Monday, November 16, 2015

Yuletide Sale

Yuletide Sale

Starting this Thursday 19th November and going on until Sunday 29th November inclusive I am running what shall be my last ever online Print Sale on all items! Grab a bargain whilst you can!

Simply visit my online Big Cartel shop on and within those dates, add any items you may be after to your Basket and then at Checkout enter the Discount Code YULETIDESALE to get 20% off the price of all prints.

http://paulbommer.bigcartel.com

'Tis the Season to be Jolly!


Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Magic Lantern

Magic Lantern
A solo selling Exhibition of Works by Paul Bommer


Town House, 5 Fournier Street, Spitalfields, London E1 6QE

Friday 2nd October --> Sunday 11th October inclusive.
Opening Times: Sat/ Sun/ Mon 11 am --> 5 pm, Tues --> Fri 11 am --> 6 pm

Preview Opening: Thursday 1st October, 6 --> 8,30 pm



Saturday, June 13, 2015

A Midsummer's Sale

A MIDSUMMER'S SALE

To celebrate the arrival of Summer I am offering a 20% discount on all screen prints bought through my Big Cartel online shop (see link below), starting today and ending Friday 26 June at 12 noon. Just add what you want to your basket and enter the code SUMMERSALE at checkout. Easy Peasy Lemon-Squeezy!

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

An English Rose

The proof for another new print for O England My Lion-Heart arrived this morning from the Print Block - here's a small detail, an english rose (and a hint of irish shamrock!). 


This is the first time I've successfully attempted combining inks to create additional colours - in this case, a blue and the yellow to make the green (which I adore) and a purple from the same blue and the rose red. Chuffed with the results!

Friday, March 27, 2015

Wildman of the Woods

Got another of the new prints for 'O England My Lion-Heart' this morning, ready for numbering, signing and framing.
Here, a teasing glimpse of a detail, a wily wodewose watching wildly in the woods…


Thursday, March 26, 2015

Hurrah!

Hurrah for …


A tiny teasing glimpse of one of my new prints for my forthcoming solo show, O England My Lion-Heart, at the Lion Street Store in Rye, opening Friday 1st May.

No prizes for guessing the subject matter here!

Tiles & Tribulations #6

Tiles & Tribulations #6
Progress is being made on the long, slow, winding road to making my own Delft tiles. Here my take on a traditional design, a triton or merman a-blowing on his horn. The contrast between line-work and wash could have been greater, but over all I'm pretty content with the results.
The tile as painted…


...and after firing and ageing, showing the beginnings of some pleasing surface craquelure (desired).


Tiles & Tribulations #5

Tiles & Tribulations #5
Things going well on the delft tile trail. Here an earthenware tile with the traditional image of a Hare seated upon a tussock. As well as testing the contrast between fill/ wash and line, I also wanted to see how the (Chromium Oxide) green carnation corner motifs would look, as I've a fire-place tile project for later in the year that (ideally) calls for them. Pretty happy with the result.
The tile as painted…


...and after firing and ageing.




Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Posters for 'O England My Lion-Heart'


I have now received the posters, printed (for now) in a dark blood red and a navy blue, for my forthcoming solo show 'O England My Lion-Heart' at the Lion Street Store in Rye, opening on the 1st of May.

The posters have been most excellently and lovingly screen- printed by Mr. Paul McNeill (aka Mandy Doubt) of Norwich-based print maestros Print To The People. A great job - I am over the moon!

The posters have been printed as an open edition on white brown-paper (yes, I know!) and those not put up on local walls and in local windows shall be available to purchase from the Lion Street Store once the Exhibition opens.

Monday, March 9, 2015

O England My Lion-Heart (Solo Show)

O England My Lion-Heart (Solo Show)



The invites for my first solo show of 2015, O England My Lion-Heart, have arrived from the printers. 
Print maestro Martin Clark, of Tilley Letterpress in Ledbury, always does such an amazing job! Thank you so much Martin!

