All Things Considered

Rob Ryan

It was a genuine pleasure meeting papercut artist and printmaker Robert Ryan earlier in 2007. Our visit to his London studio was inspirational.

And we're delighted that we'll be exhibiting his work at the gallery.

Born in Cyprus in 1962, Robert Ryan is a paper-cut artist, printmaker (Rob has an an MA in printmaking from the Royal College of Art) and illustrator, working for a range of clients including Vogue, Paul Smith and a number of book publishers.

All of Robert's work is the result of painstaking hand-cutting of delicate papers. These intricate works are either sold in the papercut form or developed as limited edition screenprints.

The story-telling that is present in much of Robert's work is perfectly illustrated by his recent book, 'This Is For You', the dreamy tale of a man who has lost his place in the world who takes a magical papercut journey of rediscovery.

You can view a selection of Rob's work at the gallery.

Merry Christmas!

We'd like to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas!

We have lots planned for 2008 at St. Jude's - we're part way through organising our exhibition calendar at the gallery and have several new screen-printed textiles in the pipeline.

And we'll be making a New Year's resolution to keep posting to this blog a little more frequently.

Wishing you all the best for 2008!

Simon, Angie, Audrey & Kate

The image to the right - by Edward Bawden - is taken from 'Entertaining À La Carte' which features over 200 illustrations of his work for Fortnum & Mason. More...

Mr. Sprout

We’ve been to New York several times now, and the along with iconic sites such as Central Park, the Guggenheim and Grand Central Station, coming across Mr. Sprout in delis and food stores across the city always raises a smile.

I confess that I was slightly concerned what the hotel staff would have thought if they’d discovered us taking this photo on the roof of the hotel. But we got away with it.

I’m a fan of sprouts - always have been - though I realise they’re a vegetable you’ll either love or hate. I remember (but can’t lay my hands on) a Nigel Slater recipe that involved ‘shredding’ as fine as you can and frying with bacon and a bit of butter - resulting in a salty, earthy version of crispy seaweed (well, that’s what I thought at the time).

I should imagine there’s a statistic somewhere claiming that 99% of UK sprout consumption is on Christmas Day, but what a shame if this is the case.

The BBC Food website will tell you all you need to know (and more) about the humble sprout.

Martin Puryear

We visited New York in November, arriving with the genuine intention that we’d be blogging on a daily basis. That didn’t quite work out, and this is the first of a handful of retrospective blogs.

Whilst we were there, the first large-scale exhibition of Martin Puryear’s work opened at The Museum of Modern Art.

Born in 1941, Puryear came to prominence in the 1970’s as a gifted member of the post-Minimalist generation. Whilst his sculpture draws upon many varied sources of imagery, you’re always aware of the personal and handcrafted nature of the work - widely celebrated for its mystery and allusiveness.

The sculptures, created with traditional materials - red cedar, willow, tar, wire mesh, hemp rope and rawhide - display wonderful craftsmanship and many have the qualities of agricultural tools.

In the central 1st floor gallery space (which is the full height of the building) a beautifully crafted  wooden ladder stretches with exaggerated perspective to the highest point alongside a piece incorporating found cartwheels.

The exhibition runs until January 14th 2008. The catalogue is great too.

Community Friendly Graffiti

At first I was a bit baffled by light graffiti, but having had a go at taking some photos with sparklers in the dark, it all started to make sense. Prolonging the camera exposure while drawing with a light source can produce some amazing results, (not mine) but some of the sites and images I have come across are excellent.

Urban light art has become quite a craze around the world, and with it being a non-permanent art, sharing and displaying the visuals online seems to fit in perfectly with the rapidly growing internet based communities.

What's great about this form of graffiti is that it causes no damage to buildings, leaving no negative environmental impact on our towns and cities.

Here is a clip of an advert I came across on You Tube, and this slide-show on Flickr is quite brilliant.

