New Website New Work

I have a brand new website at www.francescastle.com I'm hoping the new simplified design will make it much easier for me to update. The old address at www.smallmoonvalley.com still works so no need to change your bookmarks.

The image below is a mock up of a book cover I have recently finished for publishers Simon & Schuster. The book by C J Flood is about the summer that changed one girl's life, it due out in Febuary and can be ordered here

Prints

Risograph prints based on the artwork I did for Darren Haymans Lido. These prints were on display in Rough Trade East. They were made in small editions of between 7 to 10 copies of each print, signed and numbered. I also have one framed copy available of each print - these have been professionally framed in oak frames.

Unframed £20 / Framed £75 

Available in the Clay Pipe Music SHOP 

Edinburgh Book Festival

I was recently commissioned by 999 Design for Guardian Books to create illuminated letters for the Edinburgh International Book Festival I had to come up for a concept for each genre, using an illustrated quote by a famous author; Alexander McCall Smith for crime, Mark Haddon for children’s, Hilary Mantel for historical fiction and Jasper Fforde for fantasy. The finished images  appeared on deckchairs, canvas bags, stickers, beer mats and book plates.

Photos by Caroline Thomson, Arena Illustration.

The images and quotes on deck chairs at the Edinburgh Book Festival.

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 Here are two more CDs released on my little CD label Clay Pipe Music, the first one by GP Hall came out earlier this month. The second 'Lido' by Darren Hayman will be out on the 3rd September. There will also be a small exhibition of the artwork at Rough Trade East, Dray Walk, Old Truman Brewery, London E1 6QU (off Brick Lane) The album has 14 tracks each dedicated to a Lido (outdoor swimming pool) in the UK. The CD comes with a booklet, in which Darren has drawn a picture of each Lido on the CD and I designed,  illustrated and Gocco printed  the cover. Work from both of us will be on display.

The exhibition runs from 3rd-13th Sept 2012 with a special in store  performance from Darren Hayman on 3rd September from 7pm.

Space Saver

Last year I worked on this book called Space Saver by Kate Agnew. It is a story about a little boy who goes into space to bring back a stranded space buggy. It is published by Egmont, and is available buy now.

Tyneham House

Tyneham House the next CD on my little label 'Claypipe Music' is now available. This was a joint project with another label 'Second Language' and the CD can be ordered from their website rather than mine.

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The small village of Tyneham, on the beautiful Isle of Purbeck, in Dorset, was once a thriving little community – that is until the British Government requisitioned it for training manoeuvres and other ‘strategic purposes’ in the run up to WWII. This was supposed to be a temporary measure, but the area remained in military possession long after hostilities had ceased, causing distress among former inhabitants, many of whom were farmed out to prefabs in nearby Wareham and Swanage.

Tyneham was characterised by its red telephone box, a tiny parade of shops – Post Office Row – and a grand country pile which stood about half a mile away from the village: Tyneham House. The army removed the building’s oak panelling and ornate decorative details and promptly set about using it for target practice. So great was the shame expressed locally about the damage inflicted upon one of Dorset’s grandest houses that the powers that be decided to grow a copse around the remains of the structure to give the impression that it was no longer there. Despite this, a substantial part of the structure remains intact, including its Saxon hall.

Land access around Tyneham was opened up in the 1970s, but admission to the house remains strictly verboten. Those who’ve been found around the premises, especially anyone wielding a camera, have felt the full weight of military trespass law. Tyneham today is regarded as a nature reserve by some – as a national embarrassment by others. It’s still a political hot potato, in Dorset at least.

The pastoral, wistful yet ineffably disquieting music of Tyneham House is made by artists who have previously graced Second Language releases, but who wish to remain anonymous here, save for their eponymous title. The musicians are happy, however, to let it be known that these recordings have been around for some years (many of them compiled from old cassettes) and that they take inspiration from the 1960s/’70s/’80s work of the Children’s Film Foundation – a body who really ought to have made a film about this mysterious West Country curio. At least now we have its endlessly poignant soundtrack.

'Tyneham House' is a joint release between the London-based independent labels, Second Language and Clay Pipe Music. This 14 track CD album comes packaged in a Gocco-printed card box with booklet and cassette tape of bonus material (18+ minutes) - all beautifully illustrated throughout by award winning artist Frances Castle of Clay Pipe Music.

This is SL015/Pipe003. Limited to 300 copies only.

Tracklisting (CD) :

• A Chalk Horse
• Rookery Wood
• Coppice Walk
• Binoculars
• Bletchingley
• Post Office Row
• The Crows Circle
• Winter Carriage
• The Ragged Cat
• I Shall Not Cross The Sleeping Hill
• The Porch Room
• Saxon Chapel
• Last Village Before The Sea
• Lit Room At Midnight

Tracklisting (Cassette) :

A: A School Holiday, 1977
B: May Day, 1981