Murze magazine feature

Murze is an online arts platform and magazine dedicated to showing the work of current and emerging artists. For their issue 10 they feature artists on the theme of Double Vision and Wildlife, some of my work, and an interview with me, can be found in the Wildlife section. You can purchase a digital copy of the magazine from their website, or a gorgeous printed edition. The interview and profiles can also be found on their website.

Look out for their artist calls to be featured on a variety of topics.

Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair 2019

I will be taking part in the Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair, November 7-10th. Billed as 'London's only Contemporary Print Fair', it promises to be a spectacular homage to all things print based, with hundreds of sumptuous prints by well-known and lesser known artists for sale.

A well as exhibiting 4 pieces from the open call, I was also delighted to be asked to produce a print for their exclusive editions, and have produced a new screen print for this! I have turned the two digital prints of North and South Circular Celestial Menagerie (see previous post), into a single screen print with north and south London celestial skies, featuring animals myths and legends of London. 70 x 50cms, in edition of 17. The print is called Celestial Creatures of The City, and is available to purchase form the Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair here.

Celestial Creatures of the City screen print, available exclusively from Woolwich Print Fair. Copyright Anna Walsh

I will be exhibiting 2 screen prints and 2 digital prints alongside this, North and South Circular Celestial Menageries, The Stripe Set and The Pink Set. The fair is open to the public Thursday 7th November - Sunday 10th November, tickets approx £10. There is sure to be a lot to see so why not come along?

The North and South Circular Celestial Menageries

Although I'm not a big believer of astrology, the visual language and stories of star signs and mapping the sky have always fascinated me, and how certain myths and legends became intertwined with the star constellations. It is a system that combines both the poetic symbol and hard fact, describing the relationship between the invisible (human imagination) and the visible (stars). As a longtime Londoner, and my interest in anthrozoology (interactions between humans and other animals), the stories of animals in the city often capture my imagination. For this series I researched relevant stories that corresponded with those of the animals used to symbolise the star constellations, but were London-centric. The North and South circular references the road that encloses London, and in these prints London boroughs in the south/north feature on the celestial ring-road.
These prints can be bought on the Garudio Studiage shop, and will be exhibited as part of the Woolwich Print Fair, which I am delighted to be taking part in in November (more about that later!).

The North Circular Celestial Menagerie print

Archival digital print on Hahnemuhle German Etching 310gsm paper.

Size - 40 x 50 cms

The South Circular Celestial Menagerie print

Archival digital print on Hahnemuhle German Etching 310gsm paper.

Size - 40 x 50 cms

Lessons In Things exhibition coming soon

I have an exhibition coming up soon - 11th -14th April at The Newington Gallery (former Newington library, now part of Art Academy London) on Walworth Road.

For this exhibition I have been producing some new prints, some screen prints, some digital. I will write up a blog post for some of these pieces separately, as there's much to write about!  In the mean time, there is some information on Garudio Studiage website...

Lessons in Things is taken from a beautiful book I own from the Parisian shop Deyrolle, it is a direct translation of 'Leçons de Choses', the title of the book, which contains posters and charts depicting old illustrated educational charts, mainly of animal and plants. Lessons in Things seemed an appropriately vague and arbitrary title for my exhibition, which will consist of charts, maps and diagrams with an anthroloologic (the study of human interactions with other animals) slant.

The Beast of Barnet by Anna Walsh, copyright the artist.

Sea Monster Soup in Ecological Citizen Journal

Ecological Citizen is a peer-reviewed journal with an earth-centred perspective. It features a mixture of articles and artwork that refect the topics of discussion for each issue. My piece 'Sea Monster Soup' was featured in Vol 1, no.2, which included topics such as Biodiversity and bioabundance; Protection and restoration of wilder habitata; Animal welfare; Energy and climate change; Waste and toxics and much more.
 
The journal is freely available online, and can be downloaded/read here (Volume1 issue2 is the one I am featured in) .

See more about 'Sea Monster Soup' on my previous post  

The London Cat Map

Having created a Dogs of London Map well as a Peckham Cat Walk map, finally I have a London Cat Map too!

