Wednesday 18 January 2012

CARVED WITH LOVE

It's taken awhile to get myself going again after the Christmas break.  Once you finally give in and relax it's fatal - peeling yourself off the sofa and back to work is a hard slog.

Easing myself back in with some sourcing for various jobs has meant trips to West Sussex, Surrey and deepest South London.  Along the way, as much as I tried NOT to buy things for myself, this little fellow (one of a pair of book-ends) found it's way in to the boot of my car.


Circa 1935, this mythical looking creature has been hand carved out of wood with lots of detail.  It's long whiskers, scaly body, pointed ears and curled tail make it feel like it's stepped straight out of Narnia.  I think one of the reasons it caught my eye is because it's style reminds me of an artist working around the same time that this was created -  the painter, printmaker, draughtsman and graphic designer Edward Bawden.  Creating designs for advertising, posters, book jackets, ceramics and wallpapers from the early part of the 20th century right through to the 1970s, there is something about Bawden's influential designs that I find really interesting.  The graphic lines of the lino-cuts and the shapes and colours feel as contemporary today as they did at their inception.