The Moon and the Long Man of Wilmington’. -Its origin a meaning remains unclear. Different theories say that he could be a pilgrim from the nearby Wilmington Priory. Professor John North said that this figure could be from 35th century BC to mark the constellation of Orion and therefore a manifestation of a Neolithic astral region. other sources say it could be Romano-British. More recently Professor Martin Bell suggested that The Long Man was cut in the snowbound hills near Wilmington in the 16th or 17th century. As an interesting fact It was restored in 1873 by a group lead by the vicar of Glynde, Reverend William de St Croix by marking out the outline with yellow bricks whitewashed in lime mortar. I have often visited him in my walks along the South Downs, and my friend Joss showed me recently a wonderful woodcuts of the ‘Long Man’ from Ravilious, and also by Ravilious the watercolour in exhibit in The Towner in Eastbourne. It was a matter of time for the Long Man to be a subject for one of my prints. The Long Man is crossed by innumerable terraced paths formed by the grazing herd of sheep. These grass paths are cut deep in the North facing steep hills of The Downs and cast long shadows.
I like to think that on clear summer nights the also know as the ‘Green Man’ gazes at the Moon for companionship with a feeling of camaraderie with sentimentality. As Percy Bysshe Shelley expresses this emotions in her poem ‘To the Moon’ ‘Art thou pale for weariness Of climbing heaven and gazing on the earth, Wandering companionless Among the stars that have a different birth, — And ever changing, like a joyless eye That finds no object worth its constancy? Thou chosen sister of the Spirit, That gazes on thee till in thee it pities … ‘ Or more simplistically the Spanish poet Gloria Fuertes says ‘En las noches claras,resuelvo el problema de la soledad del ser.Invito a la luna y con mi sombra somos tres.’
Hove and Brighton promenade Ocean Blue.
Print size 124 x 30.5 cm
Hove and Brighton promenade Ocean Blue. – Inspired by the aquamarine colours of the sea; walking on the Palace Pier, the ‘Big Blue’ underneath your feet glistening through the cracks of the wooden deck or lounging on a deck chair, the English Channel framed in the horizon by the white lattice of Victorian wrought iron railings. View of Hove and Brighton from the end of Western Lawns; by the Hove Deep Sea Anglers Club. The view reaches as far a Belle Tout Lighthouse within the South Downs National Park. From original Ink drawing, colour added digitally. Print dimensions 124 x 30,5 cm. From £180Detail
Kemptown Promenade Brighton Ocean Blue.
Print size 124 x 30.5 cm
Kemptown Promenade Brighton Ocean Blue. -Inspired by the aquamarine colours of the sea; walking on the Palace Pier, the ‘Big Blue’ underneath your feet glistening through the cracks of the wooden deck or lounging on a deck chair, the English Channel framed in the horizon by the white lattice of Victorian wrought iron railings. .View of Hove and Brighton from the raised cliff of Kemptown at Marine Parade with its typical bow fronted terraced houses; Chinese style street lamps; Victorian lift; the unmissable 1960’s Sussex Heights and our contemporary British airways I-360; the historic Brighton Palace Pier and in the distance the coastline that runs from Shoreham Scottish Power Thermal Station; the two wind turbines; Shoreham industrial Harbour and continuing all the way to Worthing Pier. From original Ink drawing, colour added digitally. Print dimensions 124 x 30,5 cm. From £180Detail
Hers and His VIVA!
Print size 124 x 30.5 cm
‘Hers and His VIVA! – George IV’s Brighton Pavilion to Fitzherbert’s Steine House’. It is a panoramic elevational drawing of Old Steine that shows The Brighton Pavilion, The Kitchen buildings and adjacent buildings found at Palace Place, Castle Square and Old Steine. The current YMCA building was at its time Steine House; the former residence of Maria Fitzherbert, mistress and wife of the Prince Regent. And also worth mentioning Marlborough House a 1771 designed by architect Robert Adam. Print dimensions 124 x 30,5 cm. From £180. For sale at Leo Frames.Print Detail
Round Headed Rampion, Pride of Sussex, in flower over the Downs
Print size 124 x 30.5 cm
‘Round Headed Rampion, Pride of Sussex in flower over the Downs’ This print is a a re-take of a previous print in blue hues with references to historical blue china porcelain and the addition of a screen of dark crimson flowers. Imagine yourself lying on the grass in this spot looking at the distant landscape through the immediate growth of Rampion flowers. ‘Playteuma Orbiculare’, ‘Round Headed Rampion Flower’ or as colloquially known ‘The Pride of Sussex’. It is actuallly a cluster of small flowers that open looks like a sea anemone. A herbaceous plant from the family of the campanulaceae with large erect stems. You can find it in most of Europe but it thrives in the Downs grasslands chalky soils. In the language of flowers, the campanula means gratitude. The production drawing of this flower screen started with charcoal drawings and then kitchen lithography. Kitchen lithography means stone(Lito) printing( graphy) in the kitchen. Since all the materials for its production can be found in an everyday kitchen. It is based on the same principle as traditional lithography that water and oil push each other. French Emilie Aizer developed this technique in 2009. It replaces the harmful chemicals turpentine and nitric acid. On a piece of kitchen foil a design is drawn with oil pens, chocolate or soap, once the designed is completed Cola drink is poured on it as a corrosive element to alter the water retaining properties of the foil; cooking vegetable oil is then used to wipe and clean the foil. The result is a plate that when made moist and then inked with a roller, the ink attaches to the design. Finally a wooden press is used to transfer the inked plate into paper. From £180.
