PAUL SMITH HAS CRAIGIE AITCHISON ETCH A NECKTIE

       Fashion designer Paul Smith is so fascinated with the colour ful paintings of British artist Craigie Aitchison that he's persuaded him to "come down from the walls" and help him turn them into men's accessories.
       Giving people a chance to wear Aitchison's art, their collaboration on a limited edition for autumn-winter 2009 features four styles of neckties, cufflinks and scarves with Aitchison's drawings of birds, dogs and boats.
       The items will go on sale in Octobe, coinciding with London's Frieze Art Fair, and Aitchