James Flynn

Hi guy's, so good of you to drop by.

I have dedicated this post to a day out I had a couple of weeks ago. So, here it is...........

It is wednesday the 8th february.

It is a cold but bright day, and I am feeling excited.

After a brisk ten minute walk to the train station, me and my fiance Gemma, quickly buy our tickets from a ticket machine outside the station and head for the platform. After climbing a few stairs and being moaned at by the man in the ticket booth for buying a ticket from the machine rather than from him, we have actually made it there by 10am, ready for the 10.11am train to cannon st.

Cannon st is not our destination however, for we are on our way to shoreditch, to see the latest exhibition from Guy Denning and Frank. E. Rannou.......

I found out about Guy Denning a couple of years ago whilst looking on the net for new artists one night, and found a few of his videos on youtube, where he displays his "dark" painting skills.

I have been waiting for this day for a while now, and as the train pulls into the station, both of us eagerly jump on.

Soon enough we are travelling through Hither Green and New Cross, and I start to observe the graffiti down on the tracks. I remembered that I once new just about every tag, and every painting down along this line. As well as having some down there myself. I still recognise some, although a lot of walls have been painted over now by the authorities. I wondered why though, a waste of money considering it is down the side of a railway line I think.

After changing at London Bridge, and getting on a tube to Old Street, we are soon walking through a freezing cold Shoreditch. This doesn't bother us too much though because as soon as we got there we started seeing street art/graffiti on every corner, such is the character of this place.

Shoreditch is well known for it's street art scene, and it certainly did not disapoint. Obviously I could not help but take a few snaps......

(I am not aware of what artists the above work is done by, if you know, please let me know).

We arrived at signal gallery slightly early, so we decided to take a look around the pure evil gallery. Pure evil gallery is a fairly small place dedicated to street art and graffiti, and I was soon looking through some brilliant prints and sketches.

I did not get a chance to take any photos in here, but to find out more about this place, see here - http://www.pureevilclothing.com

It was time to head back to signal gallery, and after braving the cold again for a couple of minutes, we were walking down some cold stairs of the shared building to the gallery down below.

The first thing that hit me about this place was that it was much smaller than any pictures I had seen of it. Although not tiny, I would say that the camera definately "lies"......

We was far from disapointed though, as we were now looking at some great paintings from Guy Denning himself, and of course....Frank. E. Rannou.

Guy Denning's work has always struck me as being quite dark in subject, and yet pulled off in a very unique style. His work usually features portraits of people in a look of pain, or discomfort, or emotional paintings of a political theme.

As for Frank Rannou, I did not really know what to expect, and this just added to my anticipation.

In the end, there was some great work here on display from both artists, and here is a selection of pictures in no particular order.......

Frank. E. Rannou......

Frank. E. Rannou........

Guy Denning.........

Guy Denning.........

Guy Denning........

Guy Denning.......

It was a very good day out for both of us, and well worth the train journey up to signal gallery.

It is always refreshing once every now and then to see other artists work up close, and it made me remember how good shoreditch can be also.

I wanted to share this with everyone as we had such a great day, and it was a break from our usual routine. Thanks for taking the time to look.

I will leave it there for now, but please feel free to leave comments, and stay posted.

James