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Andrew Dodds, artist and author of a new book Here
and There, will in the Wivenhoe Bookshop from 2:15pm on Saturday
15th November to talk to the public about his work and sign his new book
Here and There.
Andrew Dodds is a local artist with a long publishing
history. His books include East Anglia Drawn, London Then, East Anglian
Sketchbook, and now Here and There. This latest book will be available
at a special reduced price on the 15th of November, to coincide with
Andrew’s visit and signing, of £24.95 for the hardback and £15.95
for the paperback. The books will, of course, be signed.
Here and There is an unusual travelogue that takes us from the artist's beloved East Anglia to further afield. The personal sojourn has been compiled from a collection of beautiful landscape watercolours of every season accompanied by an informative and witty text. Just as much a narrative as a picture book. It is illustrated with 152 full colour reproductions of the best of Andrew Dodds’ paintings, evoking the seasons throughout a year in East Anglia.
“Andrew Dodds belongs to a great tradition in which
text and pictures are an indivisible whole. His art is to provide both.
He is sharp-eyed, witty and tender, and wehether in the West End of
London or on a lonely sand dune, he puts down not only what he sees but
what he feels.” Ronald Blythe.
Andrew delights in detail, architectural elements are
drawn with precision; the rigging of boats is accurate; the twisted
branches, foliage and textured bark of trees are closely observed to the
extent that an arborist could identify each one; people are included so
naturally that they often recognise themselves when seeing the printed
version. Local meteorological conditions – whether a rainy windswept
beach at Aldeburgh (itself painted during the downpour!), or a
sundrenched view of a Mediterranean harbour – are so vivid that one
can almost feel the extremes of cold and heat. A lemon tree, drawn in
his daughter's garden in Greece, has the exuberant quality of Rackham,
and a view of children feeding gulls and ducks on the Oulton Broads has
the immediacy of a Japanese print. Above all Dodds respects the working
tradition of the countryside, the rural and coastal industries, with a
regard for the hands that shaped it.
He also currently has an exhibition at the Minories
Gallery in Colchester.
About the Artist
Andrew Dodds, the seventh son of a farmer, was trained at Colchester School of Art and the Central School of Arts & Crafts, London. At the Central, his drawing tutor was Bernard Meninsky, whom Augustus John once referred to as "the best draughtsman in the country". After leaving art school, one of his first commissions was to depict all the characters of a new radio serial called "The Archers" for the Radio Times. He drew his mother as Mrs Archer. As a free-lance illustrator, he worked regularly for various magazines and newspapers, with some interesting commissions from public and industrial organisations. He has also drawn every week for the Eastern Daily Press since 1957.
His 40 credits as a book illustrator include three books for Miss
Read; "Madly in All Directions", an account of a horse-back
journey through Wales by Wynford Vaughan-Thomas; "The Notary in
Opera" and "The Notary and other Lawyers in Gilbert &
Sullivan" by A.J. Burgess; and two of his own books, "East
Anglia Drawn" and "London Then".
From 1951 until 1972 he was visiting Tutor in Illustration at St.
Martin's School of Art, London and retired as Deputy Head of Suffolk
College School of Art & Design in 1989. Landscape painting in
watercolour has remained a life-long interest and he has held many
one-man exhibitions. Nor has he lost his country roots and works in a
modern studio attached to a Victorian, Grade II listed, round house in
the Brett Valley near Hadleigh, Suffolk. A keen gardener but is faced
with the dilemma of growing large interesting flowering shrubs and
preserving an idyllic view.
Marriage brought two sons and two daughters. His eldest son is James
Dodds, the painter and printmaker.
Elaine Maslin
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Press
Release - 13th November, 2003