New Year well on its way.....

And I have not blogged since before Christmas...I've been far too busy trying to catch up with myself and finish work that I showed at Oxford Fine Press Fair so I could start the year anew.
Well , its 1st March and I am just about there - starting 2 important new books with James Simpson and playing with the idea of a 3rd that follows on from my Irish book Mharbna...
see below ( previous post) for images of Mharbna and my website for other books
carolyntrant.co.uk
which will hopefully be updated in due course

I am concentrating on working rather than exhibiting at book fairs this year , but I will be doing the 2nd Book Fair at Norwich, Turn the Page, at the beginning of May ( it was such an enjoyable experience last year )
see
turnethepage.org.uk

and I seem to be booked for several talks....
first up will be about Peggy Angus at MMU Special Collections in Manchester in conjunction with the Manchester Museum of People's History Women in Print event
next friday march 7th
see
www.specialcollections.mmu.ac.uk/exhibitions.php
and scroll down to Women in Print  1920-1965

There will be an exhibition about Peggy Angus at Towner starting July 12th until september 21st
with a program of events , of which more anon. I will hopefully be doing another Peggy Angus walk from Charleston in the late summer - date to be confirmed.

Thursday march 20th I am giving a talk about Art and Archaeology with reference to my past work  for the University of Sussex Archaeology Society; starts at 7pm, venue ARTS A2, University of Sussex - free to all, just turn up, £2 with free wine reception afterwards
Lecture Series 2013-14

May sees the 750th anniversary of the Battle of Lewes and my printmaking group are producing an alphabet book to celebrate the month of festivities in town - this will be a packet of cards of the prints with an accompanying booklet and an exhibition of the finished concertina book somewhere in Lewes, watch this space
and see
lewesprintmakers.co.uk
website in process of being refashioned....
we will be showing at the May Fayre at Lewes Priory May 10th  and the weekend of the Festival in town 17/18th May

more images of all this as the year unfolds.......

Local Christmas events

I'll be exhibiting at the above for two weekends,

as well as in Lewes Town Hall on Late Night Shopping night 5th December 6-9;

and Lewes Printmakers will have a stand at the Lewes Artists and Makers fair (in aid of Western Road School ) in the Town Hall on Saturday 30th November - 11-5 - selling prints and cards and our printmakers calendars and books about Lewes.

Images for Oxford Fine Press Fair - new books

here are some pics for Marbhna - Elegy - I have chosen the most picture-y ones I suppose but I was interested too in the way the indentations from the woodcuts and collagraphs showed through on the back and interacted with the following texts too in a lot of places - hard to show on the websit - come to the fair!

Here also some little Nelson books and "Horatia's Box" that we had in the Tom Paine Press shop window for Trafalgar Day.
I have always had a soft spot for Nelson since I was taken to see the Victory  on a primary school outing ( the powder monkeys sounded particularly fascinating, tho I'm not sure I visualised them with correct historical accuracy, being always of an imaginative turn of mind.....)

The Naval Museum at Greenwich have just opened a new display, but it sounds as though they are playing down his heroic status and concentrating rightly enough 

on his men too; his men thought he was a hero by all accounts; bit of a shame to be too politically correct, we can always do with a few heroes.....
I read a wonderful novel about Nelson's daughter Horatia and her troubled relationship with poor Emma - she never was acknowledged as her mother of course and Horatia refused to accept it too , although she eventually knew that Nelson, who was overjoyed by the birth of his daughte but died whilst she was still in infancy, was her real father. Both daughter and Emma were treated abominably by both government and society and bundled of to exile in France; but Horatia lived to a fine old age and had several children herself and a good marriage, so there is a happy ending of sorts.

These are some little books with shell covers and woodcuts of the playground skipping rhyme about Nelson from my youth and images of the wonderful popular pottery his life and legend inspired.

All this was inspired too by my trip to Norfolk for the Norwich Book Fair TTP last spring - 
as was the Man in the Moon book ( see below 2 posts back) ....

Also now newly bound 'Hunting the Wren' and 'Love Poems and Curses', collaboration with poems by James Simpson

sorry- taken on a wet dark day so rather lurid colour.....

Late Info - Oxford Fine Press Fair this weekend 2-3 November

at Oxford Brookes University, Gypsy Lane, Headington 

I WILL be there exhibiting: I have just been in a tunnel of finishing books and have 2 days left to get my endpapers pasted down...I will try and take some photos in the next day or so, of new books and bindings....including, finally after 6 years of dithering, the book I wrote and began imaging when on a residency in Donegal...
keep checking this space for photos
hope to see you there
Book fair details on fpba website

www.fpba.com

Late Summer - new events

Next up is Lewes ArtWave, starting weekend 24/25th of August.

