An exhibition of artwork and limited edition prints by Josie Firmin and Peter Firmin.

Gallery 2 of the Horsebridge Arts and Community Centre 11, Horsebridge Road, Whitstable, Kent, CT5 1AF

OPEN DAILY 9am (Sunday 10am) to 6pm ...Thursday 23rd April to Tuesday 5th May 2009

www.horsebridge-centre.org.uk

Peter and Josie decided to exhibit at Gallery 2 of the Horsebridge Arts and Community Centre in Whitstable Kent after a successful show last year by Peter and another of his six daughters Hannah.  For this exhibition, Peter and Josie have chosen “ALPHABETS” as their subject, employing two very different techniques.  

 

 

               

 

PETER FIRMIN Tel: 01227 471239

Peter has made an alphabet of mammals which has led to difficult choices for some of the letters. He has designed the 26 letters as three-colour lino-cuts and hand-printed them as limited editions on his 1861 Albion Press. They will be available in simple oak frames or as unframed or mounted prints ready for framing.

Anyone who would like the whole alphabet will receive them in a small portfolio.

Unframed prints from his earlier work will also be available. These include vinyl-cuts done as illustrations to “The Land & The Garden” by Vita Sackville-West and “Swanbrooke Down” by Rosamund Richardson.

Originally from Harwich in Essex, Peter went to Colchester School of Art and after National Service in the Navy, studied illustration at London’s Central School of Art. He married Joan, a fellow student, in 1952 and worked in stained glass, advertising and print-making. They lived in London and had three daughters when Oliver Postgate asked Peter to work with him for Children’s Television. They moved to Kent where they worked together on many films for ITV and BBV, including Noggin, The Clangers, Ivor the Engine and Bagpuss. Peter continued to make occasional prints from wood, lino and vinyl.  

JOSIE FIRMIN Email: josie@cosmochina.co.uk

Josie has chosen to model her letters in clay and cast them in hard plaster. Then she has painted them with a variety of ornaments and backgrounds to fit the letter. They will be displayed in specially made small box frames and sold as individual works of art.

Josie has two shops, Cosmo China, where she and other artists paint and sell bone china. One is in London and the other in Palace Street,Canterbury. Some of the designs from the alphabets of Peter and Josie have been printed as transfers to be applied to mugs in her workshops. A larger selection will be printed as postcards. She has also written and illustrated children’s books for Walker Books.

Josie was born in London in 1958, the third daughter of Peter and Joan. The family moved to Kent when she was just over a year old. After secondary school she studied art at Bath Academy and textile design at Winchester Art School. Twenty years ago she started a business painting bone china in her London shop, Cosmo China, where she still lives with her partner and two sons. Two years later she opened a second china painting shop called Cosmo China in Palace Street, Canterbury.