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| A picture of me at work on a trompe l’œil bookcase mural. |
I have been interested in pen and ink work since a
child., In fact I sold drawings whilst at school, but the pull to science was
stronger leading me to study marine zoology, which I did: graduating in 1986,from UCNW Bangor.. However, at college, I decided to be a commercial artist instead. I
intended to combine both passions and establish myself as a zoological
illustrator. As illustration dropped out of use in the 1990's I turned to new
things which have lead to what is currently my main commercial concern, , mural work, particularly trompe l’œil. I have worked across Britain and Europe
for both private individuals and commercial clients.
I continued with pen and ink for my own
pleasure and have sort of "fallen in" to bookplate designing as a valid way of
using this medium. After seeing plates in some of my second hand books, I got
tempted to draw one for myself (early 1990's),
Most of my plates are in some way biographical..I started as a marine biologist and am an artist, a shell collector and a fencer.The hind's head is my family crest and the faun was a character I used in a lot of my early illustrations.
Eleanora ,loved "Sleeping Beauty" as a little girl
Monty likes Dinosaurs
My plates up to now have been solely digitally printed, but I have also found the technology to letterpress print from my drawings. Thanks to
the likes of the British Bookplate Society and FISAE I am now getting
interesting commissions from around the world. I am also playing with trompe
l’œil in my ex libris, taking advantage of the advances in quality of digital
printing and am looking forward to doing more
Tony Bulmer "Maverick" is my latest plate and an experiment in trompe l'oeil. It is a break from tradition in that this needs sticking on the fly sheet, not the front pastedown in order for the illusion to work.
Note from Lew- I want to thank Gordon Collett for sending this information and would encourage you to visit his website where you will find many more examples of his bookplates and other art.
See you next Sunday.
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