Fishink Christmas Memories
Hi everyone, I thought I’d say a quick hello and send you a few pictures of my Christmas. Boo says hello, or ‘ Woof ‘ or in reality, nothing (as she doesn’t even bark !) but you get my meaning. We were invited to spend a few days with friends who live over in Tarporley, in their beautiful home in the Cheshire countryside. How lucky !
This is the view from the kitchen. The light was quite dramatic.
My first encounter with the Alessi nativity scene, which made me smile as much as the three wise men !
We did manage a few local walks too.
On Boxing Day the Tarporley Hunt gather in the village at 11am. Apparently they don’t actually ‘hunt’ anything (as fox hunting is now banned, and rightly so) but the hounds chase after a scent trail left by a man with a bag of aniseed ! They did look pretty impressive.
Some great characters in the crowd too, wearing the finest array of Burberry, Hunter, Le Chameau and tweedy-gear that I’ve seen in a long time, lol Even Father Christmas was on horseback !
Everyone was straining to get a better view, including Ms Boo.
That evening we had a smattering of the white stuff, beautiful to see (from the warmth of indoors).
A bit of wreath spotting on the local doors and some present opening by an excited dog too.
Time out after sunday lunch and all the excitement. Below is my birthday lunch with friends, a delicious nut roast with the biggest yorkshire pudding I’ve ever encountered ! Have a wonderful new year one and all and I’ll catch up with you again in early January.
A Christmas P.S.
One last thing I’d like to share with you all before I go.
A neighbour’s little girl who is normally afraid of dogs, has, over the last few months fallen for Boo and always makes a point of saying hello if our paths cross in the street. She has just called to the house with her mum to give Boo a christmas present after her mum explained to her that you buy your friends little gifts at Christmas time to show how much you like them. How wonderful is that !!!!
Thank you for reminding us adults what the real meaning of Christmas is all about Evie x
Have a fab time everyone, and make someone smile today.
Fishink Christmas 2014
Hello everyone, and welcome. You’ve found us at the final Fishink post for the year : ( but don’t be glum, because there’s plenty to see : )
Firstly I wanted to reiterate the recent good news that a) this blog has now been shortlisted for the Blog Awards UK, and that b) there are now over 700 fans following on Facebook alone !! Thank you to everyone who clicked ‘like’ : )
I have enjoyed us travelling together throughout the year and thank you for keeping me company with your thoughts and comments.
I’d like to also say a big H E L L O to all the people who have ‘schnook-in the Fishink Blog backdoor’ and are now fully signed up, (albeit silent), members of the online community. Yes, that means YOU and that lady at the back with the big hair and fifties spectacles ! lol. Welcome one and all, and did you know this blog now has nearly 500 email followers who receive my posts every time they are unleashed into the creative ether ! Keep spreading the word to your friends and followers and together we can turn Fishink Blog into a worldwide creative community.
I thought that I’d bring you an illustrative retro treat as the final post this year. I hope you’ll excuse me if this post looks a little bit familiar, because I created it for last year’s final word. Feeling that the imagery would be hard to beat, I decided that a second browse-through, wouldn’t go amiss : )
Have a fab, safe and restful holiday and I look forward to catching up with you all again in early 2015.
We start off with a few illustrations with Santa Claus. Did you know that he used to be depicted in green clothing and viewed more as a pagan figure ? and it’s influences like Coca Cola from the 1920’s and 30’s that helped turn his clothes red as we know them today.
I’m loving the Beatle Bauble ! Yeah yeah yeah !
Santa on a moped and in a flying bus, I wonder if J.K Rowling had seen these books before Harry Potter ?
A lovely vintage Radio Times cover here.
A few snowy themed book covers too.
Then thinking about christmas stamps.
This year’s Royal Mail stamps are designed by USA artist Andrew Bannecker. I think they have a cool and slightly retro feel about them.
Baubles and decorations.
Swish and stylish reindeers.
Christmas trees and wrapping papers.
A few gifts I’m sure you ladies wouldn’t ‘die for’.
The same for you guys.
Christmas advertising.
Some rather dodgy looking christmas treats for your table from Jello, Bakeo and Dexo… Oh No !
