PAGES : May exhibition at Press Gallery

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.