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Wednesday, 9 March 2016

Missing a trip to London and making a trip to London.


Do you ever feel like the Universe is conspiring against you?  Well, perhaps that is a little romantic but certainly, sometimes, some things are not meant to be.

On 26th February, our University group were scheduled to visit the House of Illustration in London. I was looking forward to the trip immensely and had a full day planned, the exhibitions at the House of Illustration and the guest speakers, a trip to the Portrait Gallery and it's next door neighbour the National Gallery, and a coffee and chat with an illustrator.  Train tickets were purchased (it worked better for me with travel and childcare to travel from Nottingham rather than the provided-by-the-University coaches).  I have worked in London on many occasions so I dusted off my Oyster card and anticipated the trip with excitement.

And then my Aunt passed away. My Aunt was a huge influence on my childhood love of art, as referred to in previous blogs. A celebration of her life and her humanistic funeral were planned for 26th February.

I missed the trip.  Of course.  We celebrated the life of a fantastic lady and I inherited a small dog of indeterminate breed.  However I was also reminded of the passion for art that my Aunt had, and shared, just by staying in her lovely Hampstead house.

 Her house is filled with art, some reproduction, some original, including the portrait of my late Uncle, William Hare,5th Earl of Listowel, shown at the top of this blog entry. Again I was reminded of years of looking at paintings, buying postcard prints from Galleries and pinning them to the cork tiles of my 1970's bedroom, and drawing, drawing, scribbling and reproducing in my own childish hand on any available surface.

So I missed the trip.  But I did research it a little, mainly by grilling my peers over coffee in the University cafe. 

One thing that always fascinates me is how, given a brief, every illustrator will come up with a different response.  I had been browsing the wonderful work on the Guardian website here; illustrator submissions  for the Folio Society competition for new artwork for the cover of War Horse and had posted a link on our Visual Communication Facebook page.  I had no idea at the time, that this exhibition was held at the House of Illustration and would have loved to have seen this work 'in the flesh'. I was also sad to miss a talk by Merlin Evans, a prolific illustrator whom I admire greatly for both her versatility and work ethic as well as her style.  Merlin produces medical illustrations, hugely detailed and beautiful, as well as working for clients including Camp Bestival, a regular 'must go' festival for my daughter and I. She also often works in what I am learning is called a 'reportage style' - a style that interests me very much and one I am experimenting with in a current brief for the National Trust. I am bravely putting one of Merlin's images side by side with one of my own - please be aware mine is in draft, but you will see that this is a very interesting way of getting a lot of information onto one illustration and could provide another source of income if it's something that I can learn to do well.
Helen Collard

Merlin Evans















So although it was disappointing to miss the trip, all is not lost. The galleries I intended to visit are still there.  The illustrator I had planned to meet has kindly given me an e-mail interview instead, and the House of Illustration is available to visit, so this will be rescheduled at some point as I plan to do a couple of days of London galleries.  I have not been to the RA, the Tate Modern or, my personal favourite, the Tate itself, for far too long.

H. x




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