Rowley Raffle

Christopher Corr has very kindly donated this portrait of Jolly Jack Tar to Kai at The Rowley Gallery, to be raffled in aid of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. Kai spends a lot of time sailing on the Thames at the Westminster Boating Base, which is why she has chosen to support the RNLI. Raffle tickets are £1 each, available from The Rowley Gallery, and the winning ticket will be drawn on Monday 10th September.

Kai is also spending the summer of 2012 running and cycling across London in three major charity fundraising events. Please support her craziness by looking at her JustGiving page here.

Frames of reference

Atlas Of Remote Islands

At home we just had builders and decorators in the house. They tore down ceilings and knocked down walls. We were reduced to a couple of rooms for a while and to escape the dust and the mayhem I discovered desert islands in the peeled wallpaper. Read more

Frames of reference

Alde Valley Spring Festival

The weekend before last we went up to Suffolk to visit the Alde Valley Spring Festival. It’s at White House Farm in Great Glemham where barns and out-buildings are used to display local crafts and artworks. Appropriately Jelly Green‘s lively paintings occupied the former cowshed. Read more

Frames of reference

Mysterious Wisterias

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At this time of year I always remember Lowell George and the line about ‘mysterious wisteria’ from his song 20 Million Things. Read more

Frames of reference

The Night Life Of Trees

Last month my daughter gave me this book of magical trees for my birthday. It’s a collection of hand-pulled screenprints on black paper, bound by hand into a gorgeous book where, according to John Berger, “the nightingale sings until morning”. Read more

Frames of reference

Signs Of Signs

We recently framed these two images by Pia Gazzola. Above is a digital photograph of bamboo leaves dipped in ink, moved by the wind to draw on the sheet of paper placed beneath them. Below is the drawing they produced. They are from a series of artworks where trees are encouraged to make drawings. Bamboo, strictly speaking is a grass rather than a tree, but with a history of service in providing drawing implements. See more here.

Frames of reference

Getting Dressed

This naked painting, looking a little ragged around the edges, was brought to us for framing. It is by Anna Marinova, an oil on canvas titled Model With Mirror. Read more

Frames of reference

A Pedantic Plaque

We made this plaque around twenty years ago. The wood was cut and shaped and painted with size and gesso and red bole, then gilded with 22 carat gold leaf and finally inscribed with a tongue twister. According to Iona & Peter Opie, editors of The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, this was in past times considered to be a remedy for hiccups when repeated thrice in one breath. But they don’t say whether it is Rowley as in rolled, or Rowley as in round. It seems to play on the possibility that it could be either. We think the former but there are some who insist it’s the latter. Maybe this will help -

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Frames of reference

A Symmetrical Frame

A folding map of the City of London, published in 1900 by the cartographer G W Bacon & Co. We framed it with an elegant oak moulding and a French mount of acid-free boards. Read more

Frames of reference

Because Your Work Is Worth It?

How many times have I gone into a good gallery and seen badly presented work? Very rarely, because believe it or not, gallery owners and buyers really care about that stuff. Unfortunately I know a fair few artists who don’t. They create wonderful work but then their frames are falling apart, the mounts aren’t cut straight or the print margins are ink-smudged. Read more

Frames of reference