Just in… NEW Corraini titles for children

3 New Titles by HARRIET RUSSELL

HARRIET RUSSELL – Eleanor and the Eagle  £9.50

HARRIET RUSSELL – Drawing in Space  £14.50

HARRIET RUSSELL – Goodbye Oil  £14.50

NOEMI VOLA – Bear with Me  £12

3 Colouring Books by MARTI GUIXE  £12.50 – £14.50

ARTISTS BOOKS for CHILDREN – inspiring, timeless and cherishable… available now in our children’s section at the Chapel.

Corraini Edizioni is an Italian publishing workshop open to international artists, illustrators, designers and educators such as the eclectic, brilliant Bruno Munari.

Their exceptional catalogue has been created alongside their art gallery and includes, among many others, works by Glasgow School of Art and St Martins’s graduate Harriet Russell, recent graduate in Comics and Illustration at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, Noemi Vola and Barcelona artist Marti Guixe. (New book titles by all three can be seen here.)

The London based artist Harriet Russell regularly works for publishing houses such as Penguin and Phaidon. Noemi Vola is the founder of Bianca, a self-produced magazine for children that collects comics and illustrated stories. Marti Guixe describes himself as an ‘ex-designer’ inventing ‘brilliantly simple ideas of curious significance’ working for companies such as Alessi and Camper, and exhibiting at MoMA, New York, the London Museum of Design and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Above all Corraini gives artists a space in which to create, to invent, to collaborate, to innovate and to educate…

 

 

3 Drawing Kits at The Art Shop

The Art Shop Botanical Starter Kit

The Art Shop Ultimate Drawing Roll

The Art Shop Selection of Artist’s Colour Pencils

At The Art Shop we have assembled our own drawing kits, easily portable in canvas rolls, and available to buy online. Here are 3 to choose from…

Botanical Starter Kit – We were so impressed with the very informative and inspiring book  ‘Botanical Painting with Coloured pencils‘ by the illustrator Ann Swan, an essential for beginners, that we have used her palette to make up this starter kit of Polychromos Artists’ Colour Pencils. For a really special gift, our Ultimate Kit includes the coloured greys and includes a botanical pad.

Ultimate Drawing Roll – There are so many drawing materials to choose from we have selected everything you need, with different grades of pencils to suit every style. ‘H’ for hardness used for fine detail, ‘B’ for blackness for texture and tonal range.

Selection of Artist’s Coloured Pencils – A very versatile palette of colours, suitable for landscape, still life and even design work. An excellent alternative to the limitations of using colours in spectrum order that can be found in manufacturers tins. Polychromos Artists’ Colour Pencils have particularly soft wax leads, based on pure pigments. They are lightfast, water resistant and smudge proof.

All our ranges of pencils and the canvas roll can be bought individually, so you can make up your own kit!

Christmas book picks at the Chapel…

4 of our top book picks at the Chapel, great gifts for all ages…

A CHILDREN’S BOOK – Anatomy: A Cutaway Look Inside the Human Body £18.95
A huge, gloriously informative book for curious children!

A MAGAZINE – Soon £10
The brainchild of the daughter of abstract painter Helen Booth (exhibitor at The Art Shop), SOON is a celebration of ‘the art of making something out of nothing’.

A NOVEL – The Theoretical Foot by M. F. K. Fisher £8.99
‘I do not know of anyone in the United States who writes better prose’, W. H. Auden wrote of Fisher. This exuberant tale of suspended morals in Lake Geneva in the 1930s is the perfect antidote to a wet Wales in winter.

AN ART BOOK – The Art of Winnie-the-Pooh: How E. H. Shephard Illustrated an Icon £25
Packed full of exquisite drawings and photographs, this volume reveals anecdotes and images of a heartfelt creative process.

…of course there are lots more titles to choose from for adults and children on our bookshelves at the Chapel.

 

Abergavenny Late Night Shopping

The Chapel book section for adults & children

Bespoke pencil rolls for still life, botanical & general sketching

Royal Academy Christmas card box sets

Michael Harding Artists oil paint & medium

Cavallini & Co Roma Lussa leather journals

 Thursday 10th December

Join us on Thursday evening for Late Night Christmas Shopping. Both The Art Shop and (just 2 minutes away) the Chapel will be open until 8pm, along with many other small independents in town. Lots of choice, variety and above all quality from a whole list of dynamic businesses.

At the Chapel you’ll find collections of jewellery and ceramics alongside a fantastic selection of books and magazines for adults and children – small independant publishers, Tate catalogues, Prestel colouring books (big art for little hands), Dover Coloured Fairy Tales – creative, eclectic, beautifully illustrated titles for everyone. The Chapel Kitchen will be open too serving food, wine, cider and light ales all evening.

At The Art Shop are all our specialist arts supplies, boxed gifts of art materials, bespoke pencil rolls and sketchbooks. While you are here don’t forget to go upstairs to see our mixed winter exhibition ‘A Winter Wildness’.

The Chapel is now OPEN!