And to bring us to a final more restful place. Martin and Alice Provensen and their beautiful version of the Twelve Days Of Christmas.
Happy times to one and all and I’ll look forward to catching up in a few weeks. Thanks for all your regular comments and additions, they are REALLY appreciated and help to make Fishink Blog into more of a community too. Please do let me know your thoughts on the posts, the blog and if you have any ideas for featured artists, or work you’d like to share with us (that you feel would fit the Fishink criteria) then do drop me a line … craig at fishink.co.uk.
If you’re missing Fishink Blog over the holidays do let me know and take a look through the back posts, I’m sure you’ll have missed one or two.
Which ones were you favourites of the year ? Have a lovely restful break, be kind to your family and neighbours, and of course a ‘Merry Fishmas’ to everyone, see you in 2015. So it’s goodbye from me and it’s goodbye from Boo too : )
Roger Capron Mid-century Ceramics and Furniture
There’s a wonderful sense of life and spirit in the work of French artist and ceramist, Roger Capron. Who was born in 1922 in Vincennes and who died in November 2006. Roger studied Applied arts in Paris from 1939 to 1945 and became a professor of drawing in 1945.
He discovered ceramics and settled in 1946 in Vallauris where he created the Callis workshop. Joining Robert Picault (then Jean Derval) in 1948, taking part in the rebirth of ceramics in Vallauris.
The emblematic forms and representations of his work are stylized branches, characters, geometrical suns and reasons. His company employed 120 people in 1980, but following the economic crisis, closed in 1982.
I love his ceramic tiled tables for their mood, style and colour.
The sun emblems throughout his work, do in my mind, bring a sense of wellbeing and warmth to his work.
There’s such a variety of shape and design, Roger also crafted strange little side tables, like an animal sitting at the end of your sofa !
Galleries regularly showed his work in Germany, Canada and the USA and some of his works are on show at the National Museum of Ceramics in Sevres and at the Magnelli Museum in Vallauris.
Beautifully painted plates and birds with wild plumes.
In collaboration with his wife Jacotte, Capron reappeared and produced single works close to his sculptures. Check out the shoes on this lady bird !
His work was the subject of a true passion on behalf of the collectors throughout the world, and made me smile when I stumbled across it too : ) What’s your favourite piece ?
Zbigniew Rychlicki More Illustrations Part 2
As Christmas is well and truly on it’s way, I thought you might like this collection of snow-themed illustrations from Polish Illustrator Zbigniew Rychlicki, to carry on from Monday’s post.
Zbigniew was working throughout his illustrative career in a number of different styles. Water-colour, gouache and wood cuts were all well within this artist’s grasp.
I really like how he incorporates snowflakes into the design repeats in the Illustrations below, helping to keep the theme wintery, festive and highly decorative at the same time.
Another change of style here.
These mountain life scenes are beautifully depicted, I wonder if he visited a small, remote village or two for his illustrative research ?
A wintery twist on folk art. I hope it’s helped to make you feel festive and not too Brrrrr cold. Keep warm everyone : ) Again many thanks to Jarmila09 who’s blog is well worth checking out for Polish illustration.
Zbigniew Rychlicki Children’s Book Illustration from Poland Part 1
Happy Monday to one and all. I wanted to start with some fantastic news which really cheered my day this morning and that is that Fishink Blog has been shortlisted in the National UK Blog Awards !!!!. It now moves into round two where judges will take an overview of each of the shortlisted sites and they will be marked against five criteria, namely
