RAILWAY LAND

Here are the fliers for our book launch next Saturday (26th May) at the Linklater Pavilion - I haven't seen the book yet but there are some images from it out there on twitter...the exhibition will carry on until friday when the space will be re-arranged for the Railway Land Wildlife Trust festival  2-6 on Saturday 2nd June, where we will  have a stand ; and we will also be there on the sunday - your last chanceto see the original prints all together and to buy the book - reduced price this year as times are hard and we are experimenting with different binding. we will also be selling the last Gideon Mantell volumes at a reduced price.....how can you resist...........

and here we were at the Priory Fayre...a beautiful sunny day!

Current or Upcoming Exhibitions

THE GREEN FUSE

Curated by artists

Laetitia Yhap and Amanda Jobson

Hastings Arts Forum

&

Isabel Blackman Centre

April 25–May 30 2012

I am currently showing Cock Robin and The Untenanted Room in this exhibition in Hastings, I am in the Isobel Blackman Centre in the Old Town, a good excuse for visiting the new Jerwood gallery , something I must do myself very soon (time?).....

Also coming up......

I am exhibiting at the 'National Gallery of Lyme Regis' in Dorset Arts week...

Hope it is readable - let me know if you want further details...

This Saturday my printmaking group will be at the Priory Fayre - see poster above.

Once that is done I'll post up fliers for our book launch on the 26th May at the Linklater and the event the following weekend.

What's New.......

                                                      woodcut
And whatever happened to March, and April is fast disappearing.....haven't blogged for so long I am having to get used to all the new layout and symbols; my brain doesn't operate as it is supposed to so it has taken me a few minutes to find the little pen sign which means I can start writing....hey ho....
The last month or two I've felt a weight of work that I OUGHT to do hanging over the space where I wanted to get on with finishing something else, but it is clearing a bit and some of the things I've done have been moving me out of the comfort Zone in a new way I suppose, with mixed results....
...have just been getting Lewes Printmakers new book to bed and I think it will be good, every year my group get better and better and I'm getting excited about seeing the result - probably won't be ready until towards the end of May however...
On the 26th May we have our launch at midday at the Linklater Pavilion, on the Railway Land, with all the original prints on show; we'll be there all week until thursday selling the book and prints, and then moving into our printing room with the bees ( the indoor observation hive) with a stand for the weekend Railway Land Festival organised by the Railway Land Wildlife Trust on the 2-3 rd June.

                                         woodcut
Here's the Linklater Pavilion - as we see it when we arrive in the winter evenings for work - light on the chalkpits and the lovely sound of the river at low tide rippling over the stones by the buildings on the left.
Lots of new trees are being planted and the fencing is protecting the special rare wildflower seeds which have been donated; all the details in the book, which we hope to be selling more cheaply this year; e-mail  prints@lewesprintmakers.co.uk for more details or look at our website lewesprintmakers.co.uk.
Lots of lovely wildlife and landscape images by the group this year; ok I got to do the building but I did also enjoy doing the tree above - its a very special railway poplar, hybridised by the Victorians to hide railway embankments...if you look carefull you can see a couple of posts, one of which has got embedded in the bark and roots of the trunk. It is the largest girth of such a tree in the country - a bit worse for wear but still alive and a haven for wildlife.
Our book is called Railway Land by the way, a view by the Lewes Printmakers.

We are also having a stand again at the Priory May Fair on Saturday May 19th at Lewes Priory ruins, with the opportunity for some hands-on printing for children.

Meanwhile, I'm just finishing my books for the Al-Mutannabi Street books project - if I don't get too many more interruptions I'll post up pictures of those in a week or two ( I know there are plenty more interruptions in the offing tho...)....
then I can get back to my three dimensional Cock Robins and installations...my new studio means I can spread myself and my messy piles even more widely and will hopefully make it easier for me to be working on several different things at once, including my huge woodcut Untenanted Room book with James Simpson.

I'm waiting for some good photos of the concrete panels with my images on The Keep - the new County Archive building along the A27. they are still under polythene wrapping and will be for some while for protection. I spent a cold windy morning up the scaffolding looking at them and watching the last ones being winched into place a few weeks back - very difficult to imagine how they will look from a distance so that is an excitement to come. the good weather over the winter has meant the building is well on course and a topping out ceremony may be possible in the autumn.

