Final weekend of AT Open House

This weekend is your last chance to wander over to AT open house, have a snoop around their beautiful little terrace, sit in the garden, eat lots of delicious cake, drink plenty of tea and of course check out the huge selection of work from 13 artists, designers and printmakers.

To whet your appetite a little more, here are my favourite Petting Zoo & Collectables screen prints available at the house and also in the web shop.

Sign Language. Photographs by Marc Shur

These stunning images of long forgotten signs in all their faded glory are the work of photographer Marc Shur. A self-confessed lover of old things, he wants his 'Sign Language' photographs to highlight the beauty and history in these old signs and give them back their grandure.

"I strive for a sense of hyperrealism and a graphic feel in my photographs, wanting the signs to be larger than life, appearing much bigger and important than they do in real life. I want people to see the colors and details as if they were standing just a few feet away".

Marc's website and Flickr are an absolute feast of distressed and ageing signage all beautifully photographed - be sure to take a look, but only when you have plenty of time to spare!

All images copyright Marc Shur
Via Type for Now

Blind Veterans UK Photography Exhibition

This year marks 75 years since Blind Veterans UK (originally St Dunstan's) opened their Brighton rehabilitation, care and training centre to provide lifelong support for ex-servicemen and women blinded in action.

To celebrate, they've opened their 1930's chapel to the public as part of the Artists Open Houses to showcase the Blind Veterans UK Photography Exhibition.

The exhibition mixes old and new photography with wonderful archive images taken during their 75 years at the Ovingdean site (below) sat alongside recent images taken by our friend & Digital Bungalow co-founder, Darren Baldwin to capture everyday life at the centre in it's 75th year (above).

I think you'll agree Darren's images are thought-provoking and charming. They, "expertly draw the viewer in and capture the 'feeling' of this unusual, interesting and magical building".

The exhibition is open 10-4pm every weekend in May, but don't worry if you can't get over there, you can view the full set of Darren's pics here.

Recent images copyright Darren Baldwin.
Archive images copyright Blind Veterans UK.

Digital Bungalow Review AT Open House

The lovely folks at Digital Bungalow have written a great review of AT Open house with lots of pics for those who can't make it themselves. Read the full article here.

Images copyright Darren Baldwin at Digital Bungalow.

Dave Thompson Sussex Prints

Our friends at Castor & Pollux have a great selection of Dave Thompson's Sussex giclee prints in stock at the moment. Based on mid-century travel posters, this nostalgic range highlights iconic buildings and landmarks in and around Sussex. These are my favourites, but check out the full range here.

All images copyright Dave Thompson.

Hand-lettered linocuts for AT Open House

Here's our new range of A5 and A4 hand-lettered linocuts available at AT Open house from this weekend.

AT Open House 2013 Line-up

It's almost that time again, in less than a week AT Open house will fling open it's doors for the first Artists Open house weekend.

We'll be there with a selection of letterpress prints, cards, notebooks, totes, vintage circus prints and some new linocuts, as will AT regulars Dead Methods, Snorkus, Alice Pattullo, Petting Zoo, Mr Wingate, Hello Dodo, James Sawyer, Nathan James, Natalie Martin and Winsome & Saucy.

In addition this year, we have a new artist joining the AT gang - fabulous illustrator Claire Scully aka. The Quiet Revolution.

Claire describes her work as, "a mix of strange utopian worlds and parallel universes with juxtapositions of the unexpected, playing with scale and narrative".

I had a sneaky peek at the Giclee prints she's selling at AT open house and believe me, they look good on screen but when you see them up close and full scale, the detail in astounding.

AT open house will be open 11-6 every weekend throughout May. So be sure to pop down and say hello, there's always a fresh pot of tea/coffee on the go and lots and lots of cake!

Fret not, if you can't make it over, you can keep up-to-date on the AT blog and once the show starts all the work will be available in their online shop.

Images copyright Claire Scully.

Auto Type XXVXI

Auto type XXVXI - a very US heavy selection of auto type from a show last summer with a very rare French example thrown in for good measure! I do love the quirky French 'Aronde' lettering, but the 'V8' is one of my all time favourites -  I never tire of looking at it.

If you need a break this afternoon, make a cuppa grab a biscuit and check out our full Auto Type collection here or here.

Happy Birthday Norman Parkinson

Today would have been legendary fashion photographer Norman Parkinson's 100th birthday, the man many consider to be the 'father of fashion photography' and it's easy to see why.

Born Ronald William Parkinson Smith in London, 1913 he started his photographic career as an apprentice to court photographers Speaight & Sons before opening his own studio in 1934. By 1938 fashion & portrait photography was becoming his main line of work with him regularly contributing to The Bystander and shooting on location for the British edition of Harper's Bazaar.

During the war Parkinson split his time between farming and working as recconnaissance photographer for the RAF. But after the war he returned to the more glamorous world of fashion and joined Condé Nast where he remained until 1960 shooting iconic images for British & American Vogue.

In 1964 he emigrated to Tobago to focus on his passion for farming, but remained a dominant force in fashion photography until his death in 1990 shooting on location for Vogue, Life and Elle.

Parkinson shot his models in real life scenes, in exotic locations and with unusual props. A breath of fresh air to fashion photography. He wanted his models to, "be out there in the fields jumping over the hayocks".

To celebrate the wonderful life & works of this legendary photographer, BBC4 are showing a 60 minute documentary tonight at 9pm and if you want to see his images in all their glory there's a retrospective of his work, 'Lifework: Norman Parkinson's Century of Style' running at the National Theatre, London until the 12th May.

All images copyright Norman Parkinson / Norman Parkinson Archive.