Description
A Good Bit of Gossip – Sam Toft
Ernest and Violet are settled on a park bench in the height of summer, deep in conversation, while Doris cuddles up to Ernest with her usual air of proprietorial devotion. A pair of white ducks have decided to join in uninvited. All around them flowers blaze in reds and blues, and Sam's signature lollipop trees stand stately in the background, their leaves just beginning to hint at the colours of autumn. It is, as the title suggests, a very good bit of gossip indeed.
This open edition mounted miniature print is presented in an antique white mount measuring 30×30cm, with an approximate image size of 15×15cm — sized to fit a standard metric frame.
Please note: this print has been discontinued by the publisher. We have a small amount of remaining stock — once it's gone, it won't be available again.
Sam's 'Meet the Mustards' collection centres on Ernest Hemingway Mustard — part-time Hurricane Predictor and Professional Tuneless Hummer — and his dear lady wife Violet. They live in a not-so-damp flat on the Brighton/Hove border with Doris, their grumpy and rather portly Jack Russell Terrier. Along the Prom they have gathered a wonderful circle of friends: the beautiful Audrey (could she be Ms Hepburn reborn as a sheep?), Horace Duck, and the lovely Rover, a melancholy goldfish with tunnel vision and a good heart. Using mixed media — pencil, oil pastels, coloured inks and her own idiomatic techniques — Sam depicts a seaside world of faded ice-cream colours where the breeze is always blowing and life is utterly delicious.
The Braithwaite Gallery has been lucky enough to work with Sam for a very long time. She sometimes comes to York for exhibitions, sometimes just to say hello, and she has always been wonderfully generous with her time and talent. In 2020 she created ‘Looking After Each Other’ in memory of Jake Braithwaite, helping us raise £5,000 for mental health charity Mind. The gallery and its artists have since gone on to raise almost £19,000 for PAPYRUS, a charity focused on the prevention of suicide in the young.
🖼 Framing — prints are framed to order in our gallery workshop — we can only frame this print if the Mounted version is currently in stock. If the Mounted variant shows as unavailable, the Framed option cannot be fulfilled. Please contact us before ordering if you are unsure. Our favourite frames for this print are Small Cube Oak and Nordic Blue.
Glazed items are shipped via courier on a fragile service — unfortunately this means framed items are excluded from any of our UK shipping offers for mounted prints. See our Shipping Policy for full details.
Approximate Measurements
- Mount size: 30×30cm
- Approximate image size: 15×15cm
© Sam Toft