Progressive Greetings Worldwide Focus on Art Cards July 2015

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Artwork by Eliza Southwood PG-SUPJULY15 Camden is a trading division of UK Greetings Ltd. www.ukgreetings.co.uk

Summer Additions 2015

Please view and order from our website or ask your agent for full details of our Summer Release.

New – ‘Classics’ Greetings Cards: Blank Inside

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New – Aged Birthday Cards:

New – V&A Gift Tag & Parcel Sticker Sets:

Sponsors of

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OVERVIEW

The House That

Art Built In a personal homage to the women in the Essex suburb with whom he grew up with, Grayson Perry’s new interactive artwork ‘A House For Essex’ is a two bed house which the public can book as a holiday rental. The connection between community and home runs through this year’s Turner Prize short-list too, which consists of three female artists and a rundown Liverpool housing estate transformed by an art collective to "a place people actually want to live in".

As well as reflecting social issues, women seem to have finally found a foothold in the art establishment, both as subject matter - Picasso’s ‘Women of Algiers’ painting sold recently for a record breaking $180 million - and as revered artists - many of this year’s blockbuster exhibitions are showcasing female artists.

The ‘house of art cards’ however, is one that nurtures creatives of all kinds, and that pool of artistic imagination and ingenuity is forever expanding, blurring boundaries, diversifying and making a splash with the art card buying public.

Focus On Art Cards meanders around the art card neighbourhood.

Focus On Art Is published annually by Max Publishing. It is distributed with the July edition of Progressive Greetings, Max Publishing, United House, North Road, London, N7 9DP Tel: 020 7700 6740 Editor: Jakki Brown (jw@max-publishing.co.uk); Advertisement director: Warren Lomax (warren@max-publishing.co.uk); Main editorial contributor: Gale Astley (galea@max-publishing.co.uk).

Wildlife Artists’ Collaboration Hannah Dale of Wrendale Designs, will stage her first ever exhibition in conjunction with North East fine artist, Andy Broderick, whose work can regularly be found in galleries throughout Yorkshire and the North East.

Lincolnshire-based Hannah has grown Wrendale Designs to be a successful business in just four years, and is now internationally known. Her extremely popular, whimsical designs of wild animals have won multiple Henries Awards, stocked by retailers of all shapes and sizes.

Hannah, a zoology graduate of Cambridge University, has never had an exhibition of her artwork, until now.

But, she said, “We have had such a lot of demand to develop this side of the business and I hope to do more of it in the future.”

Hannah will be showing her work alongside that of artist, Andy Broderick, whose work is published on greeting cards by Natural Partners Limited. Originally from Kilkenny in Ireland, settling in Saltburn-by-the-Sea, Andy paints wildlife found in the beautiful North Yorkshire countryside, mostly from photographs he has taken himself on early morning trips into the nearby North York Moors.

The pair have been brought together by Joe Cole, managing director of Natural Partners Limited, a company specialising in publishing fine art greeting cards featuring the work of a wide array of artists and photographers.

The exhibition is called Wild at Heart and will run from August 8 to September 19 at The Steel Rooms in Brigg, Lincolnshire. A ‘meet the artists’ event will be held on August 22 between 11am and 2pm.

For more information call Joe Cole on 07714 768956 (or email joecole.nea@btinternet.com).

Top: Grayson Perry (centre) with his interactive artwork ‘A House For Essex’ and some of the Essex ladies that inspired the piece.

Above left: Susan Entwistle Art’s pointillist style art cards are making a ‘splash’ in garden centres, as well as galleries, stately houses and craft shops.

Above: Wrendale Designs’ Hannah Wrendale will stage her first exhibition along with artist Andy Broderick.

Left: North-East wildlife artist Andy Broderick.

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OVERVIEW

Art Cards Beat For Loveheart

Nurturing Artistic Talent With over 130 entries, Wraptious has recently celebrated the success of its latest competition. Twice a year, gift and card company Wraptious seeks out new artists to join its collective by inviting them to share three pieces of their artwork. To make it fair and fun all entries are put up for public vote on social media, as well as being available to purchase for a limited period.

"There's a lot more talent than opportunity in this world," says Wraptious founder Simon Wadsworth. "There really isn't much out there supporting emerging artists in the UK, so I set my sights on building a platform to showcase and sell their work.

We launched in October 2013 and it's been an exhilarating and very rewarding ride so far!"

Wraptious now supports over 30 emerging artists across a range of products, and through its competitions are seeking out the newest and the brightest to join them. "We've just launched our latest range by Katherine Williams, our last competition winner. She entered three pieces into the competition and we were blown away at how popular her range is already! So much so, we've already worked with her to grow the range to nine designs," says Simon. "She's still a student studying at Sunderland University, yet her work speaks for itself!"

Top: Wraptious’ last competition winner Katherine Williams with a hungry friend.

Above: One of Katherine Williams’ illustrations on cards by Wraptious.

A Hat-Trick For Tomcat “‘3’ is a lucky number and having a choice is essential!” says Lynne Thomas, partner of Tomcat Cards. So with both of these elements in mind, Tomcat has now started working with a third artist and will be introducing a new range of fabulous art cards at Home & Gift, Harrogate this month called The Rhythm of Life featuring images of artist Rhonda Davies’ artwork.

“Rhonda’s paintings are a real mix, with some being slightly whimsical and others uplifting with lots of jolly colours!” explains Lynne, adding, “Rhonda says, ‘The constant theme in my paintings is the search for happy moments in the simple things in our everyday lives.’”

