Marin Tatoué

Marin Tatoué (tattooed sailor)

on the drying rack at the Print Block

My latest limited edition screen print is a celebration of all things nautical - a 'brother' piece if you will to my now sold-out Tattooed Sailor print, this tim with a gallic twist. It shows a salty french sea-dog, leaning on a quayside bar table and staring out to sea, a single tear drop upon his cheek. Is arms and torso are entirely inked with tattoos of ships, knots, mermaids, hearts, lovers, swallows etc etc. Many of the tattoos are inspired by those recorded on french criminals at the start o the last century.

Printed in 5 colours on 300 gsm Heritage paper by Suki at the Print Block in Whitstable Marin Tatoué measures 50 cm wide by 70 cm deep (B2, a standard frame size) and is a strictly limited edition of 75, so hurry before he too runs out!

http://paulbommer.bigcartel.com/product/marin-tatoue

proofing at the Print Block

Cancellation

It is with regret that I have had to cancel my forthcoming Amuse Bouche solo exhibition at the Town House gallery in Spitalfields, scheduled for later this month. My apologies for any inconvenience or disappointment.

Working in progress: Marin Tatoué

A small detail of one corner of a new limited edition screen print that I am working on, Marin Tatoué, a companion piece to my now sold-out Tattooed Sailor print - http://paulbommer.bigcartel.com/product/tattooed-sailor

The print shall be launched at my Amuse Bouche solo exhibition at the Town House in Spitalfields in October.

Boxer tiles

A few delft tiles I was recently commissioned to create as a wedding anniversary gift for a lovely lady whose husband is a descendent of celebrated jewish bare-knuckle boxer Daniel Mendoza.  I made a couple of alternatives Mendozas as well as his most famous opponent, Richard Humphreys. Mazel tov!

Some recent delft tiles

A few recent ceramic delft tiles that I've made at Alby Crafts for sale as part of my Amuse Bouche solo exhibition at the Town House gallery in Spitalfields in October.

Dodman mini-print

A new limited edition mini screen print hot off the press this week for the Norwich Print Fair in September, printed with the marvellous Jo Stafford at Print To The People.

Dodman is Norfolk dialect for Snail…

Henry & Siân's Wedding Invitation

I was both honoured and delighted when my dear friends and close neighbours Henry and Siân asked if I would like to create the Invitation for their forthcoming Wedding later in the Summer.

The design includes many references to the pair, their family, their interests, this lovely market town where we live and to August when the union takes place.

Printed in a charming eau-de-nil on recycled greyboard - this design recto, the pertinent information verso - by print mæstro Martin Clark at Tilley Letterpress in Ledbury, Herefordshire, with whom I have had the pleasure to work many times.

Henry, Siân and their wonderful children,
Milo and Dolly Danger

Music and Nature

The Wedding Feast

The Book Hive, Henry's bookshop in Norwich and the
best independent bookshop in East Anglia

Magpies - Proofing & Printing

A lovely darting dash down yesterday for a day of colour proofing and printing with the amazing Suki Hayes-Watkins at the Print Block in Whitstable, before legging it back to East Anglia via Spitalfields in the afternoon. Exhausting but very, very rewarding. http://www.theprintblock.com

A detail of the final print

This new limited edition screen print is for an Exhibition, 'Nature is a Language' - work inspired by myth and the natural world, at The Gallery Norfolk, opening this coming week-end in Norwich. http://www.thegallerynorfolk.co.uk

Honing the colour palette

The selected hues

The second screen with the final two (of four) colour separations 

The first three colours, and a fourth, the green,
created by overlaying yellow on the blue

The Tempest/ Much Ado About Nothing

My latest limited edition screen print, 'The Tempest/ Much Ado About Nothing', was designed and printed to celebrate the 400th anniversary this month of the death of William Shakespeare, 'the Swan of Avon', and arguably the english language's finest writer. Here a poster for a fictitious Shakespeare Double-Bill (geddit?) - The Tempest (the storm) and Much Ado About Nothing, a storm in a tea-cup!

I have set my scene in the Fortune Theatre or Playhouse, a contemporary of the famous Globe, located outside the City of London near Clerkenwell. The plays are directed by Wilam Horzyca, one time director of the National Theatre in Warsaw and my great-uncle. https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=pl&u=https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilam_Horzyca&prev=search

'The Tempest/ Much Ado About Nothing' is printed in a strictly limited edition of 50. It is printed in 3 colours on 300 gsm Heritage acid-free cartridge paper and measures 30 cm wide by 42 cm high (A3, a standard frame size!). The print is signed and numbered by the Artist and posted out in a stiff cardboard tube.

http://paulbommer.bigcartel.com/product/the-tempest-much-ado-about-nothing

Norwich Pubs

A new limited edition screen print, designed especially for Norwich-based print collective Print To The People's Year in Print scheme. 