Detail of print.
Rampion Flowers Lithograph being produced with Scarlett Rebecca at her New England House in Brighton.
Brunswick, Palmeira and Adelaide, Promenade and Piers, Brighton and Hove Ocean Blue
Print size 124 x 30.5 cm
Palmeira Brunswick and Piers, Ocean Blue. -Beach huts in the heart of the city with the backdrop of Georgian Crescents and Squares facing the sea. From original Ink drawing, colour added digitally. Print dimensions 124 x 30,5 cm. From £180Detail
The Lark over the Sussex Weald at Devils Dyke’ or ‘A Hike on the Downs’
Print size 124 x 30.5 cm
The Lark over the Sussex Weald at Devils Dyke’ or ‘A Hike on the Downs’. From £180. On display at Leo Frames or while their web is updated you can order you copy directly from me.Detail of print…can you spot the lark flying?
Last summer, one clear day my friend Eros and I had a picnic in this exact location, it is hard to believe that it is only twenty minutes outside Brighton. It had been in my mind for some time to depict this mesmerising view. We sat on the grass with our sandwiches when i heard it first, a lark, instinctively i found myself looking up scrutinising the sky to subsequently find it, up there, held in the air singing its defiant rather loud tune.
Devils Dyke was formed during the Ice age; it is England’s deepest and widest dry valley nearly a mile long. Described by Constable as ‘the grandest view of the World. The view I portray looks down onto the Sussex Weald confined by the South and in the distance the North Downs.
Painters and poets have historically celebrated this view, it comes to my mind the poem ‘A Hike on the Downs’ by John Betjeman from the book printed in 1937 ‘ Continual Dew’ that goes like this:
“Yes, rub some soap upon your feet! We’ll hike round Winchester for weeks— Like ancient Britons—just we two— Or more perhaps like ancient Greeks.
“You take your pipe—that will impress
Your strength on anyone who passes;
I’ll take my Plautus (non purgatus)
And both my pairs of horn-rimmed glasses.
The joy of companionship and invitation to roam these country paths in your own eccentric fashion, be who you are among the greens.
Can you spot the two larks in this print? As it happens in nature you will have to put some effort to find them. Larks in Mythology and literature have several meanings, they stand for daybreak as in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29 “Like to the lark at break of day arising / From sullen earth sings hymns at heaven’s gate; ..”
Firle From Glynde
Print size 124 x 30.5 cm
Firle from Glynde. A celebration of the countryside, the beautiful Southdowns Natural Park, with its soothing and inviting presence. Print size 1240 x 305 mm from £180. Last summer I went for a walk from Lewes to Glynde. I visited 12th C. St Peters Church at Firle and stared for hours at the fantastic John Piper’s ‘Tree of Life’ stained window, with its vibrant colours that has influenced this work. Also springs to my mind the lovely poem by D. H. Davis ‘Leisure’ written back in 1912 but that is so relevant these days. quoted ‘What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare. No time to stand beneath the boughs And stare as long as sheep or cows. No time to see, when woods we pass, Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass….’Detail of print.
Brighton West Pier Cormorants
Print size A1, 59.4x84.1 cm
Brighton West Pier Cormorants.
If you are observant of wildlife you might have spotted cormorants drying their wings on the ruins of the West Pier in Brighton. These birds are rather elegant with their slender figure, long necks and anthracite iridescent feathers.
Attributed to Christoper Isherwood is the following poem. ‘The Common Cormorant or Shag,
Lays eggs inside a paper bag. The reason you will see no doubt It is to keep the lightning out….’ This poem no short of humor was composed at a dinner party, guests set each other the challenge of writing a poem containing a given word.
The cormorants are resting on what was before a beautiful Victorian leisure pier. The West pier sadly was destroyed by a series of fires and remains only its bent structure of rusted wrought iron.
Print size 84.1×59.4cm. Made from an original ink drawing. Colour and shades added digitally. From £180
Regency Brighton Pavilion Finial and Domes
Print size A1, 59.4 x 84.1 cm
Regency Brighton Pavilion Finial and Domes. The colour scheme of this piece relates to the specific Regency colours found in the interiors of the Brighton Pavilion. Gold dragon scales friezes, carmine onion domes, Gothic Prussian blue jali screens, Turner’s patent yellow diamond crenellated parapet in octagonal pinnacle. Finial convex, feathered rings topped by fluted rings. Other sources of inspiration are medieval and early renaissance paintings. Print size A1 59.4 x 84.1 cm. From £180
Ochre Brighton Pavilion Finial and Domes
Print size A1, 59.4 x 84.1 cm
Ochre Brighton Pavilion Finial and Domes. The colour scheme of this piece relates to the soft ochre render colour of this edifice with its dragon scales friezes, onion domes, jali screens, crenellated parapet in octagonal pinnacle and finial convex, feathered rings topped by fluted rings. Print size A1 59.4 x 84.1 cm. From £180
If you are interested to purchase one of these prints please contact or visit Leo Frames in the heart of Brighton’s North Leine. 70 North road, Brighton, BN1 1YD
Artists Open Houses Festival. This May 2019 I will be exhibiting my artwork at two follwing houses: Art83 – 83. Freshfield Rd, Kemptown, BN2 0BL and Number 10. 10 Palmeira Square,Hove, BN3 2JB. You can find more info about my previous entries to Artists Open Houses here ALEJ EZ OPEN HOUSE 2018
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