Leftover London

A miscellany of the bits of London that got left behind and other graphic and architectural diversions

[leftoverlondoner]

Doreen Fletcher continues to produce excellent urban art. This is from her new show, Corners, opening at the Townhouse gallery, Spitalfields, next week.

[leftoverlondoner]

London Transport cover stars, 14

That's June Ellenden "collecting sheets of tickets for wiring" as they come off the rotary printing machine at the London Transport Tram and Trolleybus Printing Works in Brixton. Mr C Curtis is operating the machine. He's 48 and has worked there since he was 14, showing every one of those years in his cheery demeanour.

[leftoverlondoner]

It was all happening in Challans, western France, in autumn 2015.

[leftoverlondoner]

This Pimlico ghostsign is much photographed, but couldn’t resist as I was passing.

[leftoverlondoner]

‘Bombed Women And Searchlights’ by Clive Branson, 1940, is one of the remarkable artworks currently on show at Tate Britain in its Artists International Association display. Well worth a visit, even though it’s only a roomful of exhibits in the Archive section of the museum.

[leftoverlondoner]

Always interesting to find a new (to me) urban artist. Here are just a couple of the many paintings Bill Goffrier has made of the Wichita streetscape, both oils from 2017 of the Orpheum Theatre, still a floruishing arts centre.

[leftoverlondoner]

Ruskin Spear’s atmospheric c.1950 oil painting ‘Bus Stop’ sold at auction this week for £4,445.

[leftoverlondoner]

Here’s a good ghostsign, from Fort Edward, NY.

[leftoverlondoner]

Who doesn’t like a motel sign? Good article on 100 years of motels in the New York Times, featuring the photography of Carol Highsmith, above.

100 Years of the Motel

In 1925, the first motel opened on a California highway, ushering in a new era of convenience and comfort for a nation falling in love with

[leftoverlondoner]

The excellent London-based urban landscape artist Marie Lenclos has a new show opening next week at the Art Friend Gallery in Columbia Road, Bethnal Green. Here are a few example of her earlier work.

[leftoverlondoner]

Three ghostsigns and some restaurant neon from Watertown in New York state. Despite its brightness I don’t think the Gold Medal ad has been repainted. And I do like the confidence of its “Eventually… why not now?” slogan.

[leftoverlondoner]

Good signs in Clayton, NY. Not all ghostsigns, as the Homestead Restaurant is very much in business.

[leftoverlondoner]

This sounds good. “Practically harmless” apparently. From the first issue of Country Life magazine in 1897.

[leftoverlondoner]

From 1947, when coal was good for you.

[leftoverlondoner]

Apartment history by wallpaper at the Janis Rozentāls Museum, Riga.

[leftoverlondoner]

Three pleasing plates from Romans Suta (1896-1944) on show at the Riga Museum of Decorative Arts & Design.

[leftoverlondoner]

Before today I had neither heard of, nor ever knowingly seen any work by, the artist Stasys Ušinskas (1905-1974), but that changed with a visit to the Vilnius Museum of Applied Arts & Design, currently showcasing the extraordinary breadth of his talent. Here, some paintings from the 1930s - A Human Between The Saws; Farmers At The Market Place; and Bathing Women - but there is much more to explore.