All Things Considered

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

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

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

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

Alex Malcolmson
Posted by Simon Lewin

You may have already seen the hanging sign that Alex Malcolmson created for his exhibition with us earlier this year.

Coast magazine have just featured Alex and his work in their November issue.

Alex has created two pieces based on his time in spent sailing round the Scilly Isles to accompany an article by Ceri Levy which will be appearing in our forthcoming Random Spectacular publication.

And in 2013 we'll be hosting an exhibition of Alex's work alongside printmaker & painters Jonathan Gibbs and Jonny Hannah. Sign up to our newsletter for details nearer the time.

Posted by Simon Lewin on October 16th, 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

Stoer Head Lighthouse
Posted by Angie Lewin

Although a previous blog about the coffee van on Cley beach might suggest otherwise, we don't base all our walks on the available catering but last week Leigh's bright blue van by the Stoer Head Lighthouse was a cheerful and welcoming sight.

The walk around the point isn't a long one but there are great clifftop views. Watching climbers scale the Old Man of Stoer is a bonus and the views from the trig point at the high point of the walk are incredible, whatever the weather. From the van, Leigh serves bacon rolls, venison burgers and pancakes. You can take your mug of tea and gaze out to sea watching the gulls wheel around the the cliffs below.

Posted by Angie Lewin on July 21st, 2011

Tall Ships
Posted by Simon Lewin

We had a couple of days up at Lochinver - a return visit to The Albannach.

Headed back today, calling at Ullapool where the Tall Ships Race 2011 was stopping off on the way to Lerwick.

Posted by Simon Lewin on July 16th, 2011

The Food of Art
Posted by Simon Lewin

Our friends at Cortijada Los Gázquez in Andalucia are launching a new creative course this September.

The Food of Art is a creative course for those who enjoy creative activities around food such as food presentation, illustration and photography. As an eco-guest house the food is seasonal, fresh and local. 

Activities will include visiting the local markets and the jamon and embutidos emporiums to purchase the freshest and best looking products. Back at the kitchen/studio you'll consider their form and colour.

To find out more, visit the Cortijada Los Gázquez website.

Posted by Simon Lewin on June 17th, 2011