Urgent appeal by the Daily Mail for some real news

Apparently the Daily Mail newspaper is in urgent need of some real news to put on its front page so if you have some please do let them know.  Like many other online retailers we are not best pleased with today’s front page where the Daily Mail is clearly scraping the barrel in trying to get people to buy their newspaper.  Alleged problems at Marks & Spencer and John Lewis are blown out of all proportion into a frightening nightmare of nobody getting their online orders in time for Christmas.  Do the Daily Mail journalists think their readers are really that daft?  Probably.  Are they?  Hmmmmm.

Well, as we work a seven day week and use a variety of shipping methods calculated to ensure that none of our customers are left disappointed by the non-arrival of those special and hard-to-find collectibles, out-of-print books, limited editions, prints and posters let’s all feel some sympathy for those poor Daily Mail journalists who must truly be at their wits end if they have to scrape the barrel like this.  But enough of that Daily Mail nonsense, just come visit us and see what you can buy without rushing around in the wet and the cold by clicking here.

How I loathe it !!!

Oddly enough we continue to get plenty of orders in during the world cup and I guess that goes to show that there are plenty of people who don’t get totally obsessed with the football when the world cup is on.  It warms my heart since, although I know it won’t make me many friends at Footballaholics Anonymous, I absolutely loathe football.  And this year I made the grand mistake of visiting my parents during the world cup where my father, brother and his girlfriend are fully paid up members of footballaholics.  Although they were often happy to watch football with the sound turned off the craving football addiction meant that it MUST be seen.  And what  was seen exactly?  Well, the sight of two blokes cracking heads just before the final whistle put me in mind of the old film Rollerball and hearing later that a truly nasty tackle had broken a player’s spine put me in mind of a Roman amphitheatre.  When you add in the way it has all become a massive moneyspinner and corruption abounds how much of the original game actually remains in this barbaric bloody quaestuary?  We English of course have the added ignominy of having created a game that we never win … but then, no surprise there as we’ve managed that with almost every game we’ve ever invented … apart from Polo apparently … the countries that could beat us probably can’t afford the high bills needed to run a Polo team.  Maybe you need to be totally insensitive to watch the stuff that regularly happens in football and still think it is a game.  Anyway, I doubt that any footballaholics would actually bother reading anything I write on this Blog so I’m probably safe from all those nasty trollish comments that a diatribe like this usually evokes.  So; yes, I will be celebrating the Football World Cup Final tomorrow … celebrating that it is over and won’t happen for another four years … why not make it forty?  Then I’d really have cause to celebrate.  :-)

The astounding John Zehentner

For several years we have been visiting the art exhibition at Southport that always has some interesting art and sculpture by various talented local people.  There is quite variety and by and large a much higher standard than you’d expect for a free entrance gallery in a seaside resort.  Some of the pieces over the years have been quite large and challenging.  I doubt that anyone who has seen it will ever forget the dimly lit cavern of Buddhist heads

John Zehentner Multirose 1
John Zehentner Multirose 1

and the seriously tragic and truly emotionally moving reality it signifies.  There have been unusual lightshows and audience paticipation art, a variety of scuptural works in various mediums as well as more traditional oil and acrylic paintings.  Amongst the paintings an artist that always stood out, to the point that we’d go in saying, “I wonder if he’s got a new one up” was the art of local artist John Zehentner.

Last week we went to see the art exhibition in its new home round the corner from where it used to be.  The block of units is mostly empty and the owners appear to be allowing this group to use the units that are not sold but this means they do have to move as a unit is sold.  We were pleased to find five John Zehenter paintings on display that we haven’t seen before addressing the current theme of the exhibition which is ‘Metamorphosis’.  One is an old piece based on Smithfield Meat Market in London where John Zehentner comes from (London that is, not the meat market!).  This one is an unusual combination of painting and sculpture with the frame hanging on a meat hook that actually comes from

John Zehentner Abstract Jazz 4
John Zehentner Abstract Jazz 4

Smithfield Meat Market.  Another painting shows a single figure transformed through the mediums of cubism, impressionism and realism from top to bottom.

Onthe way out I remarked to the lady on the door that we particularly like John Zehentner’s work and she pointedto a chap nearby and said, “Actually, this is Mr. Zehentner”.   He explained the thinking behind each picture in quite an understated way and I am pretty sure he has no real idea yet how good he is. Given the attitude of many people to art, like the well-known cliche ‘I don’t know much about art but I know what I like’, it is not hard for a artist to feel that their work is not appreciated.  This is especially so when the best of artists like John Zehentner are their own harshest critic and the standard they aspire to is one that they will probably never reach.   Still, as you can see from the couple of images included here, this is hardly the work of a novice.  This is an artist who has honed his skills and has real vision.  It is also not the work of an

John Zehentner Old People's Home
John Zehentner A Bit of Tea and Sympathy

artist who only knows how to do one particular style or subject.  One of the fascinating aspects of John Zehentner’s art is the range of expression coupled with a human warmth and a sense of humour. But of course you’ll need to see larger versions of his work than these small images to appreciate the style and technique properly.

It was fabulous to be able to discuss the art directly with him and we are going to look at the possibility of making his art available in print form since practically none of it is available as prints or posters at present.  Watch this space and check out our updates page at our main site for developments in this regards.

Glorious Schuiten !

The Final Plan by Francois Schuiten
The Final Plan by Francois Schuiten

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If you haven’t seen the amazing artwork of Francois Schuiten then just click on the image above and see a whole range of the most stunning artwork you could imagine.  These small images cannot really do justice to Francois Schuiten art though.  The large fine art prints of Francois Schuiten’s drawings are unbelievably impressive and are often used as a centrepiece for a large room.  Artists like Francois Schuiten show quite clearly how artists who made their name in drawing comic books are often as talented and at least as creative as other artists despite the long-term prejudices in many art colleges against comic art as a worthwhile profession for a “real” artist.  Perhaps it will be the work of people like Francois Schuiten that will one be hanging in the world’s national art galleries.  Francois Schuiten gives you an amazing perspective, tones and colours that hint at some kind of film noire plot that is not explicit but only hinted at.  There is almost a sense of vertigo in some of the art and books play a prominent role.  To have a look at more of the incredible art of Francois Schuiten all you need to do is click on the image or if that is a bit too far away then how about right here.

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Alan Lee signed prints finally back in stock

After a long time of waiting we have finally managed to slot into the very busy filming schedule of Oscar-winning Tolkien artist Alan Lee to get some more prints signed by him so there are now more signed Hobbit and Lord of the Rings prints available as long as they last.

Since some of the prints themselves are hard to come by we don’t have all of them in great quantity so if you want a particular one best be quick or it may well disappear quite quickly.

You’ll find them all on this link here.

Otherwise, you’ll find the latest new items in all categories on our Latest Updates Page here.

Or if you want to do a search for something on Artists UK then you can do that by clicking here.

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