Yes, it’s May again and each Sunday I’ll be showing some old oil paintings at Curtis Tappenden’s house 17 Clyde Road. It’s a silent auction deal again, starting at £50 ono, and so far there have been no bids for any of these real oil paintings! I’m also showing more recent digital prints, a couple of linocuts and cards. Pop in and say hello!
More details on the Beyond the Level website.
I thought I’d collect together all the info on the various prints I’ve done in recent years.
Black Rock lido
Black Rock lido was formally opened on 8 August 1936. It was designed by the Borough Engineer David Edwards in ‘Seaside Moderne’ style. The pool closed in 1978 and the changing room and cafe buildings demolished. It is currently a car park for coaches. This is the only print I’ve done of a building that no longer exists.
Saltdean Lido
Saltdean Lido was built in 1937-38 to designs by the architect Richard W H Jones, who also designed the Ocean Hotel (once owned by Butlins) up on the hill. In 1987 it was granted Grade II listed status and last year this was upgraded to Grade II*. There is some debate as to its future. www.saltdeanlidocampaign.org
Astoria cinema
The Grade II Listed Astoria was designed by Edward Albert Stone, who also designed the Astorias in London. The Art Deco auditorium decorated by Henri & Laverdet seated 1,823 people. It opened on 21 December 1933, closed in 1977 and was a bingo hall until 1996. Its owner Mike Holland plans to demolish it and build a ‘media hub’ on the site. The Astoria Moving Picture Trust is working to save it.
Embassy Court
This Grade II* listed block of flats was designed by Wells Coates in 1935-36. Famous residents included Keith Waterhouse and Terence Rattigan. Rex Harrison, Max Miller, Diana Dors, Graham Greene and Lawrence Olivier also spent time there. Restoration of the building took place in 2004-6. www.embassycourt.org.uk
Shoreham Airport
Although there has been an airport on the site since 1910, the Grade II listed terminal building was designed by Stavers H Tiltman and opened in 1936 and is still in use with a modified tower. It has appeared on TV in Agatha Christie’s Poirot and the film The Da Vinci Code.
Put three of my mounted Shoreham Airport giclee prints into the Art at the Airport exhibition, part of Adur festival, and sold all of them! Many thanks to Kim Adele Fuller for organising it. Loved the aircraft acrylics by Stephen Danks…
My latest tribute to Ed Ruscha. Done in Freehand with some ‘painting’ in Photoshop.
My second Embassy Court print is from the other end of the back of the building, by the road into the back yard, looking north-east. I messed around with the perspective of the windows a bit and made the text more maroon. I had a request to make it blue, but that made the whole image look a bit too sombre. That’s it for Embassy Court for now. This will be an A3+ giclee, like the other one.
If you turn to the last page in the Winter 2009 issue of Arty magazine, you’ll see a feature on Yours Truly as ‘Personal View’. The issue also features my neighbour Angie Meaden Bonnel, who lets me show work at her Dragonfly House.
This is my most popular screenprint – the edition of 12 are now all sold. The pattern at the bottom is from a frieze inside the terminal. The top part of the control tower is the old 1930s version. The colors are Art Deco. The silkscreens were made from hand-cut Rubylith – no computers were involved in the making of this print. Concorde and the contrail across a deep blue sky are a sort of trademark of mine now.
This is a pen, ink and wash sepia painting (well, Burnt Sienna, actually) of the photo below.
This is a postcard-sized watercolour, made from the photo below.
A detail from this screenprint is used for the blog’s header. It’s a view from Seaford Head looking east towards Beachy Head. The Atonement connection is with the film of the same name – there’s a scene where they live in one of these cottages. The cottages have been used for locations in many films and TV programmes. I wanted this to be the postcard view, so I bought a postcard, took a photo from the same location and made the screenprint at BIP using the photo as a guide. I’ve also done various watercolours of the same scene. I wanted it to look like a Brian Cook book jacket for Batsford, or a 1930s railway poster, in simple flat Art Deco colours. The silkscreens were made from hand-cut Rubylith – no computers were involved in the making of this print. There is only one print left from an edition of eight.
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