Thursday 31 December 2015

A fish in a jug and JS Bach


A fish in a jug and JS Bach,
A notebook drawing by John Vernon Lord, 12 September 2013.

Wednesday 30 December 2015

Mother Goose programme cover


Mother Goose programme cover, 
drawn and designed by John Vernon Lord, 2007.
(showing Ditchling High Street).

Tuesday 29 December 2015

'Beneath the Tree'

'Beneath the Tree'
A pen and ink drawing by John Vernon Lord,  1966.
measuring 7 feet x 3 feet 11 inches or 2.21m x 1.19 m.

Monday 28 December 2015

A Visit to Stoke

A Visit to Stoke
A diary drawing by John Vernon Lord, 17 March 1983.

Sunday 27 December 2015

Academic Board 1981

Academic Board 1981.
A notebook drawing by John Vernon Lord, 5 March 1981

Saturday 26 December 2015

A bird singing letters and numbers

A bird singing letters and numbers.
A notebook drawing by John Vernon Lord, 1979

Friday 25 December 2015

Thursday 24 December 2015

Degree or non-degree - indigestion


Degree or non-degree - indigestion.
A notebook drawing by John Vernon Lord, 1979.

Wednesday 23 December 2015

Landscape drawing, a ticket, capital expenditure

Landscape drawing, a ticket, capital expenditure.
A notebook drawing by John Vernon Lord, 22 March 1979.

Tuesday 22 December 2015

They


They
A notebook drawing by John Vernon Lord, 1978.

When I carried out this spread I was working on the illustrations to The Nonsense Verse of Edward Lear, in which there are characters called 'they' in the limericks. Lear’s characters inhabit a real world as well as a surreal one of Nonsense.  They are subjected to everyday problems and they are endowed with typical human frailties and feelings, and hardly any of them are righteous.  Very few idealised heroes or heroines can be found among Lear’s Nonsense.  There is a pervading sense of the individual having to cope with life’s vicissitudes in a society which is nearly always ready to be critical - especially the inquisitive ‘they’ of the limericks, who form pressure-groups and behave like nosey-parkers, bureaucrats and bores.  George Orwell referred to ‘they’ as ‘the respectable ones, the right-thinking, art-hating majority’.
           
Here is an example, among Lear's limericks, of the Old Person of Bow  -

There was an Old Person of Bow
Whom nobody happened to know;
So they gave him some soap,
And said coldly, ‘We hope
You will go back directly to Bow! 

Many of Lear’s limerick subjects have to endure such insults as this from the ‘gross besetting crowd’.
‘They’ are what Aldous Huxley described as the force of ‘Public Opinion’ which ‘universally abhors
eccentricity’and who are unable to appreciate talent; as can be witnessed here, for it is ‘they’ again who rebuke the Old Man of Melrose for merely walking on the tips of his toes.

Monday 21 December 2015

Train tickets




Train tickets
Notebook drawings (in case I lost them!) by John Vernon Lord, 1978/79.

Sunday 20 December 2015

Saturday 19 December 2015

Friday 18 December 2015

A fish swallows a man's hand

A fish swallows a man's hand
A notebook drawing by John Vernon Lord, September 1976.

Thursday 17 December 2015

A man balancing two balls on his fingers and a bird on his head


A man balancing two balls on his fingers and a bird on his head
A notebook drawing by John Vernon Lord, 1976


Wednesday 16 December 2015

Three men under a hat


Three men under a hat
Notebook drawing by John Vernon Lord, 
drawn during a meeting on 13 July 1976

Tuesday 15 December 2015

A hand holding a plant

A hand holding a plant
Notebook drawing by John Vernon Lord, 20 May 1976



Monday 14 December 2015

Munrow the medieval is gone,


Munrow the medieval is gone,
Notebook drawing by John Vernon Lord, 20 May 1976

Sunday 13 December 2015

Friday 11 December 2015

Thursday 10 December 2015

Wednesday 9 December 2015

A Portrait of John R Biggs


A Portrait of John R Biggs,
Head of Graphic Design at Brighton College of Art 1953-1974.
Notebook drawing by John Vernon Lord, December 1968

Tuesday 8 December 2015

(Isopod), castle, fish and bridge

(Isopod), castle, fish and bridge,
Notebook drawing by John Vernon Lord 5 December 1968

Monday 7 December 2015

Sunday 6 December 2015

'Till late in the night did he read, rocking, reminiscing restfully'


'Till late in the night did he read, rocking, reminiscing restfully',
a diary drawing by John Vernon Lord, 29 July 1965.

Saturday 5 December 2015

During the reading of Gide


During the reading of Gide.
a diary drawing by John Vernon Lord, July 1965. 
.

Friday 4 December 2015

Endpaper incorporating Edward Lear's Nonsense Botany


Endpaper incorporating Edward Lear's Nonsense Botany,
illustrated by John Vernon Lord
in The Nonsense Verse of Edward Lear, Jonathan Cape, 1984.

Thursday 3 December 2015

Wednesday 2 December 2015

Tuesday 1 December 2015

Two figure drawings

Two figure drawings,
Costume life drawings in a sketchbook by John Vernon Lord,  1960/1.