1. Design, 2. Style, 3. Content, 4. Marketing and 5. Usability.
The other 10 blogs in my category are :-
Arts & Culture Individual Shortlist
Alice Dunn, The Surrey Edit: http://www.surreyedit.com/
Craig, Fishink Blog: http://www.fishinkblog.wordpress.com
Imo Babics, FilmAware: http://www.filmaware.com/
Kim Forrester, Reading Matters: http://www.readingmattersblog.com/
Mark Rigney, Hookedblog: http://www.hookedblog.co.uk
Natasha Nuttall, Graphique Fantastique: http://www.graphiquefantastique.com
Robin Jarossi, CrimeTimePreview: http://www.crimetimepreview.com/
Simon Savidge, Savidge Reads: http://savidgereads.wordpress.com
Steven Blyth, Urban Kultur Blog: http://www.urbankulturblog.com
William Lee Adams, Wiwibloggs: http://wiwibloggs.com
Zarina Rimbaud-Kadirbaks, Dutch Girl in London: http://www.dutchgirlinlondon.com
Many thanks again to everyone who voted for my blog, flippers crossed for round two ! and in the meantime, let’s get on with today’s post : )
Zbigniew Rychlicki was born January 17, 1922 in Orzechówka, Poland.
After studying and graduating at the Institute (1946) and then Academy (1956) for Fine Arts in Kraków. In the years 1947-1948 he worked in the Animated Film Studio in Lodz. He went on to work as a graphic artist and illustrator of children’s books
In 1949 he moved to Warsaw, taking a job at the Institute of Publishing “Nasza Księgarnia” “Our Bookstore”, where until 1951 he was artistic director for youth published weekly “friend” and later chief of graphic arts and graphic editors. In 1972, serving as chief duties still graphics became deputy director for art and graphics. Practised graphics, illustration and poster. Cooperation with magazines for children and youth illustrated more than 150 books !
He is the acclaimed winner of more than 20 national and international awards and prizes, the winner of the Sakharov Prize, and the Hans Christian Andersen Prize award in the field of illustration (1982) given by the jury of the International Committee for Books for Children and Young People (IBBY) for outstanding artistic achievement. He is an author of children’s books illustrations, including From ‘Things to Things’ by Wanda Chotomska, Jonathan Swift’s ‘Gulliver’s Travels’, Jules Verne’s ‘Mysterious Island’ and ‘Please Elephant’ by Louis George Kern.
He was the author of the graphic pages of a magazine “Teddy Bear”, created a plastic form Uszatek Bear and other characters: Piglet, Rabbit, Easter Bunny and Dog. For over 30 years he worked as a chief graphic designer at the Institute of Publishing for Our Bookstore. The author projects the characters and scenery for the puppet animated series Bear Uszatek carried out between 1970 and 1980 in the Se-ma-for in Łódź.
He is also a Knight of the Order of Smile, and it’s easy to see why ! More from this illustrator (with a more christmassy feel ) on wednesday. Many thanks to Jarmila09 who’s images helped to create this post.
Mirko Hanák A world of nature in watercolour
You would be forgiven for thinking that this is the work of an acclaimed Chinese brush artist.
Mirko Hanák was in fact born in 1921 in Martin, Slovakia and worked as a painter, graphic designer and illustrator.
He first studied Fine Art first in Zlin, after the 2nd World War the Academy of Applied Arts in Prague. His specialties were animals, birds and landscapes that were full of vitality and fun. He enjoyed creating a lot of woodland animals.
He Illustrated a series of works of fiction with themes of the natural environment, was the author or co-author of calendars, posters, and other special-purpose prints, and achieved some notoriety for his work on the book Bambi (amongst a myriad of other books).
Mirko’s work has a beautiful sense of line, colour and texture. A watery quality that make the animals or birds look completely genuine and lifelike in their fur or feathery-ness.
His characterisation of these birds is amazing, I can almost hear that fat Cuckoo squawking for more food !
He also had a firm grasp on composition as his paintings are so well balanced despite his casual fluid line.
He was working on “Charlotte’s Web” the movie when he tragically died at the height of his career from leukemia in 1971 at the age of just 50.
Kilian Schonberger Photographs that make me go Oooo !
There’s an instant and unspoken admiration for me, for anyone who can take a photograph and hold my attention, with it’s clarity, beauty, colour or let’s face it, their own perfected skill and ability. Photographer and geographer Kilian Schoenberger comes up trumps for me on all counts. I find a rare depth and delicate beauty in his images that makes me tingle. So it brings me great pleasure to share some of his work with you, the Fishink readers, here today.
For it’s not just his ability to be exactly in the right place, at the right time to capture let’s say, the sun hitting the tops of these mountains …
or to spy and capture the almost rhythmic and textural qualities to these forested landscapes.
