Carolyn Trant & Parvenu Press

Works on Paper Fair and More

2012-01-26T12:36:00.001-08:00

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

2011-12-13T13:27:00.000-08:00

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....

post Oxford pre Lausanne

2011-11-24T14:37:00.001-08:00

Here's a picture of my stand taken for me by Dmitry whose stand was opposite.
Everyone seemed to think it was a very good year this year and Cock Robin was very well received...so I am back now printing the rest of the edition, plus some extras to play with as cut-outs which will keep me quiet for a while.

Meanwhile next stop Lausanne...

Really looking forward to this show; Peter Chasseaud did this poster which was also used for the invitations, as well as his own letterpress book; I think I showed the cover of my contribution a few posts ago etc...here are a few more pages at random....all my text is constructed using only the titles of the 115 previous books of Mode de Vie. There is more text on the back of the labels too.
You can't see the Ars Longa Vita Brevis graffiti clearly unfortunately.....

Nearly Oxford Fine Press Book Fair

2011-10-26T14:07:00.000-07:00

Margate was wonderful - incredible weather for October, I was so lucky, especially as still had/have my graveyard Whitechapel cough but managed to get through my talk. I was really well looked after.
The Pie Factory is a wonderful space inside, discretely done up to maintain its industrial roots and nice rough surfaces and it was a good exhibition.

It was worth getting up at 5am to hear Phil Abel's talk about Hand and Eye Press and the new interest in letterpress - and the old Thanet printing fraternity's take on the punter's new found passion for deep indentations ( conspicuous printing consumption?) - it was a pity my Peter missed it but he was minding his own p's and q's/shop.
Just my luck there were engineering works after Ashford so I had to go via London - I'd been looking forward to the cross country route through Rye and Appledore, and annoying to have to pay 3X as much for the privilege of going via Victoria and waiting 15 mins at Gatwick for the train doors to open.....hey ho.But dawn rising over the foggy Ouse on the 6.50a.m was pretty good and then the sunshine when it broke through was ravishing.
The new Turner Gallery in Margate was very handsome, nestling behind its own little concrete wall - I quite like looking at the town however tatty - and the views of the harbour from inside are great especially with the sun shining on the shore.

It was humming with people looking at the show on Youth which had some good stuff, old favourites, Hockney's kissing boys, Perlman(?)'s two Jewish boys from the Tate against the graffiti, two early Peter Blake's I've always liked.....loads of interesting photos, couldn't do justice to it in the time....
I also wanted to see the shell grotto - wonderful, loved it....

Then the next day we went off to spend a couple of nights with Old Stile Press just over into Wales up the Wye valley; still glorious weather and Tintern Abbey giving an intimation of how wonderfully sublime it must have looked before the cluster of gift shops and car parks etc ( packeted chocolate raisins, 'Sheeps doo-doos for Ewe' - says it all ...)

Lovely food (outside for lunch, bliss)art and conversation from Nick and Frances and great to see where their books are made at last - other people's work spaces are always fascinating - they were among the first to encourage me when I set off on my first artists books.....

I thought a couple of days away might improve my lungs, but no - watched a magic new-to-me Hungarian 1971 film on dvd tho - 'Szinbad', wow......

Am now just finishing printing a few copies of Cock Robin - last 6 stanzas are done; so come and see me at Oxford
details on www.fpba.com
I must also start doing the 'slides' for my talk on the Sunday afternoon...
the books may be dry by then.....
fingers crossed...

Margate and Oxford

2011-10-14T09:33:00.001-07:00

Cock Robin is nearly finished and should be ready for the Oxford Fine Press Book Fair at Oxford Brookes Uni on the weekend of 5/6th November. Its really easy to get to this from London using the Oxford Tube bus which stops right outside.
Its a really good fair if you haven't been before - loads of lovely things to see.
I am giving a talk about my work entitled
Who Killed Cock Robin; communications,collaborations and creative thinking - a year in the life of a Book Artist.

I'm also giving a talk in Margate tomorrow - saturday 15th october - at the Pushing Print exhibition at the Pie Factory. A good opportunity to see the new Turner Gallery too.
www.pushingprint.co.uk
I am giving up on trying to create a link - can never make it work -
for list of talks and events.

LONDON ART BOOK FAIR

2011-09-27T03:32:00.001-07:00

The fair was great fun as usual - thank you to everyone who came and talked to me, great to see old friends and meet new ones.
Here's my stand....
and here is the whole stand with Peter Chasseaud's work too....

Dmitry Sayenko's work looked wonderful as usual, he was sharing with Valeria Brancaforte, I really enjoyed meeting her too.
Her website and blog have wonderful images with hand cut lettering...
http://valeriabrancaforte.blogspot.com
http://www.valeriabrancaforte.com

Altogether a good experience ...but exhausting.....
even the woodpecker got tired

my photo of Mark Cockram's 'buried and resurrected book in a birdcage' which I loved.

London Art Book fair - Whitechapel

2011-09-21T02:01:00.000-07:00

NEXT WEEK

2011-09-18T08:32:00.000-07:00

....I shall be at the Whitechapel London Art Book Fair- I can't upload the image and invite but you can e-mail me for one if you haven't already received one - don't forget to RSVP to the Whitechapel.
Otherwise I look forward to seeing people on the open days friday to sunday, times below.....

THE LONDON ART BOOK FAIR

THE DIRECTOR AND TRUSTEES OF
THE WHITECHAPEL GALLERY INVITE YOU TO A SPECIAL
PREVIEW OF THE LONDON ART BOOK FAIR

PREVIEW
THURSDAY 22 SEPTEMBER 2011, 6–9PM

FAIR
FRIDAY 23 UNTIL SUNDAY 25 SEPTEMBER 2011
11AM–6PM ADMISSION FREE

RSVP BY 19 SEPTEMBER 2011
E: BOOKFAIRPREVIEW@WHITECHAPELGALLERY.ORG
T: +44 (0)20 7539 3316

The London Art Book Fair
Whitechapel Gallery
77-82 Whitechapel High Street
London E1 7QX
T +44 (0)20 7522 7888
F +44 (0)20 7377 1685
thelondonartbookfair.com

Linklater Pavilion Print Show

2011-09-07T03:28:00.001-07:00

Lewes Printmakers - my printmaking group - had a really good weekend last week in our opening weekend in Lewes ArtWave, in the lovely new Linklater Pavilion.
We must have had around 500 visitors, saturday was non-stop busy, so I gave up counting and there was not much of a lull even on the rainy sunday. I was up there early on sunday morning to watch the results of the moth hunt and capture from the night before with my young nephew - fascinating, some really delicate beauties.
We have a lot of good wildlife images in the show and our next book is going to be about the river and its ecology, the Railway Land and the Pavilion.
But we also have a good variety of other images which we have been selling off the walls.

Next weekend is the last weekend to get along - we'll be opening at 10 as there are other events happening on the site as well so should be a good weekend and the forecast is for the sun to shine.

You can see some images by clicking onto our Lewes Printmakers website
http://paddockprints.wordpress.com

I just found the article by The Argus newspaper about the festival and found some 'comments' by myself from a telephone conversation with a reporter who rang me up ( I do wish they wouldn't use quote marks - but it more or less gives a rough impression of what I tried to say...)which echo the comment of the organiser Angie Osborne "...who suggests it is this interaction between differing artists that sees the festival grow in popularity each year.

“We attract some people who are completely professional and who earn a good living from their work. By taking part they support other artists,” she says.

“They’ll be in an open house with people who have maybe only just started, so it comes full-circle. It’s a really good mix and it’s not ego based. It’s about getting good, diverse, across-the-board creativity.”

Some venues also offer visitors the chanceto peek behind the curtain and see the processes involved in the creation of artworks and exhibited pieces.

The Lewes Printmakers, formerly the Paddock Printmakers, based in the Linklater Pavilion, is one such space.

“Our group is geared toward people who make prints about Lewes. We sell those prints and also demonstrate how they are done, using wood, lino and other recycled materials such as cardboard, packaging and junk,” explains Carolyn Trant, one of a number of artists involved in the collective.

“The group are all-comers – some are incredibly professional, while some have only been doing it for a short time. This isn’t posh art for posh people, it’s very good art for everybody. We’re making it accessible to allow people to see and understand how it is done.”

We don't just make prints about Lewes but that is a good basis for our communal projects which give an inspiration support for those who are at more of a loss as to where to begin and inspire others to try things they may not attempt otherwise and surprise themselves.

We have had a nice tweet from the organisation below which we are grateful for - I've just checked out their site and they sound really interesting...
http://www.doubleelephant.org.uk

NEW SHOW AT TOM PAINE PRINTING PRESS

2011-08-27T02:09:00.000-07:00

Last night was the opening of Lewes ArtWave and we had a private view for our wonderful new show of Jonny Hannah's work and some letterpress work by John from Flowers and Fleurons
www.flowersandfleurons.com

Here is a quick round up of photos

This is the hardcore at the end of the show - some of the Lewes Printmakers group.
Previously we were spilling out onto the pavement as the sun finally shone.

There is a real cornucopia of brilliant stuff, propped, hanging from washing lines and framed on the walls and a great range of prices from posters at £2-5 and original drawings at £20 up to painted wooden panels and handpaintedframed work maximum £450 - come and be amazed.

Jonny and Peter Chasseaud, proprietor, discuss some last minute details.

Tom Paine would approve.

Don't forget Lewes Printmakers show next weekend at the Linklater Pavilion - we are the very first entry in the ArtWave brochure - poster for that to follow shortly ....
and photos next weekend....

SUMMER NEWS

2011-07-28T14:45:00.000-07:00

The above are images from the ABA Olympia book fair back in june? seems a while ago......

I keep putting this off because I don’t know where to start…..so I will try and be really factual.
The Untenanted Room is well on its way in the world – below is a list of events it is going to be, or has been, featured at:

The Untenanted Room by James Simpson and Carolyn Trant will be featured in some form or other at the following events.

15th May 2011 The Mayfield Fringe Festival - Poetry Life's Song, Agenda Poetry Reading featuring Stephen O'Brien, Tim Murdoch and James Simpson. The Middle House Pub, High Street, Mayfield.

9th June 2011 The Needlewriters Lewes, The Needlemakers, West Street Lewes.

23rd - 25th September 2011 The London Art Bookfair, Whitechapel.

12th October 2011 Our Common Ground - Poetry Reading Celebrating the Countryside and Farming. The Cheltenham Literary Festival.

22nd October 2011 Poetry and Print Around the Block. Pushing Print 2011, Margate.

30th October 2011 Poetry and Nature: an evening of poetry inspired by the Sussex
landscape and beyond. The Linklater Pavilion, Lewes.

4th - 5th November 2011 Oxford Fine Press Bookfair, Oxford.

James Simpson’s new websites are
www.actaeonpress.wordpress.com
www.jamessimpsonactaeon.wordpress.com

They will lead you to the Agenda Poetry one as well…
There will be more events to be added soon and it will be great for James to be reading at the Cheltenham Festival – I had a lovely time when I was there a few years ago…

Peter and I went to the Brighton Illustrators Group summer party last week and they are going to put some stuff up on their website as well; they invited us along as we had given them a talk about our artists books last winter, they are a really lovely group
http://brightonillustrators.co.uk

Giving a talk in Margate should be fun – I have been wanting an excuse to go over and see the new gallery and the shell grotto and poke about the town.
It is billed as
Who Killed Cock Robin
Carolyn Trant
15th October, 2 - 3pm
Presentation from Carolyn Trant showing handcut texts and discussing collaborations with poets.
In the morning Phil Abel will be giving a talk too
Letterpress, the allure of the machine mahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifde
Phil Abel
11am on Sat October 15th
A talk by Phil Abel from Hand and Eye Letterpress on their print process

http://pushingprint.co.uk

The next big event will be exhibiting at the
Whitechapel, London Art Book Fair 23rd – 25th september
www.whitechapelgallery.org
Check out their site and click on the link – more information should start going up soon.

Sadly that means I will be missing the launch of Nancy Campbell ‘s book
How to sat ‘I love you’ in Greenlandic; an Arctic Alphabethttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
At the Poetry Society Café in Betterton Street
(though I don’t think the promised arctic delicacies would be very vegetarian from what she told me about her residency in Greenland) Nancy’s blog is
http://nancycampbelle.blogspot.com
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Before then my printmaking group will be exhibiting in Lewes Artwave Visual Arts Festival
www.artwavefestival.org
The first two weekends in September 11am -5pm at the Linklater Pavilion.
Now renamed as Lewes Printmakers, things are going really well at the Linklater where we have been made exceptionally welcome. We are all really happy there , sharing a room with the bees behind their glass partition , and listening to the river sploshing over the stones at low tide in the summer evenings. It is a lovely place to be with inspiration for our next Lewes book all round us – we’ll aim to have one out for next year – this Artwave we will start selling a 2012 calendar from Around the Block – the Gideon Mantell book we did last year.

I will also be exhibiting a couple of my books in Falmer village hall , by kind invitation of Sue Barnes – the ArtWave exhibition there is always well worth a look, jolly good work and it is such a lovely spot.

Then in November, weekend of 5/6th
I shall have a stand at the Oxford Fine Press Book Fair at Oxford Brookes University
www.fpba.com/fairs/oxford

I have been finishing a book for a Book Art project in Lausanne for an exhibition in November called Mode de Vie Journal
Website: Art&Fiction Editions d’Artistes – Le Blog - if your French is good – mine isn’t, which is rather feature of the book I’ve prepared using all 115 titles of the first Mode de Vie as my text and a lot of photographic images I took in the street in Paris back in the spring.
Watch this space for dates and place of the exhibition in Geneva.

And I have also been finishing designs for the outside walls of the new County Archive building, The Keep, between Lewes and Brighton – due for completion in 2013; five large panels of etched concrete, a really exciting new technology, on a scale well outside my comfort zone and a somewhat unknown quantity and all the more exciting for that. I keep thinking about Peggy (Angus ) and her ‘Anguside’ glass panels for Gatwick Airport and think how excited she would have been about this development.

I feel I shouldn’t post many images of the last two events until they have taken place...maybe a long wait for the etched concrete one though my bit may be up next year well before the building is open.

Not many images at all here, apart from those from the ABA Fair at Olympia at the beginning, but I really do intend to set up a proper website soon with easily accessed images from all my books; it really is on my to-do list…….

Along with several more books to finish…...

apologies for a few gremlins that keep creeping into this that I can't seem to erase - I hope it sort of makes sense.....

London Antiquarian Book Fair

2011-05-31T14:29:00.001-07:00

I'll be exhibiting Downstairs again - if you haven't had an e invitation from me e-mail me for one or print off the one above if you can and fill in your details.

Post BABE continued

2011-05-20T03:59:00.001-07:00

Above are images from The Untenanted Room - caroussel version - which I showed at BABE along with the Agenda Editions version now available from us ( Carolyn Trant and James Simpson ) or via Agenda. At Bristol we also had the hand-bound version which is available, with or without the original hand-printed woodcuts in a slipcase.
James is now embarking on a series of readings, which began last week in the Mayfield Festival, and continue on 9th June as part of the NeedleWriters readings at the Needlemakers Cafe in Lewes, West Street BN7 2NZ 7 for 7.45 pm
see http://www.needlewriters.co.uk
I shall sadly miss this as I shall be opening up at 'Downstairs' at the Olympia Antiquarian Book Fair - all my dates seem to clash this year; but there will be further readings throughout the summer and into the autumn - more dates to follow.

See February news below for more images of the paperback Untenated Room and contents and Cock Robin.