O England My Lion-Heart
An Exhibition of Prints by Paul Bommer
at the
Lion Street Store, 6 Lion Street, Rye, East Sussex, TN31 7LB

Friday 1st May --> Friday 22nd May, 11 am --> 5 pm (Closed Tuesdays)
PREVIEW OPENING: Friday 1st May 6 --> 8 pm


The Glaze is always greener…

The Glaze is always greener…
Fired
A personal delft tile project I hope to take on by the end of the year requires, if possible, a green corner motif (when done it will all make sense). So a couple of weeks ago I spent an evening playing around with Copper Carbonate and Chromium Oxide greens on an old discarded biscuit-fired bowl.
The Copper Carbonate, the more turquoise of the two greens shown, proved to be a tricky bugger to work with and almost burnt out to nothing on the firing. Perhaps Copper Oxide might prove more satisfactory?
The Chromium Oxide on the other hand, although perhaps not diluted enough, went on, and fired, to a most pleasing Lincoln Green.
Unfired

Unfired

Unfired

Unfired

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Lessons from Amsterdam

I am just back from a wonderful few days in the beautiful city of Amsterdam, with my partner Nick and our good friends Will and Marie from Old Town clothing (http://www.old-town.co.uk). A bit of a jolly admittedly (and to celebrate Will's umphtht birthday!) - but one with a serious research intent as well.


As progress with making my own delft-style ceramic tiles has come on in leaps and bounds of late, I thought it would be of benefit to re-examine delft tiles en masse and in-situ in the country that developed and first produced them.

And it was very encouraging to see, with the cold grey eyes of experience, that the Delft tiles of Holland have come in all forms and show many of the variations and 'flaws' that I myself have experienced in my tile-making trials.


By and large all Dutch delft tiles measure approximately 13 cm or 5" square. But after that, its pretty much a free-for-all - thicknesses between 6 and 13 mm, variations in the cobalt blue from the very dark, almost black, to the barely there, 'glaze creep', crazing (or not), line distortion and image slippage during firing, smudging, blurring, variable tin-glaze colour and thickness, corner motifs (or not), 'burn out' on the more densely-concentrated spots, pitting of the tin glaze and speckling of the washes. And a finesse of detail ranging from the extremely detailed to the almost unreadably crude and simplistic.

I am vindicated! Onwards and upwards my dear friends!






F & M Chicken & Egg


Another glimpse of the Easter Chicken & Egg visual tag I designed for Fortnum & Mason just before Christmas. On the shelves now!



The design as visual tags and as a 'wallpaper' background.


Tiles & Tribulations #4 (Random)

Tiles & Tribulations #4 (Random)
Another brace of the Delftware trial tiles that I painted, and had fired, last week. This time I used different minerals for the outlines and the wash colours to get a better contrast, and attempted to get a more refined and dextrous line - both of which I have achieved!
Here are the tiles (old rejected trials) before firing. 


And the same tiles this morning out of the kiln. Although now cool to the touch the craquelure of the surface (here made more evident by applying ink or ash and rubbing off) is still forming - I can hear the tiles merrily 'chinking' beside me as more cracks form!



Thursday, February 19, 2015

Easter at Fortnum & Mason

An Easter Chicken & Egg visual tag that I designed for Fortnum & Mason. They are on the shelves as of this week! Another joyful collaboration from start to finish!






Monday, February 2, 2015

Tiles & Tribulations #3

Tiles & Tribulations #3 (Camel)

Another of the Delftware trial tiles I painted, and had fired, at Alby Crafts immediately before Christmas. Again, you can see evidence of the mysterious pooling of the tin glaze around the cobalted corners. That issue aside, the lines could be a little more finessed, and ideally I'd like a greater contrast in tone between the outlines and the wash fill on the design. And of course, this is a very traditional design - I have yet to make it mine, make it a Bommer! But these are small things - otherwise I'm pretty happy with the result.

Images are the tile before firing, and the transformation that high heat in the kiln can produce. The fired tile has been 'aged' with a few random knocks and a good rubbing with ash and charcoal to reveal the craquelure.




Sunday, January 18, 2015

Address To A Haggis

My latest limited edition screen print celebrates 'Scotland's favourite son', the 'Ploughman' poet Robert (or Rabbie) Burns, and in particular his famous 'Address to a Haggis', the first verse of which is reproduced here. The young Burns here enchants with praise the noble and 'great chieftain o' the Puddin'-race' - before promptly dispatching him. A mouse - his 'wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie' - looks on.
Burns' birthday, the 25th January, is celebrated internationally as Burns Night and marked by a supper including Haggis, Tatties and Neeps (and much Whisky) and this rhyming toast.
This 2-colour print measures 42 cm high by 30 across (A3 - a standard frame-size). It is printed on 300 gsm Heritage paper in a strictly limited edition of 35, signed and numbered by the Artist. The print can be yours for £85 + P&P and is available for purchase through my BigCartel online shop and from other reputable outlets.

http://paulbommer.bigcartel.com/product/address-to-a-haggis

Monday, January 12, 2015

Tiles & Tribulations #2

Tiles and Tribulations #2

Another of my recent ceramic Delft Tile trials. This one actually went pretty well - a little of the mysterious pooling and shrinkage that I plan to get to the bottom of evident in the corners, but otherwise, looking pretty much like the real McCoy (or the Dutch equivalent thereof)!

