Skylark Galleries Blog

Here is a link to the blog Skylark Galleries have just posted about my joining Skylark 2.

http://www.skylarkgalleries.com/sg/

I’ve also been busy on more postcard collages and have completed over 20 now. All of them use black and white vintage postcards of British landscapes, with content inspired by what is written on the reverse, British sci-fi like Quatermass and Dr Who, a feature of the place depicted or its name and description.

Kit Boyd Homage to Quatermass

All the best for Christmas and 2012 to my lovely blog readers

Winter is here

A cold snap is finally here in London and we had our first frost this morning. My parents in Cumbria have woken to snow on the ground, and I’m a little jealous as I sit here listening to 50 Words for Snow by Kate Bush. We’ve still got a few passion flowers and nasturtiums out on our roof terrace as it’s been so mild until now.

I’ve put some more nuts out for the birds this morning and had greenfinches, great tits and blue tits on the feeders so far. I’ve been keeping an eye out for the goldcrest I’ve seen twice now in the top of the silver birches outside our top floor window in Vauxhall. I was really amazed the first time I saw it – I never expected to see one in central London.

Have been getting in the festive spirit over the last week despite a horrible cold that I haven’t quite been able to shift. On Sunday I had a stall at the Morley College Winter Fair, selling my cards, prints and antique engraving baubles (now sold out I’m afraid). The quality of the ceramics, crafts, clothes and art being sold was excellent.

Another seasonal event tomorrow at Skylark Galleries on London’s Bankside where I have just started to show my work. Gallery artists have a Christmas show on now, and on Wednesday we are opening late until 7.30 with mulled wine, so do come along for a spot of Christmas shopping if you fancy joining us overlooking the Thames. Skylark 2 is in the Oxo Tower, and Skylark 1 is a few minutes away in Gabriel’s Wharf next to the National Theatre.

And if you are in north London, I have 7 pieces in the Islington Art Society’s Christmas Show at Hornsey Library in Crouch End – it’s on until Saturday 10th December and is a great place to buy original works of art from over one hundred talented artists.

Skylark 2

 

2 of my etchings in the window at Skylark 2

My Man on a Laptop pictures in Skylark 2

A Cornucopia of News

It’s a busy and fruitful autumn…

I have just finished hanging a selection of my work at the wonderful Cornercopia in Brixton Village SW9. Ian and Annie kindly invited me to put up some work in their dining room some time ago when I had a studio above the shop.

When I set up the first pop-up shop in Brixton Village with Spacemakers in 2009 – Gruff and Tackleton’s Winter Menagerie – Ian and Anne started work on Brixton Cornercopia with just one small run-down corner unit on 4th Avenue. Deservedly the Cornercopia empire has grown and they now have a separate dining room and kitchen where Ian and his team prepare the most wonderful locally sourced food.

On show for the first time is my oil painting of Bacchus, God of Wine, who oversees the bacchanalean feast, flanked by Pan and The Gardener and some of my recent etchings and linocuts. My greetings cards are for sale in their newly redesigned and beautiful shop.

Brixton Cornercopia is at 65 Brixton Village Market, Coldharbour lane, London, SW9 8PS. You’ll need to book on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday – it’s busy! http://brixtoncornercopia.ning.com/

Upcoming events

Open Studios 25th/26th November

My studio at ASC 128 Blackfriars Road SE1 8EQ is open to visitors on Friday 25th November 6-9pm and Saturday 26th 12-6pm. ASC is right on St George’s Circus, 5 minutes walk from Southwark, Elephant or Waterloo and my studio is on the third floor: studio number 304.

The building is home to the ASC gallery and over 120 artists, designers and creatives. Come along and see where I work and perhaps pick up a bargain!

Showing in Skylark 2 at OXO Tower from December

I am delighted to announce that from December 1st 2011, I will be joining Skylark Galleries on London’s Southbank.

