Artist's Postcards - Unoriginal Sins

12 Mar ET IN ARCADIO EGO. 1999. WITH HANDWRITTEN THANK YOU NOTE FROM FINLAY TO JANET BOULTON.

Posted at 15:32h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1999
16.6 x 11.9cm, 2pp card printed in full colour with an image of the Finlay public work at The Haagse Stream and Court Pool inn den Haag. The entrance of the stream into the larger pool has ET IN ARCADIO EGO in stone above it - given the history of the watercourse which was at one time heavily polluted due to passing through a city dump, then the work reflects the meaning of the original Poussin painting. This card was sent to Janet Boulton by Finlay and has a note in blue ink on it: "Thank you for the lovely momento. To treasure alone with the table sculpture. What a relevant surprise. Love Ian." We hold an exhibition catalogue for this work which is catalogued in the relevant section and discusses it in more details. VG+.

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06 Mar BILLYBOY. 1999.

Posted at 13:44h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1999
19 x 16.5cm, 1pp card printed black and brown on white. A drawing of A one masted boat by Nina Ivancic is denoted by Finlay as:

FOLK BOAT
billyboy

Billyboy boats are "bluff-bowed one-masted trading vessels, native to the NE of England." and there is a warning "not to be confused with the famous Folkboat ('people's yacht')". VG+.

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28 Feb PATCH. 1999.

Posted at 13:37h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1999
19.5 x 18.8cm, 1pp card printed black and brown on cream. A line art drawing of the patched sails of a boat with the number FY 27 by Andrew Whittle is conjoined with a quote from Peter Anson's Mariners of Brittany.

"The trousers and jumpers of the men vary in hue from the brightest orange vermilion to the palest rose pink, and are decorated with every imaginable sort of patch."

A patch is defined by Finlay as Patch, n, a whole part.
As noted in other works Finlay saw the act of patching as denoting care and giving worth to things. This image is also found in the unique large sculptural work FY27 in this collection. . VG+.

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20 Feb A SOLITARY LANE. 1999.

Posted at 13:21h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1999
16 x 14.4cm, 4pp card printed black on white with a linocut by Jo Hincks of a stern of a ship and its wake.. A text below by Finlay notes:

a solitary laner
swelling and vanishing
opened at the stern

Comparing the wake with a country lane winding behind (or in front ) of you. VG+.

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04 Feb ECHOES SERIES. IN PREACHING. 1999.

Posted at 12:09h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1999
6.2 x 6.3cm, 4pp card printed black on grey. Two poems both inspired by Bishop Andrewes from his "Devotions" collection of prayers. The firs shows the word as the sea (as often found in Christian iconography) and the second the land as the sea. Both list objects and animals found in (firstly) Christian preaching and secondly during a walk. VG+.

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01 Feb ILLUSTRATIONS. 1999.

Posted at 12:04h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1999
10 x 12.5cm, 2pp card printed black on light blue. Finlay lists nine of the Flower Class Corvettes that served in the Battle of the Atlantic as if they were a calendar - they are ordered in the months that they first sailed after completion. The list is also reminiscent of how the French revolutionary calendar renamed months after objects. VG+.

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29 Jan AN APPRECIATION OF THE RN FLOWERS. 1999.

Posted at 12:00h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1999
7.6 x 12.6cm, 2pp card printed black on grey. Finlay's text is a one word poem:

An Appreciation of the RN Flowers
Perennials

The use of Perennials - a plant that comes out every year reminds us of the annual commemorations for those who fought in our wars. VG+.

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07 Jan FLOWER STEM (2). 1999.

Posted at 10:46h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1999
18.5 x 6.4cm, 4pp card printed black on white with a drawing of the front of a boat with a Plimsel line which ascends to the number XIX by Jo Hincks. Finlay notes the resemblance of the shape of the front of a boat to a stalk of a flower. This is the second of two cards which have the same image and text - the only difference being size. VG+.

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05 Jan FLOWER STEM (1). 1999.

Posted at 10:41h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1999
33.8 x 11.3cm, 4pp card printed black on white with a drawing of the front of a boat with a Plimsel line which ascends to the number XIX by Jo Hincks. Finlay notes the resemblance of the shape of the front of a boat to a stalk of a flower. This is the first of two cards which have the same image and text - the only difference being size. VG+.

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02 Jan A LAST WORD: RUDDER. 1999.

Posted at 10:06h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1999
12.5 x 9cm, 4pp card printed red on white. A line art drawing of rudder by Gary Hincks has the text: "A last word: Rudder" on the steering handle.
A rudder is, of course, the last element of a boat and, in terms of being the part that causes the direction of the vessel, also has 'the last word". VG+.

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20 Dec FACT CARD 1. 1998.

Posted at 09:06h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1998
9.7 x 152cm, 2pp card printed black on deep green. The "fact" revealed on the card is that "over 200 Flowers served as convoy escorts in WW2" - again referring to the Flower Class of corvettes that were used in the war as protection for the merchant navy bringing supplies from the USA to Britain. VG+.

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13 Dec FOR ‘LEMONS’ READ ‘ZULU’. 1998.

Posted at 09:01h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1998
12.7 x 10.2cm, 4pp (gatefold) artist's card with the text "for 'lemons' read 'zulu'" in the middle panel. This is a work based on an earlier poem by Thomas A Clark which reads "for yellow read lemon"
Finlay regularly in his work denotes lemons as symbolically (due to shape) representing boats and here he makes it more specific and notes the type of boat (a zulu). The representation of the colour yellow from Clark is now representing a type of boat by extension. VG+.

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