All Things Considered

Rob Ryan

Rob popped along to the opening of our latest exhibition on Saturday to have a chat about his show with us in November.

We're real fans of Rob Ryan's work - and it's great to have a chance to work with him. We'll have a range of Rob's prints on show - along with some of his tiles and examples of his design work. And - fingers crossed - we'll have a 2008 St. Jude's charity Christmas card designed by Rob.

If you'd like to receive an invitation to the opening of the exhibition, please sign up for our gallery newsletter.

There was a great article about Rob's work in a recent copy of the Independent by Clare Dwyer Hogg:

"The narrow back streets of east London make an ideal wind tunnel on a cold spring morning. There is little to this landscape other than old buildings, a deserted park, and a corner shop or two. But this façade belies the mills of creativity that are churning away behind closed doors. This is studio land, where artists have set up residence, toiling away behind crumbling walls and rickety doors."

Read the full article online

Modern British Posters

Last week I finally made it to this excellent exhibition of British posters from the middle part of the 20th century.

The exhibition features work by Edward Wadsworth, Paul Nash, Edward Bawden, Edward McKnight Kauffer, Abram Games and Tom Eckersley amongst others - all from the private collection of Paul and Karen Rennie.

Paul had previously introduced me to many of the artists and designers whose work is exhibited - and the show acts as the perfect introduction to the genre, as Paul Rennie explains:

"The evolution of British graphic design, from 1920, onwards has usually been presented as a footnote to developments in Europe. These posters show a graphic language of range and sophistication emerging in Britain and able to communicate beyond the established rhetoric of advertising and sales."

The exhibition runs until the 17th of May at the Lethaby Gallery, Central Saint Martins, Southampton Row, WC1. You can also view this slideshow of the work being exhibited. Highly recommended.

The Boudica Within

Last year I read an article called ‘Treasured Chests’ in an issue of The Sunday Times Magazine. The article was promoting a book called ‘The Boudica Within’ which featured the most beautiful, bare and honest photographs of women who had fought breast cancer, faced treatment and who had then gone through reconstruction surgery.

The idea for the book was conceived by Elaine Sassoon, a Consultant Plastic Surgeon at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, with photographs taken by Andrea Hare, a former patient of Sassoon's. Elaine wanted to show women naked, post re-construction surgery looking beautiful and non-airbrushed. Her aim, to encourage and help other women considering breast reconstruction surgery.

The book can be purchased online from the website The Boudica Within, where all proceeds will go to cancer charities.

This Saturday I will be running the Race for Life here in Norwich, to raise money for Cancer Research. If you would like to sponsor me, that would be fabulous. Simply click here and follow the instructions. In advance - thank you.

Sarah Ball

This weekend sees the opening of our latest exhibition at St. Jude's, featuring paintings by Sarah Ball and Lucy Edward's handbuilt pots.

Sarah Ball grew up in South Yorkshire and having studied illustration at Newport Art College she was then based in London, working as an illustrator for a range of high profile clients.

Since 1995 Sarah has been living in South Wales and concentrating on her painting, currently producing small scale works inspired by the landscapes of Cornwall and Wales.

"The Coast series takes the colours, light and coastline of North Cornwall as their inspiration. Cornwall has been a tangible, physical presence in my life since childhood - Yellow gorse, green sea, wet moor land pasture, rooftop lichen, can all be found within these coast paintings, which also draw influence from painters such as Ben Nicholson and William Scott. "

If you're in Norfolk on Saturday 3rd May, join us for a glass of wine between 11am and 4pm.

View examples of the work we'll be exhibiting online.

Detour: Moleskine Exhibitions

I wish my selection of battered and half used Moleskine books were just a tiny bit as exciting at the ones featured at Detour, an exhibition of thirty three personal Moleskine notebooks of artists, writers, designers and illustrators of international acclaim. Sadly mine are just filled with shopping lists and to-do's that slowly get done.

Over the past two years, Detour has been held in London and New York, and this years exhibition is taking place, right now in Paris at Printemps Design Boutique at the Centre Pompidou, until 19th May. The exhibition will move on next to Berlin and in 2009 it will be in Venice, Istanbul, etc...