Come on in…

Simple, delicious food & coffee from our Chapel kitchen

Keeping busy in our children’s corner

Inspiring books & independent magazines

At long last the renovation programme is complete and we are now open downstairs at the Chapel.

Come down to our secret, wild, wonderful garden where the sun can shine all day. From here you can enter into the lower ground floor, our everyday trading space, open Tuesday-Saturday 10am-5pm. Here you’ll find old cabinets of ceramics and jewellery. There are books and magazines not widely seen, all to inspire, delight and nourish. There is also a small, delightful children’s corner.

From our kitchen eat simple, delicious food (breakfast and lunch) made everyday from our well stocked Chapel larder. There is good coffee and wine from a small French family owned vineyard.

…plus free wifi and wheelchair access.

Upstairs in the Chapel is a venue for regular workshops, events and performances and this space is available for hire.

We’ll keep you posted…

After the celebration supper on Friday 24th upstairs at the Chapel, taken by James Joseph of Abergavenny Music

Mothering Sunday

Sonia Delaunay Tate catalogue £29.99, one or two Tanja Malo Liberty & Hemp bracelets £17 each & a card

A bundle of delicious handmade Unison Pastels, intense pigment

Wrappings by John Derian & Jessie Chorley, leaf ribbon & a few of Penguin’s Great Food series

 

 

 

 

For Mother’s Day chose a card, some wrappings, ribbon or twine. Make something special for the one who always loves you.

Take a Clementina Van Der Walt handled bowl, personalise with some very early spring flowers out of your garden or hedgerow e.g. a primula, celandine or fritillary (snake’s head). Ribbon and label.

 

 

Corraini Posters – A perfect gift for a young child…

This week we had an exciting delivery of children’s books from our favourite small publisher… Corraini Editions.

Why do we love their books? These titles are inspiring, timeless and cherishable. Corraini is an Italian publishing workshop open to international artists, illustrators, designers and educators such as the eclectic, brilliant Bruno Munari.

Alongside this wonderful selection of Corraini titles came this series of children’s posters by designer and educator, Bruno Munari, taken from his book ‘Zoo’. Only £15 each 40 x 30cm, they can be framed and would make the perfect gift for a child’s bedroom – Lion, Tiger, Birds & Elephant. All available from our online shop.

A bit about the book ‘Zoo’ – ‘An entertaining stroll among highly coloured animals. The exceptional lively pictures, unusual layout and amusing use of signposts make this original, half real, half imaginary Zoo fun for adults and children alike.’

Visit our children’s section to see our full selection of Corraini titles.

 

Halloween with Seren

In our Halloween window (put together by Katherine), we have a small collection of dark and chilling ghost stories, published by Seren (welsh for star). One of the most interesting independent publishing houses in Britain (based in Bridgend, Wales), Seren nurtures and publishes talented writers and poets whose outstanding quality is recognised around the world.

If you can’t get enough of this haunting time of year we suggest popping in (or phone us) to grab a copy of ‘Sing Sorrow Sorrow’, an anthology of obscure horror and supernatural tales to get anyone quivering in their boots. Mark my words.

‘All the Souls’ by Mary-Ann Constantine. Superstition, legend, folklore rooted in the landscape. £8.99

 

‘Sugar Hall’, a ghost story by Tiffany Murray. £8.99

‘Sing Sorrow Sorrow’ edited by Gwendoline Davies. A collection of other worldly horror stories. £9.99

Our ‘Matisse. Cut-Outs’ inspired window display

How inspiring the new ‘Matisse. Cut-Outs’ exhibtion at Tate Modern has been for us all, adults and children alike.

Using materials from our shop, Katherine has put together a wonderful window display. Matisse was incredibly skilled, using large draper scissors to deftly cut intricate, flowing shapes. Of course you could colour your paper with gouache as Matisse did, but we also sell large sheets of poster paper in his vibrant colours along with small collage packs. It doesn’t have to be on a grand scale, why not make tiny, miniature Matisse cut-outs as Katherine did when she was planning the display.

NEW titles on Matisse are available too, including the sumptuous Tate exhibition catalogue ‘Henri Matisse. The Cut-Outs’ £29.99 paperback/ £35 hardback.

Stop Press! Corraini Editions wins ‘Best Children’s Publisher of the Year in Europe’

Congratulations to Corraini Editions! We love their books and so do children… and they are not seen in this country in many places.

Favourites of ours are Harriet Russell’s series of books journeying into the imagination, Marti Guixe’s quirky colouring books and William Wondriska’s titles with innovative graphics. Read more about them on our online shop.

‘There was a surprise for us on the first day of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair 2014: we were awarded the Bologna Prize for Best Children’s Publishers of the Year in Europe. A wonderful prize, especially important because it is the publishers participating in the fair who choose the winner, people who love books and who, like us, know the work that goes into each one. A team made up of writers, craftsmen, artists, booksellers and collaborators, especially important because they put an essential feeling into what they do: passion’ (Corraini  Editions)

Pop by and see lots of spring new titles that have just arrived for children and grown-ups…