Left: Artist Rhonda Davies standing in front of one of her paintings and holding her pet duck to boot!

Lucy Loveheart is a Royal College of Art trained artist, based in Norfolk.

Creating artwork for Osborne and Little, Liberty and Cafe Rouge, she has built a loyal following, both in the UK and overseas.

However, the foundation of Lucy’s work remains in cards and prints and she has recently founded a new company Lucy Loveheart Creations to explore this opportunity more fully.

Lucy’s paintings are universally appealing and her admirers find them optimistic and uplifting. Her unique style has meant that she has also undertaken a number of bespoke collaborations, depicting iconic buildings and locations as they appear in her imagination.

Recently working with Kew Gardens and Chatsworth House, Lucy has produced some beautiful everyday and Christmas ranges which have proved very successful. Lucy was also selected by the Duchess of Devonshire to produce the artwork for an exclusive range of biscuit and tea tins for Chatsworth to complement the card range.

Lucy Loveheart Creations has released several new collections. For more information, please email sales@lucyloveheart.com.

Above: A wonderful fairytale-esque Lucy Loveheart Creations.

RA Ra Ra ArtPress has launched a special collection of Royal Academy Summer Exhibition notecards from works exhibiting in this year’s show.

The 247th Royal Academy Summer Exhibition is now underway and remains the world’s oldest open-submission exhibition where amateur artists can hope to exhibit alongside the likes of Tracey Emin, Bob and Roberta Smith and Elizabeth Blackadder. Just over 1000 artworks are selected from about 12,000 submissions.

The Private View, as ever, packed in celebrities from the worlds of fashion, music, film and television, but all were upstaged this year by the glamorous presence of Grayson Perry.

Left: Untitled (Watch) by Michael Craig-Martin CBE RA, licensed by the Royal Academy of Arts. From ArtPress’ The Royal Academy - Summer Exhibition 2015 range.

Printmakers ‘Coast’ Into The Royal Academy Among the contemporary artworks at this year’s prestigious Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition 2015 will feature a stunning large print called ‘Looking South’, a beautiful seascape inspired from the Hartland coastline in Devon by art collective Pine Feroda, the name used by five artists working together in the South West of England to make large scale, dramatic woodblock prints. And Julia Manning, well-known artist, printmaker and owner of Julia Manning Greeting Cards, is one of the Pine Feroda artists who together worked on the print (which is one of a set of four).

Julia is delighted to have had one of her Pine Feroda collaborative artworks hung in The Royal Academy Summer show alongside artists such as Damien Hirst, Grayson Perry and Tracey Emin. But for those who want capture the print in miniature, Julia has published the four scenes as greeting cards as the Pine Feroda range.

Above: ‘Looking South’ by art collective Pine Feroda is now displayed in The Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition 2015.

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OVERVIEW

Do You Believe In Magic?

When artist Catherine Kleeli first started her card publishing company only a year ago, she was featured in the Progressive Greetings article, ‘Everyone Has A Story’, telling the story of how her daughter, when going off to New York for a year to do an internship as part of her Fashion Knitwear Design Degree, gave her a gift of a ceramic butterfly that said on it ‘If You Can Dream It, You Can Do It’.

Above: Catherine Kleeli with her “And that was what spurred me on to live my husband and fashion designer dream whilst she was living hers and Catherine daughter Naomi at Graduate Fashion Week in London in May. Kleeli Cards was born,” explains Catherine.

However, fate was to play its hand, starting when last year Catherine diarised her first ever trade fair to be Progressive Greetings Live 2015 while her daughter was in New York.

“My daughter Naomi came back from NY last September, and has since been busy since getting her final collection together for her Nottingham Trent Catwalk show. From that show, she was selected by the judges to show her work at Graduate Fashion Week in London - no mean feat given all the amazing talent in this country!”

Well, this is the magic. The very day that Catherine set up her first trade fair stand at the Business Design Centre on Monday June 1, Naomi was debuting her knitwear collection at GFW in London.

“How serendipitous is it that?! That after a year in the planning for both Naomi and I, these two events should come together on the same day. Being in London that day I was able to set up my stand and be in our seats at the Truman Brewery in Brick Lane by 5.00pm to watch this amazing show. Any one of the other days of my trade fair or catwalk time slots at Graduate Fashion Week would have meant we couldn’t have seen it. Now, do you believe in magic?”

‘Stoat-ed’ To Be On The One Show British wildlife artist and card publisher, Robert Fuller appeared on the BBC’s The One Show last month with a ‘stunt stoat’, which he trained to run a maze and an assault course so that he could study it closely for a painting. The One Show was interested because stoats are very, very difficult to watch in the wild.

Robert revealed, “Stoats are so fast that most people only ever glimpse them fleetingly. In order to paint one accurately I needed to see the whole animal, including its feet, so I built the assault course to get this one up off the ground.”

Robert was taken aback by the suppleness of the stoat. So he made the obstacle course more and more difficult hoping to watch the way its muscles moved as it twisted and turned: “I added a children’s bicycle wheel, a slalom, a tight rope pole, a hollow pipe and a water splash!

There seemed to be nothing that would deter it. No matter how high or difficult I made the course, it would rise to the challenge.”

Robert decided it was such fun to watch that he then decided to test its intelligence by creating a vertical maze, which this stoat learned to negotiate within days.

