Two Beasts, by
Rose de Borman.
15% of the sale of this print goes to the
Médecins Sans Frontières.
Rose de Borman lives and works in East London. In the last few years, she has been making paintings on the backside of glass – often layered, in response to an old folk art method. She also continues to work on paper, with etching and printmaking processes. In addition to her artwork, Rose also designs, dyes and prints textiles. She has developed her own line of textiles, and also takes on commissions.
Rose’s work has been described as charming, humourous, unusual, awkward, and old fashioned. There is often an animal or two in her pieces.
About the print:This is a relief print made from a linocut. The animals depicted are somewhere between dogs, leopards, and general beasts. My animals are often a mixture of different animals - I prefer them not to be representations of any creature in particular. I’m drawn to animals that are graceful, but teetering towards awkwardness, such as
lurchers and deer with their spindly, twig legs. I like animals with cumbersome bodies. I appreciate the fine line between elegant poise and the clumsy stumble. Having said that, the leopard-lion-beasts in this print aren’t looking so clumsy. They are kind beasts and are at ease. I recently saw some
Gauguin woodcuts in Paris, so I suppose this must have seeped into the decision to create this relief print, as I haven’t worked with linocuts in a while. I also love the prints of the South American artist
J. Borges - they inspire me.
This is a linocut printed by hand with oil-based ink on 300gsm cream-colored, acid-free printmaking paper. Each was signed and numbered by the artist.
Process print.
Do you have any process sketches that led up to this piece?Yes, a smaller piece that features the two beasts with fireworks and volcanoes in the background. I liked the process drawing, too – it has a different feel to it, but I decided I wanted to change the positions of the animals, make the whole print bigger, and add curly fur to the little one.
What has inspired you recently?I just finished a group of paintings for the Museum of British Folklore, and have been looking at British folk customs that have to do with mourning in particular, such as
telling bees about a death. I think bees might be cropping up in my work again in the future, as they are amazing creatures.
Otherwise, in the last few months I have been inspired by
Fra Angelico, Russian popular woodcuts, speckled things, egg shaped things, medieval paintings from a French church,
Slipware,
Prattware,
Fante flags, Ottoman embroidery and Turkish knitting and oya lace, wood grain effects, brick effects, people’s gardens, Shetland shawls and Fair Isle patterns, hooked rugs from Northumberland, Bedlington terriers, gravestone imagery, Afghan war rugs, ancient Egyptian paintings, Ewe cloths of Ghana, Ikats from Uzbekistan, Polish papercuts, Pennsylvanian fractures, and old quilts. And, as always, dogs and dog-like creatures, wolves and beasts, and some painters including
Ben Nicholson,
Vuillard,
Matisse,
Balthus, Christopher Wood, David Jones,
Paul Nash, some
Paula Rego,
Pieter Breugal, early
Lucian Freud,
Eric Ravilious, and a whole host of other folk and ‘outsider’ artists.
Why did you choose to pair Médecins Sans Frontières with your print?When I was about eleven, I heard about
Médecins Sans Frontières and decided that it was what I wanted to do. My mum was so proud. Somewhere along the way I forgot, got lost, and ended up at art school. I suppose that this is the closest I’ll get to my original wish, which is really nowhere near it, so please buy this print to alleviate my art guilt. On a serious note, what Médecins Sans Frontières does is clearly totally incredible, so please buy this print to help them help millions of people across the world.
How have you seen art transform the world around you?I’m not sure why, but society seems to need art, although in its fundamental nature we don’t ‘need’ it. The creation of art in some form or another seems to exist in all functioning societies. I’m afraid I can’t put my finger on one particular, transforming instance, as I have been lucky enough to have grown up in a place where art has always been around. I see it every day in fine art in galleries, to the unusual way someone has painted the brickwork of their house in different colours.
If you could pick one artist to mentor you, who would it be?Very difficult question. If I get this wish then I’ll have to do some proper research, as a lot of my favourite artists would make terrible mentors. Off the top of my head,
Eduard Vuillard has been an unchanging favourite of mine since I was a teenager.
Matisse would be another one. He would be fun to work with, I think, and a bit more open to experiments (and possibly to my failings). In terms of a living artist, I think
Grayson Perry would be really interesting to work with.
Who are some artists you think people should know about?If you are ever in the North of England, you must go see the cement menagerie made by
John Fairnington in Branxton, Northumberland. He would not have called himself an artist, and at most, his pieces might be called ‘art brut’, but he made hundreds of creatures and people from cement in his back garden for his disabled son. I just returned from a trip there, and it is one of the most enchanting and touching things I have ever seen. In answer to your earlier question, I think John’s son could tell you how art has transformed the world around him.
Recently, I stumbled across the work of a man called
Chris Hipkiss which looks interesting. I’d also like to see more of
Jockum Nordstrom’s work in the flesh. Otherwise, my good friends
Maxwell Wade,
Betsy Dadd,
Neal Jones,
Caitlin Hinshelwood, and
Richard Forbes Hamilton are all extremely good artists!
