CAROLYN TRANT



1969-73 SLADE SCHOOL of FINE ART
David Murray Landscape Scholarship

1974 NEW GRAFTON GALLERY London
First one woman exhibition.
Thereafter exhibited widely in group shows,
and at the ‘Upstairs Gallery’ at the Royal Academy
and the R.A. Summer Exhibition every year 1975-89

1978 ROYAL ACADEMY GRAPHICS commissioned and published 2 lithographs
1982 ROYAL ACADEMY purchased a painting (Harrison Weir Fund)

1987 Trip to GUATEMALA – resulting work in Brighton Festival

1990 GLYNDEBOURNE – work and exhibition

1989-91 “RITUALS + RELICS” - Earthworks on the South Downs
-major ESCC/S.E.ARTS commission and touring exhibition
GARDNER CENTRE for ARTS, Sussex University, touring -
Essex - University Art Centre
Oxford - Pitt Rivers Museum
Birmingham - Institute of Field Archaeologists Conference
Brighton and Eastbourne libraries - part of ‘Sense of Place’
Cambridge - Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
York - Archaeological Resource Centre
Hastings - Museum and Art Gallery

NATIONAL THEATRE commissioned art work for poster, program, publicity etc for a production of LORCA’s Blood wedding

1995 Began making Artists Books and showing regularly at LONDON ARTISTS BOOK FAIR and OXFORD FINE PRESS BOOK FAIR -Member of Fine Press Book Association
From now on -Books sold to many British, American, European (and Australian) Collections, including the British Library, private collectors and University Libraries.

1996 LEWES LIVE LITERATURE PROGRAM All Saints Centre,
Gawain - exhibition with Julian Bell -
.
1997 Artists’s Book-GAWAIN - winner of the 1997 Society of Bookbinders competition for the Complete Book

1998 Bath Literature Festival - 6 CHAPEL ROW GALLERY

Fiveways BRIGHTON FESTIVAL Exhibition

YEHUDI MENUHIN SCHOOL- solo exhibition

NATIONAL ART LIBRARY V&A purchased ‘Gawain’

1999 ‘Print Power’ four printmakers at Lewes BARBICAN MUSEUM

STAR GALLERY- Lewes– 20 Artists, 20 Centuries for the Millennium

CHICHESTER OPEN– ( prints commended )

Dec 1999 - Feb 2000 ROYAL OPERA HOUSE Covent Garden foyer –
Exhibition of Gawain prints from large Gawain Book
Mini- Gawain book on display in Opera House Shop

2000 YEAR OF THE ARTIST – 1000 Artists in 1000 Places – Artist in Residence in Lewes making the ‘APOCALYPTIC BOOK OF LEWES’
June – November 2000



2001 April – DEAN CLOUGH Halifax – Artists Book Fair

May –SOCIETY OF PAINTERS IN TEMPERA Inaugural Exhibition –
Leighton House, Kensington

September – NEW GRAFTON GALLERY – Six Tempera Painters


November – The DISCERNING EYE – Ken Howard’s choice

CHICHESTER OPEN – First Prize ( for painting)

The STRANG PRINT ROOM – UCL London – mixed show
Printmaking at the Slade 1960-94


2003 STAR GALLERY Lewes – one woman show (prints)March 3-31

BRIGHTON MUSEUM and ART GALLERY Cafe– exhibition of woodcut prints

Brighton Festival Open Houses – May

2004 curated Peggy Angus exhibition, Charlston Farmhouse

2005 Sussex Open

November-December;-‘ Peggy Angus Influence and Inspiration’
ST BRIDES PRINTING LIBRARY 0ff Fleet Street
Exhibition of work of 5 people influenced by P Angus, including mini-retrospective of my bookmaking and lecture

2006 March/April – Artist in Residence at Clo Ceardlann na Cnog, Donegal, Ireland.

SIX CONTEMPORARY BOOKMAKERS, West Dean, Chichester, with Ana Maria Pacheco, Ron King etc
April – July

Alan Hancox lecture at Cheltenham Literature Festival


I have exhibited and delivered papers at Theoretical Archaeology Group conferences-
1991 Birmingham University
1992 1992 ‘Visions of Archaeology’ - Nuffield Theatre Gallery, University of Southampton
1997 TAG conference University of Bournemouth

and also contributed to the book ‘The Cultural Life of Images – Visual Representation in Archaeology’ ed. Molyneux pub. Routledge 1997

My book on the life and work of the designer Peggy Angus was published autumn 2004 by Incline Press.

