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An Artist's Life in London

My Town

David Gentleman has lived in London for almost seventy years, most of it on the same street. This book is a record of a lifetime spent observing, drawing and getting to know the city, bringing together work from across his whole career, from his earliest sketches to watercolours painted just a few months ago. Here is London as it was, and as it is today: the Thames, Hampstead Heath; the streets, canals, markets and people of his home of Camden Town; and at the heart of it all, his studio and the tools of his work. Accompanied by reflections on the process of drawing and personal thoughts on the ever-changing city, this is a celebration of London, and the joy of noticing, looking and capturing the world.

David Gentleman is a painter and printmaker, working in many mediums. He has designed British postage stamps and coins, and the platform-length mural, blown up from his wood engravings, well-known to Londoners, at Charing Cross on the underground. His studio is at the top of an early Victorian house in Camden Town between the crowded, rackety Camden Lock and the green spaces of Regent's Park and Primrose Hill.

David Gentleman has lived in London for almost seventy years, most of it on the same street. This book is a record of a lifetime spent observing, drawing and getting to know the city, bringing together work from across his whole career, from his earliest sketches to watercolours painted just a few months ago. 
 
Here is London as it was, and as it is today: the Thames, Hampstead Heath; the streets, canals, markets and people of his home of Camden Town; and at the heart of it all, his studio and the tools of his work. Accompanied by reflections on the process of drawing and personal thoughts on the ever-changing city, this is a celebration of London, and the joy of noticing, looking and capturing the world. 
 
'David has spent a lifetime depicting with wit and affection a London he has made his own' Alan Bennett 
 
 'He delivers a poetry of exultant concentration ... The surface fusion of the sensuous and the sharply modern is echoed by Gentleman's imagery' Guardian 
 
 'The artist and illustrator has been responsible for some of the most-seen public artworks in this country' The Times 
 
 'Perhaps the last of the great polymath designer-painters' Camden New Journal

An Artist's Year

London, You're Beautiful

Exquisite and original as always, David Gentleman gives us delights and surprises on every page

So many of David Gentleman's drawings are for me familiar territory. I've lived in three of the locations he pictures and even have my hair cut in his barber's. David has spent a lifetime depicting with wit and affection a London he has made his own, in this book looking at some of its neglected corners. So London, You're Beautiful is a tribute which, if I can't quite endorse, it's only because beauty often brings with it exasperation. So for me (and I suspect for him) it's London, You're Beautiful -- so how about taking a bit more care of yourself?

He delivers a poetry of exultant concentration...Gentleman is an artist-designer who has worked across an exceptionally wide range of formats

Well-known for his captivating illustrations...a highly talented artist

Perhaps the last of the great polymath designer / painters

Selected as a Guardian Literary Event of 2012

David Gentleman has been drawing London all his adult life, and for the past year has spent his days focused on looking afresh at the city. The resulting book of sketches, drawings and watercolours, arranged month by month, shows a year in the life of London and reveals the city that is hidden in plain view. From its surprising expanse of sky to the crushed closeness of the tube, from Rainham Marshes to Hampstead Heath, David Gentleman gives us London on a human scale. Accompanied by his thoughts on looking and drawing, whether it is what catches his eye in a certain square or selecting the media - pencil, pen and ink, watercolour - best suited to capture each of the city's various aspects, as well as his reflections on the place he has lived in for over sixty years, this is a book for all those inspired by London, art and design. 
 
David Gentleman is a watercolourist and printmaker, working in many media and scales. He has designed British stamps and coins and the platform-length mural at Charing Cross tube station, well-known to Londoners, that is blown up from his wood engravings. His studio is at the top of an early Victorian house in Camden Town between the crowded, rackety Camden Lock and the green spaces of Regent's Park and Primrose Hill.

David Gentleman

Over seventy years of quintessential London views in one box 
 
In 1950, aged 19, David Gentleman arrived in the capital, ready to begin his life as an artist. Over the next seven decades, he would sketch, paint, and engrave his way through London, documenting the cityscape, and shaping it, too - most notably through his iconic mural in Charing Cross Underground Station. 
 
Combining world-famous imagery with unexpected scenes of daily life in the city, this box of London artworks is a treasure trove for all those who flock to the capital. 
 
'David Gentleman is London's visual laureate' Quentin Blake

David Gentleman

London Postcards

Summary

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