“It’s no wonder it became a TV star!” says Robert.

The painting is being considered for a new card design for The Robert Fuller Gallery’s 2016 range.

Above: Robert Fuller with his stoat artwork and The One Show presenter Mike Dilger.

A Show Of Hands Redback Cards has recently launched a stunning new collection of art cards. At first glance the designs appear to be wildlife photos, but under closer inspection you can see that each animal is in fact beautifully painted onto a hand.

Italian artist Guido Daniele has made a unique name for himself painting exquisitely detailed animal masterpieces on the human body. As a painter, Guido admits that his medium does however brings unusual challenges: “I have to make sure knuckles aren’t jutting out or clumsy looking and that hair doesn’t get in the way of my art. When not using my children’s hands, I look for a well-proportioned, hairless, un-shaky hand on which to create.”

There are 22 designs in Redback’s Hand Animals range with more being added at the end of the summer.

Above: Italian artist Guido Daniele painting his artwork on one of his children’s hands onto canvas. Cards featuring the images are now available from Redback.

Publishing Prize For Mall Gallery’s Shows Art cards publisher Dry Red Press has recently been rubbing shoulders with some talented arty types at a number of London art exhibitions as a 'prize giver'.

Based at the Mall Galleries in London, the Federation of British Artists (FBA) consists of eight art societies, and it is the venue where the societies’ Annual Exhibitions are held.

When approached by the Mall Galleries’ exhibition manager to be one of the prize givers at the FBA societies’ annual shows, DRP was only too happy to accept.

And DRP’s prize? In the Private View at each art society’s annual exhibition, the publisher has selected one artist’s artwork to publish as a greeting card design, which then goes into its Prize Winners range. Each artist will receive a royalty from the sale of each card and it’s a great opportunity for them to showcase their artwork, and for DRP it’s a great way to find exceptional artwork to publish!

Above: ‘Cherries on Paper Bag’ by Lucy McKie was ‘picked’ from one of the FBA’s art society’s Annual Exhibition by Dry Red Press to be in its Prize Winners card range.

Major UK Art Exhibitions 2015 ● Henry Moore: Back to a Land, Yorkshire Sculpture Park (7

March - 6 September 2015) ● William Hogarth: Painter & Printmaker, Bristol Museum &

Art Gallery (16 May - 31 August 2015) ● Lee Miller and Picasso, Scottish National Portrait Gallery

(23 May - 6 September 2015) ● Agnes Martin, Tate Modern (3 June - 11 October 2015) ● Barbara Hepworth, Tate Britain (June 24 - October 25, 2015) ● Jackson Pollock: Blind Spots, Tate Liverpool (30 June -

18 October 2015) ● Ai Weiwei, Royal Academy of Arts (September 19 -

December 13, 2015) ● The World Went Pop, Tate Modern (September 17, 2015 -

January 24, 2016) ● Goya: The Portraits, National Gallery (October 7, 2015 -

January 10, 2016)

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ART CARDS NEW LAUNCHES

Portrait Gallery With a fresh sable brush and a colourful palette, PG paints a portrait of some of the new art card releases. ● QueenieBrowne’s designs are influenced by designers with Scottish heritage, with her love of wildlife featuring heavily. All illustrations are hand-drawn using pen and acrylic inks, then worked further using CAD to add highlights.

● Roger la Borde’s new Fox & Hare range was dreamed up in a treehouse studio in rural Louisiana, by artist Rebecca Recouché. A sort of Everglades heraldry featuring wild and romanticised stags, foxes and hares, the range is in equal parts rustic and majestic.

Additionally, hipster illustrator Daniel Roode has brought his eye-catching retro styling to Roger la Borde with his Bear and Otto collection - a playful nod to Roode’s French heritage and passion for vintage children’s illustration. ● Green Pebble has taken the opportunity to launch a range of eight 150mm square and 125mm x 175mm art cards with a warm, vibrant quilting theme. The artist, Valériane Leblond, is a French and Quebecker artist who lives in Wales and who paints mainly on wood panels. She was "instantly charmed" by her new home and sought to capture the textures, colours and patterns of the quilts of the region in her paintings. ● Black Olive is delighted to present Bonnie Mae, a delicate range of botanical notecards. The new collection depicts familiar imagery of flora and fauna found in the beautiful British countryside. Soft watercolour illustrations create a sophisticated, elegant series with a contemporary twist. There are nine blank designs, 150mm square, printed on non-coated board. Each card is individually wrapped with a crisp, grey envelope. ● ‘Marriage Trees’ is one of the latest new designs from Gail Kelly/Algan Arts in her Celtic Tree range.

This is an ideal card for weddings and anniversaries. Reproduced

from one of Gail’s distinctive linocut designs printed on Irish linen, it is blank inside with a snippet of Celtic folklore on the reverse, comes with a white envelope and is individually cellowrapped. ● Dry Red Press is introducing a charming new range by Robert Greenhalf, one of the country's leading wildlife artists. His elegant woodcuts of wild birds have reproduced beautifully.

There are six cards in this range, all blank inside and individually wrapped with envelopes to complement each image. ● Julia Manning Greeting Cards has just launched a brand new range of six cards based on artist/printmaker Julia Manning’s latest woodcuts, based on her garden and love of dahlias… and in among the flowers there are hidden ladybirds and bees. Printed on a shimmer 300gsm board, the colours jump and add a new element to this new range. Sized 145mm by 145mm, the cards come individually cellowrapped with a white envelope. ● Blue Island Press has put together a fantastic collection of cards and stationery goodies from the world famous Hairy Maclary and Friends books, written by the award winning author and illustrator Lynley Dodd.