All these show is height and safety gear - I hope to get sent some better pics soon......

One of the highlights of last month for me was going the John Cage Music Circus at the Coliseum, ...

many thanks to Alex and Stephen.

Pallant House Untenanted Room talk

Steven O'Brien, editor of the London Magazine, has written a lovely report on the evening, which was very well attended by a very sympathetic audience - many thanks to all who came....
http://thelondonmagazine.org/salon/bird-skulls-and-gnomic-tomes-at-the-pallant-house-gallery/
and many thanks to Steven for a truly poetic response.

We hope to plan another session in Hastings in May for the Green Fuse exhibition.

Works on Paper Fair

Sorry about the lack of a good image before the fair - here are two to show I made it.
A big thank you to everyone who came and talked, and for all the lovely snippits of information, contact suggestions, links to Hungarian fairy tale films, offers of exhibitions and sales.
It was a really enjoyable fair.
The saturday night snow was pretty and just exciting enough at midnight on saturday without completely stopping us getting home ( it always seems to snow for the WOPF )- congratulations to those who still made it up on sunday...

There should be a petition to the Science Museum to continue showing the grand Columbian Press ( see picture ) that we exhibit next to , and all its mates behind the white panels; they are all being moved into store by next year apparently.
Its crazy not to continue showing the history of printing technology in our premier museum - I don't know how many people we described its workings to from the passing public who were excited by it, its a beautiful machine and a great part of beginning a conversation about what we do and how.

Hope to see some people at the Pallant House talk next week - see previous post.

Works on Paper Fair and More

The Mausoleum above the Hell Fire Caves, Bucks....
a wonderful Christmas Expedition....



Back to work.....
I have decided rather at the last minute to take a stand at this fair again;
I've tried to upload the ticket but it won't display properly
best e-mail me and I can send a proper one by e-mail - leave a request in the comments box? or best e-mail me on pprints@talktalk.net

I'm really looking forward to it now
check out their website ( see just below ) to get lots of details and pics...

e-ticket
2 - 5 FEBRUARY 2012
SCIENCE MUSEUM LONDON SW7
01798 861 815 Watercolours Works on Paper Fair
www.worksonpaperfair.com

Carolyn Trant at Parvenu Press
requests the pleasure of your company at the
Watercolours + Works on Paper Fair

www.worksonpaperfair.com 01798 861 815

Weds 1 Feb: 3pm - 9pm by ticket only
Thurs 2 Feb: 11am - 9pm
Fri 3 Feb: 11am - 6pm
Sat 4 Feb: 11am - 6pm
Sun 5 Feb: 11am - 6pm

She will be exhibiting her recent woodcut Artists Book - Who Killed Cock Robin and cut-out book, The Untenanted Room, based on work with poet James Simpson.

Watercolours Works on Paper Fair

ADMITS TWO FOR FREE
drawings watercolours prints photographs
Opening Preview
Wednesday 1 February 3pm - 9pm
Print out this invitation or show it on your phone or ipad for entry to the Fair.
Please give us your details below to ensure you are invited to next year’s Fair.
Name...........................................................................................................
Email.............................................................................................................

Lots else on the go too
INCLUDING

PALLANT HOUSE GALLERY CHICHESTER
The Untenanted Room: James Simpson and Carolyn Trant
(Talks,Online Booking Available)

Thursday 16th February, 6:00pm


Sussex Poet James Simpson will read from his latest volume and discuss creative collaboration with artist and printmaker Carolyn Trant. Followed by book-signing in the Pallant Bookshop.

£7.50 (£6.50 students, £6 Friends) Pay bar available
Buy Tickets Online

Make a day of it and catch the end of the wonderful Burra exhibition. there is also a new Enid Marx exhibition in the prints and drawings room and another of photos of and works by Lucien Freud.


LAUDERDALE HOUSE, Waterlow Park, Highgate
Poetry in the House
Thu 9 Feb
Agenda Poets

Agenda is one of the best known and most highly respected poetry journals in the world, having been founded in 1959 by Ezra Pound and William Cookson and is now edited by Patricia McCarthy. These selected poets - Timothy Adès, Clare Best, Gill McEvoy, Christine McNeill, Andrew McNeillie, Sue Roe and James Simpson - promise a fascinating and wide ranging evening of poetry.

Time: 20:00 to 22:00

Standard price: £5.00

Concession price: £3.00
Concessions are available for students, people on benefit and over 60s. Proof must be provided when collecting tickets.