Residencies:

1987 Varndean High School, Brighton
1989 Ovingdean School for deaf children
1992 Haywards Heath Sixth Form College,
Oathall Community College and
St. Paul’sR.C.School, Haywards Heath.
1993 Petworth, Duncton, Graffham and Northchapel county primary
and Herbert Shiner School (10-13)
Exhibition and summer school teaching at North London Collegiate, Edgware
1994 Bennett Memorial Diocesan School (commission for school chapel)
1995 Hampden Park School, Eastbourne.

My stand at the Work on Paper Fair

Many thanks to Christine Tacq for sending me this picture of my stand at the RA Work on Paper Fair last week. I displayed a lot of prints from previous books, thinking they might sell at this Art venue - but in the end it was the books that sold best, very gratifying to introduce the idea to a new audience.

The large long prints on the left are collagraphs from 'The Garden of Earthly Delights' that I did in 2004. It was based on the centre panel of the Bosch painting in the Prado and I commissioned a long poem from Judith Kazantzis which wrapped round the triptychs; we both love birds so they featured largely, with lots of fruits and berries as well. It sold out very quickly as it was so time consuming to print that I only made 12 copies.

On the right are woodcuts from Lorca's Sonnets of Dark Love which I began in 2000; I have only just finished printing the last of 30 copies and all are now sold.

Among other things on the table is 'Beauty and the Beast' - an installation book and a one-off, a dressing table in a forest of scrunched leather trees ( made from bilers jackets ) - the dressing table is made up of tiny books and drawers of objects, and the side panels contain miniature tableaux.

Eventually I will post up specifications of the books I have done and more images...

but at the moment I am pre-occupied tearing up paper for pages for my next book, I'm a third of the way through - only another 20 hours worth to do......

Lorca's Sonnets of Dark Love

I've been sent a wonderful magazine, the in-house journal of the Jean and Alexander Heard Library at Vanderbilt University, Nashville Tennessee. They bought one of my large Artist's Books of colour woodcuts and hand-cut texts last year and you can get a bit of an idea of it on this site...

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/alumni/publications/AC/chronicle_fall06.pdf>

Strangely this book of mine is the only large one not in a major public collection here in GB although it is in several private collections here and in lots of Institutions across the States.

I promised links and here they are...
the addresses we have for the friends we were exhibiting with at the Art on Paper Fair are

http://OldStilePress.blogspot.com
which will also lead you to their website

www.whittingtonpress.com

www.theoldschoolpress.com
should also contain a link to the Fine Press Book Association website page
members now include a variety of makers and printers

Although I call myself a press ( it helps when ordering vast quantities of materials from people who aren't used to enquiries from individuals!), I really consider myself a maker of Artists Books.
I have come to this art form from the route of being a painter and a printmaker, and still want to be called just an Artist; but I love keeping company with any other makers of things and admire all sorts of skills. I hate putting people into categories. We know what we are.
It was good putting our sort of books back into Art at the Fair, as just works on paper, made in lots of different ways.

When I was a very little girl this was what I always said I was going to do.
Soon I'll try and add my CV and see how the route waivered....

After the 'Work on Paper Fair'

Welcome to the blog to all the people who took my cards at the Work on Paper Fair; I hope you have enjoyed seeing Winterreise again in the small images below.
You will have to bear with me - I will get some more books up on the site soon but after a busy 5 days I'm exhausted, still dealing with ongoing business from the Fair, and new books are calling, in fact positively screaming, with more deadlines approaching; but I'll get there eventually....and you may even get a picture of us at the Fair if someone sends me a picture - we forgot our camera.

The Fair was well worth doing because it introduced a whole lot of new people to the concept of Artists Books; and we always meet such nice people at these Fairs ( its always good for morale when people like what you do!)
Even if, in fact especially if, people can't afford to buy them, at least the work has been seen and is out there in the group consciousness somewhere.
And even tho I whimper that I would really rather be at home in my burrow making more books, getting some feedback as to whether what I am trying to say makes sense, and is in fact communicating to even just a few people, makes it all worthwhile.

We hope we will do it again next year, but we shall see; watch this space for information. Once I've worked out how to do it I'll put links to the sites of the other bookmakers in our 'Covered' section.

Meanwhile back to work finishing books for people who ordered them. Feeling a bit schizophrenic still - people seemed to divide my work into two categories and some like only one side or the other - jokey/serious; colourful/monochrome; light/dark; - to me it is all part of the same thing and the same me ( and us ). Isn't it? Discuss.