These cards are sure to bring a smile to the lucky person who receives them.

The cards are 15cm x 15cm, printed on premium Swedish FSC satin card, supplied with a white envelope and individually cellowrapped. ● Wisley Bluebells and Water Lilies are two new additions to the Susan Entwistle Range. Painted in Susan’s unique pointillist technique, the images capture the Bluebell Glade at RHS Wisley, Surrey and the Mill Pond at the location of a recent garden painting commission, near Vannes in Brittany. Each card is 15cm square and printed on quality FSC stock with a white envelope and individually cello wrapped packs of six.

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ART CARDS NEW LAUNCHES

● Come Fly With Me greeting cards from Little Shop of Rock is a new series of colourful silkscreen cards that celebrates graphics from The Golden Age of Travel. A time before crowded terminals and bar codes, these baggage tags resonate with the glamour of airline travel that was only available to the 'Jet Set'. A series of three designs are available, DL size, on quality board. ● Wraptious launches a competition biannually seeking new talent to join the publisher’s collection, and Katherine Williams was its November 2014 winner! Still a student, Katherine is a bright emerging talent, and her Splatter range is vibrant, fresh and stunning. Working with a mixture of pastels and watercolours, her array of splatter animals are sure to add colour to all displays. All cards are 120mm x 170mm and come wrapped with a recycled kraft envelope. ● Natural Partners Limited has launched a new range of eight greeting cards featuring beautiful, highly detailed pencil drawings of dogs by Leeds-based artist, Gemma Hayward. The cards, which are blank inside, measure 178mm x 127mm in landscape and portrait formats and are individually cellowrapped with a white envelope. ● Twoscoops’ new Seize the Day range of cards is the creation of iPad artist Andrew Chambers, he uses his finger for a paintbrush and an iPad for a canvas, enabling him to design whimsical pictures. The square cards are 150mm x 150mm with a gloss finish, and there are 24 different designs that are blank inside and supplied with recycled envelopes all wrapped in cello. ● The Art File is proud to introduce you to the curious cast who make up its newest everyday collection, ROAR! - a brand new collection of nine die-cut animals that are turning heads everywhere they venture. The idea is the brainchild of Natalie, one of The Art File’s incredibly talented in-house designers, who has patiently hand-drawn and handshaped each character. ● The launch of the Warner Textile Archive’s notecard range was met with great enthusiasm at PG Live 2015. As ever the notecards encapsulate the best of historic British artistry, featuring the timeless designs of Warner and Sons. Meanwhile, its greeting cards range continues to grow in popularity, with the range now extending to 75 designs and featuring new textured board to showcase the fabric-focused designs.

● Mia Lapwood Photography’s range of close-up images of the inside of flowers make her range truly unique. The cards are blank, so suitable for absolutely all occasions, come in cello wrap, and aside from the traditional greeting card size, they are also available in a smaller size which can be used for gift tags or to accompany flower bouquets. ● Urban Graphic’s newest art range Inkiness is a selection of gorgeous designs by various illustrators, including Ross Bruggink, Serge Seidlitz and Esther Cox. Each card is debossed to give it a letterpress style and is printed on high quality heavy board with a matching cream envelope. Each card is 15cm x 15cm and is cellowrapped. There are currently 19 cards in the range with more additions planned for later this year. ● Catherine Kleeli Cards continues to extend its Stick and Stitch collection with the addition of five new designs, creating an animal cards range of 24 designs. Each card begins life as an original paper collage that is then ‘freestitched’. Most importantly, Catherine believes when dealing with an animal subject the eyes must have ‘life’ in them, to give the whole image a spark and character. ● Netherton’s is very excited to introduce a new range of 18 stunning designs as blank art cards by the verytalented and ever-popular artist Jo Grundy. Jo’s original countryside designs come alive with a wealth of birds and animals and transform beautifully into the greeting card format. The 15cm square cards come complete with white envelopes and are cellowrapped. ● Noble Fine Art is a family run letterpress print business based in North Yorkshire. Designed and printed in its studio, the Vintage range boasts 12 different designs; a collection that is all about classic style inspired by 1950s fashion. One of the publisher’s five new ranges, new to the market in 2015, its highly stylised art cards are letterpress printed on top quality cardstock, creating a truly remarkable range of products. ● This fabulous artist needs little introduction. Sam Toft’s many collections with ArtPress includes her eponymous Meet the Mustards, featuring Mr. Ernest Hemmingway Mustard and his wife Violet and their menagerie of animals in their home town of Brighton. Sam’s new collection, Black and White Buddies (eight designs, size 170mm x 120mm, individually cello bagged

