All Things Considered

Emily Sutton
Posted by Simon Lewin

We head back south to Edinburgh on Friday for the opening of Emily Sutton's "People and Places" exhibition at The Scottish Gallery. Below are a few of our favourite images (we're now the proud owners of the first).

Mark Hearld has written a few words about the show which includes work based both in the UK and from trips to Europe...

"This collection of work sees Emily taking an up-close look at the high street in Italy and Portugal – a hat shop in Siena, a pair of stone lions in Lucca, a glove shop in Lisbon. Emily’s fascination with the visual particularity of each shop window or scene comes to life in a series of ink and watercolour drawings. Hand-lettered signage, architectural details, characters going about their daily lives are seen with a keen eye and expressed with a deft hand."

The exhibition runs at The Scottish Gallery, 16 Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ until 24th December 2011.

And all being well, you'll get a chance to see Deep Sea, our latest fabric by Emily - the follow up to her award winning Curiosity Shop.

Posted by Simon Lewin on November 30th, 2011

El Tren Fantasma
Posted by Simon Lewin

Chris Watson was a founding member of the influential Sheffield-based experimental music group Cabaret Voltaire but you'll now often come across his name within the credits of various natural history programmes on TV and radio.

'El Tren Fantasma', (The Ghost Train), is Chris Watson’s 4th solo album for Touch, and his first since Weather Report in 2003, which was named as one of the albums you should hear before you die in The Guardian.

Andrew Weatherall has reviewed Watson's latest recording over at Caught By The River...

"Trying to describe Watson’s work would be like sharing last night’s dreams and you don’t want to hear about my suppressed feelings of wistful romantic regret, fear of ageing [that's the teeth falling out one], fear of the future or be taken on my erotic flights of fancy. I’ll stick to a sonic description and let you dream your own dreams."

Read the review in full and purchase a copy from the Caught By The River online store.

And you can find out more about Chris Watson's work from his website.

Posted by Simon Lewin on November 14th, 2011

Spektrum Print Collective
Posted by Simon Lewin

'Northern Soul' by Alfons Bytautas (below) is one of the prints that will be included at First Press, the inaugural exhibition of works by members of the speKtrum print collective.

With exhibiting artists including Gill Tyson, David Faithfull, Kelly Stewart, Norman McBeath and Chris Sleath, this will be a new showcase for innovative printmakers.

And 50% of the exhibition profits will be donated to Waverley Care - one of Scotland’s leading HIV and Hepatitis C support networks.

The exhibition will be held at the Whitespace Gallery in Gayfield Square, Edinburgh. It opens on the 26th of November and runs until the 15th of December 2011.

Posted by Simon Lewin on November 7th, 2011

Paul Bommer’s Wunderkabinett
Posted by Simon Lewin

Illustrator & printmaker Paul Bommer has an exhibition of his work in London on Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th November 2011 at 15 Wilkes Street, Spitalfields, London E1 6QF. For further information on Paul's work visit www.paulbommer.com

Paul has also contributed four wonderful pages of illustrations for our forthcoming Random Spectacular journal.

Posted by Simon Lewin on October 27th, 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

Aguazero – a visual arts award
Posted by Simon Lewin

We're pleased to be involved in this new visual arts award from Cortijada Los Gázquez, the creative retreat where Angie was artist-in-residence earlier this year as part of their Joya: arte + ecología program.

Submissions in water-based medium on or with paper are invited in this competition which has an environmental agenda, referencing the contrary character of climate change.

The prize is a two week residency at Cortijada Los Gázquez, including travel costs within Europe, plus the sole use of a studio and 20 hectares of land for the duration.

The selectors are:

Ana García López (Vice Dean for Institutional Relations and Professor at the Drawing Department. Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Granada - Spain)

Rebecca Fortnum (Artist - Reader in Fine Art, University of the Arts - London,  UK)

Louise Short (Artist - Bristol, UK)

David Crawforth (Artist -  Director at Beaconsfield - London,  UK)

Molly Hogg (Collector - London, UK)

Melissa Marks (Artist - NYC, USA)

Angie Lewin (Artist - Norfolk and Scotland, UK)

Simon Lewin (Proprietor - St Jude’s - Norfolk and Scotland,  UK)

Gonzaga Gómez-Cortázar Romero (Communications co-ordinator for Joya: arte + ecología - Spain)

Simon and Donna Beckmann (Founders of Joya: arte + ecología - Spain)

The closing date for submission is 31st December 2011. For full details visit the Cortijada Los Gázquez blog.

