Bex Shaw’s Shopfronts
Bex Shaw sent me these affectionate drawings of familiar East End shops (with a couple further afield), some rendered in ink and wash and others drawn on a computer, yet all celebrating the vernacular delights of traditional shopfronts
Rinkoff’s Bakery, Whitechapel, E1
“I have enjoyed drawing shopfronts and and market stalls since childhood, I have always liked looking at arrangements of things! I remember enjoying the huge piles of fruit and vegetables and the tiled doorstep of the local greengrocers when I was quite small. My great-grandfather was a sign painter and designer of shops, but it was from my granny who went to art school in the thirties that I learned my love of drawing. I am always drawn to the ways in which shopkeepers and stallholders place things, whether a deliberate aesthetic sense or the higgledy-piggledy delight of a pound shop.” – Bex Shaw
Chatsworth Rd Laundrette, Hackney, E5
Hunky Dory Vintage Clothes, Brick Lane, E1
Verdes, Brushfield St, Spitalfields, E1 (Recently moved to Fournier St)
Tatty Devine, Brick Lane, E1
The Foam Shop, Swanfield St, E2
The Hackney Draper, Chatsworth Rd, Hackney, E5
Joe’s Confectionery Stores, (now Deborah Woolf Vintage Clothes) Church St, Marylebone, NW8
The Blackbird Tearooms, 30 Ship St, Brighton
Drawings copyright © Bex Shaw
What fantastic drawings! They have so much character. Valerie
As a poet !what can I say not a lot. Bex is a true entrepreneur portraying her art she just loves shop fronts, her style is doing her own thing. No fancy 3D effect here you get what you see they are all nice with bold colour. I admire her for that-stay with it and enjoy ?any more in the pipeline. Poet John
I’ve been looking for clues. The Foam Shop sells……?
Lovely drawings. The artist sees a lot and draws our eyes to the varieties of light, signage, window display, frontage and surrounding construction (even the paving details, in one case grilles) that constitute the experience of looking at each shop. Margaret Lawrenson, if you put Foam Shop into the search box, you will find that the Gentle Author has written about it on more than one occasion and that it sells…..foam!
These are wonderful, a real delight to look at.
Thanks Ros. I think I’ll be making use of the ‘search’ box a great deal to explore this site.
Lovely and a pleasure to look at. Thank you Bex Shaw.
Hi we’re can I purchase a copy of the drawing of rinkoff bakery I would think it would brilliant hanging up in our shop,thanks I will wait for your reply
Best regards Ray rinkoff