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ART CARDS NEW LAUNCHES

with China white envelopes) showcases her singular humour and ability to inject personality into sketches of various animals from zebras to pandas and penguins. ● There are six new songbirds in The DM Collection, including this blackbird. Each bird has its environment depicted within, albeit with artistic licence! Blackbirds feature in the English nursery rhyme, ‘Sing a song of sixpence’ where ‘Four and twenty blackbirds’ are baked in a pie. It is known that a 16th-century amusement was to place live birds in a pie as a form of entremet. The birds would fly out when the pie was cut. The watercolours of the songbirds by Daniel Mackie are printed on quality 330gsm card, size 7” x 5”. ● This year sees a new collection of photographic occasions greeting cards for VK Guy Photography. Each card has a varnish finish, is printed on white 280gsm card, size 150mm x 150mm with a white envelope and is packaged in a cellophane bag. The high quality images have been taken by VK Guy Photography and have been taken all over Britain. Each scenic image has been chosen to reflect the message the greeting card is portraying, showing Britain at its best. ● Wrendale Designs’ Fur, Feathers and Whiskers range covers all the major occasions, with each of the animal’s typical quirky humour shining through. Following the wonderful success of the Occasions Collection, Wrendale is delighted to be expanding the range with eight exclusive new designs. The cards are 170mm x 138mm, are printed on 350gms textured FSC board and are supplied wrapped with a recycled kraft envelope. They are blank inside. ● Paper Rose’s Daydreamers range by artist Clare Tupper consists of 12 designs of lovely little watercolour artworks of country and seaside scenes, expressing a joyful sunny life! The cards are sized 120mm x 120mm (Code 37GG) and RRP £1.65. ● The Art Group has a number of new art card ranges: Flower Show by artist Margaret Berg consists of six designs (size 158mm x 158mm) that are simple, lively but powerful vibrant florals; Wanderings by artist Clair Rossiter consists of 12 designs size 120mm x 168mm of wonderful UK cities; and A Spell in the Wild by artist Summer Thornton consists of eight designs size 120mm x 168mm of bright zingy images featuring splashes of inks that really capture the magnificence of wildlife.

● The Taylor Made range from The Lynn Tait Gallery is an art range that includes a selection of children's age cards by young local mum Esme Taylor. “I think it was refreshing to have an artist design a range who hasn't been involved in the industry to give the cards a fresh approach," explains Lynn Tait, director of the company, adding, “We have trialled the cards in my shop and they have been a great success.” ● Glebe Cottage has added lots of new designs by award winning artist Billy Showell - new floral shoe designs and beautiful images of necklaces, hearts and botanical illustrations - with a selection of these now available as blank, birthday and occasion cards. The art card publisher has also launched a whole host of new products in its licensed collection of photographic cards for The Wildlife Trusts, including new blank cards designs, charity Christmas packs, notecard wallets and a 2016 calendar. ● New at Judy Lumley Print is a wonderful non-gender specific stork and baby card. In soft greys, burgundy and orange this linoprinted 3D shaped card stands up to form a beautiful paper sculpture which any new mum will want to keep. Also ‘gearing’ up for summer, are these speedy racing cyclists from Judy Lumley Print. This card folds out in to a lovely 3D paper sculpture - and if more leisurely pursuits are more your style then opt for the girl riding her bike in pastel shades complete with a basket of flowers and happy dog. ● Ezen Designs have a host of art cards, from Japanese to their Vintage range hosting numerous designs of the Art Deco period. Each card contains write-ups on the back, explaining either the symbolism of the artwork, or the biography of the artist. On high quality 300gsm pearlescent paper stock, each card is hand-finished with rounded corners. Produced by a London gallery owner, this art range meets the quality and scrutiny of any art lover. ● Icon has added to the very fabulous and funky range of Exposure Colour cards 24 brand spanking new images to delight and amuse. And talk about an eclectic selection! Every photograph has been carefully selected to appeal to different people for different reasons, so these cards are not just any birthday cards, they reflect and promote a sense of style which is ever so slightly skewed, in a good way!

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ART CARD TRENDS

The Art Cards Movement Looking back into the art card archives of ten years ago, classical, figurative and decorative art and black and white photography was hitting the creative spot with the art card buying public. However, since printing techniques, especially in the digital sphere, have advanced in leaps and bounds, art card imagery has become unbelievably diverse.

An artistic gathering of publishing connoisseurs ‘illustrate’ the art cards movement.

Michael Charles and Ruby Ormerod from publisher Green Pebble: Reflections: “Over the past ten years there have been terrific improvements in the printing process and this is allowing publishers to experiment and ‘take risks’. They can print small numbers of a design without losing a fortune, so why not experiment with niche art? It’s been incredibly liberating and exciting because whereas previously publishers have erred on the side of caution - going with old masters and traditional favourites - the market is now giving the thumbs-up to a wide variety of art, including retro, urban, naive and folk. Art card publishers are even mixing things up a bit, introducing elements such as die-cutting while still maintaining the integrity of the original art.”

Zeitgeist: “It may be a bit of a cliché, but the art card buying market is definitely following the Baby Boomers, and what they want is not necessarily one style of art, Above: ‘Farmyard Cats’ is a linocut by artist Rob Barnes and available from Green Pebble.

Left: ‘The Stick’ is acrylic on paper by Dee Nickerson, published on cards by Green Pebble.

Right: The Vintage Matchbox Collection from ArtPress features matchbox covers from the 1930s to 50s.

but good art, with the emphasis being on ‘good’. They don’t like tat, they don’t like twee. They want to see and appreciate skill. They want to be moved and entertained.

They want images they would ideally frame and put on the wall, but that also contain a message because, truthfully, they can’t frame everything so they’d better post some to their best friends!”

Crystal Ball: “We anticipate art tastes will change as the generations mature, so yes, I do think we will see more urban street art as the next generation enters their art buying phase. But don’t be fooled; those same hip-hop young professionals will turn 40, move to the country to raise their families, and ‘home and hearth’ will suddenly become de rigueur all over again, and along with it, the folk and naive art that represents our countryside. The subject matter will always reflect current interests, but the style in which they are most popularly represented - print, oil, acrylic, naive etc will definitely change. In that sense it’s never the art publishers who decide what’s on trend, but the customers.