I will be having an Open Studio throughout the two weeks ( excepting the second monday ) showing prints old and new , Artists Books and work in progress.

My printmaking group Lewes Printmakers will be exhibiting again at the Linklater Pavilion, Railway Lane, and showing our new book about the River Ouse; see the Artwave website for further details: www.artwavefestival.org

After that I will be exhibiting at the Whitechapel Art Book Fair from 13th - 15th September 

( PV thursday 12th ) see website whitechapelgallery.org; 

someone else will be minding my stand on the friday 13th as I will be giving a paper about 

PEGGY ANGUS

at Compton Verney     -    www. comptonverney.org.uk

ENID MARX AND HER CONTEMPORARIES

Women designers and the popularisation of ‘folk arts’ in Britain 1920-1960.

ONE DAY SYMPOSIUM, COMPTON VERNEY, WARWICKSHIRE on FRIDAY 13 SEPTEMBER 2013

River Festival and Peggy Angus Walk

Here are the poster and hand-painted banner for the River Festival on the Railway Land  and Linklater Pavilion where my printmaking group meet and work
www.lewesprintmakers.co.uk
We are showing prepublication stages of our new book about the River Ouse and images from it, that will be launched at the Linklater in Lewes ArtWave starting bank holiday weekend in August.

It should be a great event - lets hope for good weather, but plenty to see inside - including our exhibit!

Last saturday I led a Peggy Angus walk from Charleston to Furlongs and Glynde and back on a glorious day - very windy up on top of the downs over Firle Beacon , but beautiful views from up there, as well as more bucolic ones from the old Coach Road below and along old green lanes through lush June grass and greenery. We were kindly allowed right up to Furlongs by Glynde Estate ( there is no public access otherwise) and it was a nostalgic moment for me, tempered by the fact that it now all looks so different.
A stalwart and lovely group of people who accompanied me enjoyed hearing her life story and ideas as we walked some of the routes she took - she was an intrepid walker herself with rucksack on back and it was lovely event. It will probably be repeated next year so watch Charleston's website for further details.

This week I have enjoyed Black Eyes and Lemonade - the exhibit at the Whitechapel gallery ; Barbara Jones was another great champion of popular art and the exhibition, a look at at the previous show of 1951 during the Festival of Britain, is really fascinating, a lot is sensitively packed into a small space and well worth a see. A study day event there yesterday on the theme of folk and popular art was excellent.

I will be exhibiting again at the Whitechapel Art book fair in September;
www.whitechapelgallery.org
further details on their website and watch this space.

After Turn the Page

I have been shamed into remembering to write up my blog by receiving a great link from Annette, a book artist that I met at the Norwich Fair...
here is the link to her blog which has a picture of my stand ( its the first image )
www.disslin-an.net:

I have been so excited by Norwich and all that I saw there that I have been busy ever since ( apart from finishing things already started and ongoing - no pressure then....)
....highlights were finding the statue and sculptures about one of my great heroes Sir Thomas Browne just outside the fair,

  visiting birthplace of Nelson at Burnham Thorpe, thinking about the Man in the Moon who came down too soon,

 and of course stopping off to see Thomas Paine's death mask and statue in Thetford on the way...
also the amazing church ceiling at Wymondham and Norwich cathedral itself with its amazing cloister ceiling bosses and the peregrines nesting on the spire.

TTP the book fair was excellent, beautiful setting, well organised, and great people - both displaying and visiting - well worth a visit next year - I'm really keen to do it again.








All quiet on the exhibiting front now until LewesArtWave Open Studios at end of August, then the Whitechapel Art Book Fair end of September, and Oxford Fine Press Book Fair beginning of November - watch this space for details on those...
I will also be giving a Peggy Angus walk for Charleston 8th June - look on Charlston Farmhouse website for details; and will have my Al Mutannabbi St book on show at the Rylands Library in Manchester and also my Boccaccio book on show there from July 11th until November.
There is a conference about 20thc women and folk art at Compton Verney on 13th Sept which will unfortunately clash with the Whitechapel but I hope to send a paper about Peggy Angus.
Together with Lewes Printmakers I am just preparing to go to press with our new book about the River Ouse and we will be showing prparatory work at the River Festival at the Linklater Pavilion, railway land, Lewes on 23rd June and the book will be out in time for Lewes ArtWave.
see www.lewesprintmakers.co.uk for details of past events, and hopefully soon , future ones.