All Things Considered

Mark Hearld linocuts
Posted by Simon Lewin

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.

Posted by Simon Lewin on March 25th, 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

Keith Vaughan – Romanticism to Abstraction
Posted by Simon Lewin

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.

Posted by Simon Lewin on March 20th, 2012

St. Jude’s at Tinsmiths
Posted by Simon Lewin

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.

Posted by Simon Lewin on March 10th, 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

Spitalfields Life
Posted by Simon Lewin

We're long time fans of the Spitalfields Life blog, best described by The Gentle Author's pledge...

"Over the coming days, weeks, months and years, I am going to write every single day and tell you about life here in Spitalfields at the heart of London. How can I ever describe the exuberant richness and multiplicity of culture in this place to you? This is both my task and my delight.

Let me disclose to you the hare-brained ambition I am pursuing, which is to write at least ten thousand stories about Spitalfields life. At the rate of one a day, this will take approximately twenty-seven years and four months. Who knows what kind of life we shall be living in 2037 when I write my ten thousandth post?

I do not think there will be any shortage of material, though it may be difficult to choose what to write of because the possibilities are infinite. Truly all of human life is here in Spitalfields."

This new book brings together many of the places and characters covered by the blog - street life, street art, markets, diverse food, immigrant culture, ancient houses and history, pageants and parades, rituals and customs, traditional trades and old family businesses. Spend a night in the bakery at St John with baker Justin Piers Gellatly, ride the rounds with Kevin Read the Spitalfields milkman, drop into the Golden Heart for a pint with landlady Sandra Esqulant, meet Paul Gardner the fourth-generation paper-bag seller, Steve Brooker the mudlark who discovers treasure in the Thames, Bill Crome the window cleaner who sees ghosts and Alan Hughes the master bell-founder whose business started in 1570.

The book is illustrated by Rob Ryan, Lucinda Rogers and Mark Hearld (some of Mark's illustrations are pictured below).

On Friday 2nd March 2012 the book will be launched at Christ Church Spitalfields - between 7-9pm. All are welcome.

All photographs below by Simon Lewin.

All photographs above by Simon Lewin.

Posted by Simon Lewin on March 1st, 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

Randall’s Folly, Salthouse
Posted by Simon Lewin

We recently commissioned Ed Kluz to create this collage/painting of a long lost landmark of the North Norfolk coast.

Randall's Folly (also known as Great Eye Folly) was originally built by Onesiphorous Randall in the 19th century but was seriously damaged by the great floods of 1953. 

The novelist Sylvia Townsend Warner (1893-1978) rented the folly in Salthouse from 1950 to 1951.

She describes her first impressions of the folly in a letter to Alyse Gregory - written in 1950 (courtesy of Literary Norfolk)

"...I think Valentine will have told you about the Great Eye Folly. I have the oddest impressions of it, since we were only there for about fifteen minutes, and conversing all the time with its owners. But the first five of those minutes were enough to enchant me. It is the sort of house one tells oneself to sleep with, and sometimes I almost suppose that it is really one of my dream-houses, and no such solid little assertion of the rectangle breaks the long sky-line of salt-marsh and sea."

Find out more about the folly from the Salthouse History website.

Ed is currently working on a new fabric for us - the follow up to his Painswick design.

Posted by Simon Lewin on January 11th, 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