A lifesize stone rabbit, who bears a striking resemblance to the star of the Trail Guide cover, sits outside the E17 Art House, whose show London you're a lady is a real treat. The gherkin is the most represented building, with a print of it on nearly every wall, but many different areas of London are shown and it's fun to spot familiar buildings. I loved Richard Roberts's Dalson Wallpaper. The colours drew me to it and I enjoyed thinking up what could be going on behind each window.
"Why don't you get out of that wet coat and into a dry martini" is a message I would like on my wall and the typefaces on this print add to its appeal. In the courtyard, children were absorbed in lino-printing with Kirsten Schmidt, illustrating their intials with images.
With all the materials for lino-printing in use and my friend feeling it would be wrong to deprive children of the chance to try it we went onto the Village and the Deli cafe to take shelter from the rain. Lining the green walls are photographs that explore the everday. I sat next to Paul Cummings's pictures of boxy modern houses and the roadside. These are c-type prints on aluminium which gives them an attractive sheen. Seeing deserted suburban landscapes reminded me of George Shaw's work, which is inspired by film stills and Edward Hopper. Perspective, light, shadow and block colours have all been used to great effect to capture everyday scenes that are often overlooked. Peter Tomlinson's photographs also feel like film stills, as do Alan Mcgrath's, one of his series is entitled "Two stills in search of a movie". All these photos had a sense of loneliness about them.
By now it was around 3 o'clock, which my friend said meant it was time for a Sunday afternoon pint. We crossed the road for some refreshment at the Nag's Head where we saw Kitty Brown's wittily captioned photographs. "Great British Summer" presented a very familiar scene, it could have been taken on today's rainy streets and there were some chuckles at titles like "lovely knocker", "the angel of the south" and "it's only a game", a photo of men engrossed in watching football, which could have been shot in the Nag's Head.
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| The Great British Walker |
Down the road is Penny Fielding's Beautiful interiors which is filled with delightful objects (this is my second visit, more photos here) and has a huge fig tree in the garden. On the shelves near the garden is Miss S. Muir's "Miniscule Moments" is a series of framed words spelt out in beads with tiny figures to illustrate them. We spent a while deciding which pairing of word and figure was our favourite, deciding on "protection", which is illustrated by a lady prudently applying sun cream. Sillouhettes of profiles in Andrew Baker's "The Great British Walker", caught my eye as I was leaving too.
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| Penny Fielding's |
Last stop before Vestry House (blogpost coming soon) was Avalon, Shirley Poutney's exhibition of mystical oil and acrylic paintings alongside hand made cards and sculpture. The guest book was filled with rave reviews, "too many beautiful works of art", "magical, gorgeous, inspiring work", "rich colours", "just like last year, enthralling" are just some of the enthusiastic comments that I read. Shirley's work is based around the theme of Arthurian legends and characters - Morgan le Fay, Merlin, the Lady of the Lake, and the Celtic Otherworld.
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