Delftware tile - The Bells of Shoreditch

Delftware tile - The Bells of Shoreditch

One of the many new 'Delft' tiles (actually paintings on panel and not ceramic!) I have created for my Umbra Sumus (We Are But Shadows) solo show opening tonight and running for this week-end only (April 27 - 29 inclusive) in Spitalfields.

This tile depicts St Leonard's church in Shoreditch, known to most British children from the nursery rhyme 'Oranges and Lemons' (which I did a screenprint of, a very few copies left!) as the London bell that says "When I grow Rich", apparently a reference to wishful thinking amongst the area's endemic poor (O! How things have changed!).

The present-day St Leonard's, a fine example of English Baroque (and setting for the TV series 'Rev'), replaces a medieval edifice of the same name and its original crypt still remains below its 18th century successor. The Curtain theatre, after which Curtain rd gets its name, was a short walk away, and the site has many connections to Shakespeare and the actors of his day. Henry VIII's jester, Will Somers, is buried somewhere in the bone-yard.

Before that stood a Roman temple to Diana and before that the area was without doubt associated with Pagan worship as the site is also the location of the well-spring source of the River Walbrook which ran through the City.


http://spitalfieldslife.com/2010/01/08/shakespearian-actors-in-shoreditch/

Delftware tile - The Grapes

Delftware tile - The Grapes

One of the many new 'Delft' tiles (actually paintings on panel and not ceramic!) I have created for my Umbra Sumus (We Are But Shadows) solo show opening tonight and running for this week-end only (April 27 - 29 inclusive) in Spitalfields.

This tile represents the Grapes on Narrow-street, Limehouse (Lie-Mouse), a great old riverside pub. Dickens named the shabeen the Six Jolly Fellowship Porters in Our Mutual Friend and described it thus;

“In its whole construction it had not a straight floor and hardly a straight line, but it had outlasted and clearly would yet outlast, many a better trimmed building, many a sprucer public house. Externally, it was a narrow lop-sided wooden jumble of corpulent windows heaped one upon the other as you might heap as many toppling oranges, with a crazy wooden verandah impending over the water, but seemed to have got into the condition of a faint-hearted diver who has paused so long on the brink that he will never go in at all…”

Formerly owned and run by an ex-Bunny Girl, the pub's landlord today is none other than Gandalf the Grey, aka Sir Ian McKellan, aka Serina!

http://spitalfieldslife.com/2010/08/09/at-the-grapes-limehouse/

Delftware tile - Rabbets O!

Delftware tile - Rabbets O!

One of the many new 'Delft' tiles (actually paintings on panel and not ceramic!) I have created for my Umbra Sumus (We Are But Shadows) solo show opening tonight and running for this week-end only (April 27 - 29 inclusive) in Spitalfields.

This tile shows one of the ancient Street Cries of old London Town. This fellow is selling Rabbits he'd caught that week upon Hampstead Heath, along with hordes of other street-sellers all vying for attention.

Who will buy....?

Here's Nancy Sinatra 'avin' a bash at it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws527jmjNdI

Delftware tile - Rope of Onions!

Delftware tile - Rope of Onions!

One of the many new 'Delft' tiles (actually paintings on panel and not ceramic!) I have created for my Umbra Sumus (We Are But Shadows) solo show this week-end (April 27 - 29 inclusive) in Spitalfields.

This tile shows one of the ancient Street Cries of old London Town. This fellow is selling onions upon New Troy's unforgiving streets, with hordes of others all vying for attention.

Who will buy....?

Delftware tile - Titfer

Delftware tile - Titfer

One of the many new 'Delft' tiles (actually paintings on panel and not ceramic!) I have created for my Umbra Sumus (We Are But Shadows) solo show this week-end (April 27 - 29 inclusive) in Spitalfields.

This tile illustrates another example of Cockney Rhyming Slang. In the old East End a Titfer (short for Tit for Tat) is a Hat.

This rakish-looking chap sports a brown felt billycock titfer, like a bowler but more domed (less flat) and with a raised, curled over brim at the sides.

I get caps and titfers from a few places, here are 2 of them

http://www.lairdlondon.co.uk/


http://www.old-town.co.uk/products/ties.htm

Delftware tile - John Twomey

Delftware tile - John Twomey

One of the many new 'Delft' tiles (actually paintings on panel and not ceramic!) I have created for my Umbra Sumus (We Are But Shadows) solo show this week-end (April 27 - 29 inclusive) in Spitalfields.