So, we wait and see!”

Ann Viney, co-director for ArtPres Publishing: Reflections: “Cherubs, angels and Pre-Raphaelite women with long flowing hair in pseudo Medieval clobber was all the rage 10-15 years ago. Classical art from Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Vitruvian Man’ through to Monet’s water lily pads, Van Gogh’s lilies and Picasso’s animal line drawings were all popular and sold on as many card formats as we could all

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invent. Times change and the over proliferation of these images gave way to a new obsession with photography, particularly of Hollywood stars from the glamorous 1940s, 50s and 60s.”

Zeitgeist: “The current trend is much more toward contemporary art, and popular subjects include animals, still life, cityscapes and landscapes, which is why our Royal Academy range has hit the right spot with perfect timing! This range includes wellknown artists such as Grayson Perry and Tracey Emin and established artists like Elizabeth Blackadder, Mary Fedden and Ken Howard. Customers seem to recognise the quality of this work even if they have no idea who the artist is and this trend towards contemporary art seems to be growing stronger.

Vintage and craft based artwork is part of this trend and we have many ranges tapping into this trend such as the perfectly formed Vintage Matchbox Collection. The original matchbox covers from the 30s to the 50s are both stylish and retro.

The incredibly gifted Domenica More-Gordon whose ‘Dog Show’ range features personality laden felt dogs posed for the camera make you want to break open the needlework basket and try to recreate your own felt animals!”

Above: ‘Love Dog’ by artist Domenica More-Gordon is one of six felt pooches from her Dog Show range, on cards from ArtPress.

Below right: Little works of art on cards, two Skylark designs from Paperlink.

Nick Adsett, group product director for The Great British Card Company: Reflections: “In the past there was more classical, figurative and landscape art on cards; it was less processdriven art. The whole genre of art cards has expanded considerably too and each year The Henries Awards, for example, provokes the age-old question - “But is it art?”!”

Zeitgeist: “These days it’s more about process-driven art; whereas foiling was once considered the domain of traditional cards, now more and more designers are exploring the possibilities of intricate foil effects on contemporary art cards to wonderful results.

Nicole Mendelsohn at The Almanac Gallery continues to pioneer the use of cold-foil techniques and I also admire the work that Belly Button is currently doing with this technique.”

Crystal Ball: “Why this obsession with pigeonholing? I think there should be room for everything!”

Above left: Thread Drawn from The Great British Card Company features machine embroidered images by Tina Crawford.

Above right: A ‘roaring’ design from Maddy McClellan in The Almanac Gallery’s range.

Clare Stead, product development manager for Paperlink: Reflections: “Ten years ago the art market felt very different to today. I think we held a very serious view of ‘art’ and now we are a lot more playful with the art concepts on cards that we buy. Accurately painted landscapes and male subject matters, such as trains and planes, were heavily featured, mainly painted in a realistic style, whereas nowadays art cards are often bright, colourful, loosely drawn and much more fun.”

Zeitgeist: “The art and contemporary greetings sectors are becoming harder to distinguish as art cards are becoming more trend-led. Beautiful soft watercolour florals, using fashion-led colours, sit happily with the usual birthday cakes and modern landscapes. Anything goes these days in the art world. With phone cameras being so advanced, photography has become a major player in the art card market. There is so much more photographic material available and it is a medium that people are familiar with for social interaction and sentimental messages.”

Crystal Ball: “We are already starting to see more traditional patterns coming back into the market with the classics from the likes of William Morris and this is reflective of the current patterned fashion trends. I think we will see more of this rather than going back to more classical scenes.

Our Fine Art range is called Skylark and each card is like a little work of art in its own right. Beautifully painted wildlife sit among dreamy country scenes and idyllic landscapes.”

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ART CARD TRENDS

Ben Dorney, art director for Museums & Galleries:

Right: Two stunning designs from Museums & Galleries latest Classics release.

Below: Bold watercolour florals have been seen in fashion and cards - a beautiful design from Ling.

Below left: This Slice of Life design from Ling is hotly on trend for the Tour de France.

Far right: From Roger la Borde's Chicago School range, a design by Kate Pugsley, who might paint an up-lifting woodland scene followed by a hipswaying indie band.

Reflections: “Looking back at a 2005 Museums & Galleries catalogue, we were publishing a lot of Art Deco images - dancers, fashion plates and transport - an abundance of classical fairies, a good all round range of traditional fine art, a smattering of black & white fashion photography, and a mix of more contemporary commercial art - flowers, animals, landscapes etc. Underpinning this were classic Arts & Crafts designs, which, if anything, have risen in their relevance today.”

Zeitgeist: “Currently, the notion of what an 'art card’ is has really expanded to include the most contemporary styles of art, illustration and graphic arts. This is actually a really exciting development: older generations are now looking for a mix of anything from classic nostalgia and ‘heavyweight’ fine art to really contemporary design; at the same time the hipster

Rebecca McCulloch, creative director for Ling Design: Reflections: “Looking back there was a wave of contemporary naive illustration such as seascapes, beach huts, Cornish harbour scenes, botanical prints, Charles Rennie Mackintosh-esque architectural drawings/prints, Jack Vettriano-esque figurative illustrations and Banksy’s art.

