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| John Chamberlain at York Does Vintage in March 2012 |
Time to meet another one of stallholders. We like to offer a range of stalls at our events, including artists and one who we've had at our York fairs is the artist and illustrator John Chamberlain. This year John has been at York Does Vintage and also our sister fair Yorkshire Best.
1. At our events what do you have on your stall?
I have a range
of screenprints, original drawings and paintings as well as the chance
to get your portrait made in the John Chamberlain style.
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| Marc Bolan. Ink, acrylic and pastel pencil on watercolour paper. |
2. When did you decide you wanted to be an artist?
There
wasn’t a ‘Damascene’ moment where I decided to become an artist but
simply a series of fortunate events I have stumbled into up to the
present time of writing. My North Norfolk ‘grandpop’ was always
highly skilled at making wooden toys, chocolate, jam, bread, ships in
bottles and light bulbs as well as having writing, drawing and
storytelling skills. I think I would like to be similar to him, simply
making and doing things with no interruptions to the process.
I have a
degree in Illustration from Edinburgh College of Art and I suppose the
influence of my art school years is undeniable. It was an incredibly
tumultuous and difficult three years but definitely worth it and I would
say to any younger person thinking of pursuing their creative passions
to do it.
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| Carlos Slim, Mexican Tycoon . Ink on freepost envelope. |
3: How would describe your style of art?
Narrative art inspired by magic realism.
4. Who are your major influences?
It
depends on the commission or the project but at the time of writing I
am interested in the writing and illustration of the late Mervyn Peake.
Otherwise a canter along Cecil Court in London, with the bookshops,
poster and art print shops is always inspiring. At one end of Cecil
Court, there is a shop that sells prints and posters of Picasso and
Matisse and opposite there is a framers that sells rare engravings of
Hogarth and Rowlandson.
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| The Duchess. Fine line pen and graphite pencil on sketchbook paper. |
5. If someone wanted a portrait do you do commissions?
Please
do send me your ideas, questions, queries or general enthusing via
email or otherwise. In short, commissions are always welcome in order to
‘put bread on the table!’
Over the last year there has been such an
unexpected raft of commissions, opportunities and queries, from making
storyboards for a York based Film Company to being artist in residence
at the York Theatre Royal to creating theatre posters and pamphlets for
various York based theatre companies.
6. Have you done any exhibitions and where can people see your art work?
I
have done countless art shows but currently I have some screenprints in
the Lotte Inch gallery, York. The interest this gallery has shown has
galvanised me into rediscovering printmaking and given me fresh impetus
to persist in making things.
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| Uxorious Chet. Screenprint on tea stained paper for the Lotte Inch Gallery, York. |
7. What projects are you currently working on?
There
are numerous but one of the most important ones is collaboration with a
Scottish storyteller and dancer currently residing in the capital of
France on a children’s book set alternately in York and Paris.
My
hobby time is spent meeting up with a Hertfordshire computer genius
living in Leeds. We have a music project underway and are composing and
consolidating a music E.P. under the name of ‘
B.T.D.’ or ‘
Beat the
Devil.’ For this I am creating a lush raft of album art.
(
www.facebook.com/officialbeatthedevil)
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| A Christmas Carol. Promotional poster for Nightshade Productions. |
8. Where would you like to be in five year’s time?
In an ambitious art workshop shed adjoined to a Georgian terrace building with drawing room piano.
If you're interested in John's work and would like to find out more, then follow the links below:-
I used the money I got for Christmas to buy myself a vintage cupboard for my kitchen. I'm not too sure how old it is - it's either 1940s or very early 1950s, but when cleaning it out I found a George VI stamp in the bottom, so I'd date it from the 1940s. I lined all the shelves with brown paper and I'm now using it to store my sheets and towels. To make them smell nice I've hung up a few handmade lavender bags and now I get a lovely smell every time I open the door!
After a couple of days I waxed it with beeswax to make it wipe proof and here's on the left is the final result! It's now beautiful and it looks like it's made out of rosewood. In fact the thing I like about it best is it's the exact colour I wanted and it goes so well in the room that it looks like it was always that colour.
Christmas Is Finally Here!
We certainly made sure Christmas started in style at York Does Vintage on Sunday 2nd December 2012. From the feedback we got we know you all enjoyed it! Lots happy people went home with some truly lovely gifts for their friends and family. 
We had an amazing 1400 people through the door and through the day we had queues forming of people. So a big thanks to our fabulous flyerers, who despite the cold did a sterling job walking round York to let people know about the fair.
Entertainment on the day was provided by Phil Lyons, who sang some vintage style big band tunes, and threw a few seasonal ones in there too. In fact we had a couple of comments back from customers who said he was so good that at first they didn't realise he was a live singer and thought it was a CD on. One customer even asked him for his autograph!
We had three craft workshops on the day. Granny's Sewing Box ran the bunting workshop. If you're wondering how they made all this lovely bunting in the photo on the left, then I can let you in on a little secret - it was cut out and glued on. The bunting was then left to dry on a radiator. It's so easy to do anyone can try it at home. Go on, give it a go!
Capricorn Creations were doing jewellery making demonstrations throughout the day. Look at these lovely rings on the right that people had a go at making! We also had some beautiful cake making demonstrations from Cakes by No More Tiers. These Christmas cupcakes in the photo on the left were so cute! 
Yes it's nearly here! YORK DOES VINTAGE AT CHRISTMAS!!! 
And that's not all - there's a vintage style photo booth run by Vector-Photography.com, and live singing from Phil Lyons and the New Vintage Band. You can see Phil in the photo on the left entertaining the shoppers at our last fair in York. He'll no doubt be doing a few vintage Christmas tunes! 
There were also lots of items that would be great for to wear to Christmas party. Sophie our interns had fun trying on some things. In the photo on the left she's modelling a fur hat from Vintage 18. You won't get cold in one of those!
If you really wanted to make a splash at the Christmas party then an eye catching hat from Trica Stikans stall might just do the trick! In the photo on the right, Sophie tried on this beautiful orange hat with feathers. 
The tearoom at Durham was provided by Lavender Fields - who not only had the array of cakes on offer in the photo on the right, but also did some winter warmers such as soup and toasted tea treats.
For most of the day I was standing on the front desk and we received some lovely comments from our visitors. A few people asked us if we were there for two days because they knew people who couldn't come on the Saturday but would have loved it.
Our stallholders were having a good day too! It's great to see these small businesses doing so well in the current financial market. Plus, there was also time for a bit of fun. Two of our regular stallholders in the pic on the left found a couple of matching coats for sale and tried them on - don't they look fab!
Finally, we had the Moon Booth who we'd love at the last event we'd had in York, taking vintage style photos. I had a photo taken - it was great fun. You can see all the photos they took at Newcastle Does Vintage on their Facebook page.