Tale-pieces

June Crisfield Chapman: Wood Engravings

2012-01-31T10:29:00.001Z

A one-person exhibition at the Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle

June Crisfield Chapman: Wood Engravings
Sat 04 Feb 12 - Sun 13 May 12

"June follows two main themes in her engravings: plant forms and characters from literature and the theatre. Her awareness of the dramatic possibilities of working in black and white and of the form that is achievable by clear, clean line is the essential nature of her engraving. She finds fascination and inspiration in the various forms of plants, as well as the myth and folklore surrounding medicinal plants. Theatre subjects have also captivated her since she first became enamoured by transformation scenes in pantomimes.
For 11 years June wrote and engraved for The Countryman magazine. Her plant engravings have been shown in exhibitions in the Royal Botanic Garden Gallery, Edinburgh; the Chelsea Physic Garden Gallery and the Walter Rothschild Museum, which is part of the Natural History Museum in London.
Her literary and theatre themed engravings include characters from Shakespeare, Chaucer, and Ancient Greek plays. Her work has been the subject of one-woman shows at the National Theatre and Shakespeare’s Globe complex and has been included in exhibitions on Chaucer in Westminster Abbey and St.Martin-in-the-Fields, London. She has also illustrated books on Shakespeare for the Folio Book Society."
http://www.bowesmuseum.org.uk/exhibitions%20and%20events/exhibitions/forthcoming/241/#

The Bowes Museum
The Museum is in the picturesque market town of Barnard Castle, County Durham situated in the heart of the Pennines in North East England. The town is just off the A66, 20 minutes by car from Scotch Corner (A1), 40 minutes from Penrith (M6) and 40 minutes from Durham Tees Valley Airport.
Check opening hours and ticket prices here http://www.bowesmuseum.org.uk/visiting/opening%20hours%20and%20admission/

Thomas Bewick and Robert Burns

2012-01-25T16:33:00.001Z

Thomas Bewick illustrated the works of Burns for William Davison and John Catnach of Alnwick.
This was a Bewick workshop production.

Iain Bain, Note on Bewick’s Engraving, p265 Memoir:
The John Thurston designs were engraved by Henry White.
“Many of the tail-pieces were from the hands of Isaac Nicholson and Edward Willis as well as their colleague White”
“But they were of the workshop and nothing would have gone out without the check and guidance of its proprietor.”

The poetical works of Robert Burns with his life
The editions are numbered TB 2.500A, 500B and 500C by Nigel Tattersfield.

Robert Burns visited Newcastle in 1787: you can read about the trip here http://community.newcastle.gov.uk/libraries/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Robert-Burns-in-Newcastle.pdf

He did not meet Thomas Bewick however he had dinner with a "Mr. Chattox".
"Sleep at Morpeth, a pleasant enough little town, and on next day to Newcastle. Meet with a very agreeable sensible fellow, a Mr. Chattox, who shows us a great many civilities, and who dines and sups with us." [Burns Letters]

This may have been William Chatto (died 1804) the father of William Andrew Chatto, [pseud. Stephen Oliver] (1799–1864). Tea-dealer William Andrew became an important historian of wood-engraving. His Treatise on Wood Engraving, Historical and Practical (1839) included 300 illustrations by John Jackson. John Jackson (1801-48) had been an apprentice in the Bewick workshop.

You can read about Bewick's trips to Scotland and his enthusiasm for all things Scottish here http://www.bewicksociety.org/cherryburn_times/pdfs/CT%20Summer%202009%20NV-email.pdf

See the full gallery on Posterous

A wood-engraver on Bewick

2012-01-18T10:49:00.001Z

Blogger Larry Thompson of Merrickville, Ontario, Canada writes about the challenges of wood engraving in the manner of Thomas Bewick.
http://greyweathers.wordpress.com/2012/01/08/wood-engraving-for-tintern-abbey...

Society of Wood Engravers 74th Annual Exhibition

2012-01-15T12:12:00.001Z

27 January 2012 - 9 February 2012

The Society exists to promote wood engraving. It is the principal organisation and rallying point for those interested in the subject; it also maintains a lively interest in other forms of relief printmaking. Essentially, it is an artists' exhibiting society. There are aroundseventy members, practising artists who have been elected or invited to membership on merit.

Illustration: Miriam Macgregor, Thorn in August, wood engraving, £100 unframed

Bankside Gallery, Open daily from 11am - 6pm during exhibitions Admission Free
48 Hopton Street, London, SE1 9JH
020 7928 7521
http://banksidegallery.com/viewexhibition.aspx?exhibitionid=44

Thomas Bewick, engraving the world, 12th March 2012.

2011-12-17T12:30:00.001Z

A lecture at the University of Cambridge.
"Thomas Bewick, engraving the world"
Jenny Uglow
Monday 12 March 2012, 13:00-14:15
Seminar Room 1, Department of History and Philosophy of Science.
If you have a question about this talk, please contact Sophie Waring.
This talk is part of the Cabinet of Natural History series.
This HPS research seminar is concerned with all aspects of the history of natural history and the field and environmental sciences. The regular programme of papers and discussions takes place over lunch on Mondays. In addition, the Cabinet organises a beginning-of-year fungus hunt and occasional expeditions to sites of historical and natural historical interest, and holds an end-of-year garden party.
Seminars are held on Mondays at 1pm in Seminar Room 1, Department of History and Philosophy of Science. You are welcome to bring your lunch with you. Organised by Sophie Waring.

http://talks.cam.ac.uk/show/index/5769

Attention Wood Engravers

2011-12-07T22:48:00.001Z

Call for Entries: Wood Engravers' Network 2012 Juried Exhibition.

The Wood Engravers’ Network is excited to host its first juried exhibition of relief engraving. Bringing wood engraving to a broader audience to promote and encourage a passion for the tradition and contemporary experimentation of relief engraving.

CALL FOR ENTRIES
The Wood Engravers’ Network seeks prints to be included in a Relief Engraving exhibition. The exhibition will debut at Asheville BookWorks and tour nationally. Venues and dates will be announced as they are scheduled.

ELIGIBILITY
Eligible works need to be primarily relief engraving. Relief engraving can include any engraving on wood, plastic, Corian®, Resingrave® – any material – as long as it is printed in relief.

ENTRY FEE
A non-returnable entry fee of $30 USD for current Wood Engravers’ Network members.
A non-returnable entry fee of $40 USD for all other entries.

Entry fees cover the submission of up to 3 images.
Entries and fees must be received by March 2, 2012.

http://www.woodengravers.net/WENExhibitCall2012.pdf

Bewick in Wuthering Heights

2011-12-05T14:42:00.001Z

Yet another Bronte film asks the question of how much Thomas Bewick there is in it.
Andrea Arnold’s bleak film, with its tremendous cinematography of moorland and primitive farmhouse is certainly of Bewick’s day, but how much of the girl Emily Bronte’s early love, which arose from copying Bewick vignettes, comes out in the film?
One repeated and horrifying incident suggests there is something, when first Heathcliffe and then the Earnshaw child casually hang dogs- not a happy reflection!
(Peter Osborne)
IMDb page http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1181614/
Reviews http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/142867/wuthering-heights

See the full gallery on Posterous

MEET THOMAS BEWICK: Bewick and Natural History

2011-11-24T10:17:00.001Z

You are invited to a joint meeting between The Bewick Society and The Natural History Society of Northumbria.
Bewick Society Chairman, Dr Peter Quinn, will give a short talk on the North East’s famous artist and woodengraver Thomas Bewick, highlighting his role in the field of natural history. Peter, will look at some of the naturalists who influenced Bewick and go on to discuss how his work was admired by his contemporaries including the great American artist John James Audubon.
This will be followed by a rare opportunity to examine key works by Bewick and other naturalists held in the special collections library of the Natural History Society. Volumes on display will include Marmaduke Tunstall’s Ornithologia Britannica, 1771, Pierre Belon’s L'Histoire de la Nature des Oyseaux, 1555 and material by other well known naturalists such as Thomas Pennant and Audubon.
Date and time: Saturday 26 November at 2pm
Venue: The Clore Lecture Theatre, Great North Museum: Hancock, Barras Bridge, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4PT.
Contact: June Holmes for further details.
http://www.nhsn.ncl.ac.uk/
Image: Nightjar, collection of the Natural History Society of Northumbria.

Bewick at the British Museum

2011-11-20T19:09:00.001Z

The head of Thomas Bewick stands guard at present by the door of the British Museum Prints and Drawings Room.
The plaster cast of Bailey's bust introduces a display of Bewick's work selected by Nigel Tattersfield to celebrate the publication of his 3-volume "The Complete Illustrative Work". Next to it is a print of the sample of Gay's fables, submitted by Beilby, to the nascent Royal Society of Arts, that won young Thomas a prize.
The exhibition presents a brief history of Bewick's work on quadrupeds and birds by displaying his drawings next to the resulting prints. There is an original Pidcock poster showing the superiority of Bewick's lion etc to other animals included. The poster shows how he effectively dramatised his creatures, such as the roaring lion, for this purpose of publicity.
Nigel Tattersfield has chosen to include a significant number of examples of ephemera to illustrate the breadth of workshop production. These include the 1767 'George and Dragon', all sorts of tickets, banknotes, etc., but there are also fine pulls of the Chillingham Bull and Whitley Large Ox.

THOMAS BEWICK: A Beginner’s Guide

2011-10-24T15:31:00.001+01:00

Thursday 27 October 2011

THOMAS BEWICK: A Beginner’s Guide

A lecture by Dr Peter Quinn to accompany the exhibition Good Times, Bad Times, All Times Get Over. The exhibition will be open before and after the lecture.

This exhibition and talk are part of the programme for the International Print Biennale taking place across the region 17 September – 19 November 2011.

Free Entry.

Date and time: Thursday 27 October 6.30pm.

Venue: The Queen’s Hall Arts Centre, Beaumont Street, Hexham, Northumberland, NE46 3LS

Contact: Booking required with the box office Queen’s Hall. Tel 01434 652 477 or

email boxoffice@queenshall.co.uk.

Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver

2011-10-23T11:42:00.001+01:00

Shinsuke Minegishi gives a demonstration of wood engraving in the gallery, the relief printing process used by Thomas Bewick. The Last day of the exhibition Thomas Bewick, 'Tale-pieces' is Sunday October 30, last week to view! not to be missed...
Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver
555 Nelson Street, Vancouver, BC V6R 6R5
http://www.contemporaryartgallery.ca
http://www.contemporaryartgallery.ca/blog
Shinsuke Minegishi's website is here. http://www.s-minegishi.com/

FOR THOMAS BEWICK

2011-10-19T17:02:00.001+01:00

FOR THOMAS BEWICK

In your precious art you are raised

delicate species fresh, alive

with every searching niche of blade,

on metalled tints of bone

in flesh, conceived.

Today, our clear eye can review

that aggregate of animals

and spreading plants which grew;

now your thoughts to Cherryburn

are our adoption.

Through sludge of field flung back

from my drag of parting feet,

crossing matted rural lands

you swept in light and shade,

a lock of trees

inside a border to engrave.

Gordon Phillips

From Keith Armstrong's blog

Good Times, Bad Times, All Times Get Over

2011-10-18T12:15:00.001+01:00

Saturday 15 October to Saturday 19 November 2011
Good Times, Bad Times, All Times Get Over
Work by Thomas Bewick, Graham Gussin, Lutz and Guggisberg, and Bedwyr Williams
Queen'sHall Arts Centre, Beaumont Street, Hexham, Northumberland, NE46 3LS.
Open Monday to Saturday from 10am-4pm.
Thursday 27 October at 6.30pm.
Thomas Bewick: A Beginners Guide. A lecture to accompany the exhibition Good Times, Bad Times, All Times Get Over.
Dr Peter Quinn on Bewick and his importance today.
Contact box office at Queen's Hall 01434 652 477 or email: boxoffice@queenshall.co.uk.
The gallery will be open so people can take a look at the show before/after the talk.

http://www.queenshall.co.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/475

Thomas Bewick and Woodengraving

2011-10-12T10:19:00.001+01:00

Dr Jaap Harskamp on Bewick and the history of book illustration.
http://abeautifulbook.wordpress.com/category/illustrations-woodcut/
Recent entry in the interesting blog Letter & Layout – the rest is cultural history

Bath Book Fair

2011-10-12T09:48:00.001+01:00

The Bath Book Fair takes place on Saturday 15th October (1-6pm).
One of the highlights of the fair is a copy of British Birds signed by Thomas Bewick.
Details here. http://www.bathbookfair.org/bath-fair-highlights-thomas-bewicks-birds-with-si...

Walk On, Tom Bewick

2011-10-07T22:18:00.001+01:00

Stride Circus Lane

and chip your signature

on the pavement of scrapes and kisses.

Pass the Forth

and skirt

its pleasure gardens;

throw your darts in the archery field.

Skim the bowling green

and walk on water,

doff your hat to Mrs Waldie;

cut along

old scars of lanes

to the bloody gush of Westgate Street;

whistle with birds

in a vicar’s garden,

let warm thoughts fly in Tyneside sun

to bless this Geordie day.