This tile commemorates gregarious Irishman John Twomey, Fencing Champion and Landlord of the Ten Bells pub on Commercial-street. En garde! Touché!

To read more, visit; http://spitalfieldslife.com/2012/02/20/john-twomey-champion-fencer/

Delftware tile - The Whitechapel Mount

Delftware tile - The Whitechapel Mount

One of the many new 'Delft' tiles (actually paintings on panel and not ceramic!) I am creating for my Umbra Sumus (We Are But Shadows) solo show at the end of this month (April 27 - 29 inclusive) in Spitalfields.

This tile depicts a curious earthworks that once stood where to-day stands the Royal London Hospital on the Whitechapel Road, known as the Whitechapel Mount, claimed by some to be a primeval earthwork of mystical significance, by others to be a spoil heap from digging the City’s eastern defences during the English Civil War in the mid 1600s.

Nothing now remains of this man-made hillock, save the name Mount Terrace on a small, overlooked street beside the Royal London Hospital.

Delftware tile - The Duke of Wellington

Delftware tile - The Duke of Wellington

One of the many new 'Delft' tiles (actually paintings on panel and not ceramic!) I am creating for my Umbra Sumus (We Are But Shadows) solo show at the end of this month (April 27 - 29 inclusive) in Spitalfields.

This tile shows military hero and twice Prime Minister Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. Irish-born and much-praised for this campaign against Napoleon Buonaparte. And for inventing the Welly.

At the Battle of Waterloo he is reputed to have urged his troops on with the line 'Up, Guards, and at 'em!'

There is a pub named after him on Toynbee Street in Spitalfields, just south of the Market.

Delftware tile - The Widow's Son

Delftware tile - The Widow's Son

One of the many new 'Delft' tiles (actually paintings on panel and not ceramic!) I am creating for my Umbra Sumus (We Are But Shadows) solo show at the end of this month (April 27 - 29 inclusive) in Spitalfields.

This particular tile refers to a tavern in  Bromley-by-Bow, a centuries-old legend and a curious tradition.

According to Spitalfields Life 'the Widow’s Son (pub) was built in 1848 upon the former site of an old widow’s cottage, so the tale goes. When her only son left to be a sailor, she promised to bake him a Hot Cross Bun and keep it for his return. But although he drowned at sea, the widow refused to give up hope, preserving the bun upon his return and making a fresh one each year to add to the collection. This annual tradition has been continued in the pub as a remembrance of the widow and her son, and of the bond between all those on land and sea, with sailors of the Royal Navy coming to place the bun in the net every year.'

You can read more about it here:-
http://spitalfieldslife.com/2011/04/23/the-widows-buns-at-bow/

Attempting to Hide the Cockney Alphabet

Here I am, attempting (not very successfully) to hide the largest of the three new prints I've created for Umbra Sumus, my solo show in Spitalfields this week-end coming.

The Cockney Alphabet, printed for me by the incredible Suki Hayes-Watkins at the Print Block in Whitstable, to be unveiled this Friday night at the Private View (and chock full o' sly and witty references to Spittle-fields and its environs, naturally!).

Don't worry about the weather. Put on a Titfer, a Slow Boat and bring your Lucky Fella (ok, I made those last two up!), and get yourself along to Wilkes Street for a Butcher's Hook and glass of Edward Lear or Rotten Swine!

(http://www.theprintblock.com/)

A Third of the Tiles

A Third of the Tiles

Here's a third of the faux Delftware tiles I've created for Umbra Sumus. Come early to avoid disappointment!

Delftware tile - The Ship & Blue Ball

Delftware tile - The Ship & Blue Ball

One of the many new 'Delft' tiles (actually paintings on panel and not ceramic!) I am creating for my Umbra Sumus (We Are But Shadows) solo show at the end of this month (April 27 - 29 inclusive) in Spitalfields.

This tile shows my imagined sign for an now-defunct Shoreditch pub, the Ship & Blue Ball. The handsome building on Boundary Street, e2 (clad is lovely green and cream tiles) is now the offices of a design agency, Bold Creative. But in its past life as a watering hole it is remarkable as being the place that the Great Train Robbery was plotted back in the early 60s.