But it’s also the power of colour in his work.
Especially when I discovered that he doesn’t let his colourblindness get in the way of achieving a great photograph !
And you might also have imagined that a photographer of this worldly quality, would now perhaps be in his fifties, so when I read that Kilian was born in the 1980’s and will be turning thirty next year… I was also quite pleasantly misguided. So whether it’s taking cinema-esque, ‘Lord Of The Rings’ style dramatic images …
… or capturing the other-worldly and dramatic, Nordic scenery…
Or showing me Scotland in a completely different light…
… my money is definitely on this man to come up trumps, every time !
There’s even humour in his work as he captures (in his words) ‘two wooden robots’ and a ‘struggle between two tree ghosts’.
He says ” Sometimes it’s really scary out there in the woods with those gnarled trees around shrouded by fog and dimly lit by the twilight of the dawn ! ” and I must admit to being very happy to view them from the safety and security of my warm studio lol
I think we will be seeing more of Kilian’s tremendous work again in the future, do spend sometime over on his site, because, (as they almost say), there’s plenty more beautiful fish in his sea : ) Enjoy.
For anyone in North West Germany in February 2015, Kilian will be giving a presentation of his work about the wild forests and mountain scapes of (South East) Germany. During the renowned photo festival “Inspiration Natur” in Stapelfeld (next to Cloppenburg) he will showcase an exhibition of ~40 photos and also give a lecture about his photographic work. For more information about the contributors, program and booking of the festival (in German) follow this link.
Fishink at the Little Northern Contemporary Craft Fair 2014
Happy Monday everyone and I hope you had a great weekend as the wintery weather creeps ever upon us ! Do you have snow ? I’m relieved it hasn’t come yet, I’m not quite ready for dog walking with snow boots on ! lol
I spent yesterday in the company of 45 designer makers at the Little Northern Contemporary Craft Fair, you can see a list of the exhibitors here. As usual there were some beautiful stands and new faces and work too. One that I was excited to meet was that of fellow blogger and genuinely warm, lovely artist Claire Leggett. Here is Claire with her colourful floral work.
Her calendars and hand painted notebooks were lighting up her stand.
This was my own stand and also work by screen printing illustrator (and fellow Lurcher owner) Ruth Green.
We had quite a busy day with hot mulled wine and a christ-massey vibe. Thanks to Lindsey Tyson and Ima Pico for their company as my next door neighbours for the day too.
Some wonderful found, foraged and reconstructed delicacies from sculpture artist Jane Bevan.
Fun and quirky artwork by the talented Chloe Rafferty at Days in Design. Loved her wee Christmas trees !
Exhibiting friends Louise Jannetta and Sarah Malone.
More colourful and delightful 3-d illustrative work from Liz Cooksey.
And finally a catch up with Beverley Holmes-Wright and her company Stitching For The Soul.
A busy day and now I need my monday to recover lol. Thank you to Ann-Marie and Angela for organising so well and to all the other folk I didn’t get to mention. Do check out their work here. If you would like to purchase any work from myself there’s still time for christmas postings and it’s available here Fishink. A happy start to your week everyone.
Xiao Huang The tale of a Whale
I can find little information about the illustrator Xiao Huang and I noticed that the website hasn’t been updated for a few years now, so if anyone knows more then please feel free to pass on the details. There seems to be a small obsession about birds and fish, running through the work, and I like it !
Lovely dreamy landscapes with large cats being stalked by even larger birds !
How cool would it be to have your own bird to fly you home after a hard day at the office ?
I like the soft floaty feel to the illustrations, beautifully hushed and wrapped in summery cotton-woolness : )
Then this looks to be the tale of a little girl who gets a little fish ….
and they do everything together whilst the fish grows …
and grows.. until one day it grows soo big that the girl has to let it go into the sea.
But I’m sure it doesn’t forget her kindness and maybe even visits at night in her dreams.
Fabulous work and ideas. Ahh I feel quite peaceful after looking at this. What says you readers ?
Just a quick reminder that I’ll be showing my work along with about 40+ other designer/makers here this Sunday. Please do pop in and say hello.
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