A selection of my work will be on sale at Skylark 2 in the iconic OXO Tower, between Blackfriars Bridge and Waterloo Bridge. Skylark Galleries is an artist-run co-operative, and I’ll be looking after the gallery on a Thursday every few weeks. I’ll be showing my smaller work including etchings and aquatints.

Christmas is coming…

Christmas is round the corner, and I’ve been making a few more tree baubles which I’m now selling on etsy and ebay. They featured ont he latest etsy UK e-newsletter. I’ll also be selling these in person at the Morley College Winter Fair on Sunday 4th December along with my Christmas cards and a selection of prints.

Morley College Winter Fair is on 11.30-3.30 on Sunday 4th December 2011 and it’s free entry, at

CHristmas Baubles - each one unique

Kit Boyd Cornercopia

My paintings at Cornercopia

Keith Vaughan at Osborne Samuel

A new show of Keith Vaughan’s gouaches, drawings and prints opened at Osborne Samuel in Bruton Street, London last night.

Over 100 pictures form this inspiring and beautifully displayed collection. From a very early and highly accomplished scraperboard image from 1932 to an intriguing drawing of Francis Bacon (with an amusingly small head and huge oblong body), David Sylvester and John Russell from 1976, the show covers every area of Vaughan’s output.

The 1940s neo-romantic period is especially well represented with pen and ink barracks drawings and verdant gouache landscapes nestling next to each other.

It’s intriguing to see male nudes in contrasting depictions from 1941: two romantic Tchelitchew-esque drawings of vulnerable figures (Weeping Male Figure and Standing Male Figure by Moonlight) are followed by stridently masculine brusque nudes (e.g. Standing Nude Boy); the emotional interior and the physical exterior aspects of Vaughan’s work clear in these few images.

There are several tree studies from this wartime period too, with one resonant image of fallen trees in black ink, looking like dead bodies strewn across a forest floor from 1940.

The many pencil drawings of male nudes vary in quality, with the most successful being the erotic – Lovers 1968 and Two Figures Embracing (undated) being highly charged sensually, emotionally and sexually in simple line drawings. It’s worth remembering how taboo any depiction of homosexuality was until very recently and these graphic works could never have been publicly displayed in his lifetime.

It’s well worth going along, but if you can’t make it, a hardback catalogue is available, with an essay by Gerard Hastings. The 2007 paintings and drawings catalogue has also been reprinted in a small edition of 500 copies available from www.osbornesamuel.com and the images of works in the show can also be seen on the website

Keith Vaughan at Osborne Samuel 2011

Islington Contemporary Art & Design Fair

I’m showing my etchings, aquatints and small drawings at ICADF week 2. Nearly all the work I’m showing has been made this year, and is mostly on a small scale with small limited edition etchings starting at £30 (a little bit more affordable than the superyacht prices at Frieze).

ICADF is on at Candid Arts, Torrens Street, EC1 – right behind Angel Tube station.

Kit Boyd - The Island Refuge - etching and watercolour

 

Portico Gallery 30th September – 2nd October

I’ll be showing my work with 20 Lambeth artists at the Portico Gallery next weekend as part of Lambeth Open. It’s also the West Norwood Feast that weekend so lots going on around the gallery including vintage markets, food stalls, and studios and artist homes nearby open to visit too. Click the invite below to go to the Lambeth Open website.

Lambeth Open Launch Private View Invitation

Auction now on

The artists in the current September Art exhibition have donated pieces in aid of the Trust for Chernobyl Children.

There are 89 pics, and with prices starting at just £10, you may get a bargain. My picture, The Tropical City, is no 87 on page 5 of the list.

September Art is currently on in the beautiful village of Wadhurst in East Sussex near Tunbridge Wells, and the auction pictures are on display in the parish hall. The auction and the exhibition run until 4pm on Sunday 11th September.

Online Art Auction

www.trust4chernobylchildren.org.uk

Trust for Chernobyl Children