Notes From McVouty
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‘McVouty’s’, the world famous second hand emporium & last of the independents, sadly closed it’s doors for the final time last month. After years of bringing us a wonderous miscellany of this that & the other, the money ran out, & it’s vout-oreenee proprietor had to give up the ghost. Jonny Hannah was lucky enough to be there on the very last day, & packed as much as his trunk could hold, then brought it all back home. So here, for your enjoyment, are bits & bobs from the said smorsgobord, some notes, if you like, from McVouty.
Jonny Hannah has been busy assembling a collection of prints, paintings, & the odd objets d’art for his first one man show in London for several years. Aswell as putting together a collection of linocuts & screenprints from his Cakes & Ale Press, Jonny has been furiously painting on cut out bits of board & scraps of wood. Most of this new work has been a response to listening to the magical nonsense of the Jazz virtuoso Slim Gaillard. He imagined that Slim, aka, McVouty, retired to Coney Island (where else?) & opened the best second hand emporium imaginable. This part of the aptly nonsense story is inspired by the sad homogenisation of shopping streets up & down the country, or as he put in a print from last year, ‘Why does every modern high street have to look the bleedin’ same?’ Of course, most of the Slim/McVouty story is fantasy, mere indulgent ramblings from a devotee of vintage clothes with an addiction to the ‘Opera in Vout’. Or is it?….
Mr. Hannah studied at the Cowdenbeath College of Knowledge, Liverpool Art School & then the Royal College of Art. For the last eleven years he has been a freelance illustrator, & is represented by the Heart Agency. His many clients include The Sunday Telegraph, The New York Times & The St. Kilda Courier. He happily lives in Southampton, with Sharon & their two bairns, & teaches on the illustration course at Southampton Solent University. Jonny enjoys nothing better than going to his studio to illustrate, paint & savour the odd Tunnocks Caramel Wafer with a fresh cup of coffee.