Christmas books - Angie Lewin

I thought I'd feature another one of my christmas books - this time a fabulous Angie Lewin book called Plants & Places I received as a gift from my sister.  Anyone who's a regular to my blog will know I'm a big fan of Angie Lewin's gorgeous linocuts and wood engravings - so this book is a lovely addition to my collection of her work. 

Preparatory drawing for linocut The Moonlit Cup

The book Plants & Places is a beautiful collection of images showcasing Angie Lewin's work, the inspiration behind many of her prints and themes, and the making process behind the artworks.

Poster for Salthouse on the Scenic North Norfolk Coast and cutting the lino block for the poster above.

Angie Lewin's work mainly focuses on native plants, wild grasses and seedpods found along the English coastline, local woodlands, hedgerows and meadows, and the rivers and lochs of Scotland.  Makes me quite homesick!

Alliums

The book also showcases many of Angie's watercolour illustrations - mostly created as initial studies for print designs, but I think they are just beautiful in their own right.  Some of my favourites (below and bottom) feature old china and cups from the 40's and 50's, including some ceramic designs by Eric Ravilious for Wedgwood.

Winter Persephone

The 1953 Coronation Mug (Design of mug by Eric Ravillious for Wedgwood)

You can see other posts about Angie Lewin here, here and here! 

My first original Angie Lewin print!

It's no secret that I'm a BIG fan of Angie Lewin's prints, and for my birthday a few months ago I received my first ever original Angie Lewin print. 

It was a very big surprise, and the print made the journey all the way from Norfolk, England safely to my living room in Melbourne, Australia!   I finally got it back from being framed and is now proudly hanging on the limited wall space we have (most of my walls are full of my father's wonderful watercolour paintings!) 

The limited edition lino print is called 'Spey Seedheads' and I have the Artists Proof version - an artists proof being the first few prints taken prior to the regular, published edition of the print.  A big thank you to my lovely partner Mr B for such a beautiful and thoughtful gift..... although you've set yourself a pretty high standard to follow now!

'Garden Wisdom' - Angie Lewin illustrations

I thought I'd share a book I recently bought called 'Garden Wisdom' which feature the wonderful woodblock illustrations of Angie Lewin. I'm such a big fan of Angie Lewin's work and I couldn't resist this book - more for the design inspiration than the gardening tips!

The book itself was inspired by the art of Angie Lewin; 'She sees the beauty in all seasons and manifestations of all plants: the ordered pattern of the blooms, the thrusting energy of the emerging buds, the prolific seed heads and the varieties of shapes, colours and habits to be found in meadow and border.' (Leslie Geddes-Brown, Garden Wisdom).

The book has handy snippets of garden wisom (literally) from various gardeners and garden designers throughout the ages - which would probably be very useful for me to read if only I didn't get so distracted by the pictures!

You can buy Garden Wisdom here.

Wood engraving & lino prints

Whilst much of my own artwork is painterly and spontaneous, I'm often drawn to quite graphic and 'structured' work with a particular fondness for hand-printed woodblock and linoprints.

Angie Lewin

'Moonlit Loch' (t)

'Scarista' (m)

'Moonlight' detail (b)

Richard Bawden 'Sasha'

Robert Tavener
'Village'

I like the graphic nature of the prints, but also like that the prints retain drawn qualities and imperfections evident of a hand-made process.

These are some cards I've collected featuring the gorgeous work of English printmakers Angie Lewin, Richard Bawden and Robert Tavener.