Lay Members’ Exhibition 2020

Thank you to all Lay Members who have contributed
to this varied and stimulating Exhibition. As we can’t
enjoy them in the flesh, this is a great alternative option.

The Lay Members’ Exhibition Commentary has
always been given in the spirit of a shared learning
experience. I am mindful of the generosity and
exposure of those members submitting work, in
allowing it to be scrutinised in this rather public
critique. Feel free to disagree with anything I say!
Most of all, enjoy the work.

Mary Noble

Very delicate combination of illustration and writing,
the ship sails confidently encased in reassuringly
solemn words. It’s a balanced composition with strong
Italic, possibly a little too much internal flourishing
for my taste – it seems to me the flourishing would
work best if kept to the edges and not within the
interline spaces which get a bit tangled. An
appropriate choice of Gothicised title flows gently
above the ship.

A clever idea to incorporate the names of the
pioneering passengers aboard the Mayflower in this
entertaining piece. There’s lots to enjoy, like reading
a child’s storybook with sea creatures rising among
the names in the water, both coasts evident, and
a benevolent wind blowing them to their new life.
I commend the carefully drawn and spaced title,
that’s a highlight that balances well with the page as
a whole. If it were for a more formal occasion, I’d want
greater margins and maybe try to sharpen the small
writing.

A splendid evocation of the
Mayflower’s pioneering voyage,
with skilful combination of
illustration and appropriately
lively writing. Only calligraphers
with an equal mastery of
illustration can pull off such a
combination this successfully.
A deceptively simple design;
centred, but with the weight
high up to combine large text
and ship, flanked with a
decent-sized chunk of text below
for balance. The stars give some
additional movement.

A skilled combination of bold linocut letters
with a large block of penwritten small Italic
script. The title wins. Balancing light and
heavyweight letters so intricately makes an
eye-catching pattern which is yet very legible.
The main text of the Compact is contrastingly
delicate and drew me in to read it. Looking
at the whole shape of the composition, I felt
it needed a few more lines of text to lengthen
the panel of writing for balance of size. The
golden O, looking like a halo, is a master stroke.

I do hope you can try to read the tiny writing around
the outside (expertly written) as they are the key to
this piece! ‘Stardust’ is coloured to link with the words
top and right about atoms, and ‘Stories’ to link with
the other – are we made from atoms or from stories,
is the question. The central words effectively use a
stencil technique that enables spattering for the
stardust effect. At first I found the separation of the
two words disturbing – there’s a bigger central gap,
but decided they legitimately belong to the edges.

A beautiful bowl, with the engraved writing sensitively
placed in a descending spiral. The stroke thicknesses
are a little uneven making some letters a bit unformed –
s stands out for me - but the overall effect is gently
flowing and effective.

Here’s someone who knows their Roman
Capitals proportions and has found a
splendid way to show them off. The central
design suggesting Yin & Yang takes the eye
to the writing and encourages you to read
the words. I enjoy the patternmaking -
though I’d have liked the straight edges to
be curved. The image may be cropped,
but it would look splendid if there was
more side margin to enhance the nice
tension between circle and credit.
The flowers in my view are an unnecessary
distraction (I keep wanting to brush them
off!).

Good to see some geometry celebrated here,
in a pleasing composition. Not sure it’s
entirely accurate though –I believe the inner
verticals should align with where the circle
meets the diagonals. There’s a sensitive
weight balance between the drawing and the
delicate built-up Capitals. Painting the
letters onto vintage linen can’t have been
easy. There’s some unevenness in the
spacing say between C and I, P and L in the
bottom word, and some less noticeably
uneven spacing above. However, great care
has been given to observing the principles
illustrated and I especially admire the S.

Not sure if this is a comment on the
intricacy of the construction of capital
Letters, but this A is composed in
a very complex structure. Rather
reminiscent of garden trelliswork,
but perhaps it’s intended as a
contemporary knotwork design. If
that’s the case, it doesn’t quite follow
the tradition of over-and-under,
but hey, it’s fun.

 There’s a pleasing balance of three elements,
illustration, text and credit, with good contrast
between the 3, with very confident, lively writing in all
sizes. The illustrations make a great foil to the text,
with gold adding to the visual interest. If I have any
criticism it’s that when I look at this from a distance,
the block of images feels slightly too small – though
when looking closer, the boxes are the right size; an
optical problem. It’s a beautiful, clean piece.

A very interesting choice of text, and it’s good to see
the writing doing all the work - no distracting images.
In this asymmetric composition there’s a pleasing
balance between the two main pen sizes, and they
mesh well together. LIFE is nicely treated and lively
but feels like it could be slightly bigger in my view.
The smudge of colour in the background is quite
sufficient embellishment, to suggest perhaps the
milky way, or nothing in particular.