My display version of Who Killed Cock Robin is now on show at the Regency Town House as part of the Brighton Festival, two more weekends to go; I'll be there tomorrow afternoon - saturday 21st. haven't managed a good picture yet as it is rather dark , as was the stand at BABE, especilly in this good sunny weather which seems to make indoors even darker....

I have also now started up my classes at the wonderful Linklater Pavilion by the river at the entrance to the Railway Land in Lewes; my printmaking group are all extremely happy and enthusiastic about the move and the room by the river - and we are awaitng the arrival of the bees ( indoor glass beehive) with much excitement.
http://www.railwaylandproject.org/Linklater

Last saturday we had a stand at the Priory Fayre in the newly restored 11th century priory ruins and grounds; billed as a most important historical site - the priory, an enormous and influential Cluniac institution, was destroyed at the time of Henry VIII with early use of gunpowder and demolition strategy - find out about it at
www.lewespriory.org.uk
Organised by the Bonfire society the opening was a spelndid event with processing giant figures and stirring drumming - we had a fantastic day.

We demonstrated 'medieval woodcutting' and showed prints of Lewes done by the group for our books, and let children do some linocut printing round the back of the stall. The car was there to rescue all the prints when the rain tipped down for 5 minutes, as forecast at 4 o'clock, a truly British finish to the day - keeps the adrenalin flowing.

You can see our new website ( still being renovated ) at
www.lewesprintmakers.co.uk
or you can look us up for a while longer on
http://paddockprints.wordpress.com

prints@lewesprintmakers.co.uk
classes@lewesprintmakers.co.uk
Should all be working soon…
...the change of name reflects our new venue and hosts; and our next book will be on theme ecological, encompassing the river and the Railway Land and the Linklater Pavilion.
My next saturday classes will be on 18 june and 9 july; email for more details at addresses above.

Post BABE

2011-05-12T13:11:00.000-07:00

I'm just waiting for the Antiquarian Bookfair to send me an e flier and invitations for Downstairs at the the Olympia show at the beginning of June.

You can check out their site on
www.aba.org.uk / www.olympiabookfair.com

WORK IN PROGRESS

2011-04-15T01:26:00.000-07:00

SEE YOU ALL AT BABE IF POSSIBLE! I'LL BE THERE....

BABE - Book Fair at Bristol

2011-04-09T14:01:00.000-07:00

I'll be exhibiting at the Fair and am looking forward to it; can't believe it is April already tho.....
The Untenanted Room will be out very soon and hopefully be available by then in a couple of versions at least...
here is the cover of the paperback...

Hope to see lots of you in Bristol!

February News

2011-02-25T01:14:00.000-08:00

I have just finally finished the black and white images for the small Agenda Edition of James Simpsons poems The Untenanted Room, based around our ongoing large Artists Book - Perceval. It proved surprisingly difficult working small and knowing the images were for digital reproduction - I nearly lost my nerve at one point ; it brought up so many issues about how I rely on a very painterly way of working, but James is a brilliant collaborationist ( if there is such a word...)
I'm longing to do the big version now , meanwhile I can suddenly see how I can turn this small set of images into a 3D carrousel book...........
Went to the fantastic production of Parsifal at ENO last week with the kind assistance of John Tomlinson - what an amazing Gurnemantz he is.

Meanwhile I am back trying to finish Who Killed Cock Robin for a string of shows coming up, defintiely for BABE at the Arnolfini end of April. I have started thinking about pop-up versions, how to do 'All the Birds of the Air' and a good version for exhibition display.

I taught another bookmaking/paper manipulation class last week and had great bunch of people; one of them, Sonia Crivello, has written up a piece about it on her interesting blog - see www.foursquare.posterous.com
I love doing these classes because I have far too many ideas and interests to cope with and I love watching other people taking the ideas and running with them. It syphons off some of the frustration I feel not having time to do more myself.

NEW YEAR

2011-01-24T14:14:00.001-08:00

The Year started well with a lovely catalogue through the post from the
Edmund S Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library at Bates College, Maine, USA.
They have an exhibition just started called BOUND TO ART, on until 25 March, showing beautiful books from the collection. My Garden of Earthly Delights, which I did with poet Judith Kazantzis, is included in the show and they sent me this nice teasing image - all credit to Will Ash at Bates Imaging and Computing Center for the photography, I always find this book a tricky one to make an image of.

Did I rashly say there were usually few distractions in january?
I seem to be very distracted sorting out applications for the year's Book and Art Fairs as well as trying to get work finished.
Peter and Altazimuth Press are taking part in the Works on Paper Fair next week - 3-6 february, at the new venue the Science Museum in South Kensington; I'm too busy to take a stand but will be interested to go along and see how it looks.
This thursday we are both giving a talk about our work to Brighton Illustrators Group.
BABE at the Arnolfini seems to be looming up too soon and we are considering doing Downstairs at the Olympia Book Fair again in June. Better get back to work.....

Seasons Greetings

2010-12-16T14:55:00.000-08:00

Thank you to my concerned readers; I have not been blogging recently because of a nasty attack of tendonitis - so I have been saving my right hand for essential artistic activities only.
But I have not been idle.
I've been working on lots of smaller stuff and am attaching some images of
Brighton Belle
based on visit to Brighton with my good friend Dmitry after the Whitechapel show, when the Gallopers were beginning their winter clean and dismantled and we gatecrashed a bizarre photoshoot on the beach and generally egged on each others already fertile imaginations.....
It is a very small concertina book.

I have also been working on a smaller version of Perceval/Peredur - the large book I have been working on with James Simpson, for an Agenda Special Edition to be called - The Untenanted Room - to come out next spring.
Some of James's poems from this sequence are published in the current Agenda magazine.

After christmas I will return to finishing Cock Robin - january and february are usually good months for getting things finished with fewer distractions.

Next Book fair will be BABE at the Arnolfini in Bristol, last day of April and 1st of May.

Please be aware that my e-mail has changed as of now and my old one will be dead by the middle of January. Please leave a message using the comments page here if you have not had a message giving you the new one in the next couple of weeks.

I will try to return to more regular updates soon...meanwhile very good wishes for a peaceful and productive new year despite all that it socks us with.

In the garden where it should be

2010-09-21T09:54:00.000-07:00

WHO KILLED COCK ROBIN

2010-09-18T10:15:00.000-07:00

As promised - some images so far - still in a state of flux, colours and designs may vary..........
this must be one of the most fascinating but creepy rhymes in the canon; interesting how so many people I speak to think they know it, but then some assure me the 'bull' must be a bullfinch 'because they are all birds'..... in fact there is a fly, a beetle and a fish apart from the bull.....

Whitechapel Art Book Fair

2010-09-17T14:22:00.001-07:00

Am busy preparing for this - slowed down by an attack of tendonitis (the woodcutters curse - sounds like a new Grimm story coming on...)
It will be lovely to see as many people as possible at the fair - print off invite or rsvp to Whitechapel.

I'm still working on Who Killed Cock Robin - will try and take some pics tomorrow and post up very soon.

correction to term printing dates - first one is now SUNDAY 24th october, not saturday 23rd

Next Exhibitions.....

2010-08-04T03:56:00.000-07:00

ITS NOT OPEN YET - SEE BELOW FOR DATES!
August 28/29; September 4/5 and 11/12

Another disgraceful lack of blogging - but I have not been idle; pressed, stressed and unorganised - but not idle - though being without my presses for a month or two has meant little to show .
Presses are now up and running again and I am working on a (supposedly) small task of dealing with Who Killed Cock Robin - it does have 14 stanzas however; but I am currently rivetted by it. Hopefully the first 5 images may be ready for our local Arts Festival (ArtWave) here in Lewes; however what response there will be to King Death Fly ( with his little eye ) and maggots and rats, burying beetles and the usual contingent of blood, is another question. Judith is working on her poems of death -so between us you can reckon we are upholding our tradition of epatee-ing something or other.
www.judithkazantzis.com

So - busy months august and september;

Lewes ArtWave August 28/29; September 4/5 and 11/12
weekends 12-6 I will be exhibiting with Judith Kazantzis
Open House at 32 St Anne's Crescent
www.artwavefestival.org

all welcome; e me if you want to know when I will be there as I will also be organising

The Tom Paine Printing Press exhibition,
Typography and lettering across a variety of media - print, ceramics and papercuts
Peter Chasseaud, Oliver Dawson and Lydia Crook
www.tompaineprintingpress.com
follow links to the Tom paine Press blog or go direct to
http://tompainepress.blogspot.com
http://peterchasseaud.blogspot.com

plus
images of Lewes from Paddock Printmakers new book

Around the Block;a ramble around Lewes in the footsteps of Gideon Mantell
woodcuts, collagraphs and drypoints
http://gideonmantell.wordpress.com
and a new 2011 calendar of images from last years Tom Paine in Lewes book
tuesday - sundays 10 - 5, august 28 - sept 12th
http://paddockprints.wordpress.com
this will updated for this year's book soon

The exhibition of framed work from the Gideon Mantell book will be on display in the Needlemakers Cafe throughout Artwave - many thanks to them

then
September 23 - 26
Peter and I will be at the Whitechapel Art Book Fair - Whitechapel Gallery
sharing a stand this year as I will have lots of smaller stuff and Peter will be showing his new book about the East End

Term dates for printmaking sessions - if you have given me an e-mail address and don't hear from me soon, try e-mailing me; ever so many times I don't seem to write them down correctly or they don't work for some reason, or I am just inefficient and lose them...
you can get in touch via the paddock printmakers e-mail if you have lost mine...
Contact Paddock Printmakers at pprints.f@ukonline.co.uk

saturday dates for next term are
october 23rd
november 20th
december 4th
you can start booking in any time now

Finally - I really enjoyed seeing The Surreal House exhibition at the Barbican Centre yesterday - I really recommend it; leave plenty of time for seeing all the films etc....

I'll try and add some more pics of things soon; I realise the blog has got a bit taken over by the shop in the past months but I am working on various huge projects of my own too - just not ready to share them yet. Official exhbitions at the shop have slowed down over the summer as we are nervous about all the sun on our south side of the street - but they will resume again in the autumn; meanwhile Peter has been filling the space with his wonderful huge posters anyway and we have plenty of new stuff coming and going on tables and the Tom Paine side of things has been given a boost by the tourist season....
and the unveiling of the Tom Paine statue by Marcus Cornish.

DOWNSTAIRS at the Olympia Antiquarian Book Fair

2010-06-14T14:26:00.000-07:00

I should be writing something intelligent about this but I am too exhausted, so meanwhile here are a couple of pictures, very kindly taken for me by Dmitry (Nikodim Books)whose wonderful books were next to mine. Peter was further along looking very smart too with his new typographical posters.

NEXT EXHIBITIONS

2010-05-14T14:57:00.000-07:00

Two little books I've done recently; The Magic Rabbit will be at Kaleid and both at Olympia.

NEXT EXHIBITIONS

2010-05-14T14:24:00.000-07:00

I have two opportunities to show my books in London in June
first at Kaleid editions...
WHITE HEAT
2-27 June 2010

A.A.A.B.A.M || Victoria Browne || Angie Butler || Lorna Crabbe || Harvey Dellanzo || Desmond Felix || Stephen Fowler || Daniele Genadry || Graeme Gerard Halliday || Stephen Lee || Flora McLean || Andrew Pegram || Peter Rapp || The Readers || Shelley Revill || Mary Rouncefield || Augusta Ogilvy & Martin Sexton || Sofia Stevi || Johnette Taylor || Carolyn Trant

Private View Tuesday 1st June 2010 6-9pm

The penultimate show at KALEID project space, Redchurch Street, London E2; an interdisciplinary group exhibition of editioned artists’ books curated by Victoria Browne and Dr. Aylin Kunter.

“...in the white heat of this revolution will be no place for restrictive practices or for outdated methods...”
In 1963, Harold Wilson laid forth an ambitious agenda that called into question values of family, work, education, male-female relations, sexuality, urbanism, science, technology and progress.

Taking inspiration from this period, KALEID will be subject to, and an object of ‘white heat’ as a beacon of light to illuminate a brave new collection of artists’ books; in order to represent our mood, ideas and the spirit of our time. In the current ‘light’ of the aftermath of the British general election, the exhibition will challenge the notion that there is one politics and celebrate the diversity of our lives.

‘According to Blake, anything is capable of becoming a text, that is, of bearing significant marks. The earth, the sky, the elements, natural objects, the human body and its garments, the mind itself are all space of inscription, sites in which the imagination renders or receives meaning, marking and being marked’1.

Hellicar & Lewis, a duo of interactive installation artists, will create a flock of light-beings inspired in part by John Horton Conway’s Game of Life and Craig Reynold’s further research into artificial life. The piece will interact with visitors who engage with the new collection artists’ books, as the installation replicates, mutates and evolves during the four week show.

Proudly supported by Creative Technology London

Please contact KALEID project space for further details: aylin@kaleideditions.com

1. William Blake quoted in Picture Theory by William Mitchell, 1994, p.131

KALEID editions aims to represent artists’ books to national collections and book fairs across the globe.
Since September 2009 KALEID project space has curated monthly exhibitions, represented over one hundred artists, launched publications and facilitated workshops. Meet us at the following events:

London Art Book Fair September 2010
New York Art Book Fair October 2010

Unit 2, 23-25 Redchurch Street, Shoreditch, London. E2 7DJ 07870 173 524
books@kaleideditions.com www.kaleideditions.com

Wednesday to Saturday, 12-7pm Late night Thursdays and informal Sundays
Artists’ Books Drop-in Workshops Sundays, 1-5pm

I WILL ALSO BE

DOWNSTAIRS at the 53rd London International Antiquarian Book Fair, Olympia 2010
see www.olympiabookfair.com
and click on DOWNSTAIRS
I am exhibiting as Parvenu Press

meanwhile my litho press has finally been winched out of my house, quite an extraordinary sight, and I am re-organising my studio space.
All my projects are in boxes ready to spring out and set me going again with a bit more elbow room.

PAGES : May exhibition at Press Gallery

2010-04-19T15:12:00.000-07:00

Pages

For our next exhibition we have lots of interesting pages from books from the 15th century to contemporary Artists Books;
- a facsimile page from the Gutenburg 1455 Bible(signed by Stephen Fry – made for his TV program about the Gutenburg press made by Alan May – the same person who made our Common Press ) ,
-one from the Nuremburg Chronicle ( genuine);
some from various productions by the St Dominic's Press, at Ditchling,;
surrealist pages from Une Semaine de Bonte by Max Ernst, which was sponsored by Roland Penrose who lived near Lewes in Chiddingly;
various title pages from the 16th to the 19th century,
and examples from contemporary Artists Books, including some Trant/Chasseaud golden oldies ;
some are typographical examples, some have images:
any of them could be a talking point framed on the wall.

We can assure everyone no books were harmed in the making of this event!

The exhibition runs from April 27th until May 29th, closed Sundays and Mondays; at the same time we will have our usual changing selection of books, prints, cards, posters, magazines and printed ephemera.

Pictures from an exhibition

2010-03-21T15:29:00.000-07:00

The new carnivalesque show opened at our Press gallery this afternoon.
I finished making some little books and theatres a few minutes before the PV and was still stuffing new hand-printed woodcut cards in ( hand-made) envelopes as people arrived
You can see the concertina book opened out on the bottom shelf in the window and one of the theatres on the top shelf, more clearly in the second photo

Apart from walls full of prints by myself ( the sepia coloured drypoints ) we had linocuts and monoprints by Walter Bachinski from Shanty Bay press and wood and linocuts and collagraphs by Sarah Young..
( see their websites in previous posting)

and as a complete change we had a magnificent selection of old toys games and puppet theatres and puppets to sell from a private collection - great fun and great graphics.
The last of the Carnival boxes I made after a visit to the Munich toy and puppet museum fitted in quite nicely - you can see them to the right of the second to last picture...

