Now Featuring William Edmonds

We are pleased to introduce William Edmonds as our first exclusive artist of August! He is an illustrator, artist and musician based in London and is one part of the creative powerhouse, Nous Vous collective. He was kind enough to share his thoughts on art, music, turquoise, and peanut butter with the viewers of Little Paper Planes.

The day in the life of William Edmonds, go:
It’s usually not a super early start (one of the joys of self employment), then I cycle to the studio that I share with a few real tight bros till I get hungry and or tired. Then I head home, if it’s sunny head straight back out for a swim in the lido or ponds, if not I really like cooking dinner with flatmates then maybe a shop beer and a film, unless I’m feeling frivolous.

William Edmonds in his studio, London



You seem to be an all around creative, from illustration and design to playing and recording music. What else do you dabble in?
Well that’s kind of where the list ends creatively, although I’m trying to find more time to write, I would like to have something published before I’m done but I’m in no major rush. For previous shows I have built a house and not exactly seaworthy canoe and done quite a bit of embroidery, I’ve even felted some boots out of wool, it’s fun to be more adventurous with shows. I also take small joys in cooking and eating and a bit of horticulture, I would love at some point to become self sustainable, to make my own house and furniture and grow all my own food.

‘The Raddest’ print 2 of 4 in our William Edmonds print set

A house in the Nous Vous Massive Contact show in Square yard Gallery, Newcastle



Tell us about your musical ventures
I have a couple of musical projects my own is ‘Now Owl’, which is me messing with bedroom recording, borrowed instruments and reverb and delay, and then I have a band ‘Vest For Tysso’ which is folk pop fun, although we’re a little spread about the country now. In a rather incestuous way I play music with Nicolas from Nous Vous, in his band Glaciers, he returns the favour playing with me and we are collaborating on a more joint venture soon. We self release things on our ‘Hair-Piece Champion’ label, bro-wave since 2010!

‘An Indoor Collection’ print 3 of 4 in our William Edmonds print set

Describe the town you grew up in:
Stourbridge is a pretty large and innocuous town in the middle of the UK. It has a pretty interesting history as a real player on the glass scene in the 19th Century. At that point it was making some of the finest glass in the world, although now it’s more notable perhaps for it’s pork scratchings and early nineties baggy scene.



What can you absolutely not live with out?
There’s usually a few things that are lining the bottom of whatever bag I’m carrying, sketchbook, reading book or two, pencils etc. but I think i would get pretty grumpy if I had to live without peanut butter.



What’s your favorite color?
I would have gone for a cobalt blue a couple of years ago, then maybe an emerald green, I think now I’m in a state of compromise with turquoise.

‘Untitled’ print 4 of 4 in our William Edmonds print set



What is your philosophy on art?
I think the most important thing about art is the intent behind it, and it is with the artist’s intent in mind that we should judge art on. That said, art does not always need to be judged in such a formal way, it can just be experienced, but again this might come back to whether it is the artist’s desire for the work to be viewed in this way. I do think a lot of people are turned off of art or are intimidated by it because people are scared to admit that they don’t get it, or don’t like it. Anything can be art with the intent behind it, but not all art is necessarily good.



What projects do you have in the works? Any upcoming art/music shows or events?
I’m hopefully releasing a Now Owl 7″ this autumn, and get back into playing shows, visually I’m trying to be part of more group shows as Nous Vous had been on a bit of a conveyor belt of shows which was quite exhausting, it’s nice to concentrate on getting a handful of images really tight. In the same vein we’re trying to do less commercial design and really get into Nous Vous Press, our self publishing imprint.  Apart from that I have a couple of private commissions and other bits to keep me busy.

Thanks so much William for being part of the Little Paper Planes Exclusive Print Series!

To view the prints and to make your purchase go here
View William’s website and more of his works here