An attractive combining of Mackintosh
letterforms with the traditional rose
ornamentation. I love the choice of
Mackintosh’s words, it makes you want
to do your very best in making something
beautiful! The text and embellishment
mesh well together, though the text shape
slowly gets wider towards the bottom
which disturbs my eye.

These drawn letters fit sympathetically within
the bowl’s uneven form, spiralling into the centre.
A tricky surface to tackle, successfully done.
On a flatter surface I might quibble about the
letterspacing but the overall effect is pleasing.

An exciting piece to be enjoyed both sides. On one
side the broad, textural, curved strokes are sensitively
contrasted with lightweight skilfully written stacks of
text. On the other, in a different treatment, strong
washes of dark colour are inscribed with gestural
monoline marks giving another form of dramatic
contrast. A thing of beauty.

A piece for our time, beautifully thought
out, written and presented. The block of
crisp compressed capitals listing the bad
news is right-aligned to move the eye on
to the small white caps giving the small
‘sparkle of hope’. Using this mid-tone red
allows for black and white to be used to
full effect. The self-coloured mount
completes this perfectly unified work.

A very graphic image with appropriate choice
of letterform to match. The strong plant stems
are complemented by sensitively placed leaves
which create attractive negative spaces. The
placing of the 3 lines of Haiku take account of
those spaces and add to the dynamic overall
effect. I would like to see these capitals more
sharply written with the same quality of line
shown in the illustration. The splash of
sponged colour completes the composition.

A lot of work has gone into making this bright,
colourful piece which was inspired by a
traditional icon. All that gold gives it a very rich
effect. Whilst the background and  border are
very elaborate with much ornamentation, the
treatment of Christ is much less defined, (and
his left hand out of scale) which seems
incongruous. As a foil to the busy texture
throughout, the outer border could perhaps
have been made smooth rather than striated.
A complex piece.

A simple design carefully written, allowing the text to do
the job whilst the simple portrayal of the blackbird adds
interest whilst not dominating. The lightweight Uncial
script is delicate although could benefit from tightening
up some letterforms.

Splendid handmade knotwork tiles surround this
Biblical quote. The lettering is somewhat overpowered
by the decorative elements; colouring-in some counters
helps counteract this but maybe the colours could have
matched those of the outer tiles. A fascinating approach.

Wow, this is just gorgeous. A very sophisticated assemblage of lettering sizes
and weights that merits close scrutiny and enjoyment. Whilst it hails from
a medieval manuscript heritage, there is nothing 15^th century about this.
Note the clever combination of minuscule (lower-case) with majuscules in
the dominant top line, then two rows of capitals (Roman with Uncial Es)
beautifully spaced. The next two smaller black lines combine caps and minuscule
all at the same x-height, then the final two lines in strong caps flanking the
strong focal point of the illustration. The skill here is making the small
illustration work with all the rest; the gold border finishes it off, and links it
with the top line’s gold diamonds. A fabulous piece.

A bold piece of heraldry flanked with
appropriately sturdy drawn Capitals.
A well-balanced heraldic painting,
finely drawn, where some fun has been
had with the mantling, although this
obscures more of the HONI SOI QUI
MAL Y PENSE than Sir Winston might
wish. The bold capitals fit well around
the image but would give a more even
texture if more generously visually
spaced. Treating CHURCHILL with
diamonds is a nice decorative touch.

Glorious letters in the Tom Perkins mould, this design is
powerful, balanced and a pleasure to the eye. It takes
great skill to paint letters as evenly as this, always with
an eye to even spacing and sensitively drawn edges. The
narrow interline spacing has a close affinity to the
letterspacing, making a cohesive whole.

This collaborative piece brings together the
varied skills of 13 members, combining
calligraphy, heraldic art and illustration.
The title is strong, though the list of names
is somewhat insubstantial in comparison.
With so many contributors, all with different
skills, the best bits have been selected for
the 15 windows making some of the fine
details worth a closer look; Ashford sports
some lively Copperplate, Rye looks like your
next holiday destination, nice bit of gilded
heraldry on the A20 and lots going on
around the site of the battle of Hastings… enjoy!

This riddle takes a while to read and
work out, I won’t spoil your investigation,
have a go – you’ll need to read all the
circles in this collaborative piece. An
intriguing arrangement of 6 gold circles
enclosing the clues, with a balance of
images around them to give some hints.
The outer lines of gold writing help pull
the design together. Compositionally,
I’d like to have seen the circles more
evenly distributed, as the last two drift
away; their lighter internal content also
separates them somewhat. A design
worthy of a closer look to enjoy the detail.