The show will be up for another month until the end of April.

What's happening next at Tom Paine Press Gallery

2010-03-03T08:46:00.000-08:00

Continuing our light and bright themes for dark months, the Tom Paine Printing Press gallery’s third exhibition will be centred around both the light and the dark side of the idea of Carnival and Circus.

Hopefully spring is on its way - we have just passed Mardi Gras and Lewes Operatic Society are about to perform Carousel…
At the gallery we will be featuring the Shanty Bay Press from the far north of Canada run by Walter Bachinski and Janis Butler. Their first book – Circus - contained pochoir prints of unbelievable intensity of colour; and they are now working another on the same theme….

CIRCUS
The Artist as Saltimbanque
Various Writers and Poets
4 pochoirs and 8 colour linocuts by Walter Bachinski

see
www.shantybaypress.com
www.walterbachinski.com

We have some of Walter’s b+w monoprints and colour lino-cuts and a sneak preview of the new book and other pochoir prints that you can order.

This exhibition will also feature lino and woodcuts by Sarah Young, drypoint prints and woodcut cards by Carolyn Trant and other gallery artists, and some surprise three dimensional objects;and we aim to top up our selection of toy theatres.

The show opens on 21st March – meanwhile we will still have Jonny Hannah cards and booklets – he recently sent us some new ones – and will have a changing show of prints from stock on the walls in the changeover period, and lots of new Paddock Printmakers cards so do keep looking in.

Check out Sarah Young and Jon Tutton's blog for more details and pics of our Jonny Hannah show on
http://madeuk.blogspot.com
and go to Feb 2010 posting

See also
http://tompainepress.blogspot.com

Meanwhile I'm cutting and printing lots of little coloured woodcuts on a carnival theme, as well as working on my very large book Perceval with James Simpson.

Lorca at All Saints Art centre Lewes

2010-02-17T01:49:00.000-08:00

On sunday I showed my Lorca pages at Cancion Gitana's 'Celebration of the short tragic life of the Spanish poet Lorca: Lament for Lorca' - a celebration in Flamenco dance, song and guitar It was a wonderful evening -
many thanks to Helena for inviting me to take part in this way.
I think there are more Lorca images if you scroll back on this blog -
and I have made them into cards for the Tom Paine Printing Press shop as people were always asking for a cheaper version of them. There are a few of the original prints left too.

ART FOR LOVE

2010-02-06T12:23:00.000-08:00

Are you ready for Valentine's Day??
I've made a few of these little theatres and some woodblock printed cards for the shop, based on 17th century emblem books which I find fascinating (the whole information by image as well as word thing).....
The theatres are about 8 X 10 inches and the cards a little larger than playing cards.

I also remembered back to Peggy Angus's 'Art for Love' exhibitions - and thought - I think she would like our shop, and I am sure she would just love the work by Jonny Hannah.
I heard in the week that Ursula Mommens, the potter and great friend of Peggy, had died peacefully in her chair aged 101. I remember talking to her last over a year ago in her house in S Heighton; it was suddenly like being back in the past in a house which smelled like Peggy's and was full of art and simplicity and peace and it made me really miss Peggy - these two women were amazing beacons in my youth in different ways; now that era is really gone.
I see the obits mention that she loved young people - just like Peggy; they both stayed incredibly young at heart always, always interested in what others were doing.
And both making things with their hands until the end.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article7016929.ece

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/feb/03/ursula-mommens-obituary

The Legendary Jonny Hannah Show

2010-02-01T12:34:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures from the opening:
(but they all seem to have got squashed somwehow.....)

Its a really fantastic show - it'll warm the cockles of your heart - and we had a great party.
Fred Pipes has been kind enough to put a review on the blog below
http://tinyurl.com/y8cb4ol
Thanks Fred

The show is up for a month - don't miss it.

LONG TIME NO BLOG

2010-01-26T14:23:00.000-08:00

Disgraceful:that's what adding running a gallery to an already busy schedule does for you.
Our next show starts on sunday!

DARK TOWN
Throughout February the PRESS Gallery
at 151 High Street will have
An Illuminating Exhibition
of new work
from the
Legendary Jonny Hannah

Loads and Loads of Lovely Printed Stuff –
silk-screened books and prints,
lino-cuts, cards, T- shirts and
his unique hand painted cut-outs on board,

Featuring Luscious Lettering
with a range of very reasonable prices
and guaranteed to bring some joy
and razzmatazz to a dark month.

We will also have some very unusual
Valentine Cards!

THE TOM PAINE PRINTING PRESS & PRESS Gallery
151 High Street, Lewes (opposite the Bull House)

It looks better like this.....

but you might not be able to read it
Anyway it should be a really great show.

We kept Dmitry's work for ages as it was so popular and we have quite a range of little private press and Artists Books for sale now and people seem very interested in seeing what we have. The Press is up and running and Peter gathered up some more type over christmas. We've got card toy theatres and artists cards, specialist books on lettering and typography; and plans for more interesting shows throughout the year, including lettering used in paper cuts, lettering and ceramics and something Carnavalesque for Lent.

I'm playing around making woodcut valentine cards at the moment based on 17th century Emblem Books to get back into work again after too much chocolate and long walks in the snow

However I did fulfill my resolution and make a pilgrimage to the Green Chapel on New Years Eve (daytime!)to help get me in the mood for this year's Perceval book.
The Green Chapel, home of the Green Knight, is reputed to be in Staffordshire in The Roches at a place called Lud's Church; a cleft in the ground where the persecuted Lollards of the 15th?? century used to hold their services apparently.
Despite heavy snow on hills around, making many of the small roads impassable ( near Flash - one of the highest villages in England) - this valley was miraculously green and we toiled up a hill not knowing what to expect, when all of a sudden we plunged into the chasm - which was spectacular and scrambled for what seemed a very long way before emerging into the woods again.
An extraordinary place.
And the Green Knight himself clear as clear on the rock face - the camera homed in on him immediately itself.
There must be some strange magnetic forces around as my camera card immediately failed and unformatted itself, so the following pics are courtesy of my son Will:

You have to imagine the icicles and ferns and green gloom.....

Apart from this the year has got off to a good start with lots of plans and feelers stretching out into the year; some book fairs coming up - of which more news anon; some good discussions with Victoria at Kaleid Editions, with Tereza Buskova at an event in a soon-to-be demolished block in Soho, with Ruth at Illustration magazine - and all sorts of possible interesting projects
as well as the ongoing books I am working on.
I'll try and put out some more details next month.

Really enjoyed the Dark Monarch exhibition at the Towner - I could see no way to get to St Ives in midwinter so was so relieved to find it was coming so close to home - highly recommend it.
Ditto the Kienholz Hoerengracht at the National Gallery.

First Exhibition at PRESS , 151 High Street, Lewes

2009-11-27T15:05:00.000-08:00

We put up the exhibition of prints and books of Dmitry Sayenko today, with the help of Peter Flanagan who also took these photos;many thanks Peter.
Last tidying up to do tomorrow...
The show will be up for 2 weeks until 13th december, when we will take down anything sold and reorganise with new stock until christmas.

Artists Books Exhibition

2009-11-17T09:26:00.001-08:00

Oxford Fine Press Fair and after

2009-11-14T03:02:00.000-08:00

The UK Fine Press Book Fair at Oxford Brookes University last weekend was a happy event as usual. For a very good resume of the state of the art read Sebastian Carter's excellent full page article in October 30th TLS ( no.5561 ) ( where he was also kind enough to give me a mention).
There seems to be a good feeling of moving forward within the association and a good variety of books on show. I was very happy to be awarded one of the Judges prizes for my large And Other Fairy Tales - in itself a recognition that 'arty-er'types of hand-made books are being welcomed on board and that all kinds of aesthetics can co-exist happily.
My personal favourites were as usual - Shanty Bay Press from Canada, and my dear friend Dmitry Sayenko - Nikodim Press from Russia ( who again managed to share Lewes Bonfire with us just before the Fair).I forgot to photograph Shanty Bay's stall this year ( tho they are in the middle of producing another large pochoir book still unfinished - Walter's monoprints are also beautiful) and I'm afraid all the photos are rather blurry as it was dark in the hall, and I found half way round the M25 at 6 a.m that I had forgotton my glasses and a hastily purchased pair of reading glasses failed to really do the biz...
here is Dmitry's stand..

Our other news is that we have taken on new premises in Lewes at 151 High Street - near the Bottleneck traffic lights at the top end of the town.
Primarily a new dry home for the Tom Paine Printing Press ( the shop is right opposite the Bull House where Tom Paine lived and worked as Customs officer and tobacconist for 6 years, which is an ideal position ) it will be Peter's workspace for his letterpress and where he can give classes for those interested.
The Tom Paine Press is an educative and non-profit making enterprise to promote Tom Paine's profile in Lewes and show a hands-on approach to printing, but we need to pay the rent so we will also be putting on small shows of prints, printed matter and Artists Books..
starting with a show of Dmitry's prints and books at the end of November ( once the press is completely up and running again - it moved in in pieces last week )and a special display of small stocking fillers for Lewes Late Night Shopping on Thursday 3rd December - watch this space...
Peter will be printing broadsheets - he produced some for Lewes Bonfire - a few still remaining, plus some Tom Paine pounds...and working with poets who would like to produce single sheets or small pamphlets of their work, with or without images

and I will be able to make use of his skills as well...
The 'shop' will be called PRINT

I will shortly be exhibiting at Kaleid Editions

The grand Plasto-Baader-Books
2-24 December 2009
On the 1st of December 2009, KALEID will be
transformed into a cavernous assemblage of unique
artists’ books selected for their originality and
conceptual response to the book form. Curated by
Deeqa Ismail and Aylin Kunter, the group show will
involve an international network of artists working
closely with KALEID editions.
In 1920 Johannes Baader erected Das Grosse Plasto-
Dio-Dada-Drama as part of the First International
Dada-Messe. “It looked like the aftermath of an accident
between a trolley car and a newspaper kiosk” . Inspired
by this original architectural feat, Ismail and Kunter will
select artists to show individual or collections of unique
artists’ books during London’s festive season.
KALEID is a contemporary artists’ books project and
retail space located on Redchurch Street in Shoreditch
close to Artwars Project Space, Trolley Gallery, Maverick
Show Rooms, Museum 52, the Boundary and
Shoreditch House Members Club.

Unit 2, 23-25 Redchurch Street,
London. E2 7DJ
0785 213 825
deeqa@kaleideditions.com
www.kaleideditions.com
Wednesday to Saturday, 12-7pm
Late night Thursdays and
informal Sundays

I will also be showing in Brighton at
SIX
Judy Stevens' Open House
6 Clifton Street Brighton
BN1 3PH
( very near Brighton Station )

weekends 28/29 November
5/6 December
12/13 December

12-6
watch this space for more details...

Images from Whitechapel Art Book fair

2009-10-03T07:59:00.000-07:00

Book Fairs

2009-09-28T14:37:00.000-07:00

I was going to put an image or two of my stand at the Whitechapel Art Book Fair,
but for some reason I can't upload them at the moment...
but the important thing is that the NEXT fair is the
Oxford Fine Press Book Fair
at Oxford Brookes University - Gypsy Lane Oxford
- 7th and 8th of November ( 11-6 saturday, 10-5 sunday )

I'll be there, alongside 70 other private presses from the UK and overseas

www.fpba.com
and click on Fairs for all the details

Proper Details

2009-09-04T15:04:00.001-07:00

Apparently late means about 9 o'clock on friday night; don't forget to RSVP to the Whitechapel if you want to be at the PV.

Meanwhile, I'll be at another weekend of our Open House tomorrow....Paul and Michelle, who I got to know last weekend, have put a kind comment on Paul's blog...
http://www.paulsartblog.co.uk

Times and Dates of Whitechapel Book Fair

2009-09-03T15:13:00.000-07:00

Friday 25th September 2pm – 5pm Private View
5pm – late Open to public
Saturday 26 September 11am – 6pm Open to public
Sunday 27 September 11am – 6pm Open to public

LABF Whitechapel Gallery Book Fair

2009-09-02T15:32:00.000-07:00

I shall be having a stand at the Whitechapel Artists Book Fair the last weekend in September - 26/27 September - am just waiting for confirmed times of opening. Watch this space or try Whitechapel's website.
These images are of the latest cut-out version of And Other Fairy Tales which I will be showing at the fair( among other things ).....

Next Up

2009-08-12T14:15:00.001-07:00

What we have been up to

2009-07-14T01:42:00.000-07:00

A quick update....
for pictures of the Tom Paine Printing press in action, do go to John May's blog where he has posted up some really good pictures. Look under 'Posts' for Tom Paine Printing Press.
All those involved with the Press, and Paddock Printmakers new book and exhibition, have no time at present to update their own websites, so many thanks to John for putting us on his.

http://hqinfo.blogspot.com

Also check out the post on John's blog (The Generalist) where you will also see he has written about John Michell's Memorial service in Ladbroke Grove a week or so ago; John was a lovely man I first met through Keith Crichlow. Keith gave wonderful lectures at the Slade; among much else he introduced me to Kathleen Raine's books about Blake. He performed John's eulogy.

The picture above shows Paddock Printmakers at the Do-At-The-Depot last week, advertising the studios and showing our new book - Tom Paine in Lewes and the original prints used to make it. Here I'm showing it to Julian Bell while Vivien Halas looks on - she is one of the printmaking group but was also promoting her book about her parents,'Halas and Bachelor', who made influential animation films in the forties and fifties, including the animated 'Animal Farm'.
In the background you can see June - June is a printmaker and her husband Peter did all the graphic design for our book, and provides support extraordinaire. You can see them both behind me on the picture on John's blog.

The Do was to launch the new Lewes Pounds - new designs, and new denominations of currency pending I believe. The only currency in the world to have Tom Paine on the banknotes!

The Paine Festival has been a treasure trove of interesting lectures and events; the High Street was closed for an afternoon and there was dancing in the streets, as well as lots of dramatic events and a Mummers Play about Tom's life in Lewes.
The Generalist also now has a lot of photos of the dancing in the streets - check out the one headed 'Nail Dance'.

The highlight for me was (archaeologist)Martin Brown's guided walk celebrating the spirit of Independence in the town, with costumed figures delivering their testimony - sometimes moving, always inspiring and very informative - covering the Peasants Revolt, Bonfire and its origin in religious persecution, the Civil War, artistic freedoms, Edward Warren ( the Warren Cup, Rodin's the Kiss and the gay community at Lewes House at the beginning of the twentieth century ) - ending up on Cliffe Bridge to celebrate Independent Brewing with Miles Jenner of Harveys Brewery.
You may know Martin from occasional TV archaeology programs; his walks are brilliant and this one was particularly well attended with a very spirited crowd.

Seth Gopin, from Rutgers University USA , has been doing a wonderfully lively introduction to Tom Paine's life and work in the Town Hall each day; its been great to get the American perspective on this, as well as learn the results of the new research done by Seth, Paul Myles, local historian Colin Brent, and art historian Deborah Gage - descendent of General Gage of Firle Place ( just outside Lewes )who commanded the British troops in the War of American Independence.