I'm now wishing I had bought a few boxes of glow-sticks for Christmas gifts...

Maggie's Centre Portraits

Earlier this month, a campaign was launched at Downing Street to raise £15m for five new Maggie's Centres across England and Wales. These centres will join the five others already up and running in Scotland, where cancer patients and carers and their families drop in for support.

Sam Taylor-Wood, a patron of Maggie's Centres (along with the prime minister's wife, Sarah Brown), was diagnosed with cancer ten years ago, just as her career as an artist was taking off. This year, Sam was invited to photograph some of the patients at the Maggie's Centre in Fife, Scotland, designed by award winning architect, Zaha Hadid.

The portraits of the cancer patients taken by Taylor-Wood in the light flooded, space-ship like building are being exhibited at Downing Street until early January 2008. The portraits will then go on tour around the UK, to help raise money and awareness for the amazing and needed support that is provided by Maggie's Centres.

Irn Bru

Not sure how long it's been on air, but last night we caught the fantastic new Irn Bru advert for Christmas.

A pastiche of "We're walking in the air" - both in its music and animation - not only does it promote Scotland's most popular soft drink, but I should imagine the Scottish Tourist Board will be fairly happy too.

We're walking in the air,
I'm sipping on an Irn-Bru.
My chilly snowman mate
Said he would like some too.

You can enjoy the advert in full on the Irn Bru website.

The Mini Picture Show

The Bankside Gallery, right next to Tate Modern on the southbank  of the Thames, is the home of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers and the Royal Watercolour Society.

Featuring exciting new work on a small scale, The Mini Picture Show promises to be the perfect opportunity to purchase enchanting, original and affordable art for Christmas. Works by Members of both Royal Societies will be available framed and unframed and may be taken away when bought. The exhibition opens on Tuesday 11th December from 6-8pm and continues until 24th January 2008.

I'll have a number of prints available at the exhibition including 'Five Trees' (see right) and 'Winter Spey' which featured on our now sold-out St. Jude's 2007 Christmas card.

The gallery is open daily 11.00am-6.00pm and admission is free.

The Bankside Gallery, 48 Hopton Street, London SE1 9JH Tel: 020 7928 7521

www.banksidegallery.com

Bygone Holidays

I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I received a link to Feather Down Farm Days website; duvets and wellington boots instantly sprung to mind, but on further investigation, the Feather Down Farms concept has proved to be the quite possibly, my dream holiday.

Feather Down Farms are small scale farms, where farmers care intrinsically about the rural land that surrounds them.

"A Feather Down Farm is always established on or in the vicinity of a nature reserve or country estate ,or one of the other organisations in the field of nature conservation & preservation."

So we already know that the surroundings are going to be special, and having farm animals, beautiful walks,'find your own' fresh eggs and a home-produce farm shop close to hand, makes it even better.

The accommodation is also so appealing, (I do realise that it is not everyone's cup of tea) but the large old- fashioned tent with its wooden floor, cooking range, solid furniture and no plug sockets, makes me want some hob nailed boots and a petticoat - NOW!

There is also one other facility that makes me rub my hands with glee - all farms have a traditional bread oven, so at least I could get my baking fix, if others can't get their electricity fuelled ones.

You can choose between twelve farms in England, Scotland and Wales and you can book a holiday from Easter through to Autumn half-term.

Hope & Greenwood

I came across Hope & Greenwood, 'purveyors of splendid confectionery', through an article in a magazine some months ago. At that time their site wasn't yet launched, so I had visions of them selling my childhood tooth decayers like Spangels and Texan Bars. Sadly they don't, as of course the manufacturers ceased production of these sweets years ago, but they do have a fabulous selection of other tradional British sweets: parma violets, flying saucers, rose and violet creams as well as a feast of other glass jar favourites. I think that having a bag of vintage sweets on your journey to your old fashioned farm holiday, could be a perfect time-trip hit. Read above....