The Adventures of a Penny was a favourite subject for essays when I was at primary school. I must have had my first go at it sixty years ago, tracing the coin’s history from crisp and shiny newness to the almost featureless black discs of Victorian pennies still in circulation. The coins in our stories […]
Monthly Archives: March 2019
Coronation Anniversary Crown
Editor’s note: In 2002, the Royal Mint selected a design by Tom Phillips for the £5 coin to be circulated in commemoration of the Queen’s Coronation Jubilee. The coin was unveiled by the Royal Mint on 17 December 2002, and on 28 April 2003 it went into circulation. The Royal Mint’s press release is as […]
Cultural Ties
Some time ago I was one of 77 artists selected from around the world to design a tie for a project called Cultural Ties. The ties were produced in editions of 250 by specialist manufacturers near Italy’s Lake Como. The offer afforded a chance to undertake another language painting, and to simultaneously proclaim, “A TIE IS […]
C LOOPSEEND
A shop that I pass regularly on the way to the studio had a small red and white plastic sign saying C LOOPSEEND. Since the shop sold yams and sweet potatoes I assumed that this was the name of the proprietor; the double vowels suggested Dutch however and I was puzzled each time I passed […]
Bubble and Squeak (Terminal Grey Erasures)
Growingly I thought it strange that, though so diligent in using the left over oil paint to make the Terminal Grey series, I ignored the waste in other areas of work. Acrylics have proved a problem in this regard and I have tried many methods, none of which have proved completely satisfactory. It began to seem […]