Sales of our Book and prints are going well and hundreds of people have passed through the Press - around 200 each day.
Check out the Tom Paine Printing Press website in a week or too to catch up on recent developments there.
Meanwhile I am hoping to get back to work on my own books soon!

UPDATE; the new Tom Paine Printing Press Website

2009-06-26T06:29:00.000-07:00

The new web address for the Tom Paine Printing Press is now
www.tompaineprintingpress.com
which is operating alongside the blog and has the most up-to-date photographs of the press being installed.

June already fast disappearing...

2009-06-26T01:53:00.000-07:00

and I have been much pre-occupied with the fast approaching Tom Paine Festival here in Lewes and my printmaking group's new book - Tom Paine in Lewes.

There have been the usual hiccups with printing - well more like loud burps actually - driving us to distraction; the usual story, paper mills closing down or their products becoming unavailable or changing their character completely whilst still being called 'exactly the same thing' despite being miraculously smoother, shinier, thinner ......and whether we can actually believe this story or not ( but sadly yes, we probably can...)

oh well - the images look lovely; please check out our website
http://paddockprints.wordpress.com

The book is being bound by Bookbinders of Lewes at this moment.

Do come along to the show, which will up all through July and until 24th August; there will also be a trail of mounted prints in the windows of many of our individual shops along the High Street between Westgate and School Hill for the duration of the actual Festival - 4 - 14 July.
There is a good program of events, dramatic productions and free talks and debates, and a nail dance in the streets - see the official Festival website
www.thomaspaineandlewes.com

Paddock Printmakers will also have a stand at The Do at the Depot at Harveys Depot in Pinwell Lane , Lewes on the 3rd of July
see http://www.thelewespound.org
for details of that event....

and most excitingly -
the Tom Paine Printing Press is now installed in the Market Tower ready for the festival, and my husband Peter Chasseaud will be demonstrating how it works every day, and printing some Tom Paine material, beginning with the 'Case of the Officers of Excise' which Tom wrote whilst living and working in Lewes.
The press was built by Alan May, who made the Gutenburg Press for Stephen Fry and which was the subject of a very good television program. This facsimile Common Press is from a really beautiful piece of oak and looks wonderful as well as printing well despite the rather wobbly floor of the space in the Market Tower where they used to house the town Fire Engine.
Alan and his wife Judith brought it down from Stafford in a trailer and we really enjoyed getting to know them better over the two days it took to get it up and running. There is still a lot to be sorted out but Peter has kindly agreed that Paddock Printmakers can use him as a base for selling our book and unframed prints and cards during the summer.
The Press is going to be available for artists projects, so maybe one day we will be able to print one of our books with him, straight from the wood or lino blocks on the press. After our struggles with digital production the thought of a hands-on and within-our-control in-house production seems very tempting, tho would doubtless bring its own set of problems and surprises.

See more about the Press , with lots of pictures, on
http://tompainepress.blogspot.com

Images from Selector's Choice Exhibition at the Regency Town House

2009-05-05T02:06:00.001-07:00

kindly taken for me by Peter Flanagan; the house is such a lovely space everyone should go and see it .

Next Event ; Brighton Festival

2009-04-26T14:22:00.000-07:00

Selectors’
choice

Selectors’ Choice, part of the new
visual arts festival HOUSE, is an
exhibition showcasing the work
of selected artists participating in the
2009 Artists Open Houses festival.

Upstairs

The Regency Town House
13 Brunswick Square
Hove

www.rth.org.uk

Saturday 25th April
to Sunday 24th May
12 – 6pm

I can't get Blogger to upload the nice flier I have advertising this event; so above are the bald details. I went to the PV last week and it is a really nice show and a wonderful venue; so I am very pleased to have work exhibited there.
I hope they have the flier image on the rth site.

I also have work in an Open House, number 31 in the Independent section of the Open House brochure - 7 at 3
3 Surrenden Road (opposite the Park View where Surrenden Road meets Preston Drove)
every weekend during the Festival, which runs from 2 May until 24th May.
I won't be there all the time so if you particularly want to see me, get in touch.
I'll be showing prints, including some from my new books, and smaller books and cards.

Back from BABE - 2

2009-04-07T09:12:00.000-07:00

Have just spent a happy hour following up all the blogs and website of people I met at the BookFair; many of whom are much quicker off the mark than me.
http://artistsbookcollective.blogspot.com/
already have a report posted up with pictures, including one of my stand ( or part of it ) which is really nice of them. Chien is tutoring a new course in Book Arts at Birmingham; I loved ( and bought some of ) his little folded books and students Jat and Charlotte had some amazing book structures and nice things.
This communal blog is full of useful links to other Book Fairs, images and ideas for how to do things; and even a video of how to make a simple book on the Shepherd's ( the Bookbinders and Paper Sellers ) link; scroll around and see what you can find - any of my students who are reading this blog!

There were lots of good points of contact with East London Printmakers
www.eastlondonprintmakers.co.uk
and I hope to visit next time I am in Hackney.
I hope Wuon-Gean Ho, who works there, might come and give a master class in Japanese water based wood block printing to my group at the Paddock sometime; I could do it once but have forgotton the fine detail.
www.wuongean.com

I really liked Australian artist/illustrator - Elizabeth Barnett's new books - etched and one of them with cut aways like a theatre book
www.elizabethisdrawing.com

I guess people can see I like the theatrical book, so I was told to google Luci Gorell-Barnes.

I met Eleanor Glover, who has taught at West Dean, and have googled her work and love the 3D and calligraphy - I can see why we had a rapport...
www.eleanor.glover.freeuk.com

and talked to a collagraph teacher from Bath
www.felicityromabowers.co.uk
she has a link to the William Blake celebratory book I have been curious to see.

There were many other conversations with old friends and new; there are never enough sales to make ends meet at these fairs but it is these contacts and exchanges that make it worthwhile.

On the way home we stayed with an old friend in Wells; in fact she taught me ceramics a long time ago
www.blackdogofwells.com
she gave me a wonderful tray of type, so I am off to play with that now....

Back from BABE

2009-04-06T11:44:00.000-07:00

Just back from BABE at Bristol, a happy event and lots of nice new contacts made. I'll be consulting my notebook and probably adding some links to this blog soon......

Meanwhile........

this image is one I have done for my printmaking group - Paddock Printmakers - new book about Tom Paine in Lewes for the Festival celebrating 200 years since his death ( should we be celebrating his death? doesn't seem right, but any excuse for festivities.......)
go to
http://paddockprints.wordpress.com
to get an update to what is happening
and further details about my group ( very different from my own usual stuff )
The Festival runs from 4th July to the 14th July - two revolutionary dates - but our exhibition at Pelham House runs through most of July and August.
There should be a link to the Tom Paine Festival on that site too

The small anteroom in Westgate Chapel is my favourite room in Lewes; it is right next to the Bull House where Tom Paine lived for 6 years, and you can still almost breathe 18th century air in it; it is very peaceful and you can feel it calming you down. I wanted to try and make a woodcut of the air!
He was a non-conformist and took his wedding vows here , but they had to be repeated in the established church over the road - St Michaels - to be legal.
Anyway - you will soon be able to read all about it in our book - with digital reproductions of about 25 of the group's prints ( woodcuts, lino, collagraphs and drypoints ); if you want to reserve a copy , let me know before we go to print in May, as we only print a very limited edition and they sell fast; you can leave comments/ask price , on the Paddock Prints blogsite.

ps - a link to a Lorca site of special beauty

2009-03-28T14:35:00.000-07:00

http://bluehourcollective.blogspot.com/
thanks for the comment

Apologies to my commenters

2009-03-28T14:17:00.000-07:00

I have now realised I should actually check whether anyone has commented on my blog - am being made aware that people actually look and read it, and also found out how to reply! is there any end to my technological capabilities.....
so many apologies and thanks to those nice people who have tried to get in touch - check out the comments bits now, and I'll try to do better in future....

Next round of Venues

2009-03-26T13:41:00.000-07:00

I have been very remiss about keeping this up to date.
BABE - the Artists Book Fair at the Arnolfini, is almost upon us.
As usual I have been busy keeping my head above water printing up older work and books for orders, while chafing at wanting to get on with new; trying to run the two in tandem AND try and tidy up a bit and improve my working space. The litho press is going to have to go; if you want one , get in touch.

BABE is at the Anolfini in Bristol, 4th and 5th April 10-5pm both days
www.arnolfini.org.uk
I'll be showing the new books I finished in January.

Then I am also showing work in the Brighton Festival, from the 24th April - 24th May
- at weekends at 3 Surrenden Road ( 7 at 3) Open House
and also in Selectors Choice at the Regency Town House
www.brightonfestival.orgfor further details and times.

I have posted up above some images from And Other Fairy Tales - I'm afraid they will read in back to front order as I always forget that is how they upload, so if you like your stories logical, start from the bottom, but as half of them are missing it doesn't really matter. The strange thing about this book was that I made all the right hand images ( reduction cuts - no going back ) before I found my text, an anonymous folk song/tale - it just fitted so perfectly. And of course there is a cross over of a kind with the Falcon Bride.

To prove we got there.......

2009-02-09T15:50:00.001-08:00

....many thanks to Martyn Ould of the Old School Press for taking this picture for me.

Books finished for Works on Paper Fair

2009-02-03T12:54:00.000-08:00

AND OTHER FAIRY TALES is finished ; and also a new Falcon Bride Book...
some images at random from THE FALCON BRIDE.....

Wet Block!

2009-01-22T11:59:00.000-08:00

COVERED at the Works on Paper Fair - only two weeks to go....

2009-01-19T13:20:00.000-08:00

Carolyn Trant and Peter Chasseaud

request the pleasure of your company at the
Watercolours and Drawings Fair

Parvenu Press and Altazimuth Press
join together to invite you to see their Artists Books
At ‘COVERED’ – part of the Works on Paper Fair
www.worksonpaperfair.com

4 - 8 February 2009

New venue
COVENT GARDEN London
The Flowers Cellars, 4-6 Russell Street
Covent Garden WC 2B 5HZ

Thurs: 11 am – 9 pm
Fri: 11 am – 8 pm
Sat: 11 am – 8 pm
Sun: 11 am – 5.30 pm

Carolyn will be showing her new book – And Other Fairy Tales
see images on previous posting

The book is nearly all printed so should be on course for being bound in time - I'll be as curious as anyone to see what it is like - wet pages are all around me so I haven't seen it all together yet; Im living dangerously as usual and just printing it as I go along.

And Other Fairy Tales - New work for the Work on Paper Fair

2008-12-12T05:25:00.000-08:00

here are a few images of finished pages of the new book I hope to have finished for the Work on Paper Fair at the beginnign of February
nb I see it is to be held at the Flower Cellars, not Sellers! - new venue anyway...

I shall have to finish it now;
they are woodcuts using a new type of wood and a new paper ( size of page is 12 X 16 inches ) and I am overprinting and trying to work in a free and dangerous way.
it has a good ferocious text too.....

SIX - Open House at 6 Clifton Street Brighton

2008-12-04T08:22:00.000-08:00

I shall be showing books and prints at 6 Clifton Street Brighton, just near the Station, as part of the Christmas Open House Trail, for the first two weekends of December - 12 midday until 6.
Sorry - don't seem to be able to upload the flier!
After that
as part of 'Covered' at the Work on Paper Fair, The Flower Sellers, Covent Garden ( the old Theatre Museum )at the beginning of February - 5th-8th.
More details later.....

50 Years of Curwen

2008-11-09T09:43:00.000-08:00

Some very old images....

I went to the talk at the Tate given by Stanley Jones, Paula Rego and Alan Powers last week, to accompany the display celebrating 50 years of the Curwen Press in Tate Britain and the new book by Alan Powers. It was great seeing Stanley as usual, and his public reminiscences were fascinating and suddenly put everything in perspective and answered questions I had never quite got around to consciously formulating.
Paula was wonderful at keeping things real with her practical approach, and fun. She re-iterated what I always felt about the Slade – you went to work with Stanley because he respected what it was you wanted to do, be it narrative or in any other way not the flavour of the month, and to get away from all that wretched dot-to-dotting in the painting studios.
I just slipped into lithography because I was working in the corridor next door; I was really doing woodcuts and trying to learn Japanese processes with the help of Lynton Lamb, who was unfortunately soon to retire; ( he got me the job teaching wood engraving at Heatherleys to make ends meet). ( And I was hand printing wallpapers at night in Peggy Angus’s studio in Mornington Crescent with lino blocks..)
When I left the Slade I was approached by Stephen Reiss, who I now know had just taken on being the new Managing Director of Curwen Prints in 1975, to make two lithographs for the new venture Royal Academy Graphics , to be sold through the other new development – Business Art Gallery, upstairs at the RA, which was to be a sort of showcase for Curwen.( Eventually it moved to Windmill Street near the old Curwen Gallery .)
I can’t remember which came first, him starting to sell my tempera paintings in the RA Gallery or the commission for the prints; he really just wanted them to be in the same style as the paintings – not necessarily what I would have chosen to do but I lacked confidence to protest, and in any was not going to jeopardise the chance of working with Stanley again in the Studio at Midford Place.
Living as I was in the depths of the countryside with, at that point, two young children, it was bliss to be back working in London. I never had the time to get together another whole show of paintings for the New Grafton Gallery ( where I had my first one-woman in 1974 ) and continued to dribble them out through the BAG Gallery for some years.
Working in Midford Place was wonderful and the technicians were really helpful and a joy to work with. It is often quite difficult to work outside your own studio surroundings, but Stanley somehow made it seem very comfortable and you felt very well supported and cosseted. It was a very good experience ( even tho I absent-mindedly left all my artist proofs in a shop in Oxford street, and only realised on the train on the way home ; I let out a scream as we pulled out of Clapham Junction and had to get out E Croydon and go all the way back to try and find them – amazingly despite it being the time of bomb scares ( IRA?) they were still there against the counter….they were worth quite a sum of money to me and were part of my ‘wages’).
Over ten years later, I bought my own huge litho press – a 9 foot long, two ton DEFA – and tried to go it alone, first in the Star Brewery studios, and then when the business rate made things impossible, back at home in my kitchen.
I did a lot of lithographs, from drawings when I came back from Guatemala in 1987 and then when I was doing the long archaeological project – Rituals and Relics around 1989-92. See images above.
Reading Alan’s book put a lot of things in a wider perspective; when you are younger you don’t realise what you are part of, you just presume everyone has been doing these things for ages; in the same way I didn’t realise until I read David Wolfer’s obituary, that I was one of the first batch to exhibit at the New Grafton Gallery’s new premises. I wish I had known earlier that Stanley was tutored by Ceri Richards, or that Keith Vaughn was still teaching at the Slade when I was there and presumably still walking around somewhere in its labyrinthine corridors.
Perhaps I was just particularly vague and distracted; but the Slade was a very vague and distracting place.

So – three wonderful shows in the space of a week; the Eileen Agar at Pallant House, the Maeght exhibition at the RA, and the Tate Britain display. I feel really invigorated.
Entering the Sackler Galleries was magical – a feeling I had not had since the Matisse paper cut-outs in the textile exhibition.. Braque I have loved for ever, everything he does; Miro I get to love more and more; Giacometti was the first big exhibition I really remember going to as a teenager at the Tate – in the sixties? – and always brings back that time to me – I saw a wonderful collection of his early work in Basel a few years ago too, small and white and surreal and playful, before the larger figures.; Calder is a name I know well from writing the Peggy book – they were friends and he borrowed her studio to make a collection of work for an early exhibition; and there was the famous Calder ‘hand’ toilet holder in the privy at Furlongs which disappeared and was replaced by a copy. I had written about the toys he gave Peggy’s children – and could suddenly see what they must have been like. The exhibition was so beautifully laid out and the juxtapositions were so lovely of the different media; and it was great seeing the little video clips of them all with their friends.
I feel very guilty, because I went round a lot of new galleries in the East End with my eldest son the weekend before, hoping to find this sort of excitement, but not really getting there. Is it me or the work? I feel peculiar finding these particular shows of old stuff much fresher, particularly the Agar which includes a lot of things that haven’t been seen much before.