And greet

the morning hours,

Aunt Blackett and Gilbert Gray,

sing to free the world,

the Black Boy;

harmonise your mind

in a churchyard of melancholy.

Dance over the Lort Burn,

the sun in your eyes,

flooding your workshop

with a light fantastic.

Your shoulders so proud

rub with the building girls

and lady barbers

along Sandhill;

the boats of your dreams

bridge the aching Tyne,

ships groaning

in the tender daylight,

longing for the healing moon;

a keelman’s fantasies

of quayside flesh

and the seething sea.

You trip along

searching for electricity and magnetism

in the inns,

winging it

with the bird catchers and canary breeders,

the dirty colliers and the harping whalers.

Walk on Tom,

execute

a portrait

of a hanging man;

let your strong heart

swell with the complex passion

of common folk.

KEITH ARMSTRONG

(from Armstrong's new book 'Splinters', Hill Salad Books)

Jane Eyre in cinemas now.

2011-10-03T17:06:00.001+01:00

In the recent 'Jane Eyre' film Bewick is appropriately noticed, sort of! In the Reeds' house, notably said to be at Gateshead, the young Jane looks at British Birds, as in the novel. But it is the kingfisher that attracts her attention rather than the Arctic scenes that particularly moved her in the original. At least British Birds reappears when Jane returns to the deathbed of Aunt Reed, indicating that the director had noticed something of the extent to which 'Jane Eyre' is structured around Bewick and bird metaphors.
You can get a sense of the film's use of gothic horror from a video on the imdb site:
Jane Eyre Featurette (Behind the Scenes) http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3417873689/
Jane Eyre stars Mia Wasikowska, Michael Fassbender and Jamie Bell. It is directed by Cary Fukunaga and the writers credited are Charlotte Brontë (novel), Moira Buffini (screenplay)

"A mousy governess who softens the heart of her employer soon discovers that he's hiding a terrible secret."
In cinemas now.
The passage in which Jane reads Bewick's British Birds ends:

"The words in these introductory pages connected themselves with the succeeding vignettes, and gave significance to the rock standing up alone in a sea of billow and spray; to the broken boat stranded on a desolate coast; to the cold and ghastly moon glancing through bars of cloud at a wreck just sinking. I cannot tell what sentiment haunted the quite solitary churchyard, with its inscribed headstone; its gate, its two trees, its low horizon, girdled by a broken wall, and its newly-risen crescent, attesting the hour of eventide.The two ships becalmed on a torpid sea, I believed to be marine phantoms. The fiend pinning down the thief's pack behind him, I passed over quickly: it was an object of terror.So was the black horned thing seated aloof on a rock, surveying a distant crowd surrounding a gallows.
Each picture told a story; mysterious often to my undeveloped understanding and imperfect feelings, yet ever profoundly interesting: as interesting as the tales Bessie sometimes narrated on winter evenings, when she chanced to be in good humour; and when, having brought her ironing-table to the nursery hearth, she allowed us to sit about it, and while she got up Mrs. Reed's lace frills, and crimped her nightcap borders, fed our eager attention with passages of love and adventure taken from old fairy tales and other ballads; or (as at a later period I discovered) from the pages of Pamela, and Henry, Earl of Moreland.
With Bewick on my knee, I was then happy: happy at least in my way.
I feared nothing but interruption,”
Jane Eyre 1847 Chapter One.

BEWICK SOCIETY ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

2011-09-23T17:13:00.001+01:00

Saturday 24 September 2011
This year we are grateful to Newcastle City Library for allowing us to hold our AGM in their splendid Bewick Hall once again.
After the business of the AGM we will be showing a nostalgic short film 'The Bewick Man.' This documentary, made in the 1980s as a North East BBC production, takes the form of an interview with the Society's President Iain Bain in his home and discusses his enthusiasm for Thomas Bewick.
We acknowledge our thanks to the BBC for permission to show the film to our members and to the Natural History Society of Northumbria who own the copy of the original film.
Date and time: Saturday 24 September at 2.00 (AGM) for 2.30 (film).
Venue: The Bewick Hall, Newcastle City Library, Charles Avison Building, 33, New Bridge Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8AX.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Freda and Esmeralda

2011-09-20T11:16:00.001+01:00

Cherryburn donkeys to retire.
Read all about it here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-14973355
and here
http://www.visitnorthumberlandblog.com/site/2011/09/15/cherryburn-donkeys-say...

See the full gallery on Posterous

Review of Tale-pieces in Vancouver.

2011-09-20T10:49:00.001+01:00

Straight.com review of Tale-pieces in Vancouver.
"New director Nigel Price puts stamp on downtown space, handing out magnifying glasses and introducing a 1960s pop-artist nun

By Robin Laurence, September 14, 2011

Thomas Bewick: Tale-pieces
Corita Kent: To Create is to Relate
At the Contemporary Art Gallery until October 30"
"Clearly, Prince believes that Bewick’s tiny wood engravings continue to resonate in the 21st century. They speak, he suggests, to our relationship with our natural environment, our treatment of animals, our human frailties—and our mortality. Designed as tailpieces to fill spaces between paragraphs and chapters in the natural-history books that he was acclaimed for illustrating, Bewick’s prints depict peaceful scenes of pastoral life, but also register his keen sense of justice and psychological nuance.
The 100-plus Bewick works, two to a framed page, are best viewed with a magnifying glass (available in the annex) to fully reveal their exquisitely executed observations of life. There are charming vignettes here of fishing, farming, and ships at anchor; there are also hanged men, suicides, and children torturing animals. A cruel man beats his starving horse, a glutton pukes up his dinner, and a toddler wanders, alone and in peril, while her nursemaid canoodles with some guy in the bushes.
Linking the Bewicks thematically to the Corita Kent show are a commitment to social justice and a desire to make art widely accessible to the public. Born Frances Kent in Iowa in 1918, the artist took the name Sister Mary Corita when she joined the Order of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Los Angeles in 1936. As artist, teacher, and activist, she gave community-based screen-printing workshops at the order’s art centre while also producing a large body of her own emphatic work. Eventually, she left the order, moved to Boston, and made art under the single moniker Corita."

Full text here : http://www.straight.com/article-457956/vancouver/wood-and-silkscreens-herald-cags-40th

Thomas Bewick Contemporary Artist

2011-09-12T16:18:00.001+01:00

From a review of Tale-pieces in the Vancouver Sun newspaper:
"But more than that are the ideas and scenes he's depicting. They show a curious, ironic and observant mind at work. They collapse the two centuries between then and now. Creating an exhibition with Bewick's engravings to redefine contemporary was very much on the mind of Nigel Prince, who took over as the CAG's executive director in January.
"I think it's important curatorially to question what is the meaning of contemporary art. Does contemporary art mean something made yesterday? Does contemporary have more to do with ideas and issues and the propositions in an artist's work? Those are issues are evident in the images, which are relevant to concerns today.""
Centuries-old engravings still cut deep, Works depict human cruelty and injustice.. By Kevin Griffin, Vancouver Sun September 10, 2011
Click here to read the full review: http://www.vancouversun.com/travel/Centuries+engravings+still+deep/5382264/story.html

Good Times, Bad Times, All Times Get Over

2011-09-09T23:20:00.001+01:00

Curated for the Queen’s Hall Gallery by Jonathan Watkins (Director, IKON Gallery Birmingham) and presented as part of the International Print Biennale, Good Times, Bad Times, All Times Get Over is a rare opportunity to see prints by the extraordinary nineteenth century wood engraver and ornithologist Thomas Bewick and contemporary responses to his work by artists Graham Gussin, Lutz and Guggisberg, and Bedwyr Williams.

A special Ikon exhibition for the International Print Biennale 2011 at Queen's Hall in Hexham.

Good Times, Bad Times, All Times Get Over is centred on the vignettes of British wood engraver, artist and naturalist Thomas Bewick (1753-1828). Clearly influenced by his childhood in the North East, these tiny scenes of everyday rural life provide an invaluable insight into social history while also demonstrating Bewick's imagination and wit. Taking its title from Bewick's depiction of a gravestone with the words "Good Times, Bad Times, All Times Get Over", we show 24 of his 'tale-pieces' alongside the work of four contemporary artists: Graham Gussin, Swiss duo Lutz and Guggisberg and Bedwyr Williams.

Queen's Hall Arts Centre, 15th October - 19th November 2011, Monday to Saturday, 10am - 4pm

Beaumont Street, Hexham, NE46 3LS
Tel: 01434 652477
Email: boxoffice@queenshall.co.uk
Web: www.queenshall.co.uk/whats-on/seasons-diary/475
http://www.queenshall.co.uk/whats-on/seasons-diary/475

International Print Biennale brings museums and galleries across the north east together to celebrate printmaking from around the world. Find out about exhibitions, special events and classes from 17 September to 19 November 2011.

York National Book Fair

2011-09-07T09:36:00.001+01:00

The Bewick Society have a stall at this year's York Book Fair.
See http://www.yorkbookfair.com/
We're on the Upper Mezzanine Level,
Knavesmire Suite,
York Racecourse,
YO23 1EX

Friday Sept 9th 2011
12 noon - 7pm
Saturday Sept 10th 2011
10am - 5pm
Admission on the door: £2.00

See you there.

Keith Armstrong Book Launch Invitation

2011-09-05T10:11:00.001+01:00

Keith Armstrong writes:
"I am launching .. 2 books .. at the Red House, Quayside, Newcastle on Tuesday 6th September 7.30pm. All are welcome - admission free. Best wishes Keith"
The books are
The Month of the Asparagus: Selected Poems
http://www.wardwoodpublishing.co.uk/titles-poetry-ka-mota.htm
and
Splinters
http://www.hillsaladbooks.com/

Both books contain poems on Thomas Bewick.

Listen to Keith reading his poems on Soundcloud.
http://soundcloud.com/jinglinggeordie. />

See the full gallery on Posterous

Bewick in Vancouver

2011-09-04T11:53:00.001+01:00

From the website of the Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver:
"The CAG will present the first exhibition in North America devoted entirely to the vignettes of British wood engraver, artist and naturalist Thomas Bewick. Born in Cherryburn, near Mickley, Northumberland in 1753, Bewick worked in Newcastle until his death in 1828. Clearly influenced by his childhood on a small farm on the banks of the river Tyne, Bewick's love of the countryside is reflected in his detailed woodcuts of animals, birds and rural scenes. Amongst his most ambitious projects were illustrations for General History of Quadrupeds (1790) and History of British Birds (two volumes, 1797 and 1804), both of which also included a great number of vignettes. Bewick referred to these as ‘tale-pieces'. Intended as illustrations of 'some truth or point of some moral' they provide an invaluable insight into social history while also demonstrating the artist's imagination and wit."
See http://www.contemporaryartgallery.ca
Exhibition runs SEP 8, 2011 to OCT 30, 2011
CAG
555 Nelson Street
Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada V6B 6R5

A Walk from Cherryburn to Ovingham

2011-09-04T10:51:00.001+01:00

Sunday 4 September 2011

(Please note the change of date from Saturday 3 to Sunday 4)

A Walk from Cherryburn to Ovingham

Come and join us on a short post lunch walk to Ovingham and back exploring Bewick’s childhood by the Tyne. Meet and park at Cherryburn and bring appropriate footwear.

Refreshments will be available to buy from the Cherryburn farmhouse shop on our return.

Distance approx 3 miles round trip.

Date and time: Sunday 4 September 2011 at 1.30pm prompt.

Venue: Cherryburn, Station Road, Mickley Square, near Stocksfield, Northumberland NE43 7DD.

Contact: June Holmes: The Bewick Society, c/o The Natural History Society of Northumbria, The Great North Museum: Hancock, Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 4PT.

e-mail bewick.society@Newcastle.ac.uk

John Grundy video on Youtube Channel

2011-08-18T23:36:00.002+01:00

The popular video "Thomas Bewick" (2003) featuring John Grundy is now available on Youtube in 5 bite-size episodes.