At any time trends in interiors and on the high street influence the card buying public. At this time we were seeing the arrival of Cath Kidston into the high street after her mail order roots.

This, mixed with the already established 'shabby chic' trend, gave us the 'vintage' style that is widely recognised and used everywhere sun-bleached brights and hints of yesteryear mixed with handicrafts and artisan pieces mass produced, but looking individually made. This, mixed with the arrival of social media, meant that there was an aspirational element of creating our own idealised worlds. How we are 'perceived' or how we want to play 'make believe' is an important influence on our buying patterns.”

Zeitgeist: “Strong colour and vibrant pattern is key for us, and in subject matter anything that captures the spirit of the moment, such as owls and teacups. Florals always do well, but these too follow trends 'blousy' flowers like peonies and lilac suggest a return to simpler times with a vintage element. Travel is always an inspiration and popular travel destinations prove to be a winner. Hobbies and sports also seem to appeal in the lifestyle genre.”

Crystal Ball: “I think if the image is beautiful and communicates from the rack it will sell, the key is to catch the zeitgeist of course.”

generation is busy tweeting about screen-printing, typography, craft and the ‘nostalgia' of supposedly forgotten hands-on creative processes!

These shifts aside, there will always be a market for original, quality art and heritage imagery, which reflects current trends, evokes feelings, memories, or just inspires sheer awe at the beauty and mastery of the medium.”

Crystal Ball: “For what it’s worth, I have consulted my crystal ball and apparently the near future exactly mirrors the forthcoming 2016 Museums & Galleries brochure! Who knew?!

Museums & Galleries will continue its current mission - to offer timeless quality regardless of whether it is heritage or contemporary in style. This, really, is what separates the special from the ordinary and is what we ultimately look for. A great image could be 500 years old or five minutes old, but in either case it needs to communicate something beyond its time to give it ‘classic’ quality.”

Tim Solnick, director for Roger la Borde: Reflections: "Looking back 10 years, figurative imagery very much dominated Roger la Borde’s range; right now mainly woodsy, wild nature themes prowl the pages of our catalogues.

The move away from figurative also marked a shift in focus from fashion and glamour, retro, kitsch and contemporary towards more local, natural, empathetic and spiritual, concerns.

At the same time, the work we publish has also got more crafty with the artist’s hand in the form of a pencil-line, brush-mark or paper-cut is much more evident in the work."

Zeitgeist: "Roger la Borde is still very much a ‘gut’ publisher. We publish what we believe in and it is almost exclusively contemporary so shifts in the nature of our cards tends to resonate with what contemporary artists and illustrators are feeling, and ultimately with a sensibility of a certain sector of the public as well. As such, I’d say at least part of the art card buying public have shifted from a knowing romance with travel, fashion and the high-life to wanting stuff that reflects the smaller but significant pleasures of old fashioned skills and the natural and cultural delights of their local neighbourhood."

Crystal Ball: "Based on my observations of contemporary art and talking to artists and illustrators I get a real sense of a convergence between fine and commercial art. Recognised fine artists like Damien Hirst are mass producing work to a degree that is very close to what contemporary art publishers get up to (albeit with vastly different price tags), while many of the artists we work with like Rebecca Rebouché have a foot in both worlds, selling paintings and designing for products. From my perspective I think this means the material one can publish and sell as art cards just gets more diverse and interesting and, I’m afraid, increasingly hard to predict."

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RETAILERS’ REVELATIONS

In The Frame

With seemingly more art gallery and museum exhibitions than ever before, the public’s appetite for art, artisan and creative endeavours appears insatiable.

But this can only be a positive sign for art greeting cards, for as little pieces of affordable art they are an arty amuse bouche, a tasty nibble for art lovers and an uplifting aesthetic treat for those who share and receive them.

A collection of art greeting cards retailing ‘critics’ reveal what art ranges, styles and genres are receiving ‘rave reviews’ from their card buying public.

Graham Fraser, owner of Alba Artshop, Oban, Scotland:

Debbie Pritchard, owner of Bookends, Christchurch, Dorset:

Above: The London Eye beautifully highlighted with foiling on a design from Paper Rose’s Spirit range.

Below: A beautiful bird on a Woodmansterne design.

“A large percentage of our store is made up of art cards. As with an art department and art gallery, these are the types of cards our customers like. Our customers are definitely discerning and they are looking for something special. Every card we select must have the ‘wow’ factor. It must either be beautiful or unique. We don’t do ‘average’!

Modern and traditional fine art cards, along with art photography are the most popular images. The cards have to have a general appeal so that they can suit a multitude of recipients.

There are some fantastic art ranges available and at present Wrendale Designs, with its quirky and cute characters, is especially popular. Spirit and Artisan by Paper Rose are beautiful and extremely feminine. We also select artistic cards from Paperlink, Berni Parker and Almanac Gallery. However Woodmansterne provides us with our largest range. It produces fantastic art photography in so many of its ranges, covering humorous, scenic and cards that just have something different (without being weird!). It also has both modern and traditional watercolour cards, but the reason it has the edge is that it’s about the only publisher to produce a fantastic range of art and art photography cards with occasions and relations captions.”

“Alba customers like Scotland’s Artists cards from Tartan 2CV and Edinburgh Arts. They like the local scenes and landmarks as painted by Scotland's most famous artists.

