campaign is asking that UK copyright protection for design is extended from 25 years to 70 years (as is the case for works of literature, drama, music, film and art).

Elle Decoration editior Michelle Ogundehin has been covering the campaign over on her Editor's blog and you can find out more and show your support via the campaign's Facebook page and this online petition.

Eric Ravilious – The Hammersmith Years
by Simon Lewin on April 2nd, 2012

On 24th April 2012, James Russell -  author of the Ravilious In Pictures series - will be giving an illustrated talk exploring a number of Ravilious paintings and designs in depth, revealing the stories and characters hidden behind the scenes. He will also be signing copies of his latest book, 'Ravilious in Pictures: A Travelling Artist', which features work painted in Hammersmith.

The talk will be preceded by a short film on the Greenside Mural painted by Gordon Cullen in 1952. This is the first of our Greenside Arts Lectures to help raise funds for the restoration of the mural and to establish the school as a local cultural hub, themed around chosen artists who have lived and worked in Hammersmith.

Find out more and book a ticket online.

Stoke Edith House
by Simon Lewin on March 28th, 2012

Here's another print that's being launched at our St. Jude's At Tinsmiths exhibition in Ledbury.

Ed Kluz is fascinated by the past and inspired by our architectural heritage. He explains the background to this new print...

"Whenever I'm at the V&A I always find myself gravitating towards the British galleries. The extraordinary objects assembled there never fail to intrigue me. They posses a transfixing power in both form and historical significance; but it is the survivors, the fragments and the disconnected that really send my imagination racing. Fragments have always held a particular fascination for me. It is in absence and incompleteness where the imagination is fired - filling in the spaces and engaging with a narrative. In this way such objects present an opening into the past.

There is one piece in particular in the collection which is such a window and posses a power above all to engulf and transport to another place and time. The two vast wall hangings which once graced the interior of Stoke Edith House in Herefordshire were created in the early part of the 18th century. The hangings are works of pure theatre - their graphic boldness and huge scale are more akin to architecture than quaint pieces of decoration. They depict two late 17th century anglo-dutch style gardens peopled by characters engaged in various activities in the slanting light of a late summer day. In one a pet monkey plays with a ball unaware of a spaniel seemingly in pursuit of a chase, whilst a table of gentlemen and ladies converse overlooked by a young girl who mimics her guardian. I can imagine that when the galleries fall silent and the doors are locked, the image becomes animated. It is hard to believe looking upon the vivid scenes that the hangings are fragments - rare survivors of destruction.

The late 17th century Stoke Edith House where they hung, sadly burned to the ground in 1927. Gone are the great baroque painted interiors depicting scenes from classical history. Gone too is the green velvet bedroom where they once hung. I visited the site of the house in December 2011 whilst visiting Tinsmith's. What remains is an atmospheric landscape in decay. Where the house once stood is a huge void surrounded by the rubble. From beneath veils of brambles and dead fireweed yawn the cellar openings which run off into the hillside. The former manicured beauty of the gardens barely shows through the woodland and scrub which slowly returns it to a wilderness. Only echoes filled the air and my sight - a shattered fountain basin, the line of a lost path, the walls of an old terrace, birdsong, rustling in the undergrowth. The scenes depicted in the wall hangings which once played out in these gardens came back to me and dispelled any uneasy feelings I had about being alone in such a place. A day later, back in the studio I began work on the print."

The exhibition opens on Friday 30th March 2012 between 7pm and 9pm and runs until 29th April 2012. Full details

The Yellow Cup
by Angie Lewin on March 27th, 2012

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

Mark Hearld linocuts
by Simon Lewin on March 25th, 2012

As part of our forthcoming St Jude's at Tinsmiths exhibition in Ledbury, Mark Hearld has collaborated with Tilley's Letterpress to produce editions of four linocut prints - Squirrel, Blackbird, Little Owl and Flowers.

The prints will be available from the exhibition with opens on Friday 30th March between 7pm and 9pm. Come along to see work by Ed Kluz, Angie Lewin, Emily Sutton, Mark Heard and Christopher Brown. More

And in May we'll be in London for our next St. Jude's In The City exhibition. For an invitation to the opening event, sign up to our e-mail newsletter.

Treehotel
by Angie Lewin on March 22nd, 2012

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.

Keith Vaughan – Romanticism to Abstraction
by Simon Lewin on March 20th, 2012

A new exhibition marking the centenary of the birth of the British painter Keith Vaughan (1912-1977) opened earlier in March at the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester.

Born in the nearby Sussex village of Selsey, Vaughan was one of the most significant artists of his generation, best-known for his painterly depictions of the male nude in the landscape.

Self-taught as an artist, Vaughan studied at Christ’s Hospital school at Horsham, before working as a designer for Lintas, the advertising arm of Lever Brothers, which informed his strong sense of composition. Although he was grouped with the ‘Neo-Romantic’ artists during the 1940s, Vaughan was an independent figure in the British art world, and an influential tutor at Camberwell School of Art, the Central School of Art and Design and the Slade. Literature and European art had a powerful influence on him, particularly the work of Cézanne, Picasso, Matisse and Nicholas de Staël. He kept a moving journal in which he frankly recorded his thoughts on art, his homosexuality, and struggles with depression, which ended with his tragic suicide.

The exhibition runs until 10th June 2012 at the Pallant House Gallery.

St. Jude’s at Tinsmiths
by Simon Lewin on March 10th, 2012

At the end of March we'll be returning to Ledbury for an exhibition of originals, prints and textiles hosted by our friends at Tinsmiths.

The exhibition opens on Friday 30th March between 7-9pm and runs until 28th April 2012.

Tinsmiths have commissioned this rather fine set of letterpress printed beermats to mark the occasion. Limited to just 150 sets, 100 are available for purchase online now with proceeds donated to the mental health charity, MIND.

For further information about the exhibition nearer the time, sign up for our e-mail newsletter.

The beermats have been created by (top to bottom) Angie Lewin, Ed Kluz, Emily Sutton and Mark Hearld.