Compton Verney, Warwickshire

Alfred Wallis

We had a great afternoon at Compton Verney in Warwickshire. They put on some wonderful exhibitions there and are currently showing Alfred Wallis and Ben Nicholson and Wool Work: A Sailor's Art both of which are on until 5th June. What the folk say is on until 11th December.

My particular interest was in the wool work exhibition and we were given a talk by one of the curators, Bridget Crowley, entitled "Flags and frigates: The art of the mariner, which was most interesting and covered the history of the wool work pictures. These are not often on view to the public due to their fragile nature and the risk of the colured wools fading if exposed to bright light. A few of the pieces on show were available to buy as cards, but I can't wait for a catalogue to be produced, showing more if not all of the work in this interesting and colourful exhibition.

I have always loved the naive paintings of Alfred Wallis, and to find so many on display at Compton Verney was quite a surprise. The curators have put together an exhibition filling several rooms with the work of Wallis and the artist Ben Nicholson who first discovered him at his home in St Ives. There are more of Alfred Wallis's paintings here than on permanent display in Tate St Ives, and it is well worth the journey to Compton Verney to catch this exhibition before it finishes on 5th June.

Flag of Argentina

The unusual colour of the Argentina flag, "celeste", or celestial blue, a paler blue than that which usually appears in many other nations' flags, is said to be the colour of the sky which inspired General Manuel Belgrano before going into battle. In 1810 Belgrano led demonstrations supporting liberation from Spain. The other version of the story about the colours and symbolism of the flag is that it is based on the blue and white cockades used to commemmorate the 25th May uprising, when the clouds over Beunos Aires cleared to reveal the sun in a blue sky. The sun on the official Argentine flag is depicted with a face - my flag's sun features a stamp with the portrait of General Belgrano. Many of Argentina's stamps commemmorate their famous leaders, including Belgrano himself, San Martin, and Rivadavia. The well known , Eva Peron, wife of President Juan Peron is commemmorated on many stamps including one in the centre of my stamp collage flag, 45c blue issued in 1952, shown next to it is the 5c blue stamp which was issued in 1946 on the Installation of Juan Peron. Stamps included in the upper blue band of the flag include several showing the maps of Argentina and its territories, including the disputed Falkland Islands or Las Islas Malvinas, The landscape and heritage of the country also features in many beautifully designed stamps.

This design is available as a greetings card, and can also be ordered as a canvas print, standard size approx approximately 28 x 39 cms, or custom made in larger sizes.

Flag of Brazil

This stamp collage flag made up entirely of stamps from Brazil took quite a while to make, mainly due to the lack of yellow stamps to make the diamond shape. Yellow stamps generally seem quite difficult to find! The yellow diamond actually represents Brazil's mineral wealth,and the green background symbolizes the Amazon rainforests. The blue sphere shows the sky as seen from Rio de Janeiro at the time of Brazil's independence on 15th November 1889. There are 27 stars each representing a state with the stars varying in size according to the constellations, and not any reflection on the size of any of the states themselves. The white band represents the equator and is insribed with words which mean Order and Progress.

In the green section are included stamps issued in 1954 portraying famous Brazilians including Admiral Tamandare, Duke of Caxias, J. Murtinho, R. Barbosa. Public Health Pioneer, A. Lutz is commemmorated on a stamp issued in 1955. A stamp issued in 1962 (second stamp down on far right) was issued on the 50th anniversary of the ascent of the Finger of God Mountain, 8c. Brazil's victory in World Football championships is commemmorated on a stamp issued in 1962. Brazil's flag appears on a stamp issued in 1991, which has no value shown.

The flag shown here is available as a canvas print, hand stretched onto wooden frame, and also as a greetings card with envelope, size A5.

The Deal Lugger

Here's my latest stamp collage. A very kind freecycler gave me a shoe box full of old stamped envelopes from the 1960s. It had been in his loft for 40 years and he had offered them on our local freecycle site as Postmarks. I thought they might be interesting to use in some of my collages. Among the collection i found a commemmorative envelope featuring a boat know as the Deal Lugger. The Kent Philatelic Societies issued a special commemmorative envelope with postmark on 20th May 1967 showing the boat, and the envelope contained a card with its story. As well as fishing and dredging, the Deal Lugger provided an early ship to shore mail service, and was also apparently involved in some smuggling activities! I've recreated the image and have used some of the other postmarks to suggest the background of Deal, with its castle. You can read the entire story if you look carefully on the edges of the sails. Predominantly British stamps have been used but stamps of many other nations also feature. The birds are from Singapore!

Canadian Flag

Just repainted my studio wall in readiness for Site 11 Open Studios festival which is in June 2011. My studio will be open on the two week-ends 11th, 12th and 18th,
19th June and looking forward to welcoming new and returning visitors!
Hope the paint is dry, but coudn't resist just trying out one of my Stamp Collage canvas print flags to see how it looks on the white stone background. The Maple leaf features in the centre of the Canadian flag and all the stamps which go to make up the collage are Canadian, the earliest being some with Queen Victoria's head on, and quite a few featuring the maple leaf itself.