NEW BooK ABoUT FoRgoTTEN SUSSEX ARTIST Some stunning colour prints of Sussex are the centrepiece of a new book celebrating an artist from Seaford who died in obscurity 50 years ago. Eric Slater won international acclaim for his woodcuts in the 1930s but stopped working after the war because of changing fashions and personal tragedy. Last year his prints went on show for the first time in 70 years at Towner in Eastbourne, attracting a new audience for his work. Now the gallery has published a book called Slater’s Sussex charting his love affair with the county and exploring his links with a neglected group of British colour woodcut artists.
Trollope. “They produce a sensation of well being; of all being right with the world. They do not confront or complicate but gently invite you to consider the landscape of Sussex afresh. The marriage of art and craft is back in fashion and few exemplify the union better than Eric Slater.” As well as featuring many beautiful images of Slater’s prints, the book suggests a seven-mile circular walk through some of the countryside which inspired this quintessentially Sussex artist. ‘Slater’s Sussex’ is available from the Towner Gallery in Eastbourne, price £15. James Trollope has worked as a television reporter in Sussex for both the BBC and ITV. He’s written for national newspapers and currently has a column in Saga magazine. As well as his book on Eric Slater, he’s co-written The Bluffer’s Guide to Cricket which has also just been published. He lives in Seaford with his partner and their two children. He can be contacted at troll@fastnet.co.uk
HILL HOUSE
BED & BREAKFAST Writer James Trollope spent nearly two years researching Slater’s life following a trail which started in London and led through Sussex to the USA. Eric Slater was the frail, only child of a successful London silversmith called Thomas Slater who died when his son was eight. Afterwards, Eric moved with his mother to Sussex, eventually settling in Seaford in 1929. During the decade up to the Second World War he was a prominent member of a group of British colour woodcut artists who adapted Japanese techniques to produce affordable, decorative art. His 1930 print of Seaford Head won a prize in California and, in 1938, he was commissioned by an American collector to make a print of Cuckmere Haven called ‘The Stack Yard’. In the intervening years Slater made around 50 colour woodcuts, most of which reflect his love of Sussex. “Looking at the best of his woodcuts is like walking into a perfectly proportioned room,” says James
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