28 Feb

Posted at 16:19h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1971
12 x 16.6cm, 2pp. Black on cream with a drawing of various sweets much as one would find on a key sheet in a chocolate box. Some of the sweets however has been given a nautical feel (the rum truffle having a barrel on it being a reminder of how seamen would be given daily grog) or renamed after a boat eg Apricot Jam Boat. Below the drawing is a quotation: "To the initiated they bring almost instant meaning. it is doubtful whether flags will ever become obsolete no matter what advances science may offer." - anyone who has ever had a favourite chocolate (mine is cheery brandy) will know instantly which in a box to snaffle.
The car gives acknowledgment to Simon Cutts who had done similar "Flag" images in the 60s (and which were published in books that also anthologised Finlay). One of 500 printed. VG+.

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19 Feb

Posted at 16:11h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1971
14.6 x 9.5cm, 2pp. Blue and red on white - the front of the card has the text "William & Rose, with a pair of reefs down" above the blue rectangle bordered in red. Donald McGill was a baudy illustrator who made his fame from creating saucy sea-side postcards, the text on the front hints at that slight sexuality with the "pair of reefs down" hinting at the removal of clothing by William and his Rose- whereas in sailing, reefing is the means of reducing the area of a sail, usually by folding or rolling one edge of the canvas in on itself. A humorous allusion. VG+.

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14 Feb

Posted at 16:06h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1971
11.7 x 16.5cm, 2pp. B/w photo-image by Gloria Wilson of graffiti on a wooden wall where the majority of words are names of boats written by a crew member. - hence an 'anthology' of those who had visited the space. The location of the photograph is not known by us. VG+.

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11 Jan

Posted at 15:33h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1971
10.5 x 14.8cm, 2pp. Red and black silkscreen on cream card with a drawing (by A. Doyle Moore) of the named ship which is silhouetted in heavy black against the sky. The boat type is a zulu and the one pictured called "Chieftain". The reference is presumably to a black native chief hence a visual poem - something that more modern sensibilities would nowadays probably not be acceptable. VG+.

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15 Dec

Posted at 15:28h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1970
11.7 x 16.4cm, 4pp. Christmas card with the image of a fishing boat by John Furnival along with the Port Letters (FR), the Fishing Nos (531), the net tonnage (53), horse power (42) and its name (Xmas Rose). A visual poem by Finlay - a companion work to the one published year earlier (Xmas Star). Both Xmas cards were also published as much larger prints by the Press. In this drawing the boat is facing left, the first card has the boat facing righ - perhaps the first going to fish, the second returning to port.
Finlay's interest in boat names and numbers is reflected in the beauty of Furnival's line drawing. The boat is a poem on water. VG+.

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11 Dec

Posted at 15:22h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1970
11.2 x 11.2cm, 4pp. Green on white card. The image on the front is a drawing by Richard Demarco of a beehive that has fallen over in snow. Inside the text "A USE FOR OLD BEEHIVES./An old beehive upturned on the lawn, makes a suitable receptacle for snowdrifts." The drawing has falling snow that could be seen as bees in a different not winter context. Published late in the year one is tempted to assume this drawing was from an event at the Finlay farm and this is a festive card in some sense.

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20 Nov

Posted at 09:26h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorne Press, 1970
15 x 15cm, 6pp. Paper sculpture and fold out card - the text is the SEA’S WAVES’ SHEAVES creates a visual correspondence between the movement of water and a field of barley or wheat - both corn and water move rhythmically due to the wind but once the vegetation is tied together it becomes a solid manifestation much like a boat. Printed blue and silver on white thick card. VG+.

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17 Nov

Posted at 15:15h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1970
11.6 x 16.5cm, 2pp. Red and black on white silkscreen on card. The text is overprinted on a flat red but with a white vertical dashed line. A rip-tide is a fast current of water that moves directly away from the shore (hence usually regarded as dangerous for swimmers) and the white line represents that as well as a tear in a paper or sail. Hence the red can be also seen as a sail with a repair (stitching). The colon in the text falls exactly on the white line also - in some way a second "patch". VG+

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14 Nov

Posted at 15:07h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1970
14.9 x 10.4cm, 2pp. Blue and black on white silkscreen to create an artist's postcard. Seemingly a musical work with quavers on a stave, the drawing by Ron Costley also looks like birds sitting on telephone wires. Les Hirondelles is the French for swallows - the small, fast flying birds which have a distinctive tripartite song - much like the grouping of the notes here. VG+. A lovely card and if one is musical one could play the notes.

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20 Oct

Posted at 14:53h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1970
15 x 10.5cm, 2pp. The card has a drawing by Gardner on the front of a floating water lily. the text below "A WATERLILY POOL/h'arbour" reminds one of the way the leaves in a water lily can enclose a space of water and also a shelter for small insects or even fish - hence an arbour of sorts. VG+.

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16 Oct

Posted at 14:45h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1970 12.5x 6.8cm, 2pp. The card is the one of a series that reproduce phrases found in journals and newspapers together to tell a quasi-story or visual poem. Here the headline "SHETLAND BOATS TURN TO SCALLOPS" is on the surface a tale of a change in fishing strategy - but of course it also can be read as a amusing transformation of the boats into shells. This reminds one of the classical tales of Ovid's "Metamorphoses" where every story is of a change in form for a participant (thus the use of 'metamorphoses' in the card's title). Additionally scallop's hollowed out shells have the shapes of boat hulls and Finlay has chosen an outline font for the main text which reflects that hollowing out in some typographic analogue way. As ever, several meanings are to be found in a simple work. Fine.

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11 Oct

Posted at 14:37h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1970
10.5 x 15cm, 4pp. Artist's postcard with a line drawing by Margot Sandeman of a garden gate and various flowers.
The text inside the card reads:

"ARCADIAN SUNDIALS. All Times on these sundials are Solar Time."

The elements of the garden all cast shadows and can be regarded as measures of solar time. This card is signed "love from Margot (Sandeman)" in ink and is else VG+.
With original unprinted postal envelope.

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