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

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

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

 

          

                                            Arcadia with Mosquitoes - Carolyn Trant drypoint and mixed media

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

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

Artists

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

James T.A. Osborne R.E. 

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

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

The Fishing Quarter Gallery

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

Arcadia

27 August – 12 September 2021

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

Open daily: 11am-6pm

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

Finissage: 12 September 11am-4pm

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

updates and new pics

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

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

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

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

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

Fool Gets Sick

 Apologies for long gap in posting - this fool didn't get sick but I did have a rather strong reaction to my first jab which knocked me out a bit and set off my ME for a while, plus it has been dreary old February and the weather was enough to make anyone feel tired, but signs of Spring are cheering on the warm days now and I am jolly glad to have been jabbed, and I have been working steadily mostly but its not been  good light to be taking photos of stuff and I kept thinking - I will just wait until I get the next book finished.....and then getting side-tracked by starting a new one --- 

I will show the progress report on Fool Gets Sick currently being editioned and the finished first concertina copy of the Little Circus in the Forest - and save the other finished new book for another post when I have covered and photo-ed it.

New Year First Post

 I can't believe it is so long since I last put up anything...time seems to go so fast during these strange times, although I also lose track of time very easily and when working every day....

I have several new projects on the go but none that I am ready to share just yet.... in some cases blocks are cut but not printed ( I had a very large delivery of new paper and card finally last week ) ...more news of these later or next month...

and I really need to finish off old projects completely, finish covers and gluing on backs of cards and generally clear the decks - although each project seems to transmute and turn into another before I can catch up...circuses in forests and more about Trees... however if there is a new year resolution it is to finish some things so that at least I can film them for Spring online Artist BookFairs...so deadlines of sorts are finally rearing up their heads... for BABE and TTP....

I have started by doing the individual covers for The Ship of Fools - there are some images below of work in progress and some finished covers - books just need glueing-in to them now....but as they have become so three-dimensional I shall now have to think about slipcases and solander boxes too, and so it goes on...

next I must actually print the larger block book that follows on when Fool gets Sick..... I can't believe I cut them a year ago now....

Finished Second Circus Set

 

 

How perverse technology is - I suspected it would show in reverse order however I chose to order them ....anyway here they are.... James the poet and I have decide to use both sets in a dos-a dos book together with the poems alongside both sets; it will hopefully be interesting to see the gestation of the images and  also to see how, or if, it changes the way the poems are read with different images alongside...

I am also now designing some little triple layer concertina books of the images to show the little circus in the forest, with a layer of trees in front on the folds to peek through with the circus artists as tho in little booths on each page - and with circus tents behind.....

it all takes so much time though - I hate days when all I do is cut and fold up pieces of paper... and yet more printing to do on these short dark days as well as factor in time for a sanity walk before sunset.....

Further Thoughts on art in a time of crisis....

 I am still chipping away at the last of the second series of circus prints, and in fact ready to print - but it has been so dark recently I have had a breather and done some reading - the first break for 6 months, garnering strength for the winter and having lots of walks while I can ....

Developing events have also needed short essays and proposals for future on-line possibilities for exhibiting my books. It has come to seem much more appealing when fair organisers bite the bullet and and start preparing for such options for 2021 rather than endlessly postponing and cancelling which is stressful and upsetting - I don't see how we can plan ahead for real face to face events currently - Artists Books are really not socially distanced and hands-off events! ... and we have to think laterally and creatively....

Writing proposals has made me re-evaluate what I have been working on since March and think about how I might position it now we are in for a long haul. It seemed natural to incorporate the pandemic subliminally into it - and Fool Gets Sick ( still awaiting printing) flowed very seemlessly from my climate crisis related work. Now after so many months with the virus I question whether such work really will be of interest to anyone or  researchers, or whether in the future the last thing we will want is to be reminded of it.

This is the fine line where art balances between reasonable topicality ( including the dangers of veering into propaganda) and something more universal and timeless where my heart is usually is drawn.

I hope that by frequently oscillating like a humming bird between the two possibilities I can still end up in the camp of ART and not reportage; it is why I keep an umbilical cord to story making and a finger in the myth-kitty, a historical awareness as well as looking to the future...alongside experimenting constantly with the plastic possibilities of painting and printmaking materials, surfaces, colours and structures and all the ways of projecting meaning wordlessly and timelessly. A sort of 'slow art'.

I do feel that artists in the 21st century should be reflecting the times they live in, as well as keeping true to something more un-pin-downable, a step ahead or outside, a slow-art that doesn't reveal its heart on it's sleeve - and is not necessarily understood by its creator either.

From my relatively fortunate and privileged position, particularly of being able to continue working from home despite having to isolate strictly, I hesitate to presume I am competent enough to comment wisely; but I want to make work that is relevant, honest and respectful - might still spread a little humour and joy, insight, diversionary interest and context, while still keeping the overriding concern for our communal future in the general consciousness. However a little voice in my ear alarmingly suggests - will there still be enough time for 'slow burning art' to mature, when the climate crisis of which the pandemic is just another manifestation is accelerating rapidly.

And of course making art is a sort of therapy akin to meditation for the maker of it in real time too.

Update on new sets of Circus prints

            Having finished the set as playing cards I have been experimenting further....I think these are improving – tho there is still a way to go with some of them... they are getting more dramatic and primal but also easier on the eye en masse or in book form.

I think the set needs some quite simple ones to rest the eye too...

 

they look paler in the photo and  look richer in the real....

I will plough on with more cutting and finish set then re-evaluate and rethink/moderate where necessary
They tend to come up slightly different each time way they are done but may settle if I did a small run, just doing 3-4 experiments of each one so far....

once I’ve done the set I can see how they need to work together and adjust colour if necessary

the paper cockles because of hand painting first – I hope they will press down once the ink is dry