Artists prints 2

Historically many artists have provided original prints to illustrate books. Known as book plates and often originating from etchings, engravings, wood and lino cuts they have become very collectable works of art in their own right. We have examples from the 1930's by two artists who were renowned for their book plates.

Clare Leighton (1898-1989) worked in wood and is generally regarded as being one of the finest exponents of wood engraving/wood cuts of the 20th century. She also used to write books as well as illustrating them and is particularly known for her work depicting rural life and the harsh nature of the work that men and women often had to endure. One of her most famous and enduring works is a book from 1935 entitled Four Hedges-A Gardener's Chronicle which she wrote and illustrated with prints from wood engravings. Perhaps the most well known of Leighton's images, this picture is of women collecting apples. What stands out is the sense of movement but also of how hard the work is as illustrated by the woman carrying the apples in her apron. 

Clare Leighton from Four Hedges - 1935

A similar picture is this one of women picking fruit. Again she depicts how physical this work can be but also of their total concentration on the matter in hand. In both pictures the faces of the workers cannot be seen and there is no communication between them. A desire to 'do a good job' or the dehumanising nature of work?

Clare Leighton from Four Hedges - 1935

A second artist known for his book plates is Australian artist George David Perrottet (1890-1971) who signed his work GDP. He worked in lino cutting and etching and was known for illustrating  an early version of the novel The Blue Lagoon. Our print is a lino cut believed to be from the 1930's entitled Past the Park and is of a limited edition of 75. It is unclear if this was a book plate or stand alone print but the picture conjures up an image of a developing suburbia with the straight lines of the houses, walls and fences bringing both a modern look and neatness to the scene.

Artists prints 1

One of the most fascinating aspects of collecting art is discovering the many different techniques used by artists to create pictures and in particular the methods used to create prints. By prints I don't mean the mass-produced reproductions of Van Gogh's and Monet's that adorn many a wall but those pictures that have been printed by the artist from their own design whether etched onto a metal plate, drawn onto a stone or carved from wood or lino. 

Don't get me wrong reproductions have their place and it's right to see these wonderful paintings being replicated for a wide audience to get to know and appreciate and important that they are remembered and enjoyed by new generations of people for whom it will be their first introduction to art. But it is the craft of the artist as printer that is so captivating. That the picture you see in front of you started life with a piece of lino, stone or metal and has gone through a whole range of techniques to produce a work of art that is a revelation and one every bit as enthralling as the ceation of an oil or watercolour.

Indeed many artists known primarily for their painting from Rembrandt to Picasso have also produced prints. Sometimes the artist will work with somebody who is a printing specialist but for many they undertake the whole process from conception to the end product.

Usually the artist will produce a limited number of these prints, which makes them very collectable. The fewer in the edition the more sought after and valuable they are. Sometimes the edition can be as few as 10 or 25 but more often between 100 and 250. What is intriguing about these prints is that although they are printed from the same original piece, be it a plate or piece of wood, no two prints are exactly the same as each time ink is re-applied there can be a variation in the colour. 

Joan Hodgkiss does her own printing from etching onto a metal plate and produces colourful pictures of landscapes, trees, bird and flowers influenced by her Suffolk surroundings. Her website gives a fascinating insight into the etching and printing process and can be found at www.joanhodgkiss.com We have a print of hers entitled Benacre from a print run of 50 she produced in 1983 that really depicts the intricacies and creativity of the natural world she portrays.   

Benacre by Joan Hodgkiss 1983

Another artist who was known for his printing was Stan Rosenthal who died in 2012. His work was characterised by wonderfully bright colours particularly of the South Wales and Sussex coastlines. He employed a number of printing techniques but the print we have is a screen print (or serigraph) of Porthgain Harbour in Pembrokeshire, South Wales from an edition of 250. A screen print uses a screen usually of silk or nylon through which ink is pushed onto the paper with stencils used to block out the ink. This can then be applied several times with different colours and stencils to build up the picture. 

Porthgain Harbour by Stan Rosenthal

What we love about this picture is the vividness of the colours and the contrast this produces particularly of the sun soaked sky and blue sea. 

The third example and another favourite again due to its vivid colours is Le Printemps a lithographic print  by French artist Andre Minaux (1923-1986). Minaux was a renowned lithographer and this print is from an edition of 150 believed to be from the 1970's.

Lithography is a process where the artist draws an image on a flat stone or metal plate with a greasy or oily substance that the ink, when applied, will stick to whereas the other areas repel the ink. 

Le Printemps by Andre Minaux

Like the previous print we love this picture because of the striking colours that burst into the picture like the arrival of the Spring that it portrays.
           

Japanese wood block prints

One of the fascinating things about collecting art is the different media artists use to express themselves. We have become very fond of different types of prints that artists have created from lino to etchings and screen to woodblock or woodcut prints. Japanese artists have a tradition of woodblock printing and we have collected several from different periods. The oldest is from the late 19th century by Toshikata and is a hand-coloured print called 'A spring walk' from a series entitled 36 elegant beauties. 

Toshikata

The picture is quite delicate as often the prints were on very fine paper like rice paper but the colours that are hand painted remain really vivid and stand out against the black and white background. 

The Heron Girl by Suzuki Harunobu is an example of Nishiki-e, which is multi-coloured woodblock printing. Previously printing was in black and white with hand colouring but this new method saw woodblocks developed for each colour that allowed them to be overlaid.