Cherryburn thanks

2011-08-14T20:31:00.002+01:00

Many thanks to all those who came along to Cherryburn today to celebrate Thomas Bewick's 258th birthday. Thanks to the National Trust and its wonderful volunteers for making us all welcome.
Stars of the show were the Russian book-plate artists of 1989. We re-lived the "Bewick Museum" book-plate exhibition, examining the 91 entries retrieved from the archive at Cherryburn.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Wood Engraving Classes & Courses at Northern Print

2011-08-08T15:07:00.004+01:00

Northern Print are running two courses led by Chris Daunt. There are still places left. Contact Northern Print for all the relevant details, bookings etc. This from their brochure:

Wood Engraving with Chris Daunt

During this course, leading wood engraver Chris Daunt will guide you    through this fascinating process. You will be shown how to transfer a   simple image on to a wood block, how to use specialist tools to cut the block and then how to ink and print it. All tools and materials are provided and there will be the opportunity to purchase additional materials at the end of the course. Suitable for beginners.
Thursday 11 August (1 day course)
10am-5pm | £55 | £49.50 concession

Ex Libris: Design & Print a Book Plate
Leading Wood Engraver Chris Daunt will be running a wood engraving course over 6 evenings, which will result in you producing your very own book plate. Chris will take you through the tradition of book plates (also known as Ex Libris) and will then help you to design, cut and print your book plate as a wood engraving. No experience is required – suitable for complete beginners. You could make one for yourself or even as a Christmas gift for someone.
    Wednesdays 14, 21, 28 September & 5, 12, 19 October
     6pm-8.30pm | £150 | £135 concession (6 sessions)

Northern Print Stepney Bank Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 2NP
Tel: 0191 261 7000 Fax: 0191 261 6700 Minicom: 0191 261 6710
Email: enquiry@northernprint.org.uk
Find Northern Print here: http://www.northernprint.org.uk/pages/home.php
Chris Daunt has a website here: http://chrisdaunt.com/

THOMAS BEWICK'S BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS AT CHERRYBURN

2011-08-05T11:25:00.003+01:00

Every year the Bewick Society meets at Cherryburn to honour the birthday of our distinguished figurehead. Bewick maintained that he was born on Lammas Day, the 12th of August, so this year we are only two days late with our celebrations.
We will be continuing our 'after lunch conversation' format with a series of short discussions. This is an excellent opportunity to meet the experts of the Bewick Society, show them your collection and maybe join in the after lunch conversations. There is usually a very tasty Birthday Cake!
Date and time: Sunday 14 August from 1-4pm. Northumbrian music at 1pm. Followed by light afternoon conversation 2-4pm.
Venue: Cherryburn, Station Road, Mickley Square, near Stocksfield, Northumberland NE43 7DD.
Admission: Admission charges apply. National Trust and Bewick Society members free on production of a valid membership card.

Piñata Attack

2011-08-04T22:24:00.001+01:00

Piñata Attack, a photo by Bewick Society on Flickr.

Stewart Thirkell's Surprise Farewell Party, Cherryburn, Thursday 4th August.

Colleagues, friends and volunteers gathered to wish him well and to say thank you for twenty years of service at Cherryburn.

Click on the photograph to see others on the Bewick Society Flickr pages.

The Bewick Revolution

2011-07-26T17:31:00.002+01:00

Uglow on Tattersfield, a photo by Bewick Society on Flickr.

Jenny Uglow on Nigel Tattersfield's "Thomas Bewick: the Complete Illustrative Work":

"The workshop slowly declined, but Bewick's fame endured, and these superb volumes are a fine memorial to his business and his craft, and to the work of all those who toiled alongside him."

The Times Literary Supplement, July 22 2011 No.5651, p.11.

See also the Then and Now feature on p.16 which looks back to a review by Hanns A. Hammelmann of three books on Thomas Bewick. From January 1954 Hammelmann writes of Bewick the "Master Craftsman".

"Then and Now" can be read in full here on the TLS website.

Bible at Cherryburn

2011-07-15T18:32:00.000+01:00

Shared with the Bewick Society on Facebook, the story surrounding the Hadaway family bible. Malta, Smyrna, North Shields and Leith all feature in this history of a sea-faring family.
Read the "Story of Dixon Hadaway and Teresa Rivans" by Safeena Hutchison here.
The bible has recently been restored and is held as part of the collection at Cherryburn.

INVITATION TO SUBMIT

2011-06-01T09:48:00.000+01:00

Contemporary Relief Print Exhibition
You are invited to submit 1 or 2 relief prints (woodcuts, wood engravings, linoprints etc) for inclusion in the 74th Annual Exhibition of the Society of Wood Engravers.

Submission dates: 18 – 23 July 2011

Download full details and submission forms from www.woodengravers.co.uk
or email: swesec@geriwaddington.com

The exhibition opens at the Art Jericho Gallery, Oxford on 22 September and will tour venues around the country, including the Bankside Gallery, London, until Summer 2012.

All prints to be sent unmounted and unframed. Selected prints will be framed by the Society. For further information contact: pete@odi-design.co.uk

Prizes totalling £1050 will be awarded.

Bewick in Southern Illinois

2011-05-25T09:26:00.000+01:00

The Special Collections Research Center at Morris Library, Southern Illinois University Carbondale has recently acquired a portfolio of Bewick engravings oublished in 1970 by the Cherryburn press.
You can read about the edition and its display on the Center's blog "Raiders of the Lost Archives" here.

"The Cherryburn Press edition of Bewick prints recently acquired by SCRC contains a selection of 100 Bewick wood engravings, printed from the original blocks in 1970. Although Bewick carved the blocks in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, this edition shows even and detailed impressions, demonstrating the longevity of engravings on end grain wood. By contrast, traditional woodcuts tend to warp and lose detail over time. The blocks used for this edition are housed in the Newberry Library in Chicago."

Two prints from the portfolio are currently on display in the Morris Library as part of the exhibit “Bringing Light Out of Darkness: A History of Woodblock Printing.”

Fiona Houston at Cherryburn

2011-05-14T16:03:00.001+01:00

You can read an account of Fiona Houston's recent visit to Cherryburn on the Saraband blog.
Click here to read "History Everywhere".

"Cherryburn is situated in a beautiful, rolling part of Northumberland along the Tyne Valley. It would scarcely be possible to have visited on a lovelier spring day, with all the fresh greens of the new leaves clothing the hillsides, set off by blossoms and the hawthorn, with bluebells in the garden (which now even includes a croquet lawn!), and vistas of green to the north."

Photo: Fiona Houston at Cherryburn, with Tyne Valley view, Saraband.

Paul Scott's Gateshead

2011-05-09T16:57:00.000+01:00

Soon to be unveiled is an artwork specially commissioned to celebrate Gateshead, its history and people.
Read about the commission on the artist's blog here.

The Evening Times has had a sneek preview of the brick-based piece.

"Around 200 of various sizes fit into the box to give the viewer a snapshot of Gateshead.
From boating on Saltwell Park to rare breeds at Bill Quay Farm, and Thomas Bewick engravings to famous sons such as Joseph Swan and William Wailes.
Almost everything in the box comes from Gateshead, including pieces of coal, iron, glass and wood from a pit prop - and even a piece of rubble from the Get Carter Car Park and a souvenir plate from the 1990 National Garden Festival he bought on eBay.
Paul will launch the artwork at the Shipley in July.

Bewick's Tyne

2011-04-17T10:10:00.000+01:00

Sudheer Gupta's film Black River Business is the result of a year spent at Durham university's Institute of Advanced Study (IAS). Success in cleaning-up the rivers of the North East is contrasted with the lamentable condition of the river Yamuna, Delhi. He calls the latter "a putrid black drain."

The Guardian's Blog, The Northener, highlights the description of the pre-industrial Tyne left in Thomas Bewick's Memoir.

"Black River Business pays tribute to the billions paid in the north east clean-up by Northumbrian Water, energised at every step by conservationist campaigners and volunteers to get the rivers back into the sparkling state described by Thomas Bewick. In his 18th century youth, the future engraver larked in the Tyne with his friends, enraging the local vicar by floating past the church on inaccessible rafts, shrilling out childish taunts."

Visit the Northerner Blog for details of the free premiere at the Tyneside Cinema on 19th April.
More details here.

Book Launch in the press

2011-04-14T08:29:00.000+01:00

On Tuesday the 12th April the Bewick Society hosted a book launch at the Newcastle City Library for Nigel Tattersfield's "Thomas Bewick, The Complete Illustrative Work."
The book is in three volumes and is published by the British Library. See their website for further details.

The Journal's Tony Henderson quotes June Holmes of the Bewick Society: “We wanted to honour 20 years of hard work on the author’s part. Thomas Bewick is a major artist for the North East and we wanted the book to be launched here rather than in London.”

The Journal's article continues:

“The workshop handled everything from engraved dog collars, soup ladles and brass clocks to 200 engraved swords for the Duke of Northumberland’s militia, and the book illustrations were really the tip of the iceberg,” said Mr Tattersfield.
“Bewick was running what was really an engraving factory as Newcastle developed and the book is the first exhaustive account of the illustrations turned out by the workshop.
“It has taken 20 years but I felt it was worth the time.”
During his research, the writer discovered illustrations by Bewick for an 18th century children’s Mother Goose book, which was then reprinted.
“It was one of the most important children’s books ever produced and Bewick was commissioned to illustrate it before he was famous,” said Mr Tattersfield."

Read more on the Journal's website here.

Tale-pieces in Dynamic Views for Readers

2011-04-02T11:27:00.000+01:00

You can now view Tale-pieces in a number of new ways courtesy of Blogger's Dynamic Views.
Read this article first for browser requirements and simple instructions.

All about Dynamic Views for Readers

Flock

2011-03-28T15:31:00.000+01:00

Flock is at Northern Print, Newcastle from 17 March until 4 June 2011.

"Local engraver and naturalist, Thomas Bewick (1753 – 1828) published his first volume of the History of British Birds in 1797. His reputation travelled far and wide and, a year before his death, the American naturalist John James Audubon came to visit Bewick. Bewick helped Audubon who went on to publish his acclaimed ‘Birds of America’ which includes a now rare bird the ‘Bewick Wren’ named after his friend and supporter.

Specimen Colony by Alec Finlay hints at this connection with his flat-pack bird box prints taking their inspiration from international postage stamps, many which reproduce Audubon’s famous illustrations.

This exhibition takes a contemporary view and includes works by Craigie Aitchison, Elizabeth Blackadder. Stephen Chambers, Alec Finlay, Angela Harding, Anita Klein, Sara Ogilvie, Joe Tilson & Fiona Watson and demonstrates a variety of printmaking techniques including screenprinting, etching & relief printing."

See Northern Print website for more details.

Illustrated: Medlar Medler, screenprint by Stephen Chambers.

Bewick at IMMA.

2011-03-24T09:47:00.000Z

Books, prints and a block by Thomas Bewick are on show in Dublin at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) from 23rd March until 12th June 2011.

They form part of the 'Old Master Prints: The Madden Arnholz Collection' exhibition.
The Museum at the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham gives further details on their website here.

'The Madden Arnholz Collection was generously donated by Claire Madden to the Royal Hospital in 1989 in memory of her daughter and son-in-law. It includes some 1,200 Old Master prints – the collection of engravings by Hogarth alone numbers over 500 works and is among the most comprehensive print collections in existence by the artist. The Collection also includes works donated in October 1998 following Claire Madden’s death. These include a large collection of books containing prints by the English printmaker Thomas Bewick and his family, as well as unusual versions of the prints on silk and one of Bewick’s printing blocks, of which will also be included in the exhibition.
The original Madden Arnholz Collection was first shown at the RHK in 1987 before it was donated and shown again at IMMA featuring the Hogarth prints in 2007. This exhibition consists of approximately 35 books from the Thomas Bewick collection and 80 Old Master prints. '

You can read an account of the collector's background here.

The exhibition is curated by Janet and John Banville.

Illustration: Rembrandt van Rijn, The Great Jewish Bride, 1635. Etching, 21.3 x 6.2 cm. Collection Irish Museum of Modern Art. Donation, Madden / Arnholz Collection, 1989.

Ill Met by Moonlight

2011-03-23T14:42:00.000Z

The new edition of the Cherryburn Times (Volume 5, number 8) presents a rare scoop: the discovery and identification of a previously unknown watercolour by John Bewick.

"The three main figures are unambiguously villainous. The one on the left is seated on the ground, loading his pistol, ramming a wad down the barrel; on his right on the ground is a gunpowder pouch and on the ground by his knees is a cudgel. His top hat is at a rakish angle on top of unkempt hair. The man standing next to him on his left is holding his right hand to his ear with his left hand on the shoulder of the first figure in a warning gesture, as if he has heard the coach approaching. His head is turned to his left, listening, but his eyes are looking meaningfully down right. Under his left arm is a cudgel and in his left coat pocket the handles of two pistols are seen; his hat is lying on the ground in front of him. The third figure is a one-eyed man with a broad-brimmed hat stooped, perhaps on his knees, rummaging through a long bag, his head turned to his right. The men are footpads rather than highwaymen (who would normally be mounted). The trees in the centre and right are depicted with thick, bunched foliage somewhat like broccoli. The whole scene is suffused with threat and criminal intent – the expressions on the faces of the three main figures are nasty and brutish."

Playfully named "Ill-met by Moonlight" by the editor of the Cherryburn Times, the watercolour measures 158mm x190mm and is owned by a private collector.

Visions of the Jinn: Illustrators of the Arabian Nights

2011-03-13T10:02:00.000Z

Robert Irwin has written a history of the various Western editions of The Arabian Nights from the eighteenth to the twentieth century.

Edward Lane's 'The Thousand and One Nights' of 1839-41 featured illustrations by William Harvey. Harvey (1796-1866) was one of Bewick's favourite apprentices and had worked on blocks for Aesops Fable (1818).