Posted by Simon Lewin on September 23rd, 2011

Return To Essex
Posted by Simon Lewin

Return to Essex is a new exhibition of illustration, printmaking and watercolour by artist Chloe Cheese at The Fry Art Gallery, Saffron Walden. The artist was brought up in Essex and has returned to the county in recent months to create the pieces especially for this exhibition.

In her preparation Chloe explains “I did not want to draw a series of “views”, more a collection of work which reflects my memory of living in Essex.” In the work, full of vitality and colour she has focussed on the town of Saffron Walden where she grew up as well as venturing further afield to paint watercolours of Debden and Clacton, and a lithograph of a Great Bardfield cat.

The artist Mark Hearld says of Chloe’s work:

“In the fluent spontaneity characteristic of Chloe's work, watercolour washes or lithographic tone provide the perfect foil for her own beautiful line, at times precise or spindly, elegant or unfettered in its expression. Line brings terrific vitality to her image making (so that) the impression of energy and movement is present.

"If line brings vitality, colour brings richness of depth, place, season or a sense of the time of day… the urge to list colour combinations is tempting, but so much richer the impact of seeing them on paper.”

Chloe Cheese RCA MA was born in 1952. She studied at Cambridge Art School and then at the Royal College of Art. She has exhibited at galleries worldwide and has work in public collections including the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Arts Council of Great Britain. Chloe has also worked as a freelance illustrator with clients including The Sunday Times, Terence Conran at Habitat and Comme des Garcons, Japan.

Chloe lived for some of her early years in Great Bardfield, Essex, where her family were close friends of Edward Bawden, a friendship which was maintained until Bawden's death in 1989. Chloe is represented in the Fry Art Gallery's North West Essex Collection alongside her parents, Bernard Cheese and Sheila Robinson.

The exhibition runs from 24th September until 30th October 2011 at The Fry Art Gallery, Castle Street, Saffron Walden, Essex CB10 1BD. Open Tues, Fri, Sun (and Bank Holidays) 2-5pm; Saturdays 11am-5pm Tel: 01799 513779

Posted by Simon Lewin on September 20th, 2011

The Map of Spitalfields Life
Posted by Simon Lewin

'The Map Of Spitalfields Life' is a fresh look at an historic neighbourhood, produced by Herb Lester Associates in collaboration with the lauded website Spitalfields Life and illustrated by noted cartographer Adam Dant.

It explores this corner of East London through its distinctive characters and businesses, providing a glimpse into a world few people even notice, where chestnut sellers and story-telling waiters rub shoulders with milkmen, artists and scrap-dealers. From Gilbert and George and Tracey Emin to Molly the Swagman and Sandra Esqulant, landlady of The Golden Heart, all Spitalfields Life is here.

You can purchase a copy for £4.00 from both Spitalfields Life and Herb Lester Associates.

Look out for Tim Rich's interview with The Gentle Author - creator of Spitalfield Life - later this year in Random Spectacular.

Posted by Simon Lewin on September 17th, 2011

Ravilious In Essex – closes soon
Posted by Simon Lewin

We popped along to the Fry Gallery in Saffron Walden yesterday to see the Ravilious In Essex exhibition that's been breaking records for visitors numbers to the gallery since it opened in April.

You'll find 18 watercolours of Essex by Ravilious, brought together specially for this exhibition from private owners and galleries throughout the country, plus a selection of related work from the Fry Gallery archives.

The exhibition closes on Sunday 14th August 2011 - I wish we hadn't left it so long.

If you don't get a chance to visit we can recommend the Mainstone Press publication Ravilious: A Country Life which features twenty two watercolours with accompanying essays by James Russell. 

Posted by Simon Lewin on August 8th, 2011

Lineage
Posted by Angie Lewin

Currently showing at Edinburgh Printmakers is this exhibition of new and recent editions by Michael Craig-Martin, Ian Davenport (see below) and Julian Opie.

The prints on show have been published by Alan Cristea Gallery in London and explore the use of the line, whether drawn or dripped, cut out or printed.

The exhibition runs until 3rd September 2011 at Edinburgh Printmakers, 23 Union Street, Edinburgh EH1 3LR.

Posted by Angie Lewin on August 6th, 2011