   

Heron Girl bySuzuki Harunobu

Although the artist created the image in the 18th century this print is more recent however it is unclear when it was created as woodblocks are often re-carved from time to time with a series printed. Nevertheless the colours in this print are stand out and true to his original intention particularly the use of red that characterises his work. 

   

Painting of Sitges by Spanish artist Angel Badia Camps

Picked up this fabulous little oil painting yesterday of Sitges near Barcelona. Painted on canvas and signed Camps we believe its by Spanish artist Angel Badia Camps who was well known in the 1960's as an illustrator for comic books. More can be found on this work at;

http://todaysinspiration.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/angel-badia-camps-without-doubt-top.html

Sitges by Angel Badia Camps

The colours on this painting are wonderful and evoke the fishing village Sitges must have been in the 1960's. At the time it was a place that attracted many artists and writers and became a focus for the counter culture against Franco's dictatorship. A marvellous find. 

Calvin Burnett

Calvin Waller Burnett - An artist with a unique style

This is an absolute gem of a picture that we found in a second hand shop one Saturday afternoon amongst a pile of prints propped up against a wall. From first sight it was so unique a style in terms of imagery, texture and colours. It's by Calvin Waller Burnett an African American artist (1921-2007) who was based in Boston, Massachusetts and taught at the Massachusetts College of Art for over thirty years.  This is from a series of paintings believed to be from the 1970's and although it's in oil he liked to work in a range of styles and media gaining a reputation as a very eclectic artist. 

What we love about this painting is the way he has used a pallet knife to accentuate the subjects and their shape to give a sensual fluidity to the picture. 

Calvin Burnett

For more information about the life and work of this artist see his obituary from the Boston Globe at;

http://archive.boston.com/news/globe/obituaries/articles/2007/10/12/calvin_burnett_eclectic_introspective_artist/

There is also a fascinating interview with the artist as part of the Smithsonian Institute's archives of American arts entitled Oral history interview with Calvin Burnett, 1980 June 13-1981 January 6, Archives of American art, Smithsonian Institution.

It can be found at; http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-calvin-burnett-11452

Unknown artists

One of the most exciting and fascinating aspects of collecting art is finding out about the painting and the artist. Who painted it? Is the artist known? When was it painted? What is known about the painting? What sort of medium has been used? Does it have any value? So we often find ourselves with a new purchase eagerly delving into google and surfing across websites to find out what we can - how did people manage before the internet we ask ourselves?

Sometimes the artist is not obvious and ends up being tracked down through geographical association or by similar looking pictures. Often there can be several artists with the same name in which case the signature is all important. Trying to enhance the signature on a painting from a website on a computer screen can at times however be a challenge. Still we like the challenge!

What can be frustrating though is not being able to identify the picture or the artist. Actually the most frustrating thing is not being able to decipher the signature at all which can lead to much speculation and guesswork often unresolved or if there's no signature at all. Here are three examples that fall into this category.

Balinese dance Dullah by unknown artist

The first is a picture of a Balinese dancer called Dullah. We know this because her name is on the picture (at first we thought it was the painter's signature). In addition there is a label to the rear of the painting indicating that she was painted by a 'state artist' under president Sukarno of Indonesia and purchased in Singapore in 1965. It's a beautiful painting (though it probably needs a clean) and the artist his really captured something in her eyes that goes beyond the portrait.

Snowy peaks 

The second is an artist's proof print of some sort (maybe a screen print) that has lovely shades of colour from the water to the mountains. Its called snowy peaks though we can't decipher after that perhaps the name of the range or of a sound and we haven't been able to decipher the signature. It could be Turnbull but there are numerous artists called Turnbull and we haven't been able to match up the signature. It looks like it could be Scotland or Canada but there are several Canadian and Scottish artists with that name so it doesn't really help. The only thing that we do know is that it was produced in 83 (1983) so that gives a further clue - the search continues!

Venice by unknown artist

Finally is this oil painting, which is a big and bold impressionist style picture of a waterfront town. It could be Venice or another Mediterranean port. It seems to be signed D4 Rici Not sure what the D4 means and we can find no trace of Rici so it's puzzling. Anybody got any ideas? Please let us know. It's a fabulous picture though as are each of these featured pictures and just because we don't know who painted them doesn't change our appreciation of them. We love them all.                                                                                                                                                                                                     

W. Eric Thorp & W. Lambert Bell

The Two W's -  Eric Thorp and Lambert Bell

These two artists have similarities in that they lived during the same period, W. Eric Thorp (1901-1993) and W. Lambert Bell (1904-1983) and both were landscape artists. 

W. Lambert Bell lived in Stoney Middleton in the Derbyshire Peak District and also in Cornwall and painted in oils. This picture seems fairly typical of his work and is perhaps of the Peak District. This is a fine landscape painting and the length of it especially draws you to the river as it flows from the left to the right of the picture.

For further information about the artist and of the history of art in Stoney Middleton see the article by Jed Lowe at  http://smhccg.org/uncategorized/art-in-stoney-middleton/

W. Lambert Bell

W. Eric Thorp used oils and pastels and was mainly known for his marine paintings so this painting, which is entitled 'Nr Llanberis north Wales' is more unusual. Its painted in pastels, of which we have very few pictures in this medium, and is both colourful and has tremendous movement. Note in particular the smoke from the chimneys. The painting has a label to the rear showing it was exhibited by the Pastel Society and originally cost 20 guineas, though we are not sure when it was painted. W. Eric Thorp has paintings in a number of public galleries and museums in the UK.

For further information about the artist go to http://www.tudorgalleries.co.uk/artists/william-eric-thorp/

W. Eric Thorp