New Work and Old

2008-11-02T12:13:00.000-08:00

These are some new miniature 'Winterreise's that I've been doing for the Open House Show in Brighton...

Here are some pages from the books of old cut up prints....

Here's what I have really been doing - finishing printing my own copy of Lorca's Sonnets of Dark Love at last, there were a few texts still to do.

Thoughts from the Small Publishers Fair etc

2008-10-27T15:06:00.000-07:00

I'm using the excuse of having just come back from this fair at the Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, to get back into writing this blog. I should of course have advertised it beforehand, but I wasn't actually exhibiting, just supporting Altazimuth ( and he was on the computer getting his stuff ready ).
I must say it was great having time to be a punter ( even tho I rushed off to Chichester on the first afternoon for the PV of the Eileen Agar show at Pallant House - which is a really exciting exhibition, on until 15 March 09 )
www.pallant.org.uk
Altazimuth was next to Atlantic press and they were lovely neighbours; they publish works by first time authors of graphic literature. They had some good Grimms Fairy Tales. www.atlanticpressbooks.com
On the other side was Perro Verlag from Canada - Mayne Island off the west coast
www.perroverlag.com
-we had some good talks about why we do what we do.
I always love RedFoxPress and Antic-Ham
www.Antic-Ham.com
-fantastic screen-printed books and collaged stuff in rich colourful abundance.
And on Morning Star Publications I was really pleased to find the book and CD of the piece I liked so much at an otherwise very lacklustre Haywood show last year. It's called Journey to the Lower World by Marcus Coates and I thought it had a strange integrity that hovered on lots of interesting boundaries; I can't wait to see it again after a passage of time.
www.platformprojects.org
www.alecfinlay.com
and I liked some of Alec's projects too.
Road Books - Judy Kraus and Peter Morgan - had a really beautiful book on their stand too - Pages from the Powder Magazine;" Rimbaud's explosive inner life among the cryptic rocks of West Cork"....
www.roadbooks.ie

What am I doing?
I actually found a bit I had written a few weeks ago just now when cleaning up my files trying to answer this question
but I have since got back to just carrying on doing things, cutting up old prints again and re-arranging them into little books, very therapeutic, destroying to create and all that
I keep going off at a tangent from my main lines of thought but sometimes you just need to do that...
I'm exhibiting at Judy Stevens Open House in Clifton Street Brighton for the first two weekends of December
and I've booked in for the next Bristol Book Fair next April
otherwise I am just cracking on

So What is it I’m doing….

It is said that the people in it who are most happy are those who can exercise some measure of control in their lives and workplaces.
Books are complex concepts and structures, and often used as a metaphor for a world. Making books is a supreme act of attempted control, even though, like the world, books can take on a life of their own. When things get out of control it’s exciting, like going to a new place.

Events Coming Up

2008-08-04T07:32:00.000-07:00

The end of August is the start of Lewes's ArtWave Festival with exhibitions all over town.
You can check it out at www.artwavefestival.org
This year my Paddock Printmakers group is exhibiting in the newly named 'Hop Gallery' ( F4 in the ArtWave brochure ) - this used to be the Star Gallery and is situated in the old Star Brewery, now craft workshops, off Fisher street near Lewes Town Hall - where I had my Falcon Bride exhibition last year.
Dates - September 4th - 16thIt's open every day from 10a.m. until 5p.m. and we'll be showing prints - including woodcuts and wood engravings, lino cuts, acrylic drypoints, collagraphs and monoprints, and cards and a 2009 calendar of pubs in Lewes from our hardback publication we made last year called Public House.
We'll also hope to be showing some blocks and tools to illustrate how some of the prints were made.
This year all the wood engravers from my group have had their work accepted by the Society of wood Engravers for their annual exhibition at the Bankside Gallery, which starts I think after 24th september - the Society wanted to make a feature this year of work by classes around the country, so our group were persuaded to enter for the first time.
our website at present is
http://lewespublichouse.blogspot.com
or you can contact us on - pprints.f@ukonline.co.uk

Meanwhile I am exhibiting work with my good friend Judith Kazantzis at her house
32 St Anne's Crescent, Lewes
on the weekends August 23/24 and 30/31 from 12noon until 6p.m
Judith wrote the poetry for my book 'The Garden of Earthly Delights' and a copy of this will be on display, and also a copy of my first book 'Gawain' ( both sadly all long sold out ). Our prints and paintings will include images from this, some new smaller books I have made up out of the proofs and offcuts of the prints, and some examples of new work in progress.
Judith makes a lot of exciting monoprints and it should be a lively show and an opportunity to show things that are too difficult to exhibit in a gallery.
her website is
www.judithkazantzis.com
The house can be found at the top of the town, straight up the High Street all the way to the prison - on foot St Anne's is parallel to Western road beyond St Anne's Church; by car , enter via the prison crossroads.
bus - get off at Lewes Prison and just cross the road.
train - its a 15 minute walk up from the station.

Metroland

2008-08-04T05:49:00.001-07:00

I went back to the house where I was born last week.
It must be 40 years since I last ventured to Metroland and much was surprisingly unchanged.
At Baker Street, the old wooden clattering boards showing the destinations of the Metropolitan Line had gone, but original bits of signage and furniture survive, or are at least in the original style.

After Harrow-on-the-Hill, where the new blocks and offices were as I expected, West Harrow is still re-assuringly scruffy; there seem plenty of green fields and allotments flourishing, and hopefully too the swimming baths where we went once a week if the water temperature was over 56 degrees F.

Rayners Lane felt so familiar and the station architecture did not disappoint. One exit is now blocked off but the two round-ended kiosks – newsagents/confectionary and shoe repairs respectively, could have looked the same in the fifties. There were no new tall buildings in sight. The old, Art Deco, Odeon Cinema is now a Zoroastrian Temple,

( http://www.mawgrim.sathosting.net/cavalcade/raynerslane2.jpg and 3jpg to see how it used to look )
but it still EXISTS with its elephant trunk façade, unlike the other glamorous 30’s cinemas I remember - the Langham in Pinner, now site of Lidl, the Astoria and Rivoli in Ruislip, the Rex in Northwood Hills – I can’t remember in which a ceiling fell down a week after I had been to see a film.
Or the Embassy in North Harrow, the foyer of which my grandmother hired for my mother’s fifth birthday ( grandfather was a commercial artist and doing well in the thirties – he did a lot of drawing for Liberty’s ); great-grandad was a member of the Inner Magic Circle and provided the entertainment, involving eggs cracked into bowler hats which changed miraculously into chocolate Neapolitans for the children ( his birthday presents to everyone always came out of ears or cuffs with many flourishes and delays…”Oh please stop messing around and just give it to me PLEASE…” ).

The bungalow in Rayners Lane, purchased new in 1932 for £750 ( including garage ), and where at least 8 members of my family lived together during the war, looked awfully small now – squashed against a slightly bigger one next door ( source of the pass-me-down leather Clarks T-strap sandals with the toes-cut-out-to-eke-out-another-summer)( remember the lethal wooden X-ray machines to measure our feet in the shoe-shop? Its amazing what we have survived….).
The interior of this tiny box was once covered with my grandfather’s murals and I was born there exactly mid-century. I remember photos of Mum in her donkey-coloured two-piece, wide hat and veil ‘The New Look’ and then the voluminous 50’s skirts which could lie in a complete circle on the floor, from which eventually my home-made dresses were cut all through my childhood.
The Broadway up to the station now has a sprinkling of saris among the hardware and bargain stores; the Woolworth’s is in the same place but the ‘milk bar’ I so longed to be allowed to frequent is now a gloriously gaudy Hindu wedding ceremony supplier.

When I was 3 we moved up the road to Eastcote ….”where each new, brighter, Metroland house was slightly different from the rest…” certainly the case in our patchwork street of semi-d’s; and where the height of early 1960’s chic was the Marinka coffee bar where you could get a glass of Coca Cola with a twist of lemon and brown sugar round the rim of the glass, if you could lose your parents long enough. Mummy had her tennis friends round for iced coffee on the swing-seat in the garden, with multi coloured sugar crystals (in a sugar bowl), which I would steal and offer as a libation to the fairies at the end of the very reasonably sized garden, (one of Betjamen’s ‘fairy dingles’ maybe.)

In Eastcote too the Woolworths was still in position. And the P.O. The Fish-and-Chippy had a very new look but seemed roughly in the right place, and some of the other shops too – stationer, sweetshop, newsagents; though not the Express Dairy on the corner ( now a newsagent ) - Eastcote’s first attempt at a ‘Supermarket’, where you could actually choose and pick up your own stuff from shelves and freezer, and take it to the till – unlike the floridly tiled Sainsbury’s with its porky smell of ham and pies and strong cheddar, where young women with white muslin hairnets served you in a strange and unfathomable and time-consuming Russian-style system of separate queuing.
It was outside the Express Dairy that I absent-mindedly walked into a lamppost, very hard, in a thunderstorm, and my mother picked up the hailstones and clapped them to my swelling brow – I still have a slight lump over my right eyebrow……

The little department store for fabrics and haberdashery has vanished without trace, and the two tiny single story coal-suppliers offices, once with their lace curtains and particular warm coke-y smell and sacks of anthracite like a demented squirrel’s hoard of nuts, are now supplying some sort of windows and taxi cabs respectively.
The Ideal Cinema in Field End Road was never an architectural gem. Known locally as the ‘Bug Hutch’, it was wood or half timbered I think; I remember it’s passing in my early teens and its rapid replacement with a small ugly ‘office block’. My mother, who was still in her very early teens when I was 3, was desperate to see ‘Mogambo’ (‘Passion’ in Swahili apparently ) - a florid tale set in Africa, with Ava Gardiner and Clark Gable - so she took me along too to the matinee. It was the first film I ever saw and I still remember the first scene as we groped our way to our seats in the dark – it was of course halfway through the film as for some reason no-one ever checked the times before going or worried about starting at the beginning, you could stay and watch films through several times without attracting the usherette and her torch.
Come to think of it, I always thought my Mum looked a bit like Ava Gardiner, all glossy black wavy hair and very red lipstick.
Crossing to bits of Ruislip or Pinner without going back to Harrow on the train meant long walks which we made without complaint, I don’t remember buses. I walked miles aged 3 for dancing classes and the library in Pinner.
This time my partner and I went by train and the station, half old and country-clapboarded and half new where the main line has been screened off, was not particularly familiar so I’m sure we always walked. But Pinner looks just the same, still remains of the rural village and Helen Allingham-y charms.

Unlike Eastcote, and Rayners Lane it has attracted the posh chains to its old High Street buildings – Pizza Express and Café Rouge Next to the old tea rooms where I remember being taken for a Horlicks (“…I told you you wouldn’t like it…”) , still a cosy, half timbered restaurant. The charity shop test says it all – paperbacks here the usual £2.50, in Eastcote I noticed they were only 50p – I didn’t dare test my partners patience by continuing researches in Rayners Lane….

In which cinema did I see The Young Ones? – it was filmed nearby at Ruislip Lido where we made occasional trips for the pedalos.
I searched for the Pinner library of my nostalgic dreams, home of my love affair with books (there weren’t many in the house at home). In my memory it is always an autumn dusk and I’m walking the 2-3 miles scrunching through dry leaves. I know we are nearly there when we pass the dress shop called ‘Carol Ann’ and my mother says she wanted to call me that, but then my initials would have spelled CAT – to my infant consciousness this doesn’t seem to be a particular problem. The library is a tiny prefab of 2-3 rooms – one for children where the librarian reads stories – with a particular warm yellow light from a primitive source, and a very particular smell of primitive heating, paraffin stove?? oil heater?? ( Northwick Park Station waiting room smelt very similar and I often used to change trains there just to savour it…) It is a fairy tale hut right by the River Pinn and a small bridge…
The bridge is still there, and a tiny strip of park with a couple of benches, but I am assured that the library has always been the solid building near the station, but I’ve checked with my mother and I know I am right. Thank Goodness I still don’t look old enough to be remembering that far back.

Later, Eastcote got its own two storey brick library with serious non-fiction upstairs that would put many larger ones now to shame. It was also open well into the evening , with tables and chairs, so you could sit and do your homework there after tea with no rush and panic.

I apologise for this indulgent excursion into my suburban past, but it does suddenly seem to be all in the air. I had made my impromptu trip before I was told that John Betjamen’s wonderful documentary ‘Metroland’ was about to be televised on an evening all about London’s Underground.
I watched it transfixed. All my topics were there – although he followed the Pinner, Watford and Rickmansworth lines as they push further towards the real countryside. My branch ended at Uxbridge but I often stayed on the wrong train after Harrow just for the hell of it.
I spent two hours every day on the Metropolitan and Bakerloo lines to get to school – a chance for an awful lot of reading ( and endless no-good ) – hence my fascination to return to the well-beaten platforms.
Within 5 minutes Betjamen had mentioned the Pinner and Ruislip wives shopping in Liberty’s – cue my grandfather. He had answered my query about the nameless station next to St John’s Wood that we flashed through last week – it was Marlborough Road.
He’d reminded me of lawn mowing, radio request programs, and car washing ( once a lucrative little industry of mine in our street); and even shown us the crazy man who built his house round the Mighty Wurlitzer. Among other things in his varied musical career, my father played this very organ in Leicester Square ( my mother saw all the films back-to-front in her courting days). He used to be pumped up on his flashy little stand and pound his way up and down the keys, stops and pedals – he was quite a small man so this involved a lot of shifting around to get in reach. He knew this house and its owner well.
In our house in Eastcote there were eventually two pianos and an organ in the room under where I slept, and often a lot of singers as well, including my mother – whose repertoire I used to sing at the top of my lungs in the back garden at an early age ( poor neighbours – I used to stretch over the fence and eat their raspberries too…)

So now here I am ….Hate organs. Love singing. Love film.
Have made a start at coming to terms with being born in Rayners Lane.

Will now post more sensible details about what I am doing next.

Mythologies

2008-07-08T11:21:00.000-07:00

I'm away from base at the moment, so no pics.
A second grandson Bill arrived at the end of last month, so that's wonderful.
Meanwhile I have ( along with a lot of other people I know ) had the most awful summer flu, which doesn't see to want to go away. With 4 big projects on the go the timing couldn't be worse.
In between bouts of deathbed coughing I have been reading a lot... always an upside of being ill.
Greatly enjoyed 'Motherland - a Philosophical History of Russia' by Lesley Chamberlain; it answered all sorts of questions vaguely circulating in the back of my mind; and always good to revisit and reconsider the possibilities of how we might try to organise the way we live a little better.
Am now re-reading, yet again, Schama's 'Landscape and Memory', such a satisfying book. He gives a wonderful background and vindication of Anselm Kiefer ( another of my heroes ), and indeed for the whole process of meddling in mythology.

"...The real problem - what we might call the Kiefer syndrome - is whether it is possible to take myth seriously on its own terms, and to respect its coherence and complexity, without becoming morally blinded by its poetic power.
...without either losing ourselves altogether in total immersion or else rendering the subject 'safe' by the usual eviscerations of Western empirical analysis.
Of one thing at least I am certain: that not to take myth seriously in the life of am ostensibly 'disenchanted' culture like our own is actually to impoverish our understanding of our shared world....."