There is also MyDetour, where notebook submissions are open to anyone . The chosen books are displayed on-line and off-line in Paris. You can view pages from notebooks on Flickr, or you can look at videos of Detour artists notebooks via YouTube. It's quite addictive - and very inspiring.

If you feel motivated to get illustrating, we sell a variety of Moleskine's at St. Jude's Gallery.

The Fragmented Orchestra

As usual, I was laying in bed this morning, slowly coming round to the day listening to Radio 4's 'Today' programme.

What a pleasant surprise to hear the voice of an old friend and fellow ex-band member, Nick Ryan, being interviewed.

Along with Jane Carter and John Mathias, Nick is part of The Fragmented Orchestra, a music project that has just been named as the winner of the New Music Award.

The Fragmented Orchestra's idea uses recording units set up at 24 sites across the UK to capture their sounds - these sounds will then be transmitted back to the Foundation for Art & Creative Technology (FACT) in Liverpool for visitors to hear.

The New Music Award judging panel said: "This extraordinary work mirrors the fundamental human activity of the brain."

Pop-Up-Brilliance

Over the past four years, I've got quite use to pop-up books, but sadly most of the ones we own are now destructed-pop-up-less books. 

There is one pop-up book which I am very keen to buy but not keen for my girls to re-create in there own hands-on origami style, and this is the brilliantly constructed ABC3D book by French illustrator and designer Marion Bataille. 

This engaging hard back book shows each letter of the alphabet in pop-up form, with some letters changing into others as you turn the page or tip the book. Typographic fans, designers and children will love this book. See the clip below to get the full demo.

ABC3d is available to pre-order from Amazon.co.uk, due for release in October.

I'm not one for great organisational skills, but wouldn't this book solve Christmas presents for everyone?

Clothkits

I have fond memories of wearing clothes from the 1970's fashion label, Clothkits, and often wish my Mum had stashed my old garments away for me to reminisce over, and to later dress my children in. But this could all change, as I can now be the one to introduce the clothes and dolls to my girls, because Clothkits is back in business.

Clothkits first started in Lewes in1969. The simple concept behind the clothing kits, was that you were provided with the beautiful screen printed fabrics (which you cut to size), buttons, thread and anything else needed to complete the clothing, and all you had to do was stitch the fabric together.

I recently found an article about entrepreneur Kay Mawler's new business venture, and I was excited to see that artist Rob Ryan has been asked to become involved with, I'm assuming, fabric designs.

And if, like me, you loved the Clothkits dolls, you will probably love the new dolls pictured above. And if you have no idea what I've been rambling about, get acquainted with some Clothkits images at Flickr.

The Neil Cowley Trio

It must be about a year since we first saw the Neil Cowley Trio in Norwich. I'd only just bought their first album, 'Displaced', and didn't quite know what to expect. But what a great night. I even ended up sort of inadvertently/accidentally 'stalking' Neil by e-mail in the days following the gig. A long story.

Their latest album - 'Loud Louder Stop' is available now on CD/iTunes and the trio are on tour across the UK. We're off to see them in Norwich next week. Here's a taster...

Salt

Since moving to Norfolk we’ve spent lots of time walking the dogs at Morston. For me, the views over the saltmarshes, across the ‘pit’ with the many moored boats, to the shingle of Blakeney Point and its bright blue tea room are the essence of this beautiful coastline. Here land, sea and sky merge - and there’s a lot of sky.

This landscape has been the strongest influence on my own work for the last 10 years and is the setting for "Salt", the first novel by Jeremy Page. Page grew up in Norfolk and he captures perfectly the haunting quality of this beautifully bleak landscape and influence on the character of the inhabitants of this part of the country.

So when Nathan at Penguin emailed me to ask if I’d like to produce a print for the cover artwork, it was the perfect commission.

"Stunningly good. Captures the landscape with a truly deft watercolourist’s touch" Rose Tremain.

“Salt" is published by Penguin. £7.99