At Christmas last year Shelf used the premises for a series of weekend pop-up shops, at which I was one of the guest artists showing and selling my work.

http://spitalfieldslife.com/2011/12/03/the-return-of-shelf/

Delftware tile - Frying Pan Alley

Delftware tile - Frying Pan Alley

One of the many new 'Delft' tiles (actually paintings on panel and not ceramic!) I am creating for my Umbra Sumus (We Are But Shadows) solo show at the end of this month (April 27 - 29 inclusive) in Spitalfields.

This tile represents Frying Pan Alley, a tiny and now unremarkable little passageway that runs between Bell Lane and Middlesex Street in Spitalfields. A tiny alley with a fantastic name. Nowadays entirely developed, and, as a result, somewhat charmless. But early photographs of the area reveal a most intriguing and atmospheric little street...

Today's post on Spitalfield's Life shows a clutch of photographs of streets around Spitalfields, taken almost 100 years ago to the day (just after the Titanic had sunk) and how those places look today (including Frying Pan Alley).

http://spitalfieldslife.com/2012/04/21/in-the-footsteps-of-c-a-mathew-2/

Signing the Death & Cabbages print

Signing the Death & Cabbages print

Here I am again, feeling a little worse for wear after a night on the tiles (no, not THOSE tiles!) and signing the second of the three new screenprints I've created for Umbra Sumus.

This one's called Death & Cabbages - a lighthearted muse on mortality, brassicas and Michel de Montaigne. Three colours and a limited edition of just 30.

Delftware tile - Three for a Girl (Magpies)

Delftware tile - Three for a Girl (Magpies)

One of the many new 'Delft' tiles (actually paintings on panel and not ceramic!) I am creating for my Umbra Sumus (We Are But Shadows) solo show at the end of this month (April 27 - 29 inclusive) in Spitalfields.

This tile is a nod to two heroes from the annals of Spitalfields Life - Rhyme-collector Mr Dan Jones, who I discovered when researching my Oranges & Lemons screen print a few years ago, and Mr Simon Costin, Director of the Museum of British Folklore, a flamboyant man and friend of mine, who's doing great work to preserve, record and revive many of the wonderful folk customs and tales across the Kingdom.

Those of us who grew up in the 70s will no doubt remember this particular counting rhyme from the theme tune to the children's TV show Magpie, the 'edgy' ITV alternative to prim and proper Blue Peter. Some versions of the rhyme go up as far as 12 magpies but this is an unlikely sight.

http://spitalfieldslife.com/2010/04/17/dan-jones-rhyme-collector/

http://spitalfieldslife.com/2010/11/24/simon-costin-museum-of-british-folklore/

Delftware tile - Ben Eine

Delftware tile - Ben Eine

One of the many new 'Delft' tiles I am creating for my Umbra Sumus (We Are But Shadows) solo show at the end of this month (April 27 - 29 inclusive) in Spitalfields.

This tile represents Mr Ben Eine, street artist, whose ornate capital letters adorn the pulled-down shutters of Spitalfields and Shoreditch. My favourite piece of his is the small street that runs between Redchurch-street and Bethnal Green-road, with ANTIANTIANTI... down one side in plain grayscale and PROPROPROPRO... in lush colour down the other.

http://spitalfieldslife.com/2010/06/07/the-return-of-ben-eine-street-artist/

Delftware tile - James Ince & Sons (Umbrellas) Ltd.

Delftware tile - James Ince & Sons (Umbrellas) Ltd.

One of the many new 'Delft' tiles I am creating for my Umbra Sumus (We Are But Shadows) solo show at the end of this month (April 27 - 29 inclusive) in Spitalfields.

This one represents the family business of James Ince & Sons, who have been making umbrellas and parasols in east London for nigh on two centuries, if not longer. Current owner is sixth generation umbrella-maker Mr Richard Ince, who works out of his factory in Vyner St, E2. http://www.jamesince.co.uk/

One of their many clients is the stage musical version of P T Travers' Mary Poppins, who go through quite a few apparently during a run. Here I have depicted fiction's most famous nanny's trademark parrot-headed brolly. (An Old English word for parrot was poppinjay, and Poppins Court off Fleet St, just minutes from St. Paul's, is said to be named after a signboard or tavern showing that bird, that once stood there. Maybe that's the connection?)