...this after a couple of hundred pages on trees - fantastic; which brings me to Perceval/Parzival. My co-worker on this project, James Simpson ( who I worked with on 'Hunting the Wren' ) has just been awarded second prize in the Agenda/Thomas Hardy poetry competition; many congratulations to him.

No LAB at the ICA this year ( so a bit of a breathing space ); it is re-opening next year at the newly refurbished and expanded Whitechapel Gallery, at the end of September. I'm a great fan of the Whitechapel - it has really interesting exhibitions - so I'm very much looking forward to that.

Meanwhile, still trying to stop coughing.....

PRESS and RELEASE - Book Fair pics

2008-05-24T11:46:00.000-07:00

Fun Day, fun show.
Picture at top is my stand; others are of the display of some of my Carnival books in the main show - you've one week left to see this ( closed mondays ).

The Garden of Earthly Delights

2008-05-23T10:55:00.000-07:00

See it at the Press and Release Book fair saturday 24th 11 - 5....

Doesn't it look nice in French....

2008-05-20T15:10:00.000-07:00

PARADIGME /COMPTOIR INTERNATIONAL DU LIVRE D'ARTISTE CONTEMPORAIN
Centre de Ressources pour l'Edition de Création.
jeudi au samedi, 15H à 19H et sur RDV le reste de la semaine.
Rens: 04 91 33 20 80
bookaffair@wanadoo.fr
www.atelier-vis-à-vis.org
41 rue Clovis Hugues
13003 Marseille

"MAI DU LIVRE D'ARTISTE À LA BELLE DE MAI".
Du 9 mai au 31 Mai 2008
Exposition Internationale de Livres d'Artiste Contemporains .
Allemagne- Belgique- Canada- Grande-Bretagne- France- Hongrie- Italie-
Pays-Bas- Russie- USA.
Avec la participation de:
Stephan Weitzel (D)- Vicky Roux (B)- Geohew Ink Press (CDN)- Derek Cowan
(CDN)- Parvenu Press (GB)- Reassemble Press (GB)- Atelier de La Dolve (F)-
Atelier Vis-à-Vis (F)- Coco Texedre (F)- Istvan Damo (H)- Ilona Kiss (H)-
Marcello Diotallevi (I)- Franco Magro (I)- Collectif Knust (NL)- Recycling
Press (RUS)- Beata Wehr (USA).
Un éventail de créations internationales dans le champs du livre d'artiste
contemporain.

Brighton: ARTISTS BOOK FAIR at the Phoenix Gallery

2008-05-20T08:54:00.000-07:00

This is part of the PRESS and RELEASE exhibition currently on at the Phoenix, and takes place from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday 24th May. Peter and I will have separate stands and have both been working hard to come up with something new in time; a lot of my stuff seems to be out and about at the moment and big new stuff still unfinished. I apparently have 'My Mackerel Lover' exhibited in Marseilles at the moment; pity I couldn't manage the PV.
I'll put up some pics of the new smalls when I finish them ( probably friday!) - I've been tidying up and got down to several archaeological layers of prints on my big press, and found lots of bits of prints from 'The Garden of Earthly Delights' that I have had fun re-assembling into little theatrical booklets with overlapping pages; as the big book was so popular ( but expensive and limited in edition )
I hope these will be a cheaper alternative for those who liked that book.
The show in Brighton is great fun as it has been very cleverly and excitingly arranged, so I am looking forward to a day in Brighton in Festival Time and seeing other exhibitors and their work.

Meanwhile, the day symposium at the V&A was a lovely experience - great to meet lots of heads of Arts Libraries ( especially in the pub afterwards on a glorious summer evening before it got cold again ).
The Blood on Paper show has some fantastic work in it, wonderful Kiefer, Tapies, and Chinese exploding books. Don't miss the Certain Trees exhibition upstairs - tucked away and badly advertised, in room 74 - concrete poetry and Ian hamilton Finlay and others - lots to look at there; and I also loved the Collaborations exhibiton full of stage designs and mini sets, lots of ideas there too.

The USA prints from Hopper to Pollack in the prints and drawings room at the British Museum is also a fabulous exhibition; masses of good stuff, good labels with printmaking details and further explanations in the excellent catalogue. Over the last few years there have been some really stunning shows here - and they're free so you can keep going and going. I'm delighted to see the show is coming to Brighton next spring, so I can keep on going for some time.
Enjoyed the 1968 prints at the Hayward too.

Reading-wise - I've enjoyed the new biography of O G S Crawford immensely - absolutely fascinating; it's called Bloody Old Britain and by Kitty Hauser, whom we met a couple of years ago when she was writing it and wanted to talk to Peter about aerial photography. We went to the launch in the Colony Room which was interesting - sadly due to relocate apparently - will never be the same. I fantasized as to whether Peggy Angus might have met OGS on a boat to Russia in 32/3 and what they might have said to each other; Kitty's research would have been really useful context when I was writng Art for Life.
I went to a show in South Heighton - part of the outer Brighton festival trail -
and went in to see Ursula Mommens, now 99, and had a wonderful chat, and came away feeling very nostalgic; the sense of time arrested and the pictures on the walls in Grange Farm, and the smell of the first cow parsley - that I always associate with going down to Furlongs in the spring ( the close contact with weeds and nettles on the way to the Elsan bucket, the incredible lushness after the dryness of London streets )and the extraordinary conversations one has with people who have lived such a long time, have such amazing memories and stories, and have moved into an almost beatific limbo-land where near is far and far near, was very special. It also made me angry - that old people are often not appreciated in current society and that their lives are often so difficult, despite all our 'progress'; and leading on from that , how family unfriendly everything is as well, women and children and working life and fathers........will it ever get sorted - but that's another story; all the big issues in the news seem to be asking the wrong questions which will have the wrong answers.

Press and Release

2008-04-08T06:34:00.000-07:00

PHOENIX GALLERY ; BRIGHTON
PRESS AND RELEASE - 26 April - 7 June
Tues - Sat 11 - 5
'A celebration of Artists Books and independent publishing.....'
I have some small pieces of work in this exhibition and look forward to seeing it.
www.phoenixarts.org
I am also talking at the ARLIS Artists Books Workshop at the V&A on 9th May which accompanies two exhibitions just about to start there - 'Blood on Paper' and 'Certain Trees, the Constructed Book, Poem and Object 1964 - 2006'.
see the NAL web pages about artists book:
http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/prints books/features/artists books/index.htmlor BL web pages
http://www.bl.uk/collections/britirish/modbrifin.html

It's April already....

2008-04-02T07:38:00.000-07:00

....and the work piles up
literally
It's been a difficult year so far, lots of time spent looking after ailing members of my family, alternated with spurts of activity done with a disconnected head and hand ( often an interesting alternative way to work ).
I am trying to get to grips with using allergy free and benign Japanese plywood, rather than my favourite old rough, packaging plywood that I used to enjoy hacking away at with my scalpel. I am trying out using gouges on the softer wood ( less sharp knife-work) in a very free manner and making reduction prints with several layers of colour ( and without working much out in advance ).
I have also bought a new supply of wonderful hemp paper from Khadi; it is a good size for folding into a book page, either in 2, or especially in 4, which makes the best use of my (not particularly large ) etching press ( 18" wide with an extra long -40"- bed provided for me by John at Rollaco).
The smooth hemp paper means I can now print the woodcuts with the press without the texture indenting the blocks like good old Nepalese loktar J4; I must say my spooning hand is relieved about this development.
I have just read a quote from Hilary Peplar talking about his Stanhope Press '...when man first discovers how to make anything, that thing which he makes is good....' - I am not sure I am taking it the way he is thinking but I do find I am always excited about changinfg my way of working and new materials, there is an excitement in the battle which supercedes all other aeshetic considerations and in a way that makes 'good' or 'bad' irrelevant.
I read this quote in a wonderful new book by the (sadly) late Peter Holliday 'Edward Johnston; Master Calligrapher' - brought to fruition after his death by his sister Susan Skinner and published by the British Library and Oak Knoll Press.
I went to the launch at the Ditchling Museum, where there were several members of the Ditchling Craft Community , and enjoyed various discussions about why we do what we do.It was a bit like arguing with Peggy (Angus) all over again.
The previous day I had been to the opening of an exhibition of drawings by Peter de Francia at Charleston. The handout was a reprint of something Norbert Lynton had written in 2004. he quotes de Francia writing in 1984 -
'One of the most deep-rooted prejudices that this country suffers from is that of a profound aversion to philosophical concepts of any kind and notably to such concepts forming the basis of either the structures of culture or systems upon which critical theory can be founded ....Amongst practitioners and critics the very notion of art having a direct relationship to politics or sociology invokes responses close to panic or incredulity.'
I am still thinking about that one.
Norbert reckoned the English ...'can take the rough art and smooth, wild and pacific, decent and indecent, and yesterday's shock horror sensation is today's norm, but we will not put up with art that says anything significant, art that troubles our minds.'
Probably.

I am still making books about the Falcon Bride....
here she is passing through the kitchen studio - the photographs are by kind permission of Judith Kazantzis who took them when she last came round for a meal.

correction; correct blog address

2008-03-07T07:06:00.000-08:00

http://www.bertramrota.blogspot.com

It's March already

2008-03-05T02:35:00.000-08:00

It's March already and I am far too busy trying to get some work finished to blog; but Nancy Campbell has written some kind words about my work on the Bertram Rota blog, with lots of pictures, so I'll put the link in here
http://bertramrota.blogspot.com
There are also plenty of negotiations going on for interesting projects for the next 12 months, of which more anon.

Post Work on Paper Fair

2008-02-18T08:40:00.000-08:00

Here was the stand at the Work on Paper Fair.

It was over a couple of weeks ago and the year seems to be rushing on and I am still dealing with the backlog from it; still trying to finish the work I failed to finish for it and pick up the threads of my thoughts, while longing to get on with something new - new/old in my case, my Irish book I wrote in Donegal 2 years ago.

Still, the Fair was fun and lots of nice contacts made and I'm sure these fallow periods must have their uses. I've stocked up on lots of wonderful paper. Last week got side tracked by an interview with BBC Scotland for a program about Peggy Angus - very strange to be back at Camden Studios where I was printing wallpapers for her 40 years ago. I also met a very nice architect, David Wild, who had bought a piece of my work - loved his book and collages "Fragments of Utopia ; collage reflections of heroic modernism" - Hyphen Press; and went to see the Rodchenko photographs at the Haywood, and was fascinated by the video of the shamanistic performance in the Liverpool block of flats in the show downstairs.

This week I've been interviewed for a big book on printmaking being published next year and I'm seeing a gallery in Hampstead who is interested in my work.

The Designer Bookbinders have written up a resume of the talk I gave before Christmas, and said I can publish it on my blog. I'm still thinking about the last paragraph and wondering how I can organise a Falcon Bridal Boat Burning ceremony on the river without them sinking like a stone too soon.

"When I asked Carolyn for a copy of her lecture notes for my review there was a pause before she admitted that she didn’t intend to use notes. Her lecture would be ‘off the cuff’, prompted by the images. This turned out to be the underlying theme of Carolyn’s talk; how the artist produces pieces prompted by the images in their heads and shaped by the materials they use.
The images Carolyn showed for inspiration were a mixture of her own work and pieces by other people which she liked. They included work by William Blake, perhaps the first book artist, with his illustrations and hand written text, Dadaist work using found objects and rough paper collages and Dimitry Sayenko prints on 1930s magazines and newspapers.
Having originally studied painting at the Slade, Carolyn began experimenting with egg tempera on gesso, beginning her move away from two dimensional works towards the physical experience of making.
The introduction of hand made papers from India and Nepal began her involvement with artist’s books, the variations in size and surface texture worked well with the large grainy wood cuts she had started to make and her development of simple binding techniques produced tactile and organic books.
The first of these books was ‘Gawain’; a large soft cover binding with hand cut lettering and bold images in black, red and green. As the story takes place in a year and a day, Carolyn completed the book in the same period of time. The book works superbly as a whole and won 1st prize for the complete book in the Society of Bookbinders Competition in 1997.
One of the problems with artist’s books is how to display them to a large audience. Carolyn attempted to address this during a residency in Lewes. The Apocalyptic Book of Lewes was produced with the local community, incorporating their ideas and anecdotes. To enable it to be viewed as a whole, it was displayed as posters hung from a line
From this Carolyn moved on to producing installation pieces, literally stories in boxes. The first of these was Bluebeards Castle, seven solander boxes with constructed tableaux and text in each representing the seven doors to the castle.
Another, Beauty and the Beast, contains a miniature dressing table in a forest with drawers that open revealing tableaux of miniature objects. The text is bound in two small books, which slot in beside the dressing table. The materials too are relevant, found objects have a story, which adds to the text and inspires the design, for example an old biker jacket bought from a charity shop is used for the covering material.
With musicians as parents, music has always been very important in Carolyn’s life and in Winterreise she used the songs of Schubert as inspiration for her own text.
She likens creating artist’s books to performing music; each performance is different, although the score (or text) remains the same. The artist’s text, on transparent Japanese paper, overlays extracts from the Schubert song cycle, to make a palimpsest or dialogue with the past creation. The collagraph images and text were all made from recycled packaging. The cover of the book is made from formed white paper pulp, making a soft and fragile binding.
The final set of images were of Carolyn’s latest and largest project, which took her work as far from the Livre D’Artist concept as possible. The Falcon Bride is a story within a room, ‘a room-sized book’ based on ideas gathered during a visit to Krakow; it incorporates hand-painted books, prints, made and found objects, reworked photographs, model boats and a wicker mannequin ‘Bride’.
It brings together many of the ideas and techniques she has used in previous projects into a theatrical space where the viewer can linger and physically explore the presentation, removing the barriers of the two dimensional page.
During her talk Carolyn encouraged us to think of books outside the normal flat folded sheet format. Her work is tactile, adventurous, inventive and shows that books do not have to be precious, delicate objects hidden in boxes and cases.
As a contentious discussion opener she quoted a Today programme considering whether the climate changes in our planet should affect our view of permanence and posterity. Should we worry about the longevity of artefacts? - might our attitudes to artefacts change, the emphasis shift to embracing decay and enjoying them in the here and now. Carolyn’s view was that as an artist, considering the nature of the materials she was using, and recycling found objects and organic materials, was as important as leaving a record of ideas for the future."

Rachel Ward-Sale for Designer Bookbinders

A new Hunting the Wren picture

2008-01-04T06:12:00.001-08:00

see Modern Works on Paper Fair below.......

Watercolours and Drawings with Modern Works on Paper Art Fair

2008-01-04T05:43:00.000-08:00

This takes place at the Royal Academy of Arts, 6 Burlington Gardens W1S 3EX

Thursday 31 january - Sunday 3 February

with a section called COVERED again, at which Parvenu Press will be exhibiting.

times of the Fair are

thursday - 11 a.m. - 9 p.m.

friday 11 a.m. - 8.30 p.m.

saturday 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.

sunday 11 a.m. - 5.30 p.m.

I am stand 9 - just inside the door.

Family illness has meant I haven't finished everything I would have liked, but I have made some new extensions from the Falcon Bride work, and will be showing 'Hunting the Wren' and 'Love Poems and Curses' - which wasn't finished for this Fair last year ( see blog archive for March and April for more pictures of these.)

