Lonnie Donegan

Our namesake song "Betty and Dupree" dates back to at least 1929, and there are countless recorded versions which we're still discovering. Some of them are variations of the original title, such as "Dupree's Blues" or this rendition by British skiffle legend Lonnie Donegan, retitled as "Betty, Betty, Betty"

Leah Duncan textiles

We are very pleased to announce the addition of Leah Duncan's textile collection to our online shop. Leah lives in Austin, Texas where she draws inspiration for her illustration and pattern designs from the surrounding landscape, and her native American roots.

The range, which includes silk scarves, tea-towels and throw-cushion covers, is produced in limited editions and would all make fantastic gifts at any time of the year. You can see the collection here

Tom Cops interview

The lovely people over at It's Nice That recently interviewed Tom Cops about his 'Midwest' photography, and the book we published, describing it as " a wonderful tribute to small town USA..."


You can read the full article, and see more of Tom's photos here

A Meditation on the Graveyards on the North

We're delighted that acclaimed blues musician Charlie Parr has written the foreword to our forthcoming “Midwest” photo book by Tom Cops.

Here's a brief extract:

"It's called The Big Empty up there, the northwest corner of Minnesota, and it's mostly true, but it's a beautiful landscape of pine forests, giving way to farms and little towns set in the prairies vastness....We played a show south of Livingston, at a hot springs saloon and had a good soak. Our B&B was located on land that had been the stronghold of a radical militia separatist reactionary right-wing Christian group.

Tom and I found a hill with an icon at the top, Mary I think, tall and laden with plastic flowers, surrounded by a couple park benches and a ring of little crosses. Tom photographed the place. I sat wondering what was buried underneath that hill, slightly scared of the place. The whole compound seemed a graveyard, but Mary wasn't the epicentre, the ominous gray pill-box that housed the machine gun was the marker that drew you in. "

The book will be launched on 27th October with an exhibition at the Here Gallery in Bristol, and also coincides with a two night residency from Charlie Parr at nearby Cube Microplex on Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th November.

Tom Cops - Midwest, exhibition & book launch

Midwest is the first solo exhibition from photographer, musician and artist Tom Cops, showing medium format photographs of people and places in the American Midwest.

To accompany the exhibition, Betty & Dupree will be publishing a collection of these photographs, also titled Midwest. The book also includes a foreword by acclaimed Minnesotan blues musician Charlie Parr and watercolour chapter pages by Jerwood Drawing Prize nominated artist Aaron Sewards.


In August 2010, Tom travelled around the American Midwest for three weeks with his band My Two Toms playing as many inappropriate venues as possible. During the tour he attempted to photograph everyone he met, as well as the places he passed through. Looking for odd details in the landscape, his colour photographs tell the story of the small towns of Montana, Minnesota, North & South Dakota, Colorado and Wyoming, while his black & white portraits tell us about the people that live there.

"Tom led the people outside, one by one, to take a photo. He stopped them all; middle-aged bartenders, tourists, punk rockers, hippies, very old and very young, me, my mom, my daughter, my wife, my son, all of us got stopped in time by Tom’s camera, a kind of living graveyard." – Charlie Parr

The exhibition will take place at the Here Gallery in Bristol, UK.
108 Stokes Croft, BS1 3RU.

Preview; Thursday 27th October, 7.00 - 9.00pm.
The exhibition continues until 19th November, and also coincides with a two night residency from Charlie Parr at nearby Cube Microplex on Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th November.

www.tomcops.com

Press round-up

Here's a quick summary of some of the blogs who have featured our products over the last couple of months.
Thank you all for your kind words:

Poppytalk

 Where The Lovely Things Are

Sacred Lotus

Tokyo Bunnie

Animal Stacks

 

Curiosity Group 

Domestic Sluttery

 

Pocko

Giveaway

To mark the launch of the newest additions to our card ranges by Tom Frost, Lizzy Stewart and Marcus Oakley, we're giving away a whole bundle of Betty & Dupree goods worth over £50 in a prize draw.


To enter the draw, post a comment on our Facebook page and/or retweet our post on Twitter. If you feature us on your blog, let us know and we'll add you name to the hat as well.
Entry ends 12 noon Wednesday 21st September.

***Update 22 Sept***
PRIZEDRAW RESULTS: and the first name out of the hat is... @owendaveydraws Congratulations, we'll be in touch to get your address.

New Marcus Oakley and Lizzy Stewart cards

We're pleased to announce twelve new additions to our card ranges, with six designs each from Marcus Oakley and Lizzy Stewart.



There will also be a selction of new cards by Tom Frost coming very soon. Keep an eye on our Facebook and Twitter pages, where we will be giving away a whole bundle of Betty & Dupree goods in a prizedraw to mark the launch.

...more artist profiles

In a follow on from our previous blog post, here's another artist profile. This time with the added bonus of a pug, read on...

Blog and Buy Sale interview Gemma Correll

 

Artist Profiles

There's a couple of nice interviews with two Betty & Dupree collaborators online.

It's always interesting to get an insight on artist's working methods, and peak inside sketchbooks and studio spaces, read on...

Anthology Magazine on Lizzy Stewart

 

















 
Boxbird Gallery on Tom Frost
 

Tom Frost screen prints

The wonderful Tom Frost has produced a new set of screen prints, which have just gone on sale in his online shop.



We suggest you get over there pronto, as these signed and numbered editions are only £25, so probably won't be around for long.

London Design Festival

Ben Newman's work was recently featured as Pic of the Week in the Guardian Guide



He will be exhibiting these prints, alongside other new work as part of London Design Festival in September

Reverence Library

Edinburgh-based independent press Sing Statistics, founded by Jez Burrows and Lizzy Stewart, have just published their latest book.



Reverence Library Volume One promises the intriguing twist of being a fictional reference book, ably written and illustrated by a great selection of contributors.

Produced in numbered limited editions, Sing Statistics previous books have all sold out, so go check it out before these are all gone too.

www.singstatistics.co.uk

Where's our name from?

For those of you wondering about the origins of our name, it comes from an old American folk ballad. There's many recorded versions, but our favourite is this 1958 rendition by "King of the Stroll" Chuck Willis

Looking for Trouble

Betty and Dupree collaborators Gemma Correll and Lizzy Stewart are amongst the artists featured in this group exhibtion curated by Amy Blackwell. Opening on July 2nd at the Malt Cross Gallery in Nottingham, the first day of Looking for Trouble will also feature a selection of artists books and zines available for purchase.


The exhibtion continues until 16th July.
Malt Cross Gallery, 16 St James St, Nottingham, NG1 6FG

Betty and Dupree Publishing launch

WELCOME, thank you for dropping by...

Betty and Dupree Publishing is based in Bristol, working with contemporary illustrators who have a bold graphic style, wit, romance and folk art influences including Gemma Correll, Tom Frost, Marcus Oakley, Ben Newman and Lizzy Stewart.

We supply high quality art cards, and related goods to design-led gift shops, boutiques, galleries and bookstores.