Aubrey Hammond - Illustrator

Well I'd never heard of this person before today, but in my trawl through ebay for Folkestone related ephemera, I came across this print for sale in America. It appears to come from a book and is of a Woodcut print advertising a play by the Danish playwright Karen Bramson.

The poster says that the advertiser is a 'Folkestone Theatre,' but as to which one, I haven't a clue.

Interestingly there is also another local history connection in that Aubrey Hammond was born in Folkestone in 1894. He studied at the Byam Shaw School of Art and at the Academie Julien, in Paris, and later taught at Westminster School of Art. He drew mostly in pen and ink; his work was characterised by delicate decorative design usually conceived in the angular style of the 1920s. His work could at times be severe showing an affinity with the work of the Vorticists. He died in 1940.

Wednesday 19th March 2016

Google's Clara Rockmore tribute

Google's homepage on 9th March featured an excellent animated doodle to commemorate what would've been Clara Rockmore's 105th birthday (if she hadn't've died in 1998. So if you missed the tribute to this virtuosa theremin player, here it is again.

Thursday 10th March 2016 

More from the Arkham Bazaar...

Following on from yesterday's post I've found plenty more to recommend this site. I'm a fan of medieval woodcuts and the artist Liv Rainey-Smith gives them a contemporary twist. The Cthulhu, Pickman's Models and Krampus are particularly good. So be sure to check out her designs.

Wednesday 9th March 2015

Cthulhu greetings cards

I wish I'd seen these greetings cards before Christmas. And also I like the Ryleh postcards too. Both are available from the website Arkham Bazaar which has plenty of other H.P.Lovecraft inspired goodies for sale.

Tuesday 8th January 2016

Record Pumpkin Seed bought for £1250

UK seed company Thompson & Morgan have purchased the most expensive pumpkin seed at auction for £1250 and they are now trying to find a UK gardener who can turn the seed into a record-breaking fruit. The seed was from a record breaking 2,323 lb (1054 kg) pumpkin produced by a Swiss grower in 2014. (The previous record price for a pumpkin seed was £1171.)

Pumpkin seeds can sell for as little as 99p per pack of 10 seeds, so let's hope this one germinates!

Monday 7th March 2016

Scooby Doo pancakes

Well as it's Shrove Tuesday I thought I better give them a go...

All I can say is that the packaging was more interesting than what I managed to produce!

Tuesday 9th February 2016

Clive Barker's A Very Barker Alphabet

Available to read free on Wattpad is a new poem by Clive Barker gleefully reminiscent of Edward Gorey. After a drought from Mr Barker for many years we seem to have been blessed by a deluge of books and collections recently (The Scarlet Gospels, The Adventures of Mr Maximillian Bacchus & His Travelling Circus, Tonight Again, First Tales, Chiliad and Tortured Souls). Let's hope Abarat books 4 & 5 aren't too far away either.

Sunday 31st January 2016

Horror Posters

Publisher Cemetery Dance in the USA has been advertising selling late 19th & early 20th century prints on a variety of subjects such as Grand Guignol/horror theatre and even warning posters about diseases or addiction. Various other sites have similar images. I'd never seen any before so here are a few selections for the uninitiated and for those of you who are are appreciative of this form of art I'm sure you can google it!

Friday 29th January 2016

David Bowie RIP

Well I'm a huge Bowie fan, and even I had to raise a smile at this sad time when the official Bowie website put a compilation of images from this week's magazines covering Mr. Bowie's passing which featured amongst them the controversial French Charlie Hebdo magazine.

And for those who don't understand the cartoon...

Friday 15th January 2016

Into The Light by Arthur Young

I had recently helped a man from Ashford with some local history information and was pleasantly surprised to receive in the post a flyer from him advertising a display of his artwork in my home town of Folkestone.

So if you are able to visit the Sassoon Room Gallery above Folkestone Library between the 4th and 21st January 2016 I would strongly recommend it. I know art and it's appreciation is very subjective but I was amazed at the riot of colour and wide range of subject material from railway stations to Morris Dancers, to churches, woodland scenes and a couple of imaginary planetary landscapes. The exhibition is free, and there is information there on the artist Arthur Young and how to buy or commission works by him. Well worth a visit, as you can see below.

Monday 11th January 2016