Londoners, along with the rest of the UK, love their cats and the city is teaming with cat related stories, works of art and historical anecdotes (as well as ACTUAL cats).  Having trawled many books and the internet (the home of cat facts and fiction), as well as the streets of London, I have picked out some of my favourite cats of the capital to hand draw then create the purr-fect plan.  I find digital media the most rewarding when creating such a collage, as it gives me the freedom to experiment with layouts and text, as well as make use of my hand drawn illustrations, and I can mix traditional skills with technology.

A great resource for me when researching this was the website purr-n-fur.org.uk, as well as the ever-brilliant Londonist.

This wholly unscholarly cat-o-graphic map illustrates the history of felines in the capital, and can be purchased as a high quality archival digital print from the Garudio Studiage shop

 

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All Dogs Matter Tea Towel

All Dogs Matter is a charity that rescues and re-homes abandoned dogs in London, and they got in touch with us at Garudio Studiage to see if we would design them a new tea towel to help them raise money.

The design is based on our ‘classic’ Dogs of London tea towel, and features dogs they have re-homed over the years. We picked one from each of the 16 most ‘rescued’ dog breeds in London, according to their records (King Charles Spaniel, Border Terrier, Chihuahua, Husky, Greyhound, Dogue de Bordeaux, Jack Russel Terrier, Border Collie, Golden Retriever, German Shepherd, Bichon Frise, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Yorkshire Terrier, Beagle, Rottweiler and French Bulldog). The tea towel has a 'Was and Now' feature for each dog, so you can find out their story, after Stephanie from ADM tirelessly interviewed each owner!  Myself and Chris worked on the design and illustrations, and ended up adopting our own furry friend from them! A Pomeranian x some-kind of-terrier (a Pomme-de- terre?!) we have named Dante.  All proceeds from the tea towel sales go back to All Dogs Matter, you can buy one here.

Sea Monster Soup print

I have a piece of work in an exhibition 'The Thames The Artery of London' about the river Thames, curated by Plastic Propaganda, on at Devon House, St Katherine Docks, 4^th – 18^th December.

My piece is a 3 colour screen print ‘Sea Monster Soup’ 40 x 50cm.

This piece is inspired by the 1850 engraving 'Monster Soup commonly called Thames Water by William Heath, a satire of a microscopic examination by Arthur Hassell of the water supplied to the inhabitants of London portraying the ‘monsters’ found in a drop of water from the Thames. Just 50 years ago, the Thames was so polluted it was declared "biologically extinct", too dirty for anything to survive there. But  sightings of various marine mammals and other species over the last few years confirm that the river is springing back to life.

There have been regular sightings of harbour and grey seals, dolphins and harbour porpoises, and of course the ill-fated journey into the Thames by the ‘River Thames Whale’ (northern bottlenose whale )  in 2006.

Sea Monster Soup by Anna Walsh

We Built This City new prints

The amazing We Built This City will be re-launching very soon, and for it I designed 2 new London themed prints for Garudio Studiage. Both of them are bird based.  

'London Fancies' is based on the London Fancy Canary, a unique variety of canary bred in London in the 19^th century, deep orange-yellow with jet black wings and tails, which became extinct during the 1^st world war. Canaries were hugely popular with the working classes in London in the 19^th century. One journalist described them as being sent to ’rejoice the hearts of us dwellers in cities’ with their ‘sprightly movements’ and their ‘joyous and irrepressible notes of ecstasy’ (source ‘Beastly London’ by Hannah Velten).  This print aims to replicate that feeling, lifting the hearts of us city dwellers, inspired by natural history illustrations.

 

The second print is ' The East End Champion Chaffinches'.  Champion chaffinches was a cult activity with working class bird fanciers in the east end of London in the late 19^th century. It took place in pubs where wild chaffinches that had been captured were pitched against each other in singing contests. The winner was the bird that sang the most complete tunes during the 15 minute matches. Shoreditch Bobby and Kingsland Roarer  were actual competitors, the  rest are imagined other participants! (source ‘Beastly London’ by Hannah Velten). The style is based on collectable cigarette cards, which came free in cigarette packs, and are still popular decorations in English pubs today.

You will be able to purchase either of them in the new store on Carnaby Street from May  22nd 2015