'Norwich Pubs' is a celebration of the public houses, inns, taverns, alehouses, tap-rooms, watering-holes & shabeens of old Norwich city, a town that once famously had a church for each week of the year and a pub for each day! Some are still very much in existence, others lost in the mists of Time, remembered only (if at all) by plaques in the pavement or by the names of Streets (Golden Dog Alley, Flower Pot Yard, Lobster Lane, Queen of Hungary Yard, etc., etc..)

http://paulbommer.bigcartel.com/product/norwich-pubs

Stiffkey Stores

The letterpress flyer I designed for the sumptuous and delightful Stiffkey Stores, at Stiffkey on the stunning north Norfolk coastline.

The design shows an image of the counter and top there, made from old wooden fruit-crates, laden and filled with beautiful things - great coffee, delicious cakes, flowers, books, toys, bags, &c, &c.

Diamond Anniversary

An invitation I designed and printed to celebrate the Diamond Wedding anniversary of my lovely parents-in-law. Congratulations Pat and Chas!

A swan as symbol of their graceful journey through life, the flower in its bill for love's blooming and the crown for its nobility.

Year in Print - Proofing & Printing

A great day colour mixing, proofing and laying down the first two layers (of three) of a new limited edition screen print for the Year in Print scheme. Many thanks to Jo Stafford, Paul McNeill & Toby Rampton at Print to the People in Norwich!

Can you guess the theme? Hope to print the final, outline layer later this week.

Bacchus

My latest mini-print shows Bacchus, Roman god of Wine and Vineyards, with a quote from Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra.

'Come, thou Monarch of the Vine, Plumpy Bacchus with pink eyne! In thy Vats our cares are drowned, with thy grapes our hairs be crowned.'

This three colour print measures 20 cm square and is printed in a strictly limited edition of 50, signed and numbered by the artist and is part of a series of Shakespeare inspired mini-prints (see also Where the Bee Sucks, Puck and Cupid). Part of Shakespeare 400. 

http://paulbommer.bigcartel.com/product/bacchus

Cupid

My latest mini-print shows Cupid, spirit of Love, with a quote from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.

'If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, the appetite may sicken, and so die. That strain again! it had a dying fall: O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound, that breathes upon a bank of violets, stealing and giving odour!'

This three colour print measures 20 cm square and is printed in a strictly limited edition of 50, signed and numbered by the artist and is part of a series of Shakespeare inspired mini-prints (see also Where the Bee Sucks, Puck and Bacchus). Part of Shakespeare 400. The perfect gift to the love of your life, perhaps?

http://paulbommer.bigcartel.com/product/cupid

A Look Ahead

January and a chance to look ahead at the unfurling year and what I hope to try and to achieve within it.

As always I plan to be in a number of group exhibitions this year as any other, but I have taken the decision to limit myself to just the one solo exhibition for 2016 - AMUSE BOUCHE at the Town House, Spitalfields in October (see you there!) - in order to give myself the space and time to develop my ideas and explore other avenues of expression without undue pressure.

More limited edition screen prints for sure, but hopefully other forms of print too - linocut, etching, fabric, letterpress, etc. As well as that I hope to pick up my paint brushes again after a few years' absence, and to continue developing my delft tile production - this small cottage I'm sat in now is crying out for tiled walls in the kitchen, hearth, staircase, bathroom…

Many other exciting projects and collaborations along the way, self-initiated and commissioned alike.

My main objective this year is to renew my love and vigour for what I do, and to embrace a playfulness in my approach, to welcome flaws, marks, the scratchy, the undefined, the incomplete, happy accidents. A challenge for me perhaps, but a fun one!

Above is a chart (blurred for discretion) of all the ideas currently buzzing around my cranium, laid out before me to survey - to assess what needs to be prioritised, and what might be shelved or postponed. It is immediately apparent that there is more than I could ever possibly get done in three or four years flat out, let alone in one! Still, it is useful to see it all there in front of me - a gentle reminder when unsure what to tackle next and an edifying note-to-self not to take on too much.

Here's to a great, creative and prosperous 2016! Bon Voyage!