Thursday 30 December 2021

Ship of Fools and Fool gets Sick for FPBA marketplace visitors

Ship of Fools - see also January 2021 post New Year First Post




      

Covers - work in progress above, and see below another cover finished and showing depth of the books.
Immediately below, the specials with  more elaborate covers and showing how they fit in the solander box, lefthand one still available....





Cartonera Ship of Fools: some images and pages below - each book is different












 Fool Gets Sick - inside pages...again each book different; I must take some pictures of the covers.....

see also blogpost for 11 April 2021 - Updates and New Pics








Monday 8 November 2021

Dante at Bristol - Libri Nuovi






The Dante exhibition and symposium at Bristol university was very different from the previous post but again my own work was based partly around the tree symbolism innate in the crucifixion story that is part of part of Dante's vision of the Harrowing of Hell in his Divine Comedy and specifically the first part of Inferno.




The lower image is of my 'altarpiece' partly opened up; as the book opens you can see that one of my themes is again Climate Crisis, justified by the extreme weather events in Inferno, and instead of Virgil and Beatrice, Dante's guides are David Attenborough and Greta Thunberg.




...and the little opening-out concertina books are arranged around the idea of The Wasteland, which so inspired T S Eliot - who uses several direct quotes from Inferno in his own poem. My 'altarpiece ' was made from re-cycled packaging cardboard, again reinforcing the ecological theme, and the political one, a continuation of my cartoneras on a larger scale - again justified by Dante's approach to the figures of his own time that he 'put in hell' , and with a very contemporary suggestion that we are ALL incriminated and responsible for these people in some way. I used the heads of current 'villains' cut from newspaper articles to populate my collaged hell. 





Of course they quickly go out of date as new ones appear...its an ongoing saga, from Dante to eternity...and I am continuing to make smaller versions.

It was fascinating to see the work of the other 7 artists  - their interests and versions of Dante's ideas and how they made them into artwork - I particularly liked the plywood cut-outs exhibited above my own work for example. I can't speak for the other artists but I think we all found it very enjoyable and stimulating to be in the heart of academia and listening to each other, and to the other very scholarly talks being given both in person and by zoom.





 

Sunday 7 November 2021

The Tree Show




my tree pics viewed through one of the beautiful tree sculptures from original wood by Keith Pettit. 

....this pop up show for a week at the Star Brewery Gallery in Lewes was very well received and timely - it 'celebrates trees in reality and in the imagination. The varied works by Sussex artists highlight the beauty and importance of trees in the Climate Change era'. 






Wednesday 15 September 2021

Lewes ArtWave 2021 my open studio

 I am open all three weekends 10.30- 4.30 - my room is open to view and I am in the well ventilated corridor with a table of my Artists Books

I don't feel it is right posting up my Dante images yet until the event happens so here are some mugshots of my Artwave show from last weekend - old work and new.....







Monday 23 August 2021

DANTE 700

Please see previous post for the Brighton exhibition I am exhibiting with...

here is the organiser's information about another project I am working on - I will add some images of work in progress nearer the time

 Dante: libri nuovi - new Dante inspired artists’ books. 

2021 is the 700th anniversary of Dante Alighieri’s death, and earlier this year eight artists were invited to produce a new book each in response to the poet’s life and works. The approaches taken have been thought provoking and varied, and the books range from a contemporary version of a medieval altarpiece to the reworking of a manga of the Commedia. Some of the works have appositely simple structures whilst others are highly elaborate; they have been realised in photography, screen-printing, woodcut, digital and stencil relief printing. The participating artists are: Kate Bernstein, Ian Bottle, Prerna Chandiramani, Judy Goldhill, Sophie Loss, John McDowall, Carolyn Trant and Martín Vitaliti. The project is co-ordinated by the artist and researcher John McDowall and Rhiannon Daniels and Tristan Kay, academics in the Department of Italian at the University of Bristol. There will be a public launch of the books, with presentations by the artists on the 26th October. The evening will include a talk on the place of artists’ books in contemporary interpretations of Dante, and in relation to Elisabeth Tonnard’s In This Dark Wood. Following this event all the books will be on display in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Bristol until the 12th November. Further information and updates can be seen at 

https://dante.blogs.bristol.ac.uk



Arcadia - 27 August - 12 September 2021 The Fishing Quarter Gallery, 201 Kings Road Arches, Brighton BN1 1NB

 This is the press release for the above exhibition I am exhibiting with..... I forgit to take a proper photo before I framed the picture attached but it will give you an idea....

