17th August 2011. We would like to say a big thank you to The Trashcan Sinatras for their recent donation to the Syd Barrett Fund in support of Escape Artists. If you haven't yet heard Oranges and Apples (see above), check it out. It's a great song about our favourite artist.

Escape Artists at JustGiving

"Now that Charlie Gilmour, adopted son of Pink Floyd's Dave, has been sentenced to 16 months for violent disorder during the student riots, many people seem to be jeering at him: not only for what he shouldn't have done (the swinging from the Cenotaph), but also for what he shouldn't be.

A constant refrain seems to be that, harsh though the sentence was, Gilmour got what he deserved, mainly because the "Cambridge-educated, uber-privileged tosser" shouldn't have been at the march in the first place. He had no reason for being there, crouching on royal convoy car bonnets, throwing bins – the likes of him were hardly likely to be waking up in a flop sweat, worrying about student fees. What people seem to be missing is that while Gilmour did not "need" to attend such a march, it is commendable and crucial, that people like him do so."

Read the full article by Barbara Ellen in the Observer

“Syd would be so surprised and pleased to know all this was happening. He was never more content than when sketching or painting, be it cartoons, abstracts or still life. Syd felt above all he was an artist and loved experimenting with different mediums, sometimes just to see what might happen!” Rosemary Breen (Syd’s sister)

Back in October 2008, as part of The City Wakes festival celebrating Syd Barrett, five people who knew Syd in Cambridge in the sixties staged a happening as they had done forty years before, radical Beat poetry, free improvisation, words, sounds and people all in the moving womb of a Floydian light show by Pete Wynne Willson.

Barrett is a premium quality, large format book, produced using the finest materials. It is full of unseen and rare images of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd. It collects and catalogues for the first time artworks and photographs by Syd himself.

The book is available to order now and will be published on March 18, 2011.

The book has been made in conjunction with the Barrett family and access to the family art and photograph archive, and their recollections have combined to show a new picture of Syd the creative, revealing a man who was a dedicated, practising artist throughout his life.

The book splits into three sections:

• Syd’s life in photographs – from growing up through to working and performing with Pink Floyd and his life as a solo artist.
• Unseen and unpublished illustrated letters sent to Libby Gausden-Chisman and Jenny Spires between 1962-1965, as Syd was finding himself as a painter and a musician.
• All of Syd’s existing work as a visual artist from 1962 until his death.

The book contains over 250 images. These include:

• Over 100 completely unseen images and many more reproduced in fine art quality for the first time.
• Over 40 artworks including: paintings, drawings, mosaics, collages, and sculptures.
• Over 50 unseen photographs taken by Syd of his artworks, including: images of his “destroyed” works seen here for the first time, studies in preparation for his artworks, images of his work area.

The Art section also includes:

• An extensive commentary on Syd’s artworks by Barrett art expert Will Shutes.
• Notes on Syd’s diaries, notebooks, scrapbooks, and his History of Art project.
• The Catalogue Raisonné of Syd’s art – listing and dating all the artwork known to have existed.

The book publishes on March 18, 2011 in two editions and will be launched alongside a month-long exhibition at the prestigious Idea Generation Gallery in London.

Both editions of the book are now available for purchase prior to publication.