Indeed, we maintain a special section near the till to just Oban cards. Customers also like to turn their art cards into small framed items to hang at home. We carry a huge range of card images, ready framed at under £20, which are popular with both local and tourist customers. Our best selling artists are John Lowrie Morrison aka ‘Jolomo’ with his amazing paintings of the Western Highlands and Islands (sold through Island Blue) and Ronald Lawson with his modern take on our remote and majestic area (from The Atholl Gallery).

The other art category best for our public is the Artist Deborah Printmakers range from Art Angels, Top: Phillips’ ‘Late Harvest Poppies’ on a card from which has proved a consistent, Tartan 2CV. steady seller.

Above: Oban in With 50% local and 50% tourist Scotland painted by renown artist John customers, art and our beautiful Lowrie Morrison, aka landscape readily translate into sales.” Jolomo, printed on cards

by Island Blue.

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RETAILERS’ REVELATIONS

Amanda Oscroft, partner of Love It, Stamford and Bury St Edmunds: “Love It is finding art card sales are hotting up lovely this summer. One of our hot ranges is Alex Clark Art. The cards feature beautiful English countryside scenes and animals. The dog and cat art cards are especially popular with our customers.

The recent addition to Alex Clark’s cards has been the Sparkle range which, as the name suggests, has a little bit of glitter, bows and ribbon attached. Our customers do feel they are buying a little piece of art and some actually say they intend to frame their card. The price point of £1.85 for the small cards is also very attractive.

We sell a huge range of photographic cards too, mainly from Pigment and Icon, the latter having a lovely contemporary look to its designs featuring children.

One of my personal favourite ranges is Soul’s Curly Girl range, which features strong colours and beautiful art with a lovely message of hope, inspiration and love. Our customers often buy three or four different cards from that Above left: Alex Clark’s Sparkle range is ‘a shining’ winner for card retailers. range as it is so hard to just choose one!”

Above: ‘Curly Girl’ from Soul is wonderfully quirky.

David Coleman, owner of The Only Place For Pictures, Islington and Palmers Green, London: “Canns Down Press’ ranges have consistently been strong sellers over the years, however lately we’ve done well with Green Pebble who has a good eye for contemporary art images, and a broad range too.

Featuring reasonably well-known artists such as John Duffin, Anita Kline and Gail Brodholt, Dry Red Press’ collection of art cards is very strong and covers different painterly styles and themes. And ArtPress also features recognised artists, such as Richard Spare. The publisher is very good at putting together say ten different art pieces from the same artist and creating a range. The collection, when displayed together, has more impact, with each design playing off each other.

The company has a commercial eye for what art cards will sell, looking at what card sending occasions they suit. Sometimes you see a lovely art card image but you wonder what occasion you can send it for.

The genre in art cards that still remains is printmaking - Art Angels’ Printmakers range continues to be popular.

And because of a current exhibition at the Dulwich Art Gallery in London of the watercolourist, wood engraver and lithographer Eric Ravilious (printed on cards by The Blank Card Company) the public has been aware of his work and buying cards featuring his images.

Of course, there are many smaller card publishers doing really well with their quirky artistic designs too. Lagom’s Zoo Portraits range of animals dressed up has been a favourite, and its David Ryski contemporary range of stylised characters feels like the card sending element has been thought about.”

Above: An amazing picture by John Duffin called ‘Arrival’ - on a Dry Red Press card.

Right: Lagom’s David Ryski range features stylised personalities with a card sending occasion element.

David Smith, partner of Wishing Well, Great Bookham: “Art is different to different people, similarly with art cards.

A popular collection for us at the moment is The Galleria range by Ling Designs, featuring uplifting watercolour images on all sorts of themes, such as a field of poppies or relaxing read somewhere on the coast of the Mediterranean.

Additionally, Ling’s Sumi-e range has beautiful fine art florals, such as orchids and anemones, in a simple Japanese style and using just a touch of glitter. They’re the type of cards I like as they are commercially flexible. The designs could be sent as a sympathy card, to a man or woman who is a keen gardener or a female to female send.

Abacus’ photographic Rapture range has arty touches running through the collection. We have a well-supported photographic club in Bookham, but I don’t think that’s the driver of this range’s popularity. It’s possibly the fact that we have some stunning countryside not far away from the shop and people like to take a beautiful landscape scene home with them or send a lovely countryside image to someone.

IC&G’s Gallery range has a realistic look to the images on the designs, with some incredible detail. And The Heart Of A Garden publishes artwork by the artist Denise Laurent who has a different painterly slant on the theme of cats and dogs.

Finally, Alex Clark paints lots of rural animals that not only make the buyer smile but the card’s recipient too with its gentle humour.”

Above: Galleria by Ling is hitting the artistic spot for Wishing Well’s customers.

Right: Abacus’ photographic range called Rapture features some breath-taking scenes.

Fiona Fabien, director of two Papyrus stores in Glasgow: “We always sell lots of Scottish artists images’ and Tartan 2CV produces a beautiful range of contemporary Scottish artists which are constantly refreshed with new images and artists so our customers never tire of them.

Our best selling art cards at the moment are wooden postcards from Timbergram.

They are more than just a greeting card - they are an affordable piece of art and a gift to treasure and display, retailing at £3.95.

The publisher offers a huge range of contemporary and traditional art designs to suit all occasions and customers. They can be sent in the post without an envelope and a message can be written or engraved on the back.”

Above: Timbergram’s wooden postcards are printed on birch wood from sustainable forests.

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