Irwin writes that Lane:

"thought that the stories of the Nights could serve as an introduction to everyday life in the Middle East. (Never mind about the flying horse, the jinn, the Roc, the magic lamp and the Old Man of the Sea.) His copious endnotes furthered his didactic aim and so did the illustrations. William Harvey, a pupil of Thomas Bewick and one of Britain's leading engravers, did the boxwood engravings, but Lane stood at his shoulder, checking the look of things and providing previously published engravings of Egyptian and Moorish architecture for him to copy. In general, the purpose of the pictures was not to stimulate the imagination or supplement the storyline, but to introduce the British reader to the authentic look of the Arab world. Just occasionally Harvey was licensed to use his imagination, as with his marvellous depiction of the giant jinni in "The Story of the City of Brass", or the battle of magical transformations in "The Story of the Second Dervish"."

Read Irwin's account of his research here.

His book Irwin, R., 2011. Visions of the Jinn: Illustrators of the Arabian Nights, The Arcadian Library can be found here.

Illustration: Lane in Turkish Costume, found here.

Irwin

Magda with Flowers

2011-02-18T12:48:00.001Z

The "Print to Impress" at the Biscuit Factory provides a chance to see Chris Daunt's award-winning wood engraving "Magda with Flowers".
Read about the show here.

Also on show are works by Horsley Printmakers who are based at The Hearth in the Northumberland village of Horsley.

More info on Horsley Printmakers here.

Find more about The Biscuit Factory here.

The show runs from March 11 - May 3rd 2011.

Illustrated: Wood engraving - Magda with Flowers © Chris Daunt

Bewick's Fox

2011-01-27T09:42:00.000Z

Patrick Thomas talks to Outline Editions about his Bewick-inspired prints including Foxes and Hound (Inverted).

Photographs from Studio LaVista, Barcelona here.

"In all of these pieces I’m taking Bewick’s image and reinventing it, paying homage to it. The final image in the series is the big wood cutting. It’s the first wood cut I’ve done in about twenty years. I hand cut it into a bit of beech over the course of about ten days. I loved the idea of getting as close as possible to Bewick’s own experience of mark making."

Tom Lubbock 1957-2011

2011-01-11T10:35:00.000Z

Tom Lubbock, artist, critic and writer died on 9th January 2011.
You can read his obituary in the Guardian here.

The Independent has re-printed a number of his art reviews here.

"He wrote major catalogue essays on Goya and Ian Hamilton Finlay, and monographs on Thomas Bewick and Carol Rhodes. A collection of essays from his popular Independent series Great Works will be published this year, and there are three manuscripts of completed books: one on Bad Art, one on the English graphic tradition, and The Donkey's Head, on 17th-century painting. His friends also hope that the full-length version of When Words Failed Me will become a book soon." Kevin Jackson, the Guardian.

You can find Tom Lubbock's April 2009 review of the Ikon's Tale-pieces exhibition here.

Image: 'I Cross the World to Shake the Hand that made my Shirt' by Tom Lubbock

Bewick's Legacy: Six Contemporary British Wood Engravers

2011-01-09T11:03:00.000Z

Bewick's Legacy: Six Contemporary British Wood Engravers

An exhibition at the Washington Printmakers Gallery.

"British wood engraver Simon Brett exhibits his work and the prints of 5 other British wood engravers: Neil Bousfield, Harry Brockway, Peter Lawrence, Hilary Paynter, and Sue Scullard. Books of engravings curated by Simon Brett and Hilary Paynter will also be on view. Exhibition runs January 4-30, 2011. "

More images and details here.

Washington Printmakers Gallery is a cooperative print gallery located just outside of Washington, DC in Silver Spring, MD. Founded in 1985, the Gallery is the area's primary source for contemporary artist-pulled fine art print.
Find them on Facebook here.

Image: "Tynemouth Priory" by Hilary Paynter, Wood Engraving, 7.75x9.75 in, 2003.

Tom Lubbock Collages at Victoria Miro

2010-12-15T17:29:00.000Z

Review by Adrian Searle
"Monty Python-era Terry Gilliam cartoon animations are in there somewhere, and Lubbock also much admires Thomas Bewick, William Blake's contemporary, and has written passionately about Bewick's tiny woodblock vignettes, with their earthy humour and their frightening abjections – the flavour of which got into his own work. Lubbock the collagist and critic is that rare, accessible – and perhaps very English – mix of the genial and the dangerous."
The Guardian, here.

Gallery website with images and info here.

Victoria Miro
16 Wharf Road
London N1 7RW
phone + 44 (0)20 7549 0422
fax + 44 (0)20 7251 5596
www.victoria-miro.com

Open Tuesday to Saturday
10am to 6pm, admission free
Underground Old Street / Angel

"Miniature masterpieces are giving art lovers a micro-sized glimpse of the past. "

2010-11-29T14:31:00.000Z

What's on: Thomas Bewick: Tale-pieces. Review of the show at Abbot Hall by By Adrian Mullen, Arts correspondent of The Westmorland Gazette.

Read his review here.

Jeanette Edgar, communications director for Lakeland Arts Trust: “I still find Bewick’s work intriguing, a real mixture of craft, illustration and a wicked observation on mankind.”

Thomas Bewick: Tale-pieces is at Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal from November 12 until December 18.

Open now in Kendal

2010-11-12T18:13:00.001Z

Tale-pieces, the popular exhibition organised by the Ikon Galllery, is now open at Abbot Hall Art Gallery
Kendal, Cumbria, LA9 5AL
11 Nov- 18 December
www.abbothall.org.uk

At the same venue from 1 November - 18 December there is an exhibition "Wood Engraving in the North: The Continuing Tradition" (in the coffee shop).
Full information here.

This display of works by members of the Society of Wood Engravers runs concurrently with the exhibition of Thomas Bewick’s engravings in the main Gallery, demonstrating the continuity of this technique in the North and exploring the extraordinary versatility of the medium.

Wood Engraving Demonstrations:
Free Event - Museum Lakeland Life & Industry
Wednesday 17 November, 11am - 2pm
Paul Kershaw, a member of the Society of Wood Engravers and Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, will be demonstrating wood engraving techniques and using the Museum’s printing press to print one of his blocks. He will also be available to explain some of the tools and processes involved in wood engraving.

Wednesday 24 November, 11am - 2pm
Edinburgh-based artist and educator Jonathan Gibbs is a member of the Society of Wood Engravers. He will be demonstrating wood engraving techniques and will be available to answer questions about his practice. Engravings by Jonathan Gibbs are on display in the Coffee Shop.

Words and Music

2010-11-08T14:40:00.000Z

BBC Radio 3's Words and Music, November 7th 2010

"This edition of Words & Music was recorded in front of an audience as part of Radio 3’s Free Thinking 2010. Reflecting the festival’s theme of The Pursuit of Happiness, “celebration” is the subject of tonight’s programme. And, just as the artistic line up largely celebrates the finest the Northeast has to offer, so the texts and music often celebrate the Northeast’s writers, landscape, and heroes."

Performers included Kathryn Tickell, Donald McBride and Zita Frith.
Music from Smetana, Tallis, Mendelssohn, Grieg, Per Nørgård, Purcell, Brendan Murphy and traditional sources.
Texts form Swinburne, Wordsworth, Kirkup, Bunting and Bewick.

Programme available here to UK listeners until Sunday 14th November 2010.

“In these rounds I had the opportunity of seeing the kindness and hospitality of the People – the countenances of all, both high & low, beamed with chearfulness, and this was heightened every where, by the music of old Tunes from the well-known exhilarating wild notes of the Northumberland pipes amidst the buz occasioned by various foulploughs.”

Memoir, Chapter 6.

Bewick in Ithaca

2010-11-08T12:23:00.000Z

End Grain: A History of Wood Engraving
Exhibition at Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University.
Thomas Bewick's wood engraving is the starting point for this historical survey from the eighteenth century to the present day.
Details on the museum website here.
A review article by the Cornell Daily Sun here.

The exhibition runs from November 6 2010–January 9 2011.

Illustrated: Winslow Homer, American, 1836–1910, Snap-the-Whip, 1873, Wood engraving on newsprint .

Bewick's Pipe Tunes

2010-10-13T15:36:00.001+01:00

Just published
Bewick's Pipe Tunes: A collection of tunes for Northumbrian smallpipes and other melody instruments. Selected from the manuscripts of Robert Bewick, Gateshead. Selected and edited by Matt Seattle.
£7 + £1.50 p+p (UK) from the Northumbrian Pipers' Society, Julia Say, Lynemouth, Morpeth, Northumberland, NE61 5XQ

Send an email to Secretary@northumbrianpipers.org.uk
Further details here.

Last Chance to See Tale-pieces in Preston.

2010-10-12T14:44:00.000+01:00

"Thomas Bewick: Tale-pieces" ends 16th October at the Harris Museum and Art Gallery in Preston.
Full details here.

Varieties of Oxen by George Garrard.

2010-10-04T13:07:00.000+01:00

Newcastle University Special Collections Treasure of the Month - October 2010

A Description of the different Varieties of Oxen, common in the British Isles; Embellished with Engravings; being an accompaniment To a Set of Models of the Improved Breeds of Cattle, executed by George Garrard, Upon an exact Scale from Nature, Under the patronage of the Board of Agriculture
(London: J. Smeeton, 1800)

Read all about George Garrard's volume here.

“I objected to put lumps of fat here and there where I could not see it, at least not in so exaggerated a way as on the painting before me … Many of the animals were, during this rage for fat cattle, fed up to as great a weight and bulk as it was possible for feeding to make them; but this was not enough; they were to be figured monstrously fat before the owners of them could be pleased”.
Bewick, T. A Memoir of Thomas Bewick
(Newcastle-on-Tyne: Printed by Robert Ward; London: Longman, Green, Longman and Roberts, 1862), p.184.

Illustration: A Fat Teeswater Ox.

Romantic Moderns

2010-09-28T23:15:00.000+01:00

Guardian reviewer Kathryn Hughes recently enthused over the new book by Alexandra Harris, "Romantic Moderns: English Writers, Artists and the Imagination from Virginia Woolf to John Piper".
"It would be impossible to over-emphasise what a clever book Romantic Moderns is." The Guardian, Saturday 25 September 2010.

According to Hughes the book deals with a particular form of English twentieth century culture:
"For while high modernism hung out in smoky jazz bars, romantic modernism tended to pile on the jumpers and sit round the kitchen table, scoffing a delicious stew composed of ingredients foraged from the hedgerows. When it took to the roads it did so with a well-thumbed Victorian gazetteer in the glove compartment or perhaps an edition of Gilbert White's Selborne or Thomas Bewick's British Birds."

The book has been nominated for the Guardian First Book Award.

Read the review here.
Full details of the book here.
Alexandra Harris's website has some extracts available.

The Chairman’s Report 2009-2010

2010-09-28T00:01:00.000+01:00

The Bewick Society’s 22nd Annual General Meeting
Saturday 25th September 2010
The Chairman’s Report 2009-2010

Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen, again, it is my pleasure to report on the activities of the Bewick Society. It has been a busy year, with a full range of activities, some events now customary others more experimental, as well as less visible work on important projects.

The most ambitious event, organised in partnership with the University of Newcastle, was a conference entitled ‘Illustrating Fables: Bewick and Beyond’ on Friday 26^th February. Stimulating contributions from an international panel of lecturers — Brian Alderson, Graham Williams, Andrea Immel, John Vernon Lord, and our own Peter Osborne and Peter Quinn — were interwoven with much discussion on a neglected area of study. It is intended that publication will follow. The Society is particularly indebted to Peter Osborne, of our Committee, and to Dr Matthew Grenby, of the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics, Newcastle University, who together shaped and delivered a very worthwhile day.

Our popular Bewick Enthusiasms meetings are a forum for unusual snippets of Bewickiana and also a proving ground for developing ideas. The latter was the case with Anne French’s lecture on 1st April; but she was not fooling when she included Lapland in her fascinating study of ‘Thomas Bewick, Lapland and the Grand Tour ’. Bewick’s own contribution, the copperplate illustrations to Matthew Consett’s T our through Sweden, Swedish Lapland Finland and Denmark (1789) made their first appearance before the Society as a ten-minute Enthusiasm almost a decade ago.

The Bewick Enthusiasms meeting itself, held on 24th April, produced a crop of surprises including Peter Osborne’s sampling of an untapped source of Bewick material in local newspapers, and his linking of Bewick with Vincent Van Gogh. June Holmes discussed Bewick’s influence on the Italian naturalist Paolo Savi. As before we hope that some subjects will lend themselves to fuller study.

The summer outing, again organised and led by David Gardner-Medwin, traced the (footsteps of Thomas Bewick to north Yorkshire where, at Wycliffe Hall, for two .months in 1791 he recorded bird specimens in the collection of the then late •Marmaduke Tunstall (1743-90) — for whom, two years earlier, Bewick had engraved The Chillingham Bull. The results of his visit contributed to the production of his History of British Birds (1797and 1804) which many regard as the highpoint of Bewick’s combined career as engraver, artist and author.

