Ken Cox

On Tuesday evening we went to the opening of an exhibition of paintings by two old friends of ours, Ken and Margot Cox, at Gallery 286 in Earls Court, London. Ken Cox works in mixed media and silkscreen prints in a kind of 'pop art' style that employs references to comics and contemporary culture. Margot Cox is more traditional, doing vibrant abstracted landscapes in vigorous brushstrokes and has been working on a series of ballet dancers drawn on the spot. I'll put some of Ken's work up today, and Margot's next.
Ken subverts the form of vintage American comic books with multi-layered screen prints that reflect preoccupations with time, love and loss incorporating resonant words, quotes and phrases.
Ken Cox MA RCA is a professional illustrator, fine artist and musician with his own Jazz Combo 'Blues Set'.

Berman House

 
Berman House is a very modern house built in a spectacular setting in Joadja, Australia. It was designed by Harry Seidler & Associates.

 
Built in virgin countryside near the top of a deep valley with a winding river below, the house is placed against a rock cliff with a suspended living area and projecting balcony overlooking the dramatic natural setting. Following the rocky plateau, the plan is arranged on two levels with the glazed pavilion of the living area below the upper bedroom wing.

Utilising the site's ample sandstone boulders, support and projecting screen walls anchor the house into the rugged terrain. A dam wall between two rock cliffs creates a deep natural swimming pool with an ample water supply in the case of bushfires. The house is built entirely of fireproof materials. Roof water is collected into a central tank under the house.

Noma Bar

 Avinoam Noma Bar (born in 1973 in Israel) is a Graphic Designer. His work has appeared in many media outlets including Time Out London, BBC, Random House, The Observer, The Economist and Wallpaper*.

Bar has illustrated over sixty magazine covers, published over 550 illustrations and released two books of his work through Mark Batty Publisher: 'Guess Who - The Many Faces of Noma Bar', in 2008 and 'Negative Space' in early 2009.

Bar wanted to be an artist since he was a child. During the first Gulf War Bar discovered his interest in a unique combination of caricature and pictograms. While staying with his family in a shelter he sketched the likeness of Saddam Hussein around the radioactive symbol he found in a newspaper.

After graduating in 2000 from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design with a degree in graphic design, Bar moved to London to peruse his career. He found his first commissioned assignment with Time Out London. He was recently was hired by BAFTA to illustrate the nominees for best picture of 2009.

Another nice thought-provoking ad from WWF:

Colours of India

My photo essay of some of the wonderful colours of India expressed through its people:

Kerala & Tea

In 2009 Pauline and I spent some time high in the Western Ghats of Kerala, India, amongst the tea plantations. This is a short background to tea cultivation in Kerala illustrated with photographs taken during that trip.

Pauline in a tea plantation

Commercial tea cultivation in India was suggested to the East India Company as early as 1778 by the English botanist Sir Joseph Banks. The first shipment of eight chests of Indian tea reached London in 1839 and auctioned at high prices.
In south India the first experiments with tea cultivation in the Nilgiris [the Blue Mountains] were in 1834. Development of the Kanan Devan Hills around Munnar by James Finlay & Co during 1878 with tea as the exclusive crop is a major landmark in the history of development of tea in south India. By 1900 the area under tea in south India reached 12,670 ha and production touched 2,315 tonnes. Most of the production was exported to Britain.

A carpet of tea rolling over the contours

The elevation rises from 950 to 2,600 metres above sea level. The green carpet of tea interspersed with silver oaks and eucalyptus trees. Some of the tea fields in the region at 2,200 metres are among the highest in the world. Due to the elevation advantage, tea produced in the region is of very good quality.

Tea pickers amongst the tea

The tea plant is a camellia [Camellia Sinensis]. Tea bushes grow to tree height in the wild but on plantations they are maintained at waist height to enable picking. Only the bud and first two leaves of each shoot are picked. Apart from tea bushes other plants grown on tea plantations include pepper, cardamom, cashew and areca nut. We saw also coconut, rubber, banana and kapok.

The tea pickers were a friendly lot

Tea bushes are planted 1 to 1.5 metres apart to follow the natural contours of the landscape. Trees are often planted amongst the tea to provide a little shade. The tea is plucked every 5-10 days depending on where it is grown. The Sinensis variety is a hardy plant able to withstand cold winters and has an economic life of around 100 years. Most of the tea plantations we saw around Munnar would have been of this age.

Today, India is one of the largest tea producers in the world, though over 70% of the tea is consumed within India itself. A number of renowned teas, such as Darjeeling also grow exclusively in India. The Indian tea industry has grown to own many global tea brands, and has evolved to one of the most technologically equipped tea industries in the world. Tea production, certification, exportation, and all other facets of the tea trade in India are controlled by the Tea Board of India.

Bagging up at the end of the day

Angie Lewin

Angie Lewin is an illustrator and designer who was born in 1963. She was educated at Northwich, Camberwell and Central St Martins Colleges of Art studying printmaking, glass, architecture and fine art. Her decorative prints are quite ubiquitous and available in many print shops and galleries.

She works from her studios in Norfolk and in the Cairngorms, where she is greatly inspired by the natural environment. Images are based on plant forms, especially seed heads seen against sea and sky. Influences also include the contrasting landscape and native plants of the Scottish Highlands.

Angie Lewin has worked in a range of printmaking techniques including lithography, silkscreen, wood-engraving and etching. Recently she has concentrated on linocut and wood engraving. She prints small editions of rarely more than 35 onto Japanese paper.

Her motifs successfully transfer between media, from fine art printmaking to interior design fabrics. Her Dandelion One and Two fabric designs were included in the nominations for the Elle Decoration Design Awards 2006.

Her designs are also extensively used on a range of greetings cards and stationery.