To-day in London it is wet and grey - the perfect day for a wonderful well-made Ince umbrella!

Delftware tile - Spitalfields Market

Delftware tile - Spitalfields Market

One of the many new 'Delft' tiles I am creating for my Umbra Sumus (We Are But Shadows) solo show at the end of this month (April 27 - 29 inclusive) in Spitalfields.

This one shows a traditional Spitalfield Market porter's basket, here laden with ripe oranges from Spain. The baskets were designed to be stacked one upon the other and carried on the porters' heads.

You can still see a few of the baskets about. Here's a few; - http://old-town.co.uk/smalltrades.htm Check the 6th picture down. And the 4th, of course!

All the tiles (120+ of them!) take their cue from the Spitalfields area, or from the daily blog Spitalfields Life - sometimes directly, and sometimes a little obliquely, but always there is a link...

http://spitalfieldslife.com/

Signing the new Seventh Seal print

Here's me, signing my new screen print edition, based upon Ingmar Bergman's film 'The Seventh Seal'. Brand new for Umbra Sumus (We Are But Shadows) and appropriately fatalistic. But in a light-hearted way.

The drawing slope is a very recent purchase, I got it this Thursday just gone, at Spitalfields Antique Market. My mate Steve, who sold it to me, told me he was told by the guy he got it off that it used to belong to the guy who drew Roy of the Rovers. I like to think the provenance is true.

Delftware tile - The Holt Owl

Delftware tile - The Holt Owl

One of the many new 'Delft' tiles I am creating for my Umbra Sumus (We Are But Shadows) solo show at the end of this month (April 27 - 29 inclusive) in Spitalfields.

This one shows the Holt Owl. Holt is a beautiful market town in Norfolk and home of the amazing British workwear emporium that is Old Town.

My partner Nick and I have modelled for Old Town on two occassions now - their 'Piccadilly Pleasures' (where we lent and loafed in a glorious mirror'd Victorian shabeen) and their 'Small Trades' (where we dressed as piano removal men. Coo-ee, Mister shifter!). Check their website to see for yourself - http://old-town.co.uk/

The owl is Holt's emblem because of an ancient legend. Apparently, the townsfolk were tormented by a particularly noisesome example of the species, so went to great lengths to catch it, whereupon they stuffed it up the church drain-pipe hoping to drown the poor creature. But the bird was too darn clever for them (not hard it seems thinking about it), and flew out the top. Whether he continued to torment the town afterwards or not, or hot-winged it to somewhere more remote and less-troublesome is unknown to us. The town took the nocturnal hooter as their badge, as a reminder not to be so bleeding daft!

Twitter Ye Not - Ascension to the Throne by Henry VIII

Twitter Ye Not - Ascension to the Throne by Henry VIII

A regular piece for the Daily Mail Weekend magazine about how figures in history might have twittered or tweeted or whatever, had they the chance, inclination and technology.

On the 21st April 1509, King Henry VIII ascended to the throne upon the death of his father, Henry VII. Here, we imagine how the 17 year old new king was received on Twitter.

I've shown the new King Henry VIII, young and thin, but still definitely no Jonathan Rhys Meyers, looking on with distain at his new wife, and his older brother Arthur's widow, fat-faced Catherine of Aragon.

Henry's older brother Arthur died mysteriously from what was termed the Sweating Sickness before his father's death so never made it to the throne (or gave us a real King Arthur).

Catherine was the youngest daughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, who unified Spain, and endorsed Columbus' voyage to discover the Americas.

Between them is the knotted monogram (H+K) used for their wedding, and behind Harry is their badge, a conjoined Rose and Pomegranate. Despite feeling like sloppy seconds, Henry stayed with Catherine for 24 years before dumping her in favour of Anne Boleyn 0r Bullen.

Delftware tile - Coleman Coffee/ Jack Coleman

Delftware tile - Coleman Coffee/ Jack Coleman

One of the many new 'Delft' tiles I am creating for my Umbra Sumus (We Are But Shadows) solo show at the end of this month (April 27 - 29 inclusive) in Spitalfields.

