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Queens Birthday, St George’s Day, Shakespeare’s Death

All in one week ! The Queen and Shakespeare's Birthday, plus St Georges Day. Each treated to a healthy does of subversion and love with some great art

Cry ‘God for Harry, England, and Saint George!’  - (King Henry, Act 3 Scene 1)

Welcome to another We Have Your Prints Blog, this week it is the Queen's Birthday, St George's Day, as well as Shakespeare's Death and whilst here at the WHYP castle we could never be accused of being nationalistic, we wanted to have a think about images and ideas associated with these 3 momentous events.

Queen's Birthday

This will be the first birthday for the Queen without her beloved husband. She is such an ionic figure and has been represented in all facets of the art world.

We do love a picture of the Queen. We can’t explain why, but something about these subversive images from our own collection makes us smile.

 

Mr Brainwash - Life is Beautiful.

 

Trust.ICON - The Empire Strikes Back.

  

Darren Azgard Queen Pop 3 - This print is A1 size and is covered in gorgeous glitter sparkle, just need to find the time to get it framed. 

Tabby - Boss - Picked this up at Moniker art fair 2019. It is an original hand sprayed onto acetate, and I added the Union jack background.

 

Pure Evil - Brexit Nightmare - This is large at 85cm x 70cm and is a 5 colour screen print

The latest piece framed by Mr WHYP (took nearly 2.5 years to find the time) is “Like a Boss” by Simon Skint. This is a series 1 AP print and her Maj looks superb nestled in a black velvet boarder, with hints of the red, white and blue in the inner mount all topped off with anti-reflective glass and a distressed silver frame. We like to think that makes us a balanced household! Maybe not the quite the image you would associate with Her Maj but a striking mix of cultural references, nonetheless.

Skint - Like a Boss

There are plenty more superb street art and subversive images of the Queen that we love, here are just a few.

Jamie Reid - God Save the Queen

England's Dreaming

God Save the Queen…..and There's no future, And England's dreaming!’ – God save the Queen – Sex Pistols.

Here in WHYP towers in order to balance our collection of Queens, we have as our gatekeeper against the dangers of Royal toadyism Mr John Lydon (AKA Johnny Rotten) currently residing on our staircase.

Entitled “ I’m not here for your amusement, you’re here for mine” We bought this from the artist Annemarie Wright who has painstakingly created it using handwritten quotes from the great man himself.  We love the way you can relish his hard stare at a distance and then get up close and personal and delight in his thoughts.

The great thing about art in your own home is that you don’t have to be socially distant from it.

And to top if off, probably my favourite Queen image of all time from Chris Levine. He has captured a wonderful moment of serene calmness in this photo shoot.

Chris Levine - Lightness of Being

And our own Michelle Mildenhall has a take on Mrs Windsor. Our website has more details of Michelle and her clever way with latex and the prints that she also produces. This piece is entitled QE2

And finally, in our parade of Queens someone we follow on Instagram.

Quiet British Accent have crowned their own queens.  This artistic duo creates amazing images on coins – they are Sharon Gale and Jason Gale. The couple's work often touches on the subjects of change and value using pennies and text.

Shakespeare's Death

I have never been a fan of Shakespeare myself and for me this Connor Brothers print sums up his scribblings perfectly.

For Harry

Our favourite Harry at home is Mr Harry Bunce. We love how his pistol packing critters can unnerve some of our house guests. Do you remember house guests? Friends; family, who would come to our house and eat great food, drink wine and whisky, chat and play games to the wee small hours? These are some of our favourites from Harry Bunce.

Alice in Trouble Series - Teatime

Peace

  Coney

The Gift

Saint Georges Day

In a pre-Covid world, pubs and their beer gardens would be festooned with St Georges bunting on an April day; men with football shirts would raise a glass of warm fizzy lager to the great national saint. But how much do we know about the patron saint of flags and football teams? (only joking) Here is a quiz from 2018 Guardian to test your knowledge. 

You won’t be surprised to learn St. George is more international than you might think and his day is marked in countries as diverse as Ethiopia, Spain and Georgia – ok that last one not so surprising. Here are some images from around the world depicting St. George doing battle with that nasty dragon.

Walter K Martinez III - St George and the Dragon

Welin - St George and the Dragon

Michael J Murphy - St George and the Dragon

Finally Back to where we started.  St George By our favourite, Harry Bunce

Whatever happens to you this week we hope you stay safe, stay socially distant and help kick COVID19 in the balls.
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Take care and stay safe

Jay