Thursday 3 October 2013

John Blanche interviewed by Leftlion magazine

So, Leftlion magazine (for those of you who don't know), is Nottingham's free arts magazine, regularly distributed around select cultural venues (museums, cafes, bars etc) across Nottingham. There's also a nice website for the Nottingham arts scene: www.leftlion.co.uk

I happened to see that #55 (Oct/Nov 2013) features a cover by a rather notable fellow - a certain John Blanche. It also features an overview of Games Workshop, and a 2-page interview with John himself. Interestingly, John refers to himself as an illustrator rather than an artist.

A typical John Blanche illustration, full of gothic imagery

I picked up a couple of hard copies for my self and a few non-locals, but if you want to check out the interview, a pdf version will be available on the Leftlion website shortly.

Explaining Games Workshop to the man in the street

John Blanche gives his thoughts on playing with toy soliders and his career
Having spoken with the Leftlion staff, it was happily revealed that John's cover painting is the first part of a new series, painted directly into a book. Jared at Leftlion said that there are two more that John shared with the Leftlion team and more to come. There's a couple of pics of John with the original up at the Leftlion facebook page.

In case you didn't know, the name Leftlion comes from the way that generations of residents of Nottingham have arranged a meeting place in Market Square outside the council house. "I'll meet you by the left lion"...

The left lion. Not the right one.

4 comments:

  1. I guess that's to be expected when you live in such places.

    Oh honey, do you know who I met at the grocery store? John Blanche, he says hello and he will be at the gym tonight. Oh honey, I was at the DIY and fell across Jes in the gardening section, he's calling you tonight for a pub.

    If I was to tell you who I can come across where I live you would cry.

    Anyway, that's very nice of you to let us know and the pictures of what I suspect to be John's office seem more than interesting.

    Cheers

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  2. Great stuff - thanks for the info. Will definitely check out this when the PDF is released /Hans

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  3. Worth doing guys - an interesting read! For reference I have seen Aly Morrison & the Perrys in Nottingham pubs, but not in the local greengrocers ;)

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