Last Friday I went to see Jose Carlos Naranjo who was given a 2-month Residency at Casa de Velazquez, a very prestigious cultural institution in Madrid. 
After 6 years in London, he came back to Spain and is thriving his professional path from here. Also was a dad, his most recent and challenging project😊
He is enjoying a lot this experience, developing big artworks, and exploring new techniques with Oil; he is a W&N fan but tried LB Oils and loved them.
What a surprise when I got there and found Mathew Gibson also visiting him. Really nice to engage and keep up with artists along their creative journey!

…

It may interest folks to know that the record for the highest value of comic book cover art sold was smashed last Thursday, as the original artwork for Frank Miller’s iconic ‘The Dark Knight Returns’ was sold for $2.4 million USD at auction.
This beats the previous record of $600 thousand USD for Batman No. 251 which sold in 2019.
It goes to show how quickly iconic pieces are raising in value off the back of their character’s increased prevalence in modern culture.
More proof, if any was needed, that Graphic Art is one of the most exciting areas of the category today, increasing it’s value not only in sales and uses, but also in auction houses.
Link to full article below, in case anyone would like to share with their buyers: 
https://www.barrons.com/articles/batman-the-dark-knight-returns-1-original-cover-art-sells-for-2-4-million-01655493075 

…

This week, Chevelle Sands and I attended the POPAI (shopper experience association in the UK) Sustainability Summit in London. The conference was all about sharing journeys towards developing more sustainable merchandising / sales support in store. Loads of (sustainable) energy across the room and some very interesting ideas and journeys shared by P&G, Unilever, L’Oréal, Kellogg’s, Boots and Targus. They have also been very open about the challenges that they are facing including the diversity of views and guidelines on sustainability issued by retailers or countries as well as, sometimes, the cost implication of using some more sustainable materials (but not always, some can also be cheaper!). Some interesting food for thoughts and actions for us including investigating the potential use of new materials (including a super strong and easily recyclable type of cardboard) where relevant, taking a deeper look at the quantity of packaging that currently wraps our merchandising items and reviewing opportunities to reduce the weight of some merchandising items if appropriate.

…

Also following the launch of the Lifespeak platform, the structure for integration through economic activity “Les jardins de Vaujoubert” presented vegetables from their market garden production to company employees.
In order to allow people to favor organic food and promote local distribution channel, employees will now be able to have baskets of vegetables delivered to their workplace on a regular basis.
 
Toujours à la suite du lancement de la plateforme Lifespeak, la structure d’insertion par l’activité économique  « Les jardins de Vaujoubert » a présenté, des légumes de leur production maraîchère aux salariés de l’entreprise. Dans le but de permettre aux personnes de favoriser les aliments biologiques et de valoriser les circuits courts, les salariés pourront maintenant régulièrement se faire livrer des paniers de légumes sur leur lieu de travail.

…