Castor + Pollux

NEWS! Next exhibition - Julia Trigg

April — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 15:41:35 +0000

Julia Trigg poster

Our next artist’s show is Julia Trigg. She is a local graphic designer who makes digital collages using all kinds of typography. Her artwork reflects a love of paper ephemera and often uses found printed matter in her compositions.

This means there is no end to the experimentation with colour, composition, scale and texture. She creates lively, graphic pieces using ham radio cards from the 1920s, wood block type and hand written messages, stamps and envelopes, postcards and letters.

More details to come but the exhibition opens on September 17th, so email us if you would like an invitation. You will receive one if you are on our mailing list.

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Masking tape from Japan

April — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 14:55:17 +0000

A favourite of design blogs for a little while, Japanese masking tape hasn’t really been available outside Japan until recently. We aren’t sure, but Castor and Pollux could be the first stockist in Brighton/the South coast …

Each roll of pretty Japanese masking tape is 15 mm (about 1/2″) wide x 15 m (about 50′) long made of japanese washi paper. perfect for decorating packages, gift wrapping and scrapbooks.

We have sets of three, six and ten in gorgeous colours. Much wrapping fun to be had!!

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Back in the gallery - Cable and cotton - Cool lights!

Mike — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:48:28 +0000

string of lights

These lights from Cable & Cotton - a local Hove firm - have been flying out of the shop … they come in lots of colourways and cost £34.95 for a 35 lamp set. The best thing about them is that they look great switched on or off!

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Pippa Cunningham prints

Mike — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 14:31:15 +0000

Pippa Cunningham is a painter based in Brighton, but she travels for inspiration resulting in very colourful work. Trips abroad to the West Indies, south of France and to the Palio in Italy are where she does her location painting,

She has brought us a few prints with her signature vast blue sea.

Please pop into the gallery to see them, or call us on 01273 773776.

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Jonathan Adler just arrived!!

Mike — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 11:37:33 +0000

The delivery yesterday felt just like Christmas! Large parcels from New York ALWAYS make us happy, and Mr. Adler never fails to please. New treats like a charming fox and prowling cat are sitting next to old favourites like Lion and Giraffe.

They are going FAST. We didn’t even announce their arrival, but sold out of Dachshund book ends today. Please contact or pop in if you are interested in any.

Here are a few examples.

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Angie Lewin - full list of prints

Mike — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 11:12:15 +0000

Below is a full list of the prints that are available from the very popular Angie Lewin. It is a small, but perfectly formed selection.

Angie studied BA(Hons) Fine Art Printmaking at Central St. Martins College of Art and Design between 1983 and 1986, followed by a year’s part-time postgraduate printmaking at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts.

Angie Lewin working

‘My limited edition prints are based on the plantforms, especially seedheads, seen against sea and sky, on

my walks on the North Norfolk coast. I am also influenced by the contrasting landscape and native plants of the Scottish Highlands and more recently the west coast of Scotland. I print my linocuts and wood engravings in small editions of rarely more than 40, onto Japanese paper.

In January 2007 I was elected an associate member of The Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. In 2008 I was elected to membership of the Society of Wood Engravers
I also design fabrics using blockprinted elements which are then commercially printed in the UK, in relatively small quantities. My first two designs, Dandelion 1 and Dandelion 2 were included in the four nominees in the ‘Best In Fabric’ category of the Elle Deco Design Awards.
I also occasionally work on illustration commissions. Clients include Penguin and Conran Octopus.’

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Charley Harper essay from Delicious Industries

Mike — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 14:18:34 +0000

Ternscape, limited edition giclee print, 465 x 340 mm, £195

Charley Harper

04.08.1922 – 10.06.2007

“I don’t try to put everything in, I try to leave everything out. I never count the feathers in the wings; I just count the wings.”

Charlie Harper was an American Modernist who developed a distinctive style of illustration that he called Minimal Realism. Harper grew up on his family’s farm in the Appalachian foothills where he built “an affinity for nature that would one day find expression in my designs”.

He began studying at the Art Academy of Cincinnati as a realist painter before being drafted, spending three years in Army Intelligence during the Second World War. Harper continued to sketch, however, and in this very different environment learned how to “grasp the important elements of a scene quickly and put them down with minimum detail.”

After his time in the Army, Harper completed his studies and graduated in 1947. He was awarded the Stephen H Wilder Traveling Scholarship, which enabled he and his wife Edie to travel the West and South of America painting and enjoying nature.

On their return Charley became a tutor at the Art Academy of Cincinnati (where he would stay for 20 years) and also began working in a commercial studio. However, he soon found the latter wasn’t an environment for realism and that all they wanted was illustrations of “happy housewives”.

