Events

I’m delighted to announce a selling exhibition of the East End paintings by Peri Parkes – the latest in a series of exhibitions here showcasing East End artists from the later 20^th century. Peri was living and working in Bow from the late 1970s to the early 1990s and, having trained at the Slade when William Coldstream was still its head, Peri’s work is very much of the ‘through the window’ Euston Road School. The early series of the backs of houses in Conder Street are meticulously recorded with luminous washes of paint, before he moves on to a series of paintings of city skylines and some familiar local landmarks prior to his departure for Cornwall in 1993.

The exhibition runs from 22^nd November – 8^thDecember and please get in touch if you’d like any further information

An exhibition to accompany publication of the book of the same name featuring over eighty of Eleanor’s watercolours from the book, including some new ones

At a time of momentous change in the high street, Eleanor’s witty and fascinating personal survey champions the enduring culture of Britain’s small neighbourhood shops. Eleanor’s collection includes eighty of her watercolours of the capital’s bakers, cafés, butchers, fishmongers, greengrocers, chemists, launderettes, hardware stores, eel & pie shops, bookshops and stationers. Her pictures are accompanied in the book by the stories of the shops, their history and their shopkeepers – stretching from Chelsea in the west to Bethnal Green and Walthamstow in the east.

The watercolours are £150 framed (A5) and larger ones are £210 framed.

The exhibition opens on the 3rd October with a book launch and signing that evening 6 – 8pm and the exhibition continues at Town House until Sunday 20th October.

Inspired by Spitalfields’ place at the heart of textile design in the past, Town House has
brought together three contemporary designers and makers for this year’s Shoreditch Design
Triangle. Each of them uses a different medium, but they are all re-interpreting textile
pattern, use and design in their work, to stunning effect.

Mary Norden takes the Japanese tradition of repairing and reusing textiles and re-works
pieces of vintage fabric by patching and stitching them together to create stunningly bold
abstract images. The layers of fabric and stitching she creates are matched by the layers of
history of the individual fabrics and each piece is accompanied by a brief narrative of all the
fabrics used, including their age and original use.

Janet Tristram and Cameron Short also work with fabric and are the artist craftsmen behind
Bonfield Block-Printers in Dorset. Every piece, whether it’s a coat, print or textile design is
imbued with an idea stemming from their love of the sea, rural life and folklore. For their
beautiful coats they use ideas from historical clothing and costume, but combine this with a
strong narrative and visual element in the printed linings. Their fabrics combine the rhythms
of natural and rural life with the repetition that is the essence of printed textiles.

Layers of narrative are also a strong element in Katrin Moye’s ceramics and for Edit 19
Town House has commissioned a collection of her work using Spitalfields’ silk designs as
the inspiration for their surface decoration. Katrin is attracted to the sinuous leaves, flora and
decorative elements which are a core part of the Spitalfields silk weavers’ designs and she
echoes the hand of the maker that is ever present in all of these pre-machine age pieces, using
a dark chocolate-brown, earthenware body which then has a thin, white slip poured over it
from a jug to make the ground for hand painted decorations. The slip has a way of dripping
and pooling, hiding and revealing the dark clay underneath which makes a lively, contrasting surface for the delicate painted decoration.

Patch, Pot, Print opens 11am Tuesday 17th September and runs to 5pm Sunday 29th September.

Late night opening Tuesday 17th September until 8.30pm

I first came encountered David Stuart as a writer on garden history many years ago and was delighted to discover last year that he has now taken to paint . As a result I’m happy to announce that the summer exhibition at Town House shows recent work by David – botanist, author and now artist. Much of his work uses plants as a central motif and though treated with great expression, all are based on an intense knowledge of plant design and an equally intense love of their beauty.

David has always loved plants. After frequent painting trips to Kew Gardens as a child, he became a botanist studying plant structure and relationships and has a PhD from Edinburgh University, working at the Royal Botanic Garden. Thereafter, he spent many years as a writer and journalist specialising in gardens, garden history, plants and their influence on all our lives.

He has had columns in national newspapers and has published fifteen books, many hugely well reviewed. They include Georgian Gardens, Plants that Shaped our Gardens, Dangerous Garden, and Classic Garden Plans. Recently though, he has returned to painting and print making.

Exhibition runs at Town House 18th May – 8th September

Three Cans

Come to Town House on Saturday 18th May and hear about bee-keeping in London from Bee Urban, who look after the hives on the roof of the National Theatre and the Southbank Centre – and see a mobile observation hive!

Based in Kennington Park, where they have turned a derelict site at the Old Keeper’s Lodge into a thriving community space, Bee Urban offers training in sustainable practice in bee-keeping and the urban environment. They also manage hives at various sites in London and work to enhance the environment and engage with local communities through diverse planting on housing estates, allotments and even rooftops! They will be talking about their work – and in particular the bees!

Bee Urban at Town House 18th May 2.30 – 4.30pm