News

2006 has been one of my busiest years, so I’m taking the opportunity of sharing some of the highlights. There’s plenty more I’m working on at the moment, which I can tell you about when we come to publishing.

January

I was asked to design and produce invitation cards for a corporate event on Brighton Pier, which was to have a Victorian theme. In a vertical pop up format I depicted the pier, two couples in Victorian dress, and a night sky lit by fireworks.

February

The 5th February was the annual Milton Keynes Scale Model Club’s exhibition

There’s a report and pictures of our day here

February saw the opening of an Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, London, entitled ‘Searching for Shakespeare’. For the first time, six portraits which have been claimed to be of Shakespeare were brought together. There were also several portraits of his contemporaries, together with manuscripts, costumes and artefacts.

Some months earlier, I had been commissioned by the Gallery to build for this exhibition, a large scale model of the Globe Theatre. This had been mounted on a specially constructed circular plinth, placed in the centre of the room. There’s a short newsreel video here http://www.bsn.org.uk/view_all.php?id=11419

The model is 1:50 scale, 2ft. Diameter. I was asked to produce a cutaway model, so that the interior could be better viewed.

The Exhibition ran until May, when it was moved on. It reopened during the Summer at the Center for British Art at Yale University. I’m pleased to say that my model has been retained at Yale.

Very pleased to take on the National Trust as a new customer. It was about ten years ago that I first produced the Cornish Tin Mine model for the Trevithick Trust in Cornwall. That organisation no longer exists and the properties in their care were taken over by the National Trust. I changed and reprinted the covers, and the model now has a new lease of life, on sale once again at at the site in Pool, Cornwall.

Published a new model, the first for a while, which I’d been working on over the Summer. The Museum of Garden History. The building is an old Church, St.Mary-at-Lambeth, which was deconsecrated and reopened as a Museum.

I’d had an approach from Sir John Soane’s Museum , requesting my remaining stock of the Euston Arch model. The reason was that they were mounting an exhibition on the life and work of Sir John Betjeman, it being the centenary of his birth. He had been a leading campaigner for the preservation of the Arch. I visited the exhibition, to find that my display model which I had provided was in a glass case in the exhibition, next to Betjeman’s works.

So they now have a couple of other display models in their shop!

Displayed a few models at the Letchworth Scale Model Club Show. Report and pics here

The next big card modelling day out is Sunday 4th February 2007. That’s the Milton Keynes Scale Model Club Show, where we are regular guests. There are details on the Milton Keynes Club’s site here

Keith Newstead’s card automata, ‘Battling Knights’, had been published some time ago for the National Gallery, London. It’s a great model, inspired by a Uccello painting which hangs in the gallery. A motorised display version of it had been built, together with a heavy wood and glass display case as shown. But it had stopped working and the model itself was much the worse for wear. So I was asked by the Publisher to rebuild the model and get it working again. An interesting task, building a paper model reinforced with metal wood and plastic.... It’s a lot to ask of an automata, to keep moving all day every day. But good to know that my work is now on display in the National Gallery!