WHOLE LOTTA HOVE

I had another opportunity yesterday to admire the beautiful Victorian curves of Brighton station (below) on the way to visit my dear, dear friend, artist Mrs Gillian Trundle-Hepplewhite.

Gillian lives in the grandiose Palmeira Square area of Hove, in a lovely art deco inspired flat with her original Northern Soul hipster and builder husband John. Goldsmiths alumni Gillian agreed to give me a crash course in screen printing, but not before I took the grand tour of their amazing living space full of exotic wares she had accumulated over the years...

Along with the stylish accessories like the vintage Mickey Mouse and beautiful modernist carved bust above, Gill and John's house was full of hip period detail like the elegant curved wall and neutral-toned, minimalist, marblised shower below.

The upper levels of the property contained a number of skylights, the master bedroom featuring an enchanting view towards the pretty St. John the Baptist Church perched on the Western end of the regency-era Palmeira Square (below). Gill's flat sits in a brilliant location, the beautiful church up the northern end of her street, while Hove's lovely seafront lies at the southern end, a matter of a few minutes walk away. 

Gill and John's outdoor space included this beautiful solid vintage sun dial below and other small but perfectly formed accessories.

Gill showed me some fine examples of her screen printing work, inspired by John's northern soul roots and his enormous vinyl collection which runs into the many hundreds. The stark, detailed print below is a post-modern tribute to the music obsessive and a nice interpretation of the numerous nights spent under the Hepplewhite roof way past midnight with the turntables turned up to 11... 

Gill's other obsession is the retro graphics and art deco aesthetics so integral to the city of Miami and the Florida Keys area. The influence is clear in pretty, stylised prints like this hip one below.

We finally got down to brass tacks with a run-through of the basics of screen printing a simple stencil. Gill let me down gently by informing me that the crappy vintage silk screen frame I had picked up at a garage sale in Australia for $8 wasn't up to the job...however my squeegee was the business so all was not lost. We did a few simple prints - featuring a crude rendering of Gill's favourite symbol - and viola!...a few very, I mean VERY rough images emerged. Luckily Gill was still smiling despite that crimson paint threatening to go all over her beautiful new kitchen fittings.

After all that hard work, it was off for a twilight stroll around Hove's grand Palmeira Square. The descending sun created a beautiful sunset over the wooden beach huts as the square gradually illuminated with cosy, warm hues eminating from luxurious lounge and dining rooms. The grand, spacious flats seemed to be full of idiosyncratic furnishings and characterful charm, the rainy pavements reflecting a magical, opulent ambience. Not a single stick of Brighton Rock to be seen...gotta love Hove.

I DON'T LIKE MONDAYS...ANYMORE THAN I LIKE BOB, PEACHES OR PIXIE GELDOF

Just beginning the long, cold descent into another dark night of the soul...followed by another long wintery week of work. Fiddlesticks, harrumph and yawn.

I've been entertaining myself today by busting out a few collages, even though I should have been working on that albatross of a job application. The fact is when 'the muse' speaks one is as powerless to resist as the ancient Greeks were to the sirens' song, try as I might to tie myself to the bed and drip melted wax into my ears...

Below are the fruits of my labour, with thanks to my favourite store, St Vincent De Paul, Katoomba branch. That hour I spent over Christmas feverishly leafing through vintage wildlife & train periodicals and the $3 I eventually spent turning out to be a wise investment indeed. Yawn.

MORE REFLECTIONS...

Just wanted to post some more reflections up...though as I'm not feeling reflective in the slightest I'll keep the Piccadilly palare to a minimum. A few more shots of London's pretty mise-en-scene...around the streets (paved with gold) of Soho and Chelsea. Easy meat and a reasonably good buy...

NEON POSTCARD LOVE : ROB N NICK CARTER

Just lounging around in the bohemian garret-cum-jail cell in me Jamaican string vest, nonchalantly scratching the shingles scabs on valentines day and thought I may as well blog it up since the construction of my website is evidently taking longer than the making of the Stone Roses' second album. Ho hum.

So...I went to Rob and Nick Carter's bawdy show at the Fine Art Society on New Bond Street a few weeks ago now. Appropriating my favourite form of 'visual signifier' which co-incidentally, if I haven't mentioned a million times already is also officially having 'a moment' in London...the humble postcard...Rob and Nick Carter's vibrant works burst with a tacky, neon sexiness (apart from the atom bomb one, obviously).

