People on stamps take up new roles in my Stamp Collage pictures

Fisherman near Naples

Car worker in Turin

I always like to make connections between my work as a Stamp Collage artist and the content of the stamps I'm using in my pictures. (The less than perfect specimen on the right, which would not appeal to a serious collector, would be a prime candidate for future work  as I prefer not to use stamps in top condition.)   I  use stamps with people on to form crews and passengers on ships, and  for "peopling" a landscape or crowd. Some stamps spring easily to mind, including this series of 17 stamps issued in Italy in 1950  known as Italia al lavoro  or Italy at Work.   Each one shows a person at work in the region known for  their particular trade, such as these shown here.
There is a  rather ancient looking automobile to the right of the I Lira design( above right), as Turin is the home of the Fiat motor company,  and in the background is a view of the mountains of  Piemonte. Having recently visited Naples and gazed daily on the wonderful view of Mount Vesuvius across the bay,  it was only today that I noticed in the 20 Lira  stamp shown above left, that in the background is Mount Vesuvius itself.  Surprisingly this Neapolitan  fisherman has not actually appeared on any of my ships, and I think this may be because he looks far too laid back,  leaning against  the ropes of his boat, whereas my "crews" have all been hard at work on various tasks.  I have used him as one of the characters peering out from between the pillars of the Leaning tower of Pisa though,  and he may well reappear in future in another role!

Detail from Leaning Tower of Pisa - see Landmarks on www.rachelmarkwick.co.uk

Tor read and see photos relating to the making of the Leaning Tower of Pisa collage please see my blog post of 10th March 2013.  Please note that the original of this was sold during my last exhibition at Gloucester Guildhall that year, but full size prints are available.

The Guildhall, Gloucester - Stamping Ground - Rachel Markwick's Stamp Collage Exhibition NOW ON

The exhibition, Stamping Ground,  is NOW ON at The Guildhall, 23 Eastgate Street, Gloucester until 29th March .

The Guildhall is right in the centre of Gloucester and is really easy to find, but I met quite a few people yesterday who previously never been there or even knew anything about it!  I think there may be some confusion with Shire Hall, at the other end of the city, which is a very imposing looking building with pillars and steps leading up to it, whereas the Guildhall frontage is quite narrow and  is sandwiched between the  Cheltenham and Gloucester Building Society and Dorothy Perkins in Eastgate Street, and right opposite the Eastgate Shopping Centre and Marks and Spencer. You can easily miss it if you're not actually searching for it or looking up to see the banner! And it's a pity to just pass it by as you never know just what may be going on inside!   And it's like a tardis - so much bigger inside than it looks from the street.
I had to wait more than 2 years to get the gallery space for my exhibition, which just shows how popular it is for artists wanting to exhibit their work  here, but unfortunately, unless you advertise it widely yourself, it could go unnoticed as there is no street advertising of the art exhibitions, which is a real shame. The Guildhall do have a brochure and some of the art exhibitions are listed in this bi-monthly guide, but I was rather unlucky as for some reason mine got missed out of the February/March edition !! So I'm hoping that my own posters, showing my stamp collage of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, will get noticed elsewhere around the city and inside the Guildhall building itself, although not outside!

Just one of my pictures on show in The Gallery 2nd Floor of The Guildhall

  And hoping for some press coverage too, as well as the lovely article in March's Cotswold Life (p18).

 Inside the Guildhall is a cinema which shows all the latest films as well as some lesser known and older films. There is a lovely cafe/bar which also offers vegetarian and vegan food. It's a great venue for theatre, comedy, music events, workshops and hosts meetings for many associations, including U3A.  They have a wide range of activities going on, and an elderly gentleman I was talking to recently about it, said he remembered going there to Saturday night dances.  He was surprised to learn that you can still go dancing there too! Passers-by just need to know about it!  

The Leaning tower of Pisa stamp collage

On 30th January, I mentioned that I had started to make a picture os the Leaning Tower of Pisa. My theory is that if I tell someone I've started, it puts a little bit more pressure on me to complete the task! Well, six weeks later, I've finally finished this one. Quite a lot of searching around for little figures to include in the foreground and on bell tower level.  I also got rather obsessed with trying to include Galileo in the picture as he was born in Pisa and there are many stories relating to his experiments in which he is said to have dropped objects of different weights from the top of the tower to prove that they would land at the same time. There is nothing in his own writings to prove that he ever did this, but it makes a good story!

Galileo Galilei was commemmorated on an Italian stamp of 1933 - and his portrait appears on the tower.  See if you can spot him.

Another set of stamps was issued in September 1942 to commemmorate the Death Tercentenary of Galileo.  Such a beautiful set of stamps, in perfect condition in my own collection that I didn't have the heart to cut them up!
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Instead, here's a picture of the four stamps featuring different events in the life of Galileo.
The tower itself is made from carefully cut pages of an old Stanley Gibbons stamp catalogue.