I am now the proud owner of this gorgeous flamingo screenprint by the artist Patrizio Belcampo which was printed through Edinburgh Printmakers. It was purchased today at the London Print Fair, which I visited for work purposes, but somehow came away with a sizeable framed print for myself. But how could I leave without this fancy fella?
I really love flamingos, and have done since I was little. The description in Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland of Alice and The Queen of Hearts playing a game of croquet with these gangly birds has always stuck with me. In fact, my first overseas adventure at the age of 25 was to the Atacama Desert in Chile to see flamingos graze the high salt lakes. In summary I am a flamingo fan, they’re pink and their knees bend the other way…the other way!
I'm also a great admirer of the pared-down block style Belcampo is using. This style was so effectively exploited in the wood-block illustrations of the British artist William Nicholson (1872-1949) in his publications: An Almanac of Twelve Sports and London Types. It worked in 1890 and it works today.
Plus I'm a sucker for letterpress or anything that looks like letterpress, and have a little collection of items in this ilk.
