Tindersticks in cooperation with 81 Leonard Street Gallery will present Singing Skies, an exhibition by Stuart A Staples and Suzanne Osborne, 29 November – 1 December. 

Singing Skies marks the first fully fledged collaboration between Stuart and his wife, painter, Suzanne, focusing on her ‘A year in small paintings – Skies, September 2010 – September 2011’ where she recorded the changing daily sky in oils over the course of a year and the release of their book Singing Skies. The book in association with Hannibal Publishing comprises a selection of Suzanne’s sky paintings presented alongside a collection of Stuart’s lyrics, written down for the first time, spanning Tindersticks’ 20-year musical catalogue and documenting the genesis of each song. 

On her ‘A year in small paintings’ project Suzanne Osborne notes that the process “was born out of the need to quickly re-establish a regular, daily working routine after having lapsed, unwillingly, into a stultifying period of stasis (driven mostly by external factors – a culmination of enjoyable years raising our children, interspersed with sporadic, erratic work, followed by a sucker-punch period of bereavement). 

Starting small, but consistently seemed to be the first step: take one year, the beginning point irrelevant, just 365 days of something regular and sustained. The activity taught me so much that I could never have anticipated – it was a scary, nourishing, surprising and, ultimately, healing process. Standing back to view the work, I feel that these small paintings, with their modest ambition, add up to a larger piece which is so much more than the sum of its parts.” 

Some of Suzanne's 'sky paintings' were used for the front cover of the band's acclaimed 2012 album The something rain. 

On the deep connection that exists between words and visual images, Stuart Staples says; “As I watched Suzanne work, sometimes furiously to catch a moment in a fast-changing sky, at other times, able to explore a sky more static, I was struck by how similar the process was to the writing of my songs. I felt they belonged together.” 

The London exhibition will see all 365 original ‘sky paintings’ exhibited alongside Stuarts hand typed lyrics and the collection of 10 limited edition carborundum prints of pairs of skies and songs. There will also feature a video installation by acclaimed French director and long time creative collaborator Claire Denis plus a mini-documentary about the process by filmmaker Martin Wallace. 

Singing Skies is released in hardback in a limited first edition of 2500 copies and is available from all good bookshops as well as Amazon from 28 November. 

A collection of strictly limited edition carborundum prints, of 10 of the skies and their partner songs from the Singing Skies book spreads made by Suzanne Osborne and master print-maker Tom Phelan in Vienna are available to buy and will be available alongside copies of the book at 81 Leonard Street throughout the exhibition. 

To mark the book launch and exhibition opening, there is a private view and live acoustic Tindersticks set on 28 November. A landmark year for Tindersticks, 2013 marks 20 years since the release of the band’s first album, and has seen the recent release of their 10th studio album Across six leap years and a successful European anniversary tour. 

Notes to editors: 
The Tindersticks acoustic gig on 28 November is now SOLD OUT!