Thomas Bewick’s 257th Birthday was celebrated at Cherryburn on 15th August with the usual ‘Conversation’ including contributions from David Gray on Thornton’s Family Herbal, 1810, with illustrations by ‘Bewick’, (in reality by the apprentices Isaac Nicholson, John Bewick [nephew] and Edward Willis, supervised by TB); from David Gardner-Medwin on documents relating to Bewick forbears around Kirkheaton; and from Peter Quinn on possible links between Bewick’s work and Dutch genre painting. Lots of visitors joined the conversation, and helped with the cake afterwards.

We have had a share of sadder moments, too. Dilys Harding, who died of cancer on 16th April, served a full term as our highly efficient and delightful Secretary. She also provided a vital link with the City Library and the riches of the Pease Collection, hosting committee meetings and full society events including a memorable evening combining Bewick’s musical connections with actual music from members of the Avison Society. The success of the rebuilt City Library (opened last November), especially in the new display and arrangement of the Bewick material in the Pease Collection, owes much to Dilys’s planning just prior to her retirement.

We are fortunate that the link with the Library has been kept by recruiting to the Committee, Dilys’s friend and successor as Head of Heritage, Kath Cassidy. And,when our excellent Meetings Secretary, Felicity Stimpson, moved with her husband, (the recently retired Professor of French at Newcastle University) to the south coast, Kath agreed to take over her responsibility, too. Through Kath’s help, the Library has accommodated many of our Committee meetings and indeed last year’s Annual General Meeting — in the new Bewick Hall, of course!

In passing on the Chairmanship of the Society after a second term, as the Constitution requires, I wish to conclude my report with a tribute to the members of your Committee. I am acutely aware that business on other fronts in recent years, has made me more of a titular head than I would have wished. The reason that this has not been, I hope, too obvious is because of the dedication and hard work of my colleagues on the Committee. I have been extremely lucky to have had such an excellent team. Much of what they do is not in the limelight yet it is vital to the Society’s progress.

David Gardner-Medwin and Peter Osborne have done so much for the Society in various ways that it is difficult to particularise; but one lesser-known project with which both have involved is towards the establishment of a database of Bewick’s vignettes. The potential for such a resource is great and we will be hearing more soon.

The Society’s publications have been crucial to its development. Cherryburn Times, under its editor David Gray, has set a standard of scholarship and presentation which continues to attract a wide range of writers to a natural haven for the safe landing of their Bewick research. Taken together the editions form a mighty resource; and we are discussing whether selective re-publication might be a future aim.

Just as important has been the Members Newsletter, invented and produced by June Holmes, our Membership Secretary, who keeps a growing membership in touch in the most dedicated and friendly way. Her efforts have resulted in gifts, information, visits, and a closer network of admirers of Bewick - now across several continents.

Our growing membership gives us a healthy bank balance. Our Treasurer, Peter Quinn, has been masterly in managing subscriptions and stewarding funding. The Society has managed from what is still a modest annual subscription to cover its printing and administrative costs, to provide publicity materials, to pay for venues and events expenses, and still have a surplus which can be allocated to supporting publications (We are still looking forward to the publication of Nigel Tattersfield’s study of The Illustrated Work 0f Thomas Bewick) or acquisitions or even minor building works.

One of the stated aims of the Society is ‘to support the National Trust in the care of Bewick’s birthplace at Cherryburn’. I believe the Society has a constructive and supportive relationship with Cherryburn, and I know that a good measure of that is owing to Stewart Thirkell, of both the National Trust and your Committee.

I wish my successor good luck in taking on the new responsibilities. If the support from the Committee is even half as good as it has been for me — and I am sure it will be - the Chairman will be fortunate indeed. I thank the members for their continued support. I believe I am right in reporting that the Bewick Society is in good heart, confident of achievements, yet always looking to improve the fulfilment of its purpose: the promotion of understanding of Thomas Bewick’s extraordinary achievements and influence. As I have had the honour of saying on other occasions, that, with your help, is what we will continue to do. Thank you all very much.

Hugh Dixon, September 2010

Heritage Open Days

2010-09-09T22:37:00.000+01:00

Thursday 9th - Sunday 12th September

As part of Tyne and Wear Heritage Open Days 2010, from Thursday 9th to Sunday 12th September, you can visit and take part in over 200 buildings and activities – all for free!

Details on their website, click here.

Highlights with some connection to the life and times of Thomas Bewick include Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne, Natural History Society of Northumbria (Friday 10/09/2010 1000-1600 just turn up), Parish Church of St Andrew, Tableaux in an 18th Century Town House.

"In Gateshead interesting events such as: a quiz on ‘How Well Do You Know Gateshead?’, a walk around ‘Addison, Hedgefield and Stella’ and a talk on ‘How to Fix a Bridge in Four Minutes’ are taking place, along with buildings such as: The Banqueting House at Gibside, Winlaton Forge and HMS Calliope all opening their doors.

In Newcastle buildings such as: Jesmond Dene Real Tennis Club, St George’s Church in Jesmond and 733 Squadron Air Cadets at Kingston Park will be open, as well as events such as: ‘Children at War! in the City Library, a ‘Greasepaint and Celluloid’ walk around Newcastle and a ‘Tunnels, Tall Tales and a Toffee Factory’ walk in the Ouseburn taking place."

Download their brochure and check their website for updates and ammendments.

Bookplates in Delaware

2010-09-08T17:09:00.001+01:00

From UDaily the website of the University of Delaware.

"The University of Delaware Library announces the availability of a new digital collection, the William Augustus Brewer Bookplate Collection. An enlarged version of each bookplate, as well as the Rev. Brewer's handwritten notes and catalog numbers, can be viewed by clicking on “Detailed View” below the image for each bookplate.
... The collection is available online.
Brewer was an avid bookplate collector. His wife, Augusta LaMotte Brewer, bequeathed his collection to the University of Delaware Library after her husband's death.
The William Augustus Brewer Bookplate Collection comprises 12,680 printed bookplates dating mainly from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.
The collection includes bookplates from the libraries of John Carter Brown, Lewis Carroll, Samuel L. Clemens, Calvin Coolidge, Charles Dickens, Walt Disney, Edward Gibbon, Alexander Hamilton, Harry Houdini, Samuel Pepys, Howard Pyle, Paul Revere, Eleanor Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Alfred Stieglitz and William Butler Yeats, as well as many others.

The designers of the bookplates include, such well-known artists as Thomas Bewick, Edward Burne-Jones, Kate Greenaway, William Hogarth, Howard Pyle, Rudolf Ruzicka and James A. M. Whistler."

Click here to read the full article.

There appear to be 28 examples attributed to Thomas Bewick in the collection.

Reprint in the USA

2010-08-26T23:22:00.000+01:00

"The Private Library" blog recently enthused over Bewick's vignettes.

"Of course, many other artists have created vignettes for books, but few have captured as well as Bewick the human condition in such a small space. Because original copies of Bewick's Quadrupeds and British Birds are quite expensive in anything approaching Fine condition, most book collectors will likely have to settle for a reprint (such as that depicted ...). "

You can find the full text here.

The reprint they have in mind is from the University of Chicago Press.

"A General History of Quadrupeds, The Figures Engraved on Wood With a Foreword by Yann Martel" published in June 2009.

Full details here.

Ayant ainsi Be[r]wick sur mes genoux

2010-08-05T20:59:00.000+01:00

Jane Eyre in French.

Found on the "Portraits de Lecteurs" blog.

Ayant ainsi Be[r]wick sur mes genoux, j'étais heureuse, du moins heureuse à ma manière ; je ne craignais qu'une interruption, et elle ne tarda pas à arriver. La porte de la salle à manger fut vivement ouverte.

Charlotte Brönte, Jane Eyre, Chap. I, trad. de Mme Lesbazeilles Souvestre, édition Ebook libres et gratuits .
Texte en anglais ici ou ici.
The Blog points out in a discrete note that it should read "Thomas Bewick (et non Berwick)."

" A History of British Birds, vol. II, History and Description of Water Birds, Memorial Edition, London, 1885, que l'on peut feuilleter ici."

Lasting Impressions

2010-07-28T10:14:00.000+01:00

Lasting Impressions by Colin See-Paynton, Shandy Hall Gallery, Coxwold, until August 21

From "The Press":

"Lasting Impressions, a selection of wood engravings by Colin See-Paynton, will be on show at Shandy Hall Gallery, Coxwold, until August 21. The exhibition ties in with the publication of his latest book, Of A Feather, in a limited edition of only 750, with copies signed by the artist for sale at £195 at the gallery. Widely regarded as the leading exponent of wood engraving in Britain, See-Paynton is a Fellow of the Royal Cambrian Academy, Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers and a member of the Society of Wood Engravers." Article by Charles Hutchinson, found here.

"David Alston, arts director of Arts Council Wales, is equally fulsome in his praise. “An Admiration… that should be the collective noun for gallery visitors to the Of A Feather exhibition, for this has been an extraordinary enterprise,” he says.
“The work has drawn on many years of patient and exultant observation, the accumulation of knowledge that allows the imagination to be accurate in the mind’s eye. “Not since Thomas Bewick (1753-1828) have both literary and pictorial aspects been found conjoined in the one talent as in this project, where Colin See-Paynton has both written about and made the plates for an illustrated lexicon of the collective nouns for birds.”"

You can read more about the gallery, the exhibition and Shandy Hall here.

Coxwold is 4 miles off the A19 between York & Thirsk. Near to Kilburn, the White Horse, and 8 miles from Helmsley.

The Bindman Talks 2010 at Dove Cottage

2010-07-15T09:27:00.002+01:00

At the Wordsworth Trust, Dove Cottage: the Bindman Talks 2010

Professor Ian Rogerson, "Thomas Bewick and his influence on visual communication."Saturday 7 August, 4.30pm

"Professor Ian Rogerson is former Librarian of Manchester Metropolitan University, and is currently Research Fellow at the John Rylands Institute. He has written extensively on wood engraving. He will look at how Thomas Bewick and his pupils influenced nineteenth-century illustration, and how Bewick's 'white-line' largely inspired the twentieth-century wood engraving revival."

The Bindman Talks provide a general introduction to some of the authors and works in the Wordsworth Trust's collection. Other talks in the series are listed here.

"The sixth Bindman series of talks has a special focus on the Lake District as seen through the eyes of its early visitors and artists, and the impact that man had on the area in the nineteenth century. There will also be informal introductory sessions for those new to Romanticism, and a special evening event in Dove Cottage for families."

The Bindman Talks are free but do require booking as places are limited. Click here for details on the Dove Cottage website.
To reserve a place, please complete the Dove Cottage Contact Form indicating which talk you wish to attend, or telephone: 015394 35544.

Dove Cottage, the Wordsworth Museum and Art Gallery is located on the A591, the main Kendal - Keswick road through the central Lake District.

Perception

2010-07-14T17:29:00.000+01:00

An interesting study has been published online in the journal "Perception."
Entitled "Does left – right orientation matter in the perceived expressiveness of pictures? A study of Bewick’s animals (1753 – 1828)" researchers used images from Bewick's Quadrupeds to test the assertion, shared by Bewick himself, that the orientation of an image makes a difference to the way in which it is perceived.

You can find the Abstract and links to the full text by clicking here.
To read the full text you need a subscription, as detailed here.

The researchers: Kate M Bennett, Richard Latto, Marco Bertamini, Ivana Bianchi, Sarah Minshull.

The paper was received 27 November 2009, in revised form 25 April 2010; published online 28 June 2010

Abstract. Strong claims have been made about the importance of orientation in visual art. Although there have been a few studies whether left or right oriented pictures are more aesthetically pleasing, there have been no empirical studies whether the meaning and expressiveness of pictures depend on orientation. Thomas Bewick (1753 – 1828) made explicit decisions about whether the main protagonist in his pictures should face left or right and did so to express particular meaning. In three experiments we examined whether orientation changes the expressiveness of an image. In experiment 1 participants viewed eight of Bewick’s animal wood engravings facing either in their original orientation or reversed, in a between-subjects design. They rated each print on ten characteristics, for example: docile – wild, clumsy – agile, and weak – strong. The original received more extreme ratings, across characteristics, than the reversal. Experiment 2 confirmed this result with participants from Italy. In experiment 3, using a within-subjects design, participants viewed ten wood engravings of dogs and rated them on characteristics specifically identified by Bewick. Again, the ratings of the original orientation were more extreme. Thus, in agreement with Bewick, we conclude that orientation affects expressiveness.

Bewick in Preston.

2010-07-12T14:28:00.002+01:00

Last year's popular exhibition Thomas Bewick: Tale-pieces organised by the Ikon Gallery is on tour.
You can see it at the Harris Museum & Art Gallery from 10 July – 16 October 2010.
More details available on their website.
www.harrismuseum.org.uk

"Dare to be free"

2010-07-10T19:46:00.001+01:00

You can read an account of the recent unveiling of the Thomas Spence plaque on the blog "Listen Up North".

"A man who was prepared to go to prison for his principles of grass roots freedom, community and democracy for the human rights of men and women all over the world. It was Spence who coined the phrase ‘The Rights of Man’ and chalked it on a cave wall at Marsden Grotto. Thank goodness for another free spirit, poet Keith Armstrong, and his friends who formed the Thomas Spence Trust and campaigned for Spence’s recognition thereby ensuring that this man’s great endeavours were not forgotten."