I am finally ready to part with 'Beauty and the Beast' - see image above, having played about with filming it.

There are still some Winterreise's available to order, see last January's blog entry for images, and some Carnival boxes too; and collagraph prints from the 'Falcon Bride'.

Designer Bookbinder Lecture

2007-12-07T07:48:00.000-08:00

I said I would put up more pictures of Carnival boxes - and other things too, but they need photographing and will take longer....
Above is the first box I did - a sort of manic George Bush/Bugs Bunny Goes to War box...
actually I just realise it is on its side - I am so used to cricking my neck I didn't notice - will rotate when I have more time..... ( and add another of the inside with G B lookalike inside)

these are some that followed, ( spot the mini-mackerel in their coffins) with below- the sort of images there are inside; some drawings I made in the Munich Toy and Puppet museum, alternated with collaged bits from papers....I seem to remember there was a lot about 'hoodies' at the time, so I found a few alternative hoodies...
I am also having a sort of Baselitz moment again......

I then made a couple of Dr Caligari boxes - the Somnambulist is coming out of his coffin inside, and the outside has angles all over the place as in Expressionist cinema - I had fun with that; the second box I varnished so that it had the air of a celluloid dream, with shellac so it's a honey colour...

......For those who weren't there - the lecture was titled - Books and Stuff; the Quiddity of Artists Books, so I talked a lot about using materials - how as an artist I speak through them; how I used to make my own paint.

I showed a personal selection of slides of other people's work to open up the debate of what an Artists Book might be.

Talked about the contexts of showing - the freedom to define one's own; structures to bounce off, but the permissions the form gives; changing definitions in different historical contexts ( mentioned the 'Breaking the Rules' exhibition at the British Library )...

methods and processes, contemporary papers, the rhythm of processes, cutting text by hand ( Gawain and Lorca's Sonnets of Dark Love ) and the power of being able to do things one's self; and whether the doing is more important than the end product.

I had earlier listened to a discussion on Radio4 - Start the Week - missed the beginning of it but it seemed to be about posterity, or the possibility of lack of it, and how it might or might not alter how we make art - and this led on to technology, ecology and self-sufficiency.

I mentioned briefly the more communal book projects I have done and then went on to show Bluebeard's Castle and Beauty and the Beast, and how these led into making different sorts of books, worlds, installations, and how the viewer might relate to these....

ending up with a brief discussion of the 'Falcon Bride' , the importance of the gaps between things, and how art and life can intertwine in a ritualistic way.

The Falcon Bride at LAB07

2007-11-27T07:51:00.001-08:00

Here it was - as much as I could squash onto my stand; the poppy image on the right belongs with Peter's stand next door.
I think it was too much for people to get to grips with really and many passed nervously by, but there was also a lot of interest and some positive comments, ranging from - it was a bit different - to - it really seemed to mean something about something I cared about .
It was frustrating for me as I really could see how I needed to spread it out in the way I had in the galleries , and with some comfortable chairs, and with time slowed down; but it was good to be able to introduce it to some people who had missed it in Sussex.
It was interesting for me to see my books in the context of what was going on in the rest of the fair; it won't really alter what I do but it is good to have glimpse of the outside world.
I am now planning how it might become a bigger limited edition book, including and pulling together various parts into one volume, for the WOP Fair at Burlington House in January-
3 days sitting and looking at it all helps the mind move freely about.

I'll be talking about my work with slides and a few real examples
at a talk organised by the Designer Bookbinders
at
The Art Workers Guild 6 Queen Square London WC1 at 6.30pm
(nearest tube stations Holborn or Russell Square )
on Tuesday 4th December
( entry £7 for non-members )
see www.designerbookbinders.org.uk

LAB07 at the ICA

2007-11-22T01:40:00.000-08:00

They are coming thick and fast - next stop is the London Artists Book Fair at the ICA.
I will be showing a reduced version of the Falcon Bride Installation, and showing some of the film footage I took of it at West Dean on a mini dvd player.
Following requests, there will be a few bits of it reproduced for sale - the Boat Books, sets of the Krakov cards, and the printed Falcon Bride book in the box; as well as some prints.

I am stand 63, in the Upper Gallery this year, next to Altazimuth Press; the Fair is in 3 different rooms so follow the signs so you don't miss anything.

The Fair is open
12 - 6.30 on friday ( tomorrow, 23rd )
11-7 saturday
11-5 sunday

Three days is exhausting in some ways but on the other hand it gives slightly more time to get round and see everything - Oxford felt particularly frantic this year , it is such a social Fair - catching up with people from two years back, and two days isn't long enough, especially when having to cram in giving a talk as well. However it was lovely to see lots of new faces at the talk about Peggy and gratifying to find still a lot of interest in her ideas.
I suppose my main point, thinking of her in relation to Private Press printing and Artists Books, was just how much power hand-printing gives you to get your ideas out into the world, and in a relatively unmediated way. Also how important the two-way relationship with those looking at what you are doing is and how it is worth considering how that takes place.

The biggest excitement at Oxford for me was seeing the new amazing pochoir books and monoprints done by Walter Bachinski with Janis at Shanty Bay Press. The colour in the pochoir work is glorious and I love the images as well.
It was real treat to see his illustrated talk, and wonderful to have a meal with them( together with Denis Hall and Carol Manheim ) and get to know them better, arranged by Simon and Gill McMinn who were putting us up and looking after us in a very wonderful way. It was great to catch up on some of the work I was missing in the rush at the show, in Simon's own fantastic collection over breakfast.
Altogether it was a wonderfully social weekend as we started off getting to Oxford viaCheltenham, and Chipping Camden to meet Stephen Cohn and Laura - he wrote to me after my image appeared on the Agenda edition in which he had written an article about Rilke and which included his translations; we enjoyed seeing his prints and presses. Driving round the Cotswolds in glorious autumn sunshine and colour was a real joy.

The most recent excitement has been the wonderful new show at the British Library - Breaking the Rules - Avant Garde Books in the first half of the 20th century, curated by Stephen Bury. We have been twice already, there is just so much to see and enjoy, its quite fantastic. For me it put flesh on the bones of some of the less well known names I had heard of when writing about Peggy's trips to Russia and the Ukraine. I loved the way it was arranged in cities and set things in context. It was a real shame our Russian friend Dmitry Sayenko missed the opening by a few hours as he had to catch his plane back to Germany to put up his new show.

Dmitry really got into the swing of Lewes Bonfire Night, it was a wonderful evening - he also liked pebbles at Hope Gap - where we all started collecting pebbles and letting our imaginations run riot - Brighton, Chichester Cathedral and West Dean.

Together we also went to the Baselitz exhibition at the RA ( second time for us ) - another really great show; amazing to think what he was doing while I was at art college, and that I never saw; incredible how little exposure German art seemed to get in the 60's and 70's in the general run of London exhibitions. Beuys was very visible in London, but despite visiting Germany a lot as a child and teenager I lost touch at the crucial point it seems - I should have been more pro-active. Interesting to ponder what I would made of it then; had my head down printing wallpaper and being bucolic on the south downs ( that Peggy has a lot to answer for ) -love it now.
Love too many things - hard to focus on what I love best!

Brought to Book

2007-10-30T09:19:00.000-07:00

This was the title of the talk I gave at the Lewes Live Literature festival in Pelham House in Lewes on sunday 29th October.

What is 'Book Art', who does it and why? Carolyn Trant is a Lewes based artist, originally a painter/printmaker, who turned to making Artists Books about 12 years ago. Here she takes us on a personal journey into the world of book art, illustrated with examples of her own and other contemporary bookworks from England Europe and the USA.

She will talk about how and why she got into the artform and where it all currently seems to be leading, with particular reference to her current exhibition - the Falcon Bride - which extends the book form into a room-sized installation.

I went to several of the other talks and features and it was interesting to note some common preoccupations. The opening night cabaret was great with Peter Blegvad, Jean Binta Breeze, John Agard's wicked poetry and Pam Hewitt's raunchy cabaret numbers, and I liked Jane Bom-Bane 'Queen of the Funky Harmonium' with her musical hats and multi-instrumentalist Nick Pynn.
I particularly responded to Peter Blegvad's Surreal lecture the next day, a guided tour of his Milk Museum...
The human mind is often stirred by what might be called the encyclopedic urge, the thirst to know everything. there are two approaches one can take to quench this thirst:
The horizontal - learning a little about a lot of things
The vertical - learning a lot about one thing

For almost thirty years I have taken the latter course, immersing myself in milk, amassing a macaronic museum of quotes and a morgue of pictures pertaining to the stuff in the belief that a sufficiently obsessive study of one thing will eventually result in a complete education about everything........

It seemed a similar idea to my immersion in the world of Bride Falcon and Bee.

Howard Barker and the Wrestling School were fantastic performing a first draft of 'Actress with an Unloved Child'.

Germaine Dulac's The Seashell and the Clergyman 1928 40 mins... 'arguably the first example of Surrealist cinema...' ( I would say it was more Expressionist ) was also fantastic, as were the live band accompanying it - Minima ; it made me want immediately to get back to my ongoing first hesitant attempts at filming what I am doing......

I also loved my friend and fellow artist Peter Messer's illustated talk about his paintings from his last 3 exhibitions - The Luck to be Astonished in the Right Place; Two Dozen Odd Small Paintings; and On the Way to Work.

From Friday November 2nd I will be exhibiting at Oxford Brookes - The Fine Press Book Fair for 3 days, and giving a talk entitled 'Peggy Angus and the Psychopathology of Artists Books' - based on that given at the Cheltnenham Literature Festival last year about my book 'Art For Life', which many printer/publishers missed because they were at Oak Knoll. I'll be trying to pick up on the particular aspects of Artists Books and Fine Press publications that would have appealed to her and why.

Russian Book Artist Dmitry Sayenko will be coming coming back with us to experience Lewes Bonfire Night and see more English countryside, in return for the amazing travelling experiences he gave us in Russia two years ago - and to see what I did with all the photographs of Brides that I took in St Petersburg, now in my show Falcon Bride at West Dean.

Then it will be only two weeks until LAB 07 at the ICA where I will be showing a reduced version of the installation which will be back from West Dean.
check the site....
www.marcuscampbell.co.uk/lab07
or
www.ica.org.uk

On Tuesday 4th of December at 6.30pm I will be giving an open talk about my work as part of the Designer Bookbinders series of lectures - see their site for details:
www.designerbookbinders.org.uk
look under Teaching - DB Lecture series
The talk is called Books and Stuff: the Quiddity of Artists Books
at 6 Queens Square WC !n 3AR ( near Holborn or Russel Sq tube )

10es Rencontres internationales de l'edition de creation

2007-10-29T11:52:00.000-07:00

Ateliers Vis-a-Vis & Collectif d'editeurs de la Mediterranee

- my stand at Parc Chanot 'Lire en Fete'.

There were actually 9 countries represented - France, Germany, Hungary, Italy,Japan, Switzerland, Russia and USA with GB as the specially featured country this year, curated by Moya and David Barton.

This is the link for Atelier Vis-a-Vis

www..atelier-vis-a-vis.org

Parvenu and Altazimuth Press in Marseilles

2007-10-29T07:32:00.000-07:00

We are just back from a wonderful trip to Marseilles for the annual Book fair organised by Atelier Vis-a-Vis. We had a great time exploring the city for two days before the fair ( fortunately therefore arriving just before the Eurostar and SNCF strike kicked in ). The journey from Lewes to the South of France by train was good - the views out of the train window - fantastic, the only real way to travel.

Marseilles is a great city - cosmopolitan, busy, vital, with a great attitude to supporting the arts. They support Atelier Vis-a-Vis with panache and imagination ( of course they do - they are French ) - when a printing works closed down - the presses and premises were given to them to make use of; in return the artists do a lot work with school children making books which are then published/presented in an exciting way. This leads to educational funding. They will also soon be able to make use of the working presses to set up an international centre for printing skills from which the city will benefit. Everyone is happy ( the artists, particularly Danielle and Manuel, work incredibly hard!)

The citizens are not a particularly arty lot by our standards but they responded to all the work with great enthusiasm and empathy, and my appalling French was not a barrier to real communication.

On the first evening we were all taken out for a meal in a ca'baret cafe ( where France's most important Story teller was giving a reading in the theatre.) 'All' means about fifty international book artists, including two Russians living in Berlin, Swiss, German, a couple from US, and about six from England - 'The English desk' was a particular feature of the fair this year - sitting at 3 long tables with a librarian from paris and other Bibliophiles.

A great effort was made to bring interested buyers round the fair in a delightfully semi-formal and civilised fashion with much time and consideration given to discussion and real looking at what was on show.

Atelier Vis-a-Vis collection bought one of our books and I was videoed talking about my work for their archive.

Our only complaint - a mistral the day after our arrival brought the temperature down to a highly unusual 2 degrees ( it felt worse somehow although the sun was bright and a there had to be a quick trip to Monoprix for woolly leggings and socks - so much for our mediterranean hot break).

It wasn't so surprising to be equally cold in Lausanne ( another wonderful train journey through the mountains and along Lake Leman from Geneva). Here we visited our friend Stephane Freitz from 'Art and Fiction' ( see on early blog for link to site ) and had a wonderful quirky tour of Lausanne. Unfortunately the exhibition 'Bestial' with work by Christine Sofolosha was closed on Mondays AND Tuesdays so we missed it, but the Institut de L'Art Brut was all that I had hoped it would be with a fantastic special exhibiton of textiles including work by wonderful Michael Nedjar.

It was great seeing HQ Art and Fiction and what they do - publishing books about other artists as well as their own work; we liked the way both French and Swiss artists seemed to be able to group themselves together for mutual support and the atmosphere of debate and excitement about writing, visual art and ideas.

A wonderful traditional Swiss Fondue in a lively cafe in the evening confirmed the feeling that lively and intelligent cafe society is alive and wonderful. In our conversations however we did finally conclude that the grass is always greener...... it was interesting to hear Stephane's impression of England, which didn't always accord with our own.

Many thanks to Stephane for his wonderful tour, especially the bookshop with the gallery and erotic cabinet of curiosities which we might have otherwise missed.

THE FALCON BRIDE AT WEST DEAN

2007-10-29T05:38:00.000-07:00

The Falcon Bride is now safely installed at the Sussex Barn Gallery until sunday 11th of November - open weds - suns 11.30-3.30.

In her text panel and gallery hand-out curator Sharon Michi-Kusunoki wrote the following-

Artist's books are a unique genre and by their nature, difficult to define. they not only challenge the definition itself, but, in actuality, defy categorisation altogether. In the installation, the Falcon Bride, Carolyn Trant examines how critical issues such as memory, text, history and myth can be constructed in a way that expands the confines of a book into something in which active participation is not only recommended, but is a necessity. Here the gallery acts as a vessel binding together the narratives provided by the viewer's own personal and/or collective memories.

......

In the installation, Trant sets the scene in what appears at first glance to be a Polish cafe with haunting prints on the wall, hand painted books arranged on a table, and an array of fascinating hand-made objects and reconstructed cultural artifacts - some conceptual, some fetishistic. What is important here is not merely what is shown, but what is experienced....in essence, the experience of a book.......

I am very grateful to Sharon for taking on this idea of a 'room-sized book' so enthusiastically and imaginatively. The scale of the barn that is the gallery is twice that of the Star Gallery, but the sence of intimacy is retained by the low and dramatic lighting levels. As you enter the first thing you see is the hand-painted block representing a book cover with a painted title, as on my notebooks - see the image below. The title block conceals the bride.