 Here are cool springs, soft mead and grove, Lycoris; Here might our lives with time have worn away.”Virgil, Eclogues X 

 

          

                                            Arcadia with Mosquitoes - Carolyn Trant drypoint and mixed media

During the numerous lockdown periods of the pandemic, artists returned to nature as subject matter, embracing the stripped back everyday, while attempting to expand suddenly myopic existences. A rotating exhibition involving pastoral depictions of the outside world such as birds, landscapes, and insects, Arcadia’s depiction of evergreen utopia sets itself against the backdrop of the climate crisis – a dwindling wilderness of undervalued species that may just be our last hope of saving the planet’s biosphere. Pieces serve as reminders: even in Arcadia, extinction is a possibility.

Enter the Fishing Quarter Gallery, a heritage fisherman’s arch on Brighton’s seafront in late summer 2021 to see paintings, prints, works on paper and artist books by eight contemporary artists inspired by these lockdown experiences. In stark contrast to the contemporary works, are a selection of historical works by Sussex master printmaker James T.A. Osborne whose passion for native wildlife is untainted by fears of its imminent destruction.

Artists

The artists include Carolyn Trant whose artist books are collected by some of the world’s leading museums and libraries, including the V&A National Art Library, British Library, Tate, USA University Library Special Collections and the Library of Congress. Andrew Gifford is internationally recognised for landscape and cityscape paintings. Solo public shows of his work have been held at Leeds City Art Gallery (2004), Fruitmarket Gallery Edinburgh (2001) and Middlesbrough Art Gallery (2000). In 2014 his exhibition Two Cities: Paintings of Jerusalem and Ramallah toured with the British Council to Al-Ma’mal Foundation, Jerusalem and the A. M. Qattan Foundation in Ramallah.  Hackney artist C.A. Halpin is showing commissioned pieces for Arcadia and her detailed drawings of insects, part of her SUPERFLY collection.  Her installation ‘Flea Circus’ is to be exhibited as part of the Artwave Festival in Lewes, 11 – 26 September 2021.  An exhibition of art and a series of works on paper are included by Rowena Easton whose multi-media works have already been shown on an international scale.  Exquisite flower portraits by Rosie Gifford are presented beneath the mesmerising cloud and skyscapes of Sarah Weeden, landscapes and seascapes of Suzanne Hennegrave and the print works of Derry Mountford who has shown at the Royal Academy and regularly exhibits at the Mall Galleries, London.

James T.A. Osborne R.E. 

James T.A. Osborne’s works are a combination of colour wood engravings, linocuts and silk screens prints, illustrating a range of wildlife with a special emphasis on birdlife. They are bold, interpretive and large scale, rich in colour and detail. Throughout his career, Osborne experimented with forms of print and paper, and his editions never exceeded thirty. The large woodcuts and linocuts are in direct contrast with the delicate black and white wood engravings of his earlier works.

Osborne spent much of his early life in the countryside surrounding his parents’ farm, watching and sketching wildlife of every kind. In 1946 Osborne was elected an A.R.E (a member of the Royal Society of Etchers and Engravers, now called the Painter-Printmakers) and then elected a fellow (R.E) in 1957. He exhibited regularly with the society. His works were exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Shows twenty-four times between 1936 and 1970 and was shown in regional galleries throughout the UK. In Europe and America he was included within the Arts Council touring exhibitions. In 1964, together with Eric Ennion, Robert Gilmor, Elieen Soper, and Keith Shackleton, he founded the Society of Wildlife Artists and was a regular exhibitor with the Society at the Mall Galleries, London.

The Fishing Quarter Gallery

The Old Brighton Fishing Quarter is situated directly south of The Lanes and the Old Ship Hotel, between the Palace and West Piers. This area is of great importance as it is the very spot where the Fishing Quarter’s expansive history took place. The space is within an old fisherman's arch based directly on Brighton Seafront with vibrant oceanic views. The gallery runs exhibitions throughout the year hosted by artists, digital artists, photographers, filmmakers, and illustrators.

Arcadia

27 August – 12 September 2021

The Fishing Quarter Gallery, 201 Kings Road Arches, Brighton BN1 1NB

Open daily: 11am-6pm

Private View: Saturday 4 September, 6pm-9pm: 

Finissage: 12 September 11am-4pm

Press Contact: Jessica Wood, Arts Media Contacts, 07939 226988 jessica@artsmediacontacts.co.uk



Sunday 11 April 2021

updates and new pics

 I got called away during the last post and never finished - and I see I still don't have photos of all the pages of Fool Gets Sick, but they all look different anyway as they are printed over newspaper pages, but I am now grappling with the covers bit by bit as I haven't the space currently for glue-ing up too many at once...

here are images of a front and back cover - again each front cover is different... and a couple more of the missing images inside, plus  another of last pages now added below







I will post up the cover and a few images of the other new book I am currently making up below and write more of a piece about it later....






keep an eye on this link https://arnolfini.org.uk/whatson-category/babe-2021-the-lost-weekend/

from 16 April it should have a live link to view the artists videos about their work for this year's online BABE  - I have made on that describes and shows some of my work from the last year......