This one represents the charming Mr Jack Coleman, formerly of Leila's Café and now a coffee roaster extraordinaire in his own right, based down near Maltby Street in Bermondsey.

Coleman coffee is available all over the place - Leila's, the e5Bakehouse, &c., &c..

Check out his webby - http://www.colemancoffee.com/

Delftware tile - Billingsgate Fish Market

Delftware tile - Billingsgate Fish Market

One of the many new 'Delft' tiles I am creating for my Umbra Sumus (We Are But Shadows) solo show at the end of this month (April 27 - 29 inclusive) in Spitalfields.

This one shows a porter at old Billingsgate fish market, near the Tower of London. The porter sports the traditional Billingsgate hat, made of stiff leather and deep-rimmed to allow the porters to carry heavy boxes of fish on their heads but at the same time preventing ice, water and fish-slime from going down the back of their necks.

This porter is called Archie Kippers.

Delftware tile - Butcher's Hook

Delftware tile - Butcher's Hook

One of the many new 'Delft' tiles I am creating for my Umbra Sumus (We Are But Shadows) solo show at the end of this month (April 27 - 29 inclusive) in Spitalfields.

This one refers to the Cockney rhyming slang expression for 'look' - Butcher's Hook (as in "I'll just have a quick butcher's").

Delftware tile - Mr Rob Ryan's Staffordshire Dogs

Delftware tile - Mr Rob Ryan's Staffordshire Dogs

One of the many new 'Delft' tiles I am creating for my Umbra Sumus (We Are But Shadows) solo show at the end of this month (April 27 - 29 inclusive) in Spitalfields.

This one is a nod to artist genius (and friend) Rob Ryan and in particular to the Staffordshire dogs (spaniels) he created for the cover photograph of the Spitalfields Life book.

Delftware tile - Rondeau Coat-of-Arms

Delftware tile - Rondeau Coat-of-Arms

One of the many new 'Delft' tiles I am creating for my Umbra Sumus (We Are But Shadows) solo show at the end of this month (April 27 - 29 inclusive) in Spitalfields.

This one shows the arms (Azure three acorns Or) of the Huguenot family Rondeau who came to Spitalfields in the late 1700s to escape religious presecution in France. Every Tuesday one can find the delightful Stanley Rondeau working in Hawksmoor's beautiful Christchurch, Spitalfields, the very church his family worshipped at over 200 years ago!

Butcher, Baker, Candletsick Maker

Butcher, Baker, Candletsick Maker
850 Years of London Livery Company Treasures
Guildhall Art Gallery
22 June to 23 September 2012

The promotional postcard design I was commissioned to create for an exhibition of 850 years of London Livery Company treasures at the Guildhall, opening this Summer.

The gentleman shown is a Guildsman and wears traditional ceremonial robes and cap. Embroidered onto the robe are a selection of over 200 of the treasures.

Twitter Ye Not - Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

Twitter Ye Not - Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

A regular piece for the Daily Mail Weekend magazine about how figures in history might have twittered or tweeted or whatever, had they the chance, inclination and technology.

On the 14th April, Good Friday, 1865, US President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated at Ford's Theatre, Washington, by well-known actor John Wilkes Booth. Here we imagine how the shocking news filtered out on Twitter.

Rather than show the dying President or his killer, I have shown two other people mentioned in the article - General Robert E. (for Edward) Lee and Ulysses S. Grant (actual name Hiram Ulysses Grant) -although, big faux pas this, I have labelled them the wrong way around! D'Oh! I have only just this minute realised my mistake - but the paper have not.

Between the men is the scene of the crime, Ford's Theatre, which stands to this day.

Twitter Ye Not - Attila the Hun

Twitter Ye Not - Attila the Hun

A regular piece for the Daily Mail Weekend magazine about how figures in history might have twittered or tweeted or whatever, had they the chance, inclination and technology.

On the 7th April in 451, Attila the Hun captured Metz in the Lorraine region of ancient Gaul. It was the furthest wes the Hun army - said to contain half a million men - would ever reach. Here, we imagine the Twitter reaction to Attila's advance on the western Roman Empire.

On the one side fiery Attila, facing him the Roman general Flavius Aetius, perhaps a little too old for that skirt. Behind these mighty warriors the city of Divodurum, the Roman's name for Metz, burns away. According to records only one small chapel remained after the blaze.