Overlaying over-sized, iconic retro postcard images with gaudy, piercing, neon shapes...the connection between the Carters' selection of imagery and their electric signs remains obscure, aside form the playful irony of the atom bomb ice cream and the flashy extroversion of the flamingo stripper. One suspects there is no immediate meaning behind each piece, beyond the pleasing fusion of the simplified light forms and the composition and colours of the imagery beneath. Certainly the artists themselves - married since 1997 - insist the audience draw their own conclusions about the 14 works on display.

The interplay between the recognisable Vegas neon & vintage postcard elements - each distinct as individual signifiers - results in a show of contemporary, upbeat work. The kind of show-off art that wouldn't look out of place adorning the likes of Tamara Ecclestone or Chloe Green's trustafarian bedroom walls. Judging by the back room sales sheet I clocked suggesting over half of the series had 'dotted', there must be been loads of happy young ladies with rich daddies in the new year.  

THE 2011 INTERNATIONAL POSTCARD SHOW, NOTTINGHAM

I chuffed up through the bleak east-midlands darkness on the dreaded 6.15am train yesterday (the only one the RST exchequer can afford these days!) to see the 2011 International Postcard Show at Nottingham's beautiful Surface Gallery (below).

Including the work of over 100 international artists, the exhibition's brief was entirely unrestricted apart from the simple requirement that each piece be limited to the standard 4 x 6 cm postcard size. Your humble correspondent, I admit, had a vested interest in seeing the show, with six of my own works exhibited (below). Leaving the biting criticism of my own output to the likes of my nemesis Alan Yentob, I will mention that a website is currently under construction - featuring the full range of RST works - which will be available to view and purchase imminently. Details to follow soon. 



Beyond All Pity (c) 2010



Presents From Brighton (c) 2010



The Psycho And Sex (c) 2010



Vote Conservative (c) 2010



A Bad Review (c) 2010



Picasso (c) 2010

Other interesting work included Youngjoo Yoo's minimalist series of 'figurative numbers' 1 to 6 (below).  Each piece charmingly simple in its approach - the utilisation of flat matt black paint on a cardboard brown surface - Yoo's work was reminiscent of early 20th c modernists such as cubist Georges Braque and eminent British sculptor Barbara Hepworth.   

Another impressive piece I really loved was Ioana Coman's 'Who Am I?' (below). These three tiny words accompanied by the mixed media image of a woman's crossed legs hoisting up (or down?) a delicate lace thong seemed so universal in its comment on the modern young western woman's psychology, sexuality and general insecurities. Always interested in art that speaks of the female experience, I found this piece amusing, poignant and pretty in equal measure.

Work featured in the Surface Gallery's International Postcard Show is available to purchase and will be exhibited until 29th January, 2011. Find out more at the gallery's website here.

EARL'S COURT RUMBLE

I don't go out in my local hood that often but god knows when I do, not even a broken ankles gonna stop the shenanigans...first stop (well actually there was only two) was a pretty Russian restaurant we'd been meaning to check out for ages...Nikita's. Name checking Elton John as a favourite customer on their website, the restaurant featured a veritable cacophony of beautiful, distinctive interior murals inspired by ornate  Russian houses and originally designed to brighten the long winter nights.

Nikita's food was heartily divine (see dumplings above), the vodka flowed freely, the waitresses eminated that idiosyncratic charm only Russian ladies can and when we least expected it, the crazy accordion player (below) started busting out traditional balalaika tunes...turned up to 11. According to the website he was Bibs Ekkel 'one of the top masters of the balalaika outside Russia', however he seemed to be favouring Abba tunes at our table that night in tribute to my two stunning Swedish (almost) identical twin sister dining compadres.

After Nikita's we hobbled along to my favourite London cafe - The Troubadour. I first discovered this magical place at the age of 17 and spent months trying to locate its wonderful selection of rickety teapots in the window again years later when I finally came to reside in the city.

With a chequered, bohemian history dating from its inception in the 1950s, the cafe includes a subterranean live music bar - keeping alive a tradition of folk and jazz which reputedly saw the likes of Bob Dylan play at the venue.

What I love most though are the curious interiors (below) - traditional and European in style, featuring all kinds of hanging saucepans, iron work, enormous keys and locks, wooden puppets, musical instruments and statues. The cafe also has a fertile, fairy-lit beergarden out the back, a really beautiful atmosphere in which to spend a midsumummer night's dream...