I AM. The words are those of Christ in St John’s Gospel. Gouache, raised gold on gesso, gold leaf on gum ammoniac, and powdered gold, on paper. Exhibited at Lichfield Cathedral in ‘Holy Writ’, 2014, and in the Crafts Study Centre, Farnham in 2015.
Category: Calligraphy
Bookes of Gold
A quotation from Thomas Campion’s ‘Booke of Ayres’, in which he compares the lightness of song to gold leaves, depicted as an alchemical diagram.
Grenfell Commemoration
A list of names of some of the victims of the Grenfell fire, commissioned by a community centre they attended, using images of rose windows and birds to give a message of hope.
Wedding calligraphy
A well-loved quotation written in Italic as a wedding present.
A Tale of Two Cities
Opening from ‘A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens. Gouache on paper. Originally planned as a demonstration piece for a calligraphic event at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the piece was subsequently commissioned and acquired by the V and A.
All Art
All Art: a quotation from the 19th century art critic Walter Pater in which he compares the abstract qualities of art to music. Collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Sailor’s Song
Inspired by Purcell’s music for Dido and Aeneas and nautical imagery. Words by Nahum Tate.
The Five Sisters of York
The Five Sisters of York is a legend told in Dickens’s novel Nicholas Nickleby, relating the origin of a stained glass window in York Minster. Gouache and gold on grey-brown paper. Exhibited in York Minster in 2016.
Crocodile: ‘Not the right words’
Lewis Carroll’s poem ‘How doth the little crocodile’ written out in illuminated calligraphy, alongside the morality rhyme which it mocks, ‘How doth the little busy bee’ by Isaac Watts.
Salutation
Salutation: the five words of greeting open the Second Epistle of St John. Gouache and gold on vellum, mounted on coloured paper with gilded plants relating to the adjacent words. Exhibited in York Minster in 2016.
Anne de Bretagne
An illuminated broadsheet on the subject of Anne of Brittany, twice Queen of France, including her and her fiance/husbands’ coats of arms and an old French nursery rhyme.
Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal
Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal, a sonnet by Tennyson, with layout and script inspired by Islamic calligraphy. 2020