A traditional Mermaid design rendered in raw (unfired) cobalt. The black specks visible are charcoal powder, used to create a template for painting the image.


The same tile, fired and 'aged'. Note the desired craquelure on the finished article - Result!




Sunday, January 11, 2015

Whitstable dash



A lightning visit to the Print Block in Whitstable Harbour to proof my latest screen print and sign a batch of Printers Proofs, and then drop in on the In-laws. Always a pleasure and an inspiration!

Tiles & Tribulations #1

Tiles and Tribulations #1

They say that the Course of True Love never did run smooth. That's as may be, but let me assure you, its as nothing compared to the Course of Glazed Ceramics!

However, I'm pretty happy with the progress I'm making, despite the setbacks. Here the particular glitch has been a pooling and distortion around the applied Cobalt Carbonate glaze - there are various possible reasons why this might have happened (I have been well informed by those in the know) and shall address them all, one by one.

Here, a Triton delft tile, before firing. The smudgy black dots are charcoal, used to 'pounce' the design onto the tile from a pricked stencil, or spons.



Here, the same Triton delft tile, after firing. The glitch is most evident on this particular tile. I am investigating ways to avoid it as we speak!




Art Angels



Ah! Look what came in the post t'other day! 

My first collaboration with Art Angels - my Tourettes de France design now available as a greetings card, and my Cockney Alphabet in green as gift wrap! I am delighted!

http://www.art-angels.co.uk/prod/tourettes-de-france
http://www.art-angels.co.uk/prod/cockney-alphabet

A Look Ahead...

A Look Ahead to what, potentially, this Year has in store. 
I have already signed up for two Solo Shows in the Spring: the first, 'O England My Lion-Heart' at the Lion Street Store in Rye the first week-end of May, followed closely by 'A Troynovant Peculiar' at the Town House in Spitalfields. This is in addition to being part of the Norwich Print Fair Elements IV group exhibition in April, and then, if selected, part of the 20th Norwich Print Fair in September as well. Finally, I shall round the Year off with a Print Sale in Norwich at the end of November, provisionally entitled 'A Winter's Tale'. I hope also to be involved with other group shows that may pop up along the way (hint hint!)..
As well as continuing to produce limited screen prints (I'm aiming, perhaps a little over-optimistically, for around 25 new designs this year!) I plan to pick up my paint-brushes again after many years away from them. In addition I have a number of letterpress print projects in the pipeline, working together with print maestro Martin Clark at Tilley Letterpress in Ledbury. I also have a challenging, and somewhat daunting, ceramic delft tile commission for a monument, and after that shall be focusing on creating traditional delft tiles for my own home, and then possibly further select commissions after that.
There are also further collaborations afoot with Fortnum & Mason, and artist and curator Marc Rees, as well as a proposed and ongoing project with Dan Bugg of the Penfold Press. Fingers-crossed, I may also get the chance to work on a poster design in conjunction with the Lexicographer of Slang, Dr Jonathon Green, a print for the Museum of British Folklore and possibly the Friends of Arnold Circus, and on a personal project commemorating the Life and Work of Oscar Wilde! Phew!
Around all this I want to make time and space in my life for walks, cycling, pottering in the garden, river- and sea-swims, cooking, eating and enjoying the company of friends.
Any road, enough with the Trumpet-blowing! Now to get on with creating!

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Cock-a-doodle-do!

Hallo there!

I have returned after a Year's hiatus. It's good sometimes to take time out, to be away, but its great to be back!

And so to kick things off, a little image freshly penned to wish you all a very Happy, Prosperous & Creative New Year. Here the symbols of Janus (after whom we have January named), Roman god of doorways, crossroads and the passing of the Year - a Key to lock the Old Year behind you and a Cock to crow in the New!