The blog, written by Northumberland-based writer Rachel Cochrane, can be found by clicking here.

Thomas Bewick and A Shropshire Squire

2010-06-24T19:42:00.001+01:00

In his Memoir, Thomas Bewick complimented the efforts of the ‘gentleman amateurs’ from Shropshire, namely John Freeman Milward Dovaston (1782-1854) and John Clavering Wood. Much is known about Dovaston, but J.C. Wood has largely remained a mystery – up until now.

The publication in June 2010 of A Shropshire Squire: Letters & Diary (1812-1825) of John Clavering Wood, Esquire, Marche Hall near Shrewsbury, not only offers a useful snapshot of the broad interests of a country gentleman of the period, but includes Thomas Bewick’s letter of 6 June 1825 to Wood, as well as Dovaston’s transcription of Bewick’s letter of 18 November 1823.

The book also succeeds in identifying a mystery profile silhouette which was ordered by Dovaston. The silhouette proved to be of Squire Wood.

Wood’s diary, covering 1819-1823, reveals the owner of the 350-acre Marche estate as a man with a strong curiosity about the natural world, as well as having an enthusiasm for ornithology, European travel, tree-planting, experimenting with horticultural techniques and cider-making, solving family legal problems, investing in locally-mined feldspar for use in china-making, and keeping bookshelves well stocked with volumes on natural history, philosophy and poetry.

The 200-page A Shropshire Squire includes illustrations, biographical notes, endnotes and a detailed index. It is available from Booka Bookshop, Oswestry ( or phone: 01691 662 244) and from the Shropshire Family History Society . Cost £9.99 + p&p.
For more information, visit www.ggbooks.wordpress.com.

NEW BOOK: A Shropshire Squire: Letters & Diary (1812-1825) of John Clavering Wood, Esquire, Marche Hall near Shrewsbury. Edited by Gerard Benjamin & Gloria Grant. Published by Gerard Benjamin, Brisbane, 2010.

Contemporary Book Art

2010-06-13T13:32:00.002+01:00

Gallery North, Artists' Book Fair, 26th June 2010 from 11am - 5pm.

Gallery North presents national and international Artist's Book Makers to the region to sell and promote their work directly to the public. An accompanying series of drop in workshops and demonstrations will take place on the day.

12 - 1.30pm 24 Minute Comic with Illustrator & Comic Artist Leonie O'Moore
2pm - 4pm Print your own Artist's Book with established Community Artist Kay Henderson.
All places are free, but must be booked. Contact theresa.easton@northumbria.ac.uk.
Image: Building Blocks Book, Sumi Perera.
See Gallery North Website

THE THOMAS SPENCE MINI-FEST 2010

2010-06-01T17:52:00.000+01:00

Thomas Spence, philosopher friend of Thomas Bewick, is to be honoured with a plaque at Broad Garth on the Quayside, Newcastle. The site chosen is close to the spot where Bewick and Spence famously came to blows.
This important event is to be marked by a "Mini-fest"organised by the Thomas Spence Trust.

EVENTS PROGRAMME

MONDAY 21ST JUNE 2010

2.30pm. Broad Garth, Quayside. The unveiling of the Thomas Spence plaque at Broad Garth, Quayside, Newcastle, by the Lord Mayor of Newcastle, with a short speech by Dr Keith Armstrong, Chair of The Thomas Spence Trust, and Armstrong’s ‘Folk Song for Thomas Spence’ performed by Gary Miller, singer-songwriter of North East band ‘The Whisky Priests’.
2.45pm. Informal reception with talks, readings from Spence and poems and songs in his honour in the Red House, Sandhill, Quayside.
(Anyone not already invited to the unveiling and the reception and wishing to attend should contact Dr Keith Armstrong on 0191 2529531).

7pm Literary & Philosophical Society Library, Westgate Road, Newcastle. The Workers’ Educational Association and The Thomas Spence Trust present short talks on Spence by Professors Joan Beal (University of Sheffield), Malcom Chase (University of Leeds) and Alastair Bonnett (University of Newcastle), with readings from Spence by Dr Keith Armstrong.
(ADMISSION FREE).

TUESDAY 22ND JUNE 12.30PM

Marsden Grotto, Coast Road, South Shields. A TOAST FOR TOM. Drinks, poems and songs in Spence’s honour at the Grotto where Spence visited ‘Blaster Jack’ and first coined the phrase ‘The Rights of Man’ by chalking on a cave wall.
(ALL WELCOME).

MONDAY 28TH JUNE 2-3PM.

MEETING ROOM 7, 6TH FLOOR , NEWCASTLE CITY LIBRARY.
THE HIVE OF LIBERTY: The Life and Work of Thomas Spence.
Talk by Dr Keith Armstrong, Chair of The Thomas Spence Trust.
THERE WILL ALSO BE A DISPLAY OF SPENCE’S WORKS ON THE 6TH FLOOR OF THE LIBRARY, RUNNING FROM MONDAY 21ST jUNE TO MONDAY 5TH JULY.

FURTHER EVENTS, LATER IN 2010, INCLUDE THE NEWCASTLE LAUNCH OF THE RE-PRINT OF PROFESSOR MALCOLM CHASE’S ‘THE PEOPLE’S FARM’.

Further information from: Dr Keith Armstrong, The Thomas Spence Trust, 93 Woodburn Square, Whitley Lodge, Whitley Bay, Tyne & Wear NE26 3JD. Tel. 0191 2529531.
or click here to visit the Thomas Spence Trust's website.

Illustration: frontispiece, attributed to Thomas Bewick from " A SUPPLEMENT TO THE HISTORY OF ROBINSON CRUSOE, BEING THE HISTORY OF CRUSONIA" by Thomas Spence, 1782

Bewick in Delaware

2010-05-18T09:26:00.001+01:00

Works by Thomas Bewick feature in the exhibition The Pastoral Vision—British Prints, 1800 – Present.

"The Pastoral Vision—British Prints, 1800 – Present, featuring more than 20 lithographs, etchings, and woodcuts, on view May 15, 2010 – August 15, 2010. This exhibition explores British printmaking from the 19th century to the present, focusing on landscapes by artists such as James McNeil Whistler, Edward Lear, and Rachel Whiteread. Drawn entirely from the Museum’s permanent collection, with many pieces rarely on view, the selection will provide insights into the changing nature of prints and Britain’s pastoral beauty.

At the end of the 18th century, British land was celebrated for its agricultural production. Thomas Bewick and others recorded the flora and fauna that fostered this natural wealth. In the early 1800s, the followers of the Romantic poet and artist William Blake construed instead the biblical associations of the landscape—the “constant realization of Heaven on earth,” as Edward Calvert’s work was described."

The Delaware Art Museum is at 2301 Kentmere Parkway, Wilmington, DE 19806.
It is open Wednesday to Saturday 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. and Sunday noon – 4:00 p.m.

More details here Delaware Art Museum website.

Illustration above: Old Westminster Bridge, 1859
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)
Etching on paper, 3 x 8 inches
Gift of Dr. Charles Lee Reese, 1940

A History of British Birds

2010-05-13T10:43:00.002+01:00

A History of British Birds is back in print. The Folio Society has published a two volume edition based on the 1848 edition.

From the Folio Society Website:

"This edition is quarter-bound in blue leather with traditional raised bands on the spine and hand-marbled paper sides, modelled after fine 18th-century bindings. The type has been reset using the 1826 edition which was the final edition printed during Bewick’s lifetime and revised by him in person."

"Reproducing the engravings called for a highly skilled and technical approach. The Folio Society consulted Iain Bain, printing historian and expert on Bewick, who recommended using the 1848 edition which he considers the best edition ever printed from the original wood blocks. Each engraving was scanned by a specialist art reprographer. Normally engravings are printed black only, but because of the tonal range of Bewick’s images, the illustrations in this edition have been printed in duotone to allow the full range of detail and shading to be seen. We believe that this is the finest reproduction yet produced."

You can read more about the edition on the Folio Society Website, click here.

Bewick's Mambo in Kansas

2010-04-30T18:42:00.006+01:00

Another prize for Bewick's Mambo (see below).

Bewicks Mambo [extract] from no on Vimeo.

The short film by Peter Snowdon has one the CinemaJAZZ award for best short film with a jazz connection at the Kansas City Film Festival.
Details here.

Culture Shock

2010-04-29T10:38:00.006+01:00

Joan Lambert has recorded a video for the Culture Shock website in which she relates her enthusiasm for the work of Thomas Bewick.

"Discovering Bewick.
Video Duration: 3:43 minutes
Summary
Joan's life long love of books leads her to a close up encounter with the woodcuts of Thomas Bewick. By Joan Lambert
This story was inspired by the Thomas Bewick collections at the Laing Art Gallery."

Click here to go to the Culture Shock site.

Bewick's Mambo

2010-04-27T17:13:00.010+01:00

Bewick's Mambo is the title of a short film by Peter Snowdon of Gourna Films. Made over four nights in 2008, the action is set in the Lit and Phil library with Bewick's bust and his engravings playing a central role.

The film won a prize last year as "Best short fiction on an ecological theme, Malescorto International Short Film Festival, Italy, 2009."

You can read an account by the filmmaker on their website by clicking here.
You can watch the opening of the film here.
There is also a behind-the-scenes photo gallery.
Bewick's Mambo, 2008, 9 minutes, Super 16/Digibeta, 1:185, Dolby SR.
A Gourna Films production in association with the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle Upon Tyne. Written, produced and directed by Peter Snowdon.
Late one night, Adam and Eve are alone in the library, when suddenly, the plants and animals pictured in the books around them start to come alive…Starring Scali Delpeyrat, Lou Wenzel and James Harris.

David Gentleman

2010-04-21T04:51:00.005+01:00

The artist David Gentleman has an exhibtion currently in London. He featured in a Guardian profile published on Saturday 17th April.

Gentleman was influenced by the art of Thomas Bewick in the early part of his career.

"Gentleman's father, a Scotsman, had started out as a painter before heading to Hertford in 1930, the year of David's birth, to work on publicity for corporate clients such as Shell. As a result, international modernism – clean planes, collage and the like – was in the family's visual vocabulary; but so was the singularly insular modernism of Edward Bawden and his circle, splicing those post-Cubist spaces with evocations of quirky, folksy Englishness.

At the outset of his career, Gentleman leaned the latter way, towards nostalgia. The imperishable rural vignettes of Thomas Bewick prompted a highly personal love affair with wood engraving which was nurtured by John Nash when he entered the Royal College of Art in 1950; but, Gentleman recalls, "nobody else was doing it. My fellow students all thought of it as a hangover from the 30s" – the heyday, that is, of another of his artistic heroes, Eric Ravilious."

You can read the full text of the article here.
David Gentleman's paintings are on show at Fine Arts Society, London, until 24 April 2010.
There is also a new edition of George Ewart Evans's Ask the Fellows Who Cut the Hay, which was originally published in 1956 (272pp, Full Circle Editions). For more information click here.

Website Updates

2010-03-31T16:59:00.003+01:00

There have been a number of recent updates to the main Bewick Society Website.
The front page news story has changed.
The Library Checklist has been revised.
The Diary is now up to date.
Our Newsletter can be downloaded as a PDF.
Recent copies of the Cherryburn Times are now available online. The digital archive of the Cherryburn Times now covers 1999 - present.
Click here to visit the site.

Exhibition in Newcastle

2010-03-30T16:41:00.008+01:00

Image: Evan Rees, wood engraved bookplate by Andy English.

Twentieth century prints and contemporary wood engraving are on show currently at Northern Print.
See their website for details.

"With Pleasure presents works from two private collections including original prints by many of the greatest printmaking names of the last century including: Eric Ravilious, Eric Gill, David Jones, Lynton Lamb, Graham Sutherland, Eileen Agar, John Nash, Elizabeth Frink, Valerie Thornton, Anthony Gross, John Piper, David Hockney, Terry Frost as well as a newly published work by Joe Tilson."
Accompanying the show is a selection of recent bookplates by members of the Society of Wood Engravers.

"...Chris Daunt has brought together a collection of contemporary bookplates by seven members of the Society of Wood Engravers; Simon Brett, Chris Daunt, Andy English, John Lawrence, Hilary Paynter and Richard Shirley Smith. The bookplates were made to commission for private individuals as a way of marking the books in their collections and are part of a long tradition where the plates would often bear the words, ‘Ex Libris’."

These exhibitions will be on show until 17 April.

Northern Print’s gallery is open Wednesday to Saturday from 12 to 4.

