Cornflower

Ladybird, ladybird

     The rest of the world may know this, but I discovered only yesterday that a lot of the artwork of Ladybird Books, so familiar from my childhood, is available to buy in print form or just to browse for nostalgia's sake (website here).

 

    As you see, I still have some of my old Ladybirds and what struck me on looking through them just now was the strong, serious emphasis on imparting knowledge, explaining something of the wider subject, and all without talking down - the books assume that children want to know these facts and they deliver them in a clear and straightforward fashion.

    But back to the pictures; here are the ones from my Trees book, a few from The Seashore, a range of Things to Make (remember potato printing?), and for a certain 'period cuteness', how about these? Go on, have a browse!

Postcards from Penguin

     Postcards from Penguin: 100 Book Jackets in One Box is a small treasure store of images, some familiar, some nostalgic, some strikingly modern for their age. I've chosen a few of the most attractive non-fiction covers here (you can see a sample of the poetry and fiction ones here), 

 

for instance, this 1957 knitting book (design by Heather Standring) - sixty patterns for 5/-!
 

This is A Book of Scripts from 1960, cover by Jan Tschichold.

 
I like this fresh and jolly 1946 cover.

 

The privations of the war years must have seen a run on practical manuals such as these!

Now, which to send to friends and which to keep?

At the garden gate

     We are regular visitors to Edinburgh's Royal Botanic Gardens, and have watched with interest as their John Hope Gateway building has been constructed over the last two years or so. It is now open and we've been to take a look.

The building houses exhibition areas (the Wych Elm exhibition is full of beautiful things), audio-visual displays, a shop with outdoor plant sales area, and we're looking forward to trying the restaurant, reached by a rather striking spiral staircase:

 

The exterior includes a large terrace, and I love the use of stone and wood:

 
While in time there will be a biodiversity garden next to the building, for now there is a wild flower meadow featuring ....

Tapestries and tweeds

 

     On show at An Lanntair, the Stornoway Arts Centre when I was there the other day was this exhibition of miniature tapestries, all sketches or samples for larger pieces, (some by famous names whose work I saw here in Edinburgh last year).

Also on display was this locally made quilt or wall-hanging:

an unusual but attractive use for tweed.

In print

    Thanks to Rosie for the link to the video of printmaker Angie Lewin working on her Winter Spey design - look here.
I've had the All things considered blog in the sidebar for a while, but here's Angie's website proper, and here's her forthcoming book, Garden Wisdom. (One to add to the wishlist, I think!).

Windflowers and more

Here's a wood anemone, also known as windflower, which reminded me that I had this postcard, bought years ago at the V&A:

It's of an earthenware tile by Minton, with decoration "after Walter Crane", and here is a delightful website about Crane (use the Flash version if you can).
For more tiles, how about this collection?

Art for charity's sake

     For a chance to buy some original artwork for charity, read Mark's comment on the post below.

Art knits

  

"Companions", or "Best of Friends" by Emile Munier (1876).

Sentimental, chocolate box-y, but sweet - I love the dog's attitude!

Portrait of a lady

   Cover design is a subject which often comes up over at Cornflower Books, and there and elsewhere there's been much debate about the modern style Virago Modern Classics versus their original 'green' counterparts. This picture is on the front of a 1980 Virago, a book I picked up in a charity shop on Saturday knowing nothing about author, title, artist or subject, but very taken by the image.
    It is a self-portrait by Hilda Carline, first wife of Stanley Spencer. You can read about her hapless marriage and about her work here and here (and there's a book, The Art of Hilda Carline: Mrs Stanley Spencer by Alison Thomas), but what struck me was the painting's simplicity, the directness of the woman's expression and the beauty of her face - not conventional beauty or prettiness, but the way it conveys strength of character, a deep-thinking nature, resignation maybe, a serious disposition and perhaps a sensuous one.
     I could be very wide of the mark, of course, knowing nothing about the artist until I began to write this post - which came about simply because the face intrigued me.
    And the book whose cover it graces? You'll find it here.

Later: re. Louise's comment, you should be able to see the picture "Elsie" here, though the watermark/logo rather obscures the subject's face!

Slated

    This is the slate which forms the sculpture you can see in this post; (and the lichen is mainly on the north side). Both natural material and manmade structure are beautiful, I think.

Remembrance : words and pictures

    To mark the day, in poetry and in paint, here is Wilfred Owen's Anthem for Doomed Youth,
and Art of the First World War, from which I've chosen "Over the Top" by John Nash



and a field hospital scene by Stanley Spencer.

Monochrome

    

Thanks to Peter for the link to these unusual and beautiful photographs.

Warp and weft

 

     Several book-related posts in a row leave the blog in need of some colour and design, so here's a look at an exhibition I visited this morning. Edinburgh's famous Dovecot Studios have just moved to a new home: its tapestry weavers are now in residence in converted Victorian swimming baths, and although the former pool space isn't open to the public, you can see some of the studios' work in the form of "Weaving Influences", a fifty year retrospective collection.
    Above is a detail of a recent piece by the painter Barbara Rae, while below is a maquette for a set of gates by Wendy Ramshaw whose tapestry Cartographer's Circle we saw in cartoon form.


Below is a 1974 work by Archie Brennan; entitled 'Vin Sacre', its representation of textile pattern and its use of perspective are particularly effective.

Another maquette by Wendy Ramshaw, this time of a screen in the V&A,

and a tapestry designed by Eduardo Paolozzi.

No space here, unfortunately, to show you David Hockney, Edward Bawden and Ian Hamilton Finlay, all of whom were represented in the exhibition.

The kindness of strangers: Mr. Cornflower in Chicago

     My schedule gave me a spare hour and a half between meetings and I decided to go to one of the world's great art galleries, the Art Institute of Chicago. But I got held up and then losing my sense of direction completely ended up walking all the way round the block (the entrance I wanted to use is closed because there's a lot of building work going on), so I'm rushing up the front steps with barely twenty-five minutes left.

I buy my ticket and present it to the lady in uniform. With so little time I know exactly what I want to see: "Could you tell me where the Mary Cassatts are please?" She looks at me and at the bag I'm carrying. We both look at the cloakroom where there is a queue of people. She says quietly "You'd better leave that behind my desk and come through." It turns out that what I want is across the far side of the building, and getting there (partly because of the building work) involves several tricky turns and changes of level. But her instructions are clear and five minutes later I am standing in front of the painting I particularly want to see.

 

 

I know there is something sentimental about this and I don't care. In a foreign country, four thousand miles away from our own children, who are all well past the stage of needing to be bathed, I look at this image of love and innocence until it begins to blur a little. The gallery is closing, and more slowly now I retrace my steps. I pick up my bag from the lady at the gate, and thank her, but my throat feels tight and the voice unusually high-pitched. I go out into the Chicago sunshine, light-headed with a sense of release.

Seeing ourselves

 

   

      On a visit to London this week, Mr. C. popped into The Cartoon Museum to see an exhibition of the work of Pont. He has brought home the accompanying book, over which we've been chortling, and here's a taste of Pont's very British humour which I first saw displayed on the wall of Edinburgh's school outfitters, Aitken & Niven; it featured a small boy (like the chap below) wearing a disgruntled expression and a blazer several sizes too large for him, with the caption "Now darling, would Mummy say it fitted if it didn't?" 

 

 

 

 

"Did you say chocolate eclair OR meringue?"

 

 

 

 

"There will be nineteen extra to lunch today"

 

 

 

 

"Please, something which won't make me think"