Clarence Bicknell - The Casa Fontanalba Visitors' Book

A set of limited edition prints of charming and highly decorative wild flower watercolours, taken from the Casa Fontanalba Visitors’ Book of 1906.  Each print is signed in aid of The Woodland Trust by its president Clive Anderson, or by the playwright Alan Ayckbourn, or by the novelist Frederick Forsyth, or by the singer and songwriter Chris de Burgh.

Clarence Bicknell (27 August 1842 – 17 July 1918) was a British vicar, archaelogist, botanist, artist, Esperantist, author and philanthropist. In 1906 he decided to build his own summer house in the valley at Casterino on the French-Italian border in the Alps. This he called Casa Fontanalba and the interior he decorated with his own paintings, carvings and other craft work with botanical and archaeological themes in a style inspired by the Arts and Crafts Movement. 

Every opening of the Visitors' Book is illustrated by Clarence Bicknell with water colours of flora of the region on the right page. The left hand pages were left empty so that guests who stayed at the Casa Fontanalba could sign their name and the date.

More on Howard Phipps

Howard has lived near Salisbury since 1980 and his art is rooted in the downs of Wiltshire and Dorset, with their deep coombes and Beech clumps. He works from drawings and watercolours made on location, using light to reveal the underlying sculpture of the landscape. Ancient track
ways and striking hill forms draw his eye - timeless places on which earlier generations have left their mark. His subsequent wood engravings are profoundly imbued with a sense of place.

"Much of my art is rooted in the chalk downs of Wiltshire and Dorset, with their deep coombes and beech clumps. I make drawings or watercolours on location and my wood engravings are based upon these observations; ancient ways and earthworks draw my eye, timeless places on which earlier generations have left their mark. I like to reveal the underlying sculptural nature of distinctive hill forms, such as hill forts, observed when the sun is low.
Engraving a pre-blackened wood block is like drawing with light, as each cut made will appear as white in the finished print. This reverse process of bringing light in appeals, and i aim to capture a strong sense of place within a few square inches." Howard Phipps

The artist has had numerous solo exhibitions in London and the South of England, including twice at The Victoria Art gallery in Bath, and the Dorset County Museum on three occasions. Howard’s solo exhibition, Cutting It Fine, at Salisbury Museum in 2021-22 was featured on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row Arts programme . He has been a frequent exhibitor at Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions since 1985, where he has also been a recipient of the Christies Contemporary Print Award. 

Howard Phipps is an associate of the Royal Society of Painter Printmakers ( ARE ), a Royal West of England Academician (RWA ), and a member of the Society of Wood Engravers.

More on Wood Engraving

Wood engraving is a printmaking technique, a development of the woodcut block, which was first
used in Europe in the early fifteenth century to produce illustrative decorations, or single- sheet printed works.

See the illustrated blog post here.

Woodcuts were made by cutting the soft side grain of a plank with knives and gouges, leaving the design, which was to receive the ink, in relief. With the invention of moveable type woodcuts could be used to illustrate books, as each could be inked at the same time.

The art of wood engraving was invented in Britain in the late eighteenth century, and developed by Thomas Bewick of Newcastle. By engraving on end-grain hardwood such as boxwood, with tools comparable to those used by engravers of metal, it enabled artists to create finer images.