Northern Print, Stepney Bank, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 2NP. Free entry

From the Newsletter

2010-03-27T10:23:00.008Z

Members of the society will soon recieve a paper copy of the Spring Newsletter. Among the articles is this report on the recent conference Illustrating Fables – Bewick and Beyond
Friday 26 February 2010 – A Review by Peter Osborne

"This was an enjoyable day with a good attendance, well provided with tea, coffee and sandwiches as well as no less than six talks and a panel discussion. It was jointly chaired by David Gardner-Medwin for the Society and Matthew Grenby for the University. Brian Alderson’s broad introduction was followed by Peter Quinn’s entertaining and informative talk on Bewick’s early fables work. Graham Williams and Peter Osborne spoke about his Aesop, Professor Andrea Immel extolled the liveliness of fable texts and John Lord gave an interesting talk about his own fable illustrations.
The day significantly raised the profile of Bewick’s Fables, showing, for his admirers, his continued development as an expressive artist, and, for others, something of his thought and intensity as an artist. He emerged as a watershed in fables illustration, looking back in his use of several old motifs, but looking forward in his early realism, the entanglement of himself in his work, his sharp juxtaposition of fables with socio-political concerns, and his shift towards expressive style. His strong editorial control of Aesop was clearly shown.
After this event Bewick’s reputation stands higher, and especially his work on fables."

Forthcoming Bewick Society events include a lecture, an enthusiasms afternoon, a walk and birthday celebrations. All details are online here.

Bewick in Tennessee

2010-03-23T13:11:00.004Z

Wood engravings by Thomas Bewick have been on show at the Todd Art Gallery of the Middle Tennessee State University.

You can read an interview with the curator Christie Nuell here.
The article "Not just for the faint of ‘art’ Warhol and others leave impression in Todd Art Gallery" by Quinton Parker highlights Bewick's work.

"The only collector Nuell contacted outside of the Middle Tennessee region was Bill Hesterberg, who lives in Chicago. Hesterberg provided several original wood engravings by famed wood engraver and ornithologist Thomas Bewick.

“Bill owns a small press in his basement,” Nuell says. “He’s an avid Thomas Bewick collector, and it was incredibly gracious of him to send us these engravings.”

In addition to the Bewick engravings and the Rembrandt and Warhol prints, gallery-goers can also view remarkable works by famed artists such as Manet and Renoir. "
The exhibition ended March 4th.
Opening times and directions to the gallery in Murfreesboro, Tennessee can be found on its website, click here.

Thomas Bewick: The Blocks Revisited & Rediscovered

2010-02-12T19:22:00.006Z

The Blocks Revisited & Rediscovered documents the fascinating story of Thomas Bewick's personal blocks and their historic journey to Chicago in 1942. Many of these blocks found new homes quickly in the Midwest and across America, while others became well-travelled eventually making their way back to England. The whereabouts of these blocks and their movements over the years have raised questions and a desire to document them for their safe keeping. It is hoped this five year investigation will begin to provide answers, as over 700 of the 1,350 blocks that came to Chicago are documented here in 35 collections.
A numbered edition of ninety copies was bound by Campbell-Logan Bindery, Minneapolis, in a dark green cloth with contrasting green end papers. The spine was gold stamped and the front cover features an inset of a vignette printed from one of the Bewick's blocks at the press.
This information comes from the Oak Knoll Press website. Click here for more details and the opportunity to purchase the book.

A Bewick Bestiary

2010-02-05T22:44:00.002Z

A Bewick Bestiary by James Kirkup (1918-2009) has been re-printed by Red Squirrel Press.

"James Kirkup (1918 - 2009) was a prolific poet and translator. His work includes several dozen poetry collections, six volumes of autobiography and over a hundred monographs of original work and translations. He was a skilled writer of haiku and tanka. Red Squirrel are delighted to bring his Bewick Bestiary back into print.

Originally published in 1971 by the Mid Northumberland Arts Group, Ashington, the book brings together original poems by James Kirkup and animal woodcuts by Thomas Bewick."

You can read two poems and order a copy of the book from the publisher's website here.

Illustrating Fables: Bewick and Beyond.

2010-02-02T08:43:00.006Z

Friday 26 February 2010

ILLUSTRATING FABLES: BEWICK AND BEYOND

A joint conference with the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics at Newcastle University

A day-long conference to explore the illustration of fables, with particular focus on the work of Thomas Bewick.
The speakers will include Brian Alderson (Visiting Fellow, Newcastle University), Andrea Immel (Princeton University), John Vernon Lord (Illustrator and Lecturer), Peter Osborne (Bewick Society), Peter Quinn (Bewick Society) and Graham Williams (sculptor and engraver).

Venue: The Clore Learning Suite, Great North Museum: Hancock, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4PT.
Date and time: Friday 26 February 10am - 5pm
Cost: The conference fee will be £10 inclusive of lunch and refreshments.
Contact: For more information email Dr. Matthew Grenby m.o.grenby@newcastle.ac.uk.
or contact him at the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU. Phone no. 0191 222 6182.

Payments are to be made through the University of Newcastle. There will also be on-line booking here.

Forthcoming Attractions

2010-01-09T17:45:00.009Z

Programme of Events for Spring 2010

Friday 26 February 2010

ILLUSTRATING FABLES: BEWICK AND BEYOND

A joint conference with the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics at Newcastle University

A day-long conference to explore the illustration of fables, with particular focus on the work of Thomas Bewick.
The speakers will include Brian Alderson (Visiting Fellow, Newcastle University), Andrea Immel (Princeton University), John Vernon Lord (Illustrator and Lecturer), Peter Osborne (Bewick Society) and Peter Quinn (Bewick Society).

Venue: The Clore Learning Suite, Great North Museum: Hancock, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4PT.
Date and time: Friday 26 February 10am - 5pm
Cost: The conference fee will be £10 inclusive of lunch and refreshments.
Contact: For more information email Dr. Matthew Grenby m.o.grenby@newcastle.ac.uk.
or contact him at the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU. Phone no. 0191 222 6182.

Payments are to be made through the University of Newcastle. There will also be on-line booking here.

Thursday 1 April 2010

THOMAS BEWICK, LAPLAND AND THE GRAND TOUR

Local art historian, Anne French, will introduce us to the world of the affluent northern families who set off on their grand tour adventures. Notably, Sir Henry Liddell of Ravensworth Castle and Captain Matthew Consett whose tour through Sweden and Lapland caused a great stir in Gateshead when they eventually returned with their ‘art’ treasures. Consett’s subsequent travelogue A Tour through Sweden [etc] (1789) was illustrated with copperplate engravings by Bewick.
Copies of Anne’s latest book Art Treasures in the North: Northern Families on the Grand Tour will be available for sale on the evening.

Venue: The Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle, 23, Westgate Road, Newcastle upon Tyne.
Date and time: Thursday 1 April 2010 at 6pm
Contact: June Holmes: The Bewick Society, c/o The Natural History Society of Northumbria, The Great North Museum: Hancock, Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 4PT. Tel no. 0191 232 6386 or e-mail nhsn@ncl.ac.uk (FAO June Holmes).

Saturday 24 April 2010

A BEWICK ENTHUSIASMS AFTERNOON AT THE HANCOCK

Bewick Enthusiasms will be an afternoon of brief talks by speakers with enthusiasms for particular aspects of Bewick’s life and work or that of his associates. This event has proved very popular in the past so please do come along. Let us know if you would like to contribute a five minute lecture on something you find fascinating about Bewick.

Venue: The Natural History Society of Northumbria Council Room, Great North Museum: Hancock, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4PT.
Date and time: Saturday 24 April at 2pm
Contact: June Holmes as above.

Other Events for your Diary in 2010 include

16 January 2010 Printmaking Workshop with Caroline Coode and Vhairi Cardinal
Venue: Print Room, Department of Fine Art, University of Newcastle.
Date and Time: Saturday 16 January 10am – 4pm
Cost: £12. For further details and to book, contact Vhairi Cardinal on 0191 2970008 or email vcar@blueyonder.co.uk

The lure of illustrated children's books

2009-12-20T16:01:00.009Z

‘The Sparrow’s Nest’ John Bewick

"Few things evoke childhood memories as powerfully as picture books. Jenny Uglow looks at favourites old and new."

Article by Jenny Uglow in Saturday's Guardian. You can read it by clicking here.
"Soon London publishers such as John Newbery were producing tiny books such as the Little Pretty-Pocket Book, the size of a child's hand. At the same time the great French fairytales were translated into English, soon followed by the exotic Arabian Nights. These, too, appeared in children's editions, often with tiny postage-stamp pictures, like early comic strips, but occasionally with fine illustrations such as the meticulous wood-engravings of Thomas and John Bewick."

Jenny Uglow by Paul Laity.

2009-12-13T18:22:00.006Z

Jenny Uglow. Photograph: Eamonn McCabe

'I like biography so much – because it's somehow easier being somebody else'

Saturday's Guardian included a double page feature on Jenny Uglow. The article makes several references to Thomas Bewick, the subject of her 2006 "Nature's Engraver"

"It is at home in Canterbury, now cluttered again with young children's toys, that she works on her books – as sharply detailed, humane and entertaining as Bewick's woodcuts."

Jenny's new book is "A Gambling Man: Charles II and the Restoration"

Paul Laity's article can be found here.

A review of "A Gambling Man" can be found here.

Details of "Nature's Engraver" can be found here.

Last Avison Lecture

2009-11-23T09:51:00.003Z

The final presentation in the series of lectures on the life and times of Avison will take place tomorrow as follows

RESTORATION OF THE WORKBOOK

Jane Colborne

24/11/2009 7pm

An illustrated presentation on the process and importance of the restoration of the Avison workbooks.

Charles Avison Building
City Library
33 New Bridge St West
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE99 1RD

No ticket required. Free entry on the door.

Venerable Bede

2009-11-10T15:31:00.004Z

Bewick beaten in vote by Bede.
BBC Newcastle and Radio 3 audiences voted the medieval monk and chronicler the Venerable Bede as the greatest Free Thinker in the history of the North East. Professor Richard Gameson of Durham University explains why he believes Bede was a natural choice.
You can listen to The Essay here.

Closing Soon

2009-10-14T21:51:00.003+01:00

Just to remind you that the acclaimed exhibition "Thomas Bewick: Tale-pieces" currently at the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle ends on Sunday 18th October.

The Bewick Society will be having an informal gathering and conversation on the exhibits in the exhibition space on Saturday 17th October from 2-4pm.

Our Chairman, Hugh Dixon and other members of the committee will be in attendance to lead the discussions. Hope to see you there.

Vote for Thomas Bewick

2009-10-09T14:48:00.004+01:00

BBC Radio Three is bringing its annual festival Free Thinking - A Festival of Ideas, to the Sage, Gateshead on 23-25 October 2009.
You can find lots of information about the weekend's events on the Radio Three website here.

They are running an online poll to find the "the Greatest North-East Free Thinker". The short list was drawn up with the help of the Literary and Philosophical Society. It includes Bede (672/673-735), Josephine Butler (1828-1906) and Ellen Wilkinson (1891-1947).

Among the free thinking luminaries is Thomas Bewick who receives this citation: "Thomas Bewick (1753-1828) - Printmaker and illustrator who revived the art of wood engraving, and whose work in the genre remains unsurpassed. His most famous work is his History of British Birds, with illustrations often based on his own watercolours."

The winning candidate will be the subject of a specially commissioned essay, to be decided on the eve of the Free Thinking weekend, and then recorded live at Free Thinking for broadcast on Radio 3 at 11.00pm on Friday October 30th.

This event will be broadcast in Radio 3's The Essay on Friday 30 October.

Click here to go to the voting page where you can cast your own vote. The vote closes at midnight on the 16th October, and the result will be announced in Night Waves on 19th October.

Lecture

2009-10-05T14:21:00.008+01:00

"Thomas Bewick and his apprentices. Luke Clennell and Robert Johnson."

Lecture delivered Monday 5th October, Newcastle Arts Centre, Westgate Road. Part of the Visions strand of the Explore Membership Scheme of the North East Centre for Lifelong Learning.

Text available online at PQ Notes and Lectures.

William Henry Toms (c1700-1756)

2009-10-01T09:40:00.002+01:00

Noticed on the bulletin of the Historic Libraries Forum

William Henry Toms (c1700-1756)

Ed Potten is interested in tracing material, archival or printed, relating to the eighteenth-century engraver William Henry Toms for an ongoing bibliography and biography. Based in London, Toms was active from the late 1720s, engraving plates for books, maps, plans, bookplates and a wealth of single-sheet views and portraits. Any information gratefully received:Ed.Potten@manchester.ac.uk.

Annual General Meeting

2009-09-25T10:28:00.008+01:00

The Bewick Society held its AGM on Thursday evening. After the formalities we visited the Bewick display on floor 6 of the City Library. We were able to leaf through some rare items from the collection including Moral Instructions of a Father to his Son..and Select Fables of the most important occasions in life, extracted from Dodsley, and others, adorned with emblematical cuts. The third edition.Newcastle: printed by and for T.Saint, 1775. [Number 2 in the Pease Bequest]

Here is the Chairman's Report.