Alongside the panel, up above on the sides of the mezzanine walls, are 6 of the images from the Boat Book - as also reproduced on the invitation card, reproduced to 2 metres by a metre and a half, in an imposing processional sequence - giving me the feeling, in the gloom, of almost the impression one might get from entering a megalithic tomb with a processional sequence of hieroglyphs.

The boats have been re-made twice the size, with six foot masts reaching from floor to mezzanine ceiling. They have different psychological effect as they are now viewed from the viewers own level rather than raised on a pedestal, but the light effects are similar with wonderful shadows cast on the wall behind.

Together with the photographs they give the boat images a greater prominence in the show, but the three tables - of books, about Krakow, and the 'Egyptian table' - are grouped to the right of the barn, making up the domestic scene of the cafe.

What an amazing landscape in which to exhibit! I have so loved my time setting up the installation here in some of the best autumn days and managing a few long walks on the estate and through the gardens; and staying in the house with Magritte and Leonora Carrington on the walls and amazing cases of stuffed birds to pass on my way to bed.

I really enjoyed working with Sharon and meeting other artists working there - I am looking forward to seeing Mexican artist Antonio's day of the Dead installation at Pallant House when I go over to Chichester next week, ( I can't find my piece of paper with his full name , or any details on Pallant House website - all a bit chaotic here as usual).

The Falcon Bride at West Dean

2007-10-02T06:47:00.000-07:00

In case some of you have logged onto the site having received your UWE Artists Books Newsletter and found that the Star Gallery Lewes show is now over....
Here are the details of the next venue:

Sussex Barn Gallery, West Dean College
West Dean, Chichester
West Sussex
PO 18 0QZ

www.westdean.org.uk

01243 818316

The show runs from Saturday 13 October to Sunday 11 November
Open Wednesday to Sunday 11.30 am - 3.30 pm

I shall be helping put up the show this week and it will look different again; there'll be more photos maybe once it is up.

o's and 0's

2007-09-27T15:12:00.001-07:00

BINGO!

Amendment

2007-09-27T15:06:00.000-07:00

It has been pointed out that I got the last post address wrong ( many thanks to loyal readers - just testing....)
try
Http://www.marcuscampbell.co.uk/lab07press.html

Falcon Bride at the London Artists Book Fair in November

2007-09-25T15:02:00.000-07:00

Follow the link to get up to date information on the fair at
http://www.marcuscampbell.co.uk/labo7press.html

The Falcon Bride

2007-09-13T15:10:00.001-07:00

The Falcon Bride is an experimental ‘room-sized book’ – which I set up in a gallery in Lewes, Sussex during the local Arts Festival. I deliberately wrote no introductory explanations of the piece other than that it is based on a visit to the Polish city of Krakow, where we visited the small museum containing Leonardo’s painting ‘Lady with Ermine’ and a small Egyptian Department containing some mummified falcons; the Polish Ethnographic Museum; and the old Jewish Quarter.
It is a ‘book’ in that you are entering a world and a story which it takes time to absorb; there is a web of references and cross-references of images in different forms – 10 prints on the walls, hand-made objects and models, and a table full of hand-painted books.
The idea of making the room look like a Polish Café (a setting which re-appears within the images) is to make people feel comfortable, both psychologically and physically, as they sit to look into what can be a slightly disturbing journey - in that it asks questions without giving answers. The images and objects, hand-made reproductions of what I saw, but deliberately made to be somehow ‘on the point of becoming’, are proving quite powerful.

I am always there invigilating so it becomes almost a performance piece as I am asked questions and enter into a dialogue about our perceptions of what we are seeing; but the main idea is always to encourage people to allow the exhibits to speak for themselves and to trust and listen to their own reactions.
Each person opens up their own story.
All the exhibits are constructed from basic organic materials such as feather, bone, wax, wood, or recycled paper, card and scrim, and are fragile, but the books are designed to be handled and read.
There is nothing to buy or sell and part of the idea has been to try and restructure the way people look at art-works, how long they spend doing it, and what they expect from them.

It is trying to restore the delicate interaction between maker and viewer which became interesting at the beginning of the Open Studios movement but has now become over-commercialised again .Having been brought up (artistically speaking) by someone totally devoted to accessibility, but working myself with very personal but archetypal imagery, I am constantly aware of the interface between the two approaches.

I shall try and bring a reduced version of it to my space at LAB 07 at the ICA in November.

The Falcon Bride

2007-09-13T14:35:00.000-07:00

I realise I have several personae on this blog and the gaps are widening; so those of you approaching it from different directions will have to search for the bits that fit.

The Falcon Bride website will take some time to construct because I am still playing with what I might do to take the installation forward; but a few very general installation shots in the Star Gallery appear here. It really needs to be seen and experienced properly.

Likewise I am loathe to to write much about it but have been forced too for various publicity reasons, so one of the resulting attempts is reproduced above.

The show will continue until September 30th, then move to a different incarnation in the Sussex Barn Gallery at West Dean College, near Chichester ( the Edward James Foundation )
where it will open on 13th October
open weds - sundays 11-30 - 3-30
until 11th November.

The Falcon Bride

2007-09-07T08:43:00.001-07:00

The Falcon Bride opening tonight.....

2007-09-07T08:29:00.000-07:00

I hope those of you checking out the falconbride website have been successfully diverted here to this blog.
Since setting up the show a couple of days ago I have been taking photographs, but it will be some time before they are in a fit state to publish on the site, so please be patient. I will post a few up here from time to time.

2007-09-07T08:21:00.001-07:00

The Falcon Bride

2007-09-03T02:38:00.000-07:00

Apologies for lack of information updates re The Falcon Bride – last week my back finally gave way at a most inconsiderate time so am still trying to get mobile again; may get it taped up today which could be an interesting installation in itself…..
Sitting at computers is certainly bad news
But the show will go on , the pieces are garnered in but the Piece is still in a creative state of flux, as it should be; nothing is fixed until Friday night, and even then……….
You will make of it what you will

Paddock Printmakers new exhibition PUBLIC HOUSE

2007-08-19T11:10:00.000-07:00

New information and images about the PUBLIC HOUSE exhibition are available on the blogspot and will be updated from now on
check out
http://lewespublichouse.blogspot.com
where there are images of the previous books and exhibitions by the group

Local Distinctiveness

2007-08-18T14:47:00.000-07:00

I wrote this several months ago and never posted it but perhaps now is the time as - see below - Paddock Printmakers are about to launch their new book of pubs:

One thing about keeping a blog I find is that I start getting a nesting instinct and want to start putting certain things that have happened in my artistic life together.

I was walking down the High Street last week and met up with one of my Paddock Printmakers ( one my printmaking class ) and he dragged me to look at some wonderful reproductions of Edward Bawden linocuts that were framed up in Kings Framers framing shop window, of railway stations, a livestock market ( as we once had in Lewes), and what looked like it could have been Borough Market in London. While we were gazing and talking, two more friends turned up with Sue Clifford and Angela King, the founders of Common Ground, on a visit from Dorset, and it turned into quite a party.
Common Ground is an innovative charity which celebrates ..’ the commonplace, the local, the vernacular and the distinctive’. I first became aware of them when I came across their first book ‘Second Nature’ published around 1982; I then met up with them while I was working on ‘Rituals and Relics’ in 1990 when they had premises next to the Ecology Centre in Shelton Street Covent Garden.

It was good to catch up with what they are doing and I rushed off afterwards to buy their recent book, the result of 20 years labours, called’ England in Particular’. See more details of this below.

In return I told them about the projects we had been doing as Paddock Printmakers. About four years ago I suggested to my class that working on group projects often helped if people were at a loss for inspiration and asked them to consider making images of Lewes High Street shops that we could make into a concertina book.
‘High Street’ by Eric Ravilious’ , with text by James Richards – one time husband of Peggy Angus – was of course an inspiration.

We exhibited the resulting prints – wood and lino cuts and collagraphs – in the Lewes Arts Festival - ArtWave and Peter Flanagan, a graphic designer, helped us make it into a digital concertina book, 14’ long when fully extended with around 22 images of shops. As luck ( or intuition ) would have it, this coincided almost to the day, with much promotion in the national press, of a report highlighting the loss of independent shops and bland uniformity of an increasing number of towns and their High Streets. Lewes was actually named as an example where chain-stores had not taken a hold and diversity still held sway.
The exhibition was resounding success and our limited edition book sold out in 2 days.

The following year we produced an extension of the idea documenting Cliffe High Street as a companion volume; at the same time we reproduced some of the previous images as a calendar for 2005; we then made a Cliffe calendar for 2006.
Since then some of the shops have changed hands and out of all recognition already, so it is an interesting piece of history we have produced; we should repeat the process every few years I suppose. 3 of the original prints were bought and donated to be hung in the new Lewes Library.

This year, 2007, we had already decided to focus on pubs, when surprise, surprise, Lewes again made national ( and International ) headlines by resisting the efforts of Greene King to stop serving the local Harveys beer in the Lewes Arms pub; ( try googling lewesarms or John May's blog )

Back to ‘England in Particular’ – I quote from the flyleaf….
‘…diversity is under siege. Mass production, increased mobility and the forceful promotion of corporate identity have brought with them standardised shop fronts, farm buildings, factories, forests and front doors, while intensive farming has created a bland empty countryside.
This book is a counterblast against loss and uniformity, and a celebration of just some of the distinctive details that cumulatively make England…..things need not be conventionally picturesque, rare or spectacular to be special – there is value and local meaning to be found in cakes, cliffs, cooling towers and cuckoos.’
(Peggy Angus would really love all this…….)

‘England in Particular offers a way of looking that makes the mundane magical. It will change the way you see the world.’

Links Common Ground commonground.org.uk
england-in-particular.info
the-corrugated-iron-club.info
Incline Press/Peggy Angus

The Falcon Bride

2007-08-18T14:30:00.000-07:00

This is the private view card for my next exhibition at the Star Gallery, Castle Ditch Lane, Lewes in September; it is a room sized book called The Falcon Bride.

More details will be posted soon and more photos once the installation is up and running.

The images show both sides of the card. The coloured side is designed to folded sides-to-middle

so that it reveals the black images inside and with the feathers and bone image on the back.

I'm very busy at the moment as my students ( Paddock Printmakers ) show is opening on friday and we are launching our third limited edition book celebrating local distinctiveness - a book of prints of all the Lewes pubs. See further details on http://lewespublichouse.blogspot.com

We should be updating this site with all the images soon as well.

Agenda

2007-06-21T12:42:00.000-07:00

This month I am very happy and honoured to have one of my images on the front cover of Agenda, especially as it is a particularly large and wonderful volume devoted to the poetry of Rilke.
We chose the image carefully to be appropriate for the volume but deliberately did not give it a title, because it in fact comes from my book 'Gawain', but I hope on its own it stands for other ideas too.
We also considered these two smaller woodcuts of Orpheus, which come from a book I did using a poem by Peter Abbs.

GAWAIN............................

Gawain was the first Artists Book I made , in 1997. It was made as response to seeing the opera by Harrison Birtwistle with libretto by David Harsent - wonderful words, which inspired images which were rarely related to what was going on on stage visually; but close I hope to the spirit of both the opera as a whole and the medieval story of Gawain and the Green Knight. In fact I came to feel totally consumed by this spirit as I set myself the task of completing the book , like Gawain's task, in one year and a day.

It was quite a hard labour, twenty woodcut images about 60cm X 40cm, plus their corresponding texts. It was the first time I had cut text before and I decided to just be guided by the marks of my scalpel, making the letter forms from straight and angled cuts and following the flow of the ( considerable ) wood grain of the plywood.

David bravely gave me a free hand in choosing the extracts of text.

I printed ( and sold ) 20 copies, burnishing the prints by hand with a spoon on rough Nepalese Khadi loktar paper, which has so much wonderful texture in it ( including small lumps of clay and roadgrit and even the occasional crushed Nepalese spider ) that using a press runs the risk of the paper making damaging marks on the woodblocks!

The pages were sewed directly into a cow-hide, thick leather, that I had specially dyed a wonderful dark green; each book used 'half a cow', and I kept the edges untrimmed, exactly as they had been stretched, to echo the riffled edges of the paper.

Front and back were blind-embossed with two of the woodcuts, very difficult to photograph as they catch the light in strange ways, but I include a detail above ( should have rotated the image 90 degrees but it gives you some idea ).

The book won the first Society of Bookbinders competition for the Complete Book; I'm not sure it was an entry they quite expected but everyone was very encouraging to this 'parvenu' press.

I reproduce it in full below to give the complete story

Next Book Fair - PBFA Novotel

2007-05-21T04:42:00.000-07:00

I'll be showing my new book 'Hunting the Wren' ,and whatever else space permits (and I have finished), at the Novotel Book Fair in Hammersmith on June 8th and 9th.
Opening times are
Friday June 8th 2pm - 7pm and Saturday June 9th 10am4pm.
This Book Fair is part of the big Olympia Book Fair and there will be shuttle buses going to and from the 2 sites; the full address is
Novotel London West, 1 Shortlands, Hammersmith, London W6

if you need a map or further details, go the website
www.pbfalondonbookfair.co.uk
follow the links for Private Press Fair and you can also see who else is exhibiting and follow links to look at examples of their work.
The rest of the fair will be full of very tempting second hand books, so allow plenty of time, and come and see us first! This Fair is our way of trying to show a wider audience that contemporary makers are still making beautiful books now and they should be brave and snap up the collectables of tomorrow now, and see how times and methods change and adapt in exciting new ways; plus you can talk to us - we are still alive.

RESURGENCE

2007-05-01T02:55:00.000-07:00

This image was printed on Peter Abbs poetry page in the magazine Resurgence this month; it is part of a series I began 3 or 4 years ago now, images for 'Perceval', a companion volume to my first Artists Book 'Gawain' finished in 1997. These images are twice the size - it would be lovely to do a large book this size ( about 32" X 22" ) but slightly impractical - I just got very excited cutting away at ideas on 4'X2' sheets of plywood.
This image is of Perceval in the forest with the swan he has just shot in his ignorance; the blood drops onto a nest of vipers.

These are two bad girls in the forest, a reference to Wagners flower maidens in the second act of his opera.

Here are some woodpeckers in faintly sinister consultation.

And here is a Grail-bearing Maiden, together with a knight-setting-out taken from a famous illuminated MSS.

I think I finished about 7 images in all and exhibited them alongside other woodcuts in the Star Gallery; then got side tracked by other books and the realisation that I was getting severely allergic to the formaldehyde in the glue in the plywood ( I am now trying some new friendly Japanese plywood but it is not nearly as nice as my rough old stuff...and doesn't come in hugely big sheets...).

I hope to get back to re-forging all this into a Book next year - a big project, may take a little time! but I am looking forward to it.

At present..... back to something to celebrate Blake's 250th, and the Falcon Bride.

BABE

2007-05-01T02:39:00.000-07:00

BABE at Bristol was a wonderful event and all who organised it should be congratulated. It couldn't have been a more beautiful weekend weatherwise, so we were glad we were in the sunny room at the top with a good view of the Harbour and everyone enjoying the sun. There were constant streams of people with interesting comments; many were studying printmaking or bookarts from various colleges around, but also collecters and enthusiasts of all kinds; as I had hoped, new friends and old.

BABE - Bristol Book Fair at the Arnolfini

2007-04-19T13:10:00.000-07:00

is where I will be at the weekend; I look forward to catching up with old friends.

I've finished two more Hunting the Wren's - picture of them above. Still plenty more to do.

More news after the Fair. Log onto the Arnolfini website to get all the details about opening times.