Tickets available on the door.

Lausanne, The Magic Disappearing Library, and Concrete

I can't believe we've been back a week
- it's wonderful to get away and see people working in a different context and everyone gave us such a good time.
Lausanne is a very hilly city on lots of different levels and the exhibition was in Abstract, a gallery in a newly developing area of old warehouses.



It was a wonderfully bizarre event as the 115 books were returned to their artists, or rather randomly distributed, via a machine that operated for 5 minutes every quarter of an hour. You put your token in a slot and various things happened, a photo was taken , a megaphoned voice announced which book was 'disappearing' and a barrier came down and had a good shot at decapitating any unwary bystander and a book emerged out of a slit. It also gave out the new book of the event, 'Kit Mode de Vie demontage'; meanwhile Peter signed his posters in the hallway for those lucky enough to be patrons and receive one - there was almost a riot when others were turned away; and when each 5 minutes was up and the queues had to wait. Much was drunk and it all took quite a long time - plenty of time to actually see some of the books whose titles I had used as my text and meet their artists or new owners,and exercise my execrable french.
setting up....



getting busy....

our work with the other 6 pieces for this exhibition





For lots more pictures and details go to
Art&Fiction and look on their facebook page...there are loads of photos of this event and the previous ones...and they will probably be on their blog at some point....

We also managed trips to Berne to see the new Paul Klee Centrum - a really visionary building built into the hills just on the edge of the city, with an exhibition space, concert hall ,and beautiful children's art workshops where their work is exhibited and taken really seriously.

It was hard to get into a good position to take a good picture of the front and get it all in.
We also saw the bears, now able to roam on the hillside above the river and not confined to their famous bear-pits where I took my children to see them 25 years ago.
(Any other Mary Plain devotees out there? all that lovely picture writing....)

We also got to Fribourg twice, a beautiful old city, a promontary town like Berne with the river again doing a hairpin bend round it ; most of the town very high up with stone walls but a picturesque lower town below, lovely little puppet museum, and a Tinguely and Nikki de St Phalle Museum in an old tram depot, wonderfully crazy; and an interesting Beaux Arts; AND a Gutenburg Museum. The second time we went on the Art & Fiction works outing for the St Nicholas festival - patron saint of the town and cathedral is St Nicholas and on this feast day the best student of the year dresses up and rides through the town on a donkey throwing goodies to the children and makes a speech from the balcony above the cathedral door ( a pretty political one on this occasion); and we visited another print workshop and another amazing soiree after the festivities.

Lausanne has of course the excellent Musee D'Art Brut - always a good visit. The Christmas market was in full swing and there was plenty of vin chaud in the streets. We were very sorry to leave .

This is the view from our wonderful backpacker hotel which overlooks the station - excellent for early get aways on the brilliant trains. Sadly there are rumours it is goiung to be demolished as part of a grand plan to construct a new large City Art Gallery in this part of town - we will miss it.

We had time in Geneva before we left and enjoyed the Beaux Arts and the Carouge particularly. Artists had been invited to decorate the trees in the old town.


There was a marvellous antiquarian bookshop in the old town

and here is the magic disappearing market in the Carouge

and Peter had a wonderful encounter with a headless lady...


Also to the lady at the Robert Walser Centrum in Berne which we visited and who spent a lot of time patently translating and explaining things to us. We DID get the postcard you sent us! thank you so much ( amazing as it was addressed only with our names and our town, England - just as we signed in the book - well done Post Office here too!)...it is very heartening that booklovers and artists are still appreciated, she will know what we mean....

Two days later I was off to Stoke to see my first concrete panel for The Keep; bit of a change of mood but also really exciting. It was fascinating seeing the processes and the workshops where the concrete was poured. The panel was hoisted up on a crane to the elevation it will be on the finished building and the weather obliged with a slide show of rain showers , cloud and sunshine in rapid succession so that we could get an idea of how the images will change according to light, time of day, weather and the position the viewer is in. I think we were all pretty relieved that it looks quite promising and exciting. Many thanks to all at Thorp's for looking after us so well and being so generous with time and discussions.

Pictures of The Keep panels and the day in Stoke will go up soon....

and here they are; thanks to Wendy who took much better quality photos than I did...
first the mould....






and then the panel at projected eye height....