Tim Lane: 'The Innocents'

He's such a nice chap, that Tim Lane, and he can create a jolly good humdinger of illustrations! Joining me last night for our exploration of Tim Lane's latest showing of work is the lovely illustrator, Amy Timms. Held in the front area of the relatively new Knifesmith Gallery on Christmas Steps in Bristol, Tim's popped up some classic illustrations, plus some new paintings.

Being super-keen fans, or due to some sort of misinformation, the red-head and I were devestatingly early and not at all fashionably late. So it was a bare room, minus the excellent artwork (of course), which we had to our disposal. Very exciting indeed, especially with a well stocked table of beer, wine and bread snacks. Yum - every exhibition should have one! The quiet start gave us a chance to happily snap a few pictures of some of the stand-out pieces.


Tim soon leaped into action and gave us a run-down of some of the pieces in the exhibition. He explained that a majority of the images are drawn directly from his mind-boggling brain, with perhaps some details taken from reference books. "King Tut" is the most directly referenced image, but from a miniscule photo, which Tim has expanded and heaved layer upon layer of detail into.






Going round the room, from this piece, we are almost overwhelmed by Mr Lane's deftly impressive use of the pencil in artworks, "Big Cats", "The Coffin Bearers","Punch", "The Ghost of Christmas Future" and "Descent into Savagery". Practically an exhibition on it's own, the drawings are outstanding and made for a refreshing balance next to the bright and colourful acrylic paintings.




I asked Tim about his use of animal heads and/or masks that several of his characters are wearing. He kept an element of mystery to his reasons for this, but hinted at influences of Greek gods and mythology.



The nine mini canvases are brand new to this show and are wonderful snap-shots of a myriad of eclectic beings, captured in their unique and somewhat bizarre worlds.

This is a show to easily get lost in and come out armed with material for many an odd dream journey. It's also an illustration show of professional excellence and one well worth getting yourself along to. There's a well-stocked rack of prints, all at very affordable prices.


And good ol' Tim did us proud by signing our little banner of love.
BOYS WHO DRAW salute you Mr Tim Lane.