The Bewick Society's 21st Annual General Meeting
24th September 2009
The Chairman's Report
Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is an honour to welcome you to the 21st Annual General Meeting of the Bewick Society. It is a pleasure to do so in Newcastle City Library, now transformed phoenix-like from its old self into this great new Charles Avison Building. And for us it is particularly good to be here in the new Bewick Hall! This is the kind of recognition we like for Thomas. We congratulate all concerned on the new building, and we extend thanks to the Director of Library and Information Services and the staff for making this meeting possible. In particular we are grateful to Katherine Cassidy, Senior Librarian and now Service Manager: Heritage, for suggesting that we should meet here and for making the arrangements; we look forward to her guided tour after this meeting.

It has been another busy year. Your Committee met on seven occasions and there have also been sub-committee meetings for projects which will be mentioned in a moment. Our activities have followed a familiar pattern. Following this meeting last year, David Gray spoke on Bewick's influence on French engraving; and in November Jenny Uglow united two of her interests in talking on gardening in Bewick's time. Members joined National Trust Volunteers at Cherryburn for a Christmas gathering hosted by Stewart Thirkell. In January there was a very well attended 'Enthusiasms' meeting in the novel setting of the Friends Meeting House in Jesmond. The many contributions included a memorable poetic interlude from Keith Armstrong, some thoughts on Bewick and the Brontes from Peter Osborne, and the discovery by Peter Quinn of an edition of Bewick's Memoir in Swedish! As in the past, we hope that some of these enthusiasms will be developed into wider discussion or publication.

For our summer walk we went north, and David Gardner-Medwin unravelled the background and connections of Thomas Bewick's paternal grandparents as we walked from Kirkheaton to Kirkharle. The weather was kind most of the time; spirits were not dampened even if other bits were. Success of activities relies on support of members; and yet again our Membership Secretary, June Holmes, can report an increase in membership. The growth and retention of members is the result in no small measure of June's friendly administration and her splendid Newsletter. Under the careful stewardship of our Hon. Treasurer, Peter Quinn, our healthy finances made it possible, along with normal Society expenditure, to assist with the purchase of books generously made available at half value from her collection by Society member Ada Radford. The books were allocated to the Natural History Society of Northumbria and Cherryburn. David Gray, as our Editor, has produced two editions of Cherryburn Times giving permanence to two of our excellent lectures: Peter Osborne on Ruskin's Annotations to Bewick's Birds and Peter Quinn on Bewick and Scotland. With Ian McKie's technical assistance, and contributions from others, David has also revised the Society's website with excellent results.

On the publicity front we have made what I hope you will agree is one striking advance. The Society's advertising banner, displayed for the first time at Bewick's 256th Birthday celebrations at Cherryburn in August, and now here tonight, is the result of contributions from Stewart Thirkell, Peter Osborne, David Gray and our technical wizard consultant Ian Mckie. We are grateful to them all; and we believe that the banner will be a great help in promoting Bewick on many occasions.

We have also started work on two projects which should be of great significance to Bewick studies. Thomas Bewick had a profound interest in the illustration of fables throughout his working life from the Select Fables of the 1770s to two majestic editions of his own Aesop in 1818 and 1823. In partnership with the University of Newcastle we intend to hold a study day on Fables early next year. There will be contributions from authorities on fables setting Thomas Bewick's contribution in context. It is intended to publish the proceedings. Please keep watch for further information. The other project will be more time-consuming but equally useful. The purpose is to record all Thomas Bewick's vignettes, their first appearance and subsequent use. This mammoth task, proposed by Peter Osborne is being led by Peter and David Gardner-Medwin and will need a team of researchers.

That there is still work to do is shown by the Hancock Museum. This has been rebuilt and extended as the Great North Museum: Hancock which now embraces the Museum of Antiquities, and the University's Greek and Egyptian collections. While respecting the museum's novel focus, it difficult not to comment from our particular viewpoint. Thomas Bewick was, arguably, the greatest artist - that the North East has produced, pre-eminent as engraver and illustrator; he was also one of our most important pioneering naturalists. This was acknowledged in the old Hancock Museum with a small but telling exhibition. It is disappointing to record that no space has been found for Bewick in the museum's splendid new displays. The only mention of Thomas Bewick is in relation to a present sent to the Literary and Philosophical Society by James Hunter, the second Governor of New South Wales. This, the first Wombat specimen to be seen in England, appeared in the 4th edition (1800) of Bewick's A General History of Quadrupeds. No doubt, as exhibitions develop, there will opportunities for fuller acknowledgement of Thomas Bewick's significance, and it will be our business to ensure that those opportunities are not missed.

We are keen to acknowledge the efforts of others in promoting the name of Bewick. An excellent exhibition on Bewick's Tailpieces mounted by the IKON Gallery in consultation with Iain Bain has had a spell at Birmingham and is on show at the Laing Art Gallery until Sunday 18th October. We hope members will see the exhibition and will join a valedictory visit and discussion at the Gallery on 17th October. I am grateful to colleagues for noting two other Bewickian events both in December - the opening of a large new restaurant in Gateshead Civic Centre called Bewicks with appropriate decorations including metallic versions of TB's signature. As dramatic but more ephemeral was the Glow Festival's projection of Bewick images onto Newcastle's Town Walls.

Next year promises much. As well as the usual programme of events, and the activity around the fables and vignettes projects, we look forward with excitement to the publication of Nigel Tattersfield's study of The Illustrated Work of Thomas Bewick. This multi-volumed work promises to be a major event in the long and distinguished history of publications on Bewick. We expect publication in the spring; we have invited Nigel to come to a northern launch; and, in return for a modest contribution towards publication costs from the Society, it is hoped to offer members copies at a modest discount. We hope to have more precise information soon. The Bewick Society exists to promote interest in Thomas Bewick, to conserve, exhibit and publicise his work. With your help, that is what we will continue to do into our second twenty-one years.
Hugh Dixon 2009

The Society of Wood Engravers

2009-09-24T23:26:00.008+01:00

72nd Annual Exhibition

The 72nd Annual Exhibition will take place from 22nd September 2009 until 4th October 2009 at:

The Bankside Gallery
48 Hopton Street
London SE1 9JH

http://www.banksidegallery.com/

The exhibition will include an additional display of the 25 engravings from the BOX 25 that were commissioned to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the refounding of the Society.
Open daily 11am – 6pm.
72nd Annual Exhibition Private View

The Private View of the 72nd Annual Exhibition will take place from 6pm – 8pm on Wednesday 23rd September 2009 at The Bankside Gallery.

Box 25

Twenty-five prints, each 5 x 5 inches, each based on a number 1 to 25 by members of the Society of Wood Engravers to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the refounding of the Society.

To learn more, please click here.

Next Avison Lecture

2009-08-31T15:53:00.003+01:00

The Hexham Massacre Of 1761
John Sadler
Tuesday, September 8, 2009 - 7:00pm
Part narrative, part drama this presentation casts a dark and different light on Avison’s Georgian context.

Venue Details:
Brunswick Methodist Church
Brunswick Place
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7BJ
Ticket Details: Free entry on the door.

Laing Lunch-time Lecture

2009-08-28T11:07:00.007+01:00

Wednesday 16 September, 12.30 - 1.30pm, Laing Art Gallery.

Jonathan Watkins, director of Ikon, will be talking about his role in curating the Thomas Bewick: Tale-Pieces exhibition. No booking required.

The exhibition continues until 18 Oct 2009.

Sunday 9 August 2009 Bewick’s Birthday Celebrations at Cherryburn. ‘An After Lunch Conversation’

2009-08-06T09:24:00.003+01:00

Birthday Celebrations
Originally uploaded by Bewick Society

An occasion to gather and celebrate Bewick’s birthday, as well as a chance to meet the experts, show them your collection and maybe join in the after lunch conversations.

We have invited a local collector of antique canes to come along on the day to show us his latest acquisition – John Bewick’s swagger stick – a rare and exciting find.

There will also be a birthday cake, so please do come and join us!

Date and time: Sunday 9 August from 1.30 pm. The ‘Conversation’ starts at 2.30 pm.

Venue: Cherryburn, Station Road, Mickley Square, near Stocksfield, Northumberland NE43 7DD.

Admission: Admission charges apply. National Trust and Bewick Society members free on production of a valid card.

New Course

2009-07-31T13:46:00.010+01:00

The Natural History Society of Northumbria has announced the launch of a series of exciting courses for natural history (including geology) enthusiasts.

* Led by recognised experts
* Informal atmosphere
* No entry requirements
* Written work optional
* Enthusiasm essential!

Most indoor meetings will be held at the Great North Museum: Hancock. The courses will be 10 meetings in length, unless otherwise stated. Indoor meetings will last 2 hours.

Among the courses on offer is Bewick in context with Dr Peter Quinn, Thursdays from 8th October, 2pm.

For more information and the sign-up form click here to go to the website of The Natural History Society of Northumbria.

The Aesthetics of Avison

2009-07-22T13:17:00.002+01:00

Originally uploaded by Bewick Society

Please note that the next in the Avison series of lectures will be as follows:

The Aesthetics of Avison
Ian Ground
Brunswick Methodist Church - 28/7/09 - 7pm

Avison Essay on Musical Expression has long been recognised a major and original contribution. This lecture will demonstrate the philosophical context of his ideas and relate his distinctive contribution to modern day developments in the philosophical task of understanding the nature of music.

About the Speaker
Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Sunderland and author of books and papers in philosophical aesthetics

David Whetstone reviews "Tale-pieces" at the Laing Art Gallery.

2009-07-10T00:57:00.004+01:00

"LET’S not kid ourselves about the olden days – the early 1800s, say. There wasn’t much on the telly, so you had to find your pleasures where you could. If that meant putting a baby in a cart tethered to a dog which had a cat tied in front of it, pointing the whole shebang in the direction of a river, providing some exuberant encouragement with a long stick and letting nature take its course, then so be it!"

From Thomas Bewick's unflinching view of life Jul 7 2009 By David Whetstone, The Journal.

Read the whole review on the Journal's website by clicking here.

The show is on until October 18th.

Tale-pieces

June Crisfield Chapman: Wood Engravings

June Crisfield Chapman: Wood Engravings Sat 04 Feb 12 - Sun 13 May 12

Thomas Bewick and Robert Burns

A wood-engraver on Bewick

Society of Wood Engravers 74th Annual Exhibition

Thomas Bewick, engraving the world, 12th March 2012.

Attention Wood Engravers

Call for Entries: Wood Engravers' Network 2012 Juried Exhibition.

Bewick in Wuthering Heights

MEET THOMAS BEWICK: Bewick and Natural History

Bewick at the British Museum

THOMAS BEWICK: A Beginner’s Guide

Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver

FOR THOMAS BEWICK

Good Times, Bad Times, All Times Get Over

Thomas Bewick and Woodengraving

Bath Book Fair

Walk On, Tom Bewick

Jane Eyre in cinemas now.

BEWICK SOCIETY ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Freda and Esmeralda

Review of Tale-pieces in Vancouver.

Thomas Bewick Contemporary Artist

Good Times, Bad Times, All Times Get Over

York National Book Fair

Keith Armstrong Book Launch Invitation

Bewick in Vancouver

A Walk from Cherryburn to Ovingham

John Grundy video on Youtube Channel

Cherryburn thanks

Wood Engraving Classes & Courses at Northern Print

THOMAS BEWICK'S BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS AT CHERRYBURN

Piñata Attack

The Bewick Revolution

Bible at Cherryburn

INVITATION TO SUBMIT

Bewick in Southern Illinois

Fiona Houston at Cherryburn

Paul Scott's Gateshead

Bewick's Tyne

Book Launch in the press

Tale-pieces in Dynamic Views for Readers

Flock

Bewick at IMMA.

Ill Met by Moonlight

Visions of the Jinn: Illustrators of the Arabian Nights

Magda with Flowers

Bewick's Fox

Tom Lubbock 1957-2011

Bewick's Legacy: Six Contemporary British Wood Engravers

Bewick's Legacy: Six Contemporary British Wood Engravers

An exhibition at the Washington Printmakers Gallery.

Tom Lubbock Collages at Victoria Miro

"Miniature masterpieces are giving art lovers a micro-sized glimpse of the past. "

Open now in Kendal

Words and Music

Bewick in Ithaca

Bewick's Pipe Tunes

Last Chance to See Tale-pieces in Preston.

Varieties of Oxen by George Garrard.

Romantic Moderns

The Chairman’s Report 2009-2010

Heritage Open Days

Bookplates in Delaware

Reprint in the USA

"A General History of Quadrupeds, The Figures Engraved on Wood With a Foreword by Yann Martel" published in June 2009.

Full details here.

Ayant ainsi Be[r]wick sur mes genoux

Lasting Impressions

Lasting Impressions by Colin See-Paynton, Shandy Hall Gallery, Coxwold, until August 21

From "The Press":

The Bindman Talks 2010 at Dove Cottage

Perception

Bewick in Preston.

"Dare to be free"

Thomas Bewick and A Shropshire Squire

Contemporary Book Art

Gallery North, Artists' Book Fair, 26th June 2010 from 11am - 5pm.

THE THOMAS SPENCE MINI-FEST 2010

June Crisfield Chapman: Wood Engravings
Sat 04 Feb 12 - Sun 13 May 12