Increasingly frustrated with the limitations of realism he began to experiment with a new style where he replaced perspective with two-dimensional shapes, reduced to only straight lines and curves. The idea was “…to push simplification as far as possible without losing identification”. This new style combined the ability to caricature and simplify.

“I reduced all lines and edges to straights and curves and began to render with mechanical drawing instruments - ruling pen, compass, French curve, T-square, triangle. I saw forms as hard-edged shapes of flat or textured colour with enough lines added to complete identification. I began to include black and white in every full-colour picture (forbidden in realism); spanning the value scale added sparkle and zip, and all colours seem to me richer in the presence of black and white. I didn’t discard depth, but achieved it by such devices as overlapping shapes and colour and size relationships.”

Harper’s use of pure ink whites rather than unprinted paper is one of the reasons why his prints still appear so vibrant.

“Nature subjects, I found, are ideally suited to this interpretation. Birds and fish in particular have built-in functional beauty imposed by their habitats and require only a little distortion of what’s there already, a thinning of lines and a simpler statement of shape. In perching and walking birds, and some insects, there exists a spatial tension because of the heavy body supported by slender legs that I find satisfying.”

In 1948 Ford Publications commissioned Harper to illustrate the recipe section in the December issue of ‘Ford Times’, Ford Motor Company’s travel magazine. This was the start of a successful collaboration that would last until 1982 and the reason that so many of the wonderful prints we know today exist.

His illustrations proved popular with readers, who often requested copies. So in 1952 the illustrations for a wildlife article, ‘Eight Familiar Fish’ were also offered to readers as a series of screen prints for $5 each. The prints were hand-screen printed by Charley and Edie in their basement - Charley created the stencils whilst Edie mixed the inks.

These limited edition prints were so successful that in June 1953 a second set followed concluding a series of articles named ‘Horseless Carriage Adventures’ and depicting national landmarks. Then in November 1954 a series of bird prints were offered which accompanied the article ‘Feeding Station Birds’.

The bird prints became an annual tradition eventually comprising 73 designs. For each November issue Harper would not only illustrate an article about birds and produce the limited edition prints but would also write it. In total, he illustrated over 90 articles and 30 covers for Ford Times.

Throughout the 50’s and 60’s Harper enjoyed commercial success illustrating the popular cook book, ‘Betty Crocker’s Dinner for Two’ and being commissioned by The Golden Press to illustrate ‘The Golden Book of Biology’ and ‘The Animal Kingdom’, all very sought after publications.

Harper found the greatest pleasure in nature illustration and throughout his career designed many posters for non-profit organisations including Cincinnati Zoo, Cincinnati Nature Center, Hamilton County (Ohio) Park District, the Michigan Audubon Society and the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Pennsylvania.

Other notable works include the design of two ceramic tile murals both in Cincinnati; one for the Federal Building, based on American wildlife and one for the new Convention Center, titled ‘Space Walk’. Also two painted murals in Dearborn; one depicting Michigan wildlife in the Ford General Staff Office building cafeteria, and another on ‘transportation around the world’ in the Ford Rotunda.

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New Jonathan Adler pottery in stock

Mike — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 21:48:48 +0000

Squirrel candleholder

Just arrived from New York is our new collection of fab pottery from Jonathan Adler.

This cute candleholder with ‘midnight’ glaze costs £95. Also new for this year are poodles, foxes, dachshund bookends and elephant bottle stoppers!

You can see some of our new stock here.

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Charley Harper posters

April — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 12:37:12 +0000

A keen conservationist, Charley Harper designed over 50 posters for various natural areas, parks, conservation organizations and causes. Each poster celebrates a special part of the natural world. We have a few of these stunning, large format posters as part of the exhibition.

Please note, there is a Charley Harper water mark on a few if the images.

Each of the posters can be exhibition mounted on board for an additional £30. We only have a few of each in stock, so contact us quickly. (01273 773776) Postage and packing for a rolled poster is £6.50.

Charley Harper exhibition poster [caption id="attachment_2571" align="alignnone" width="361" caption="Charley Harper exhibition poster"][/caption] A feature...
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Charley Harper giclee prints

April — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 10:46:36 +0000

There are so many beautiful images to choose from. Charley Harper was so prolific and consistently made amazing designs throughout his life.

Much of the original work is no longer available so we also have a number of reproduction prints from the Harper estate, some of which you can see here.

Come and see them in the gallery, or phone us on 01273 773776.

Announcing - Charley Harper at Castor and Pollux [caption id="attachment_2587" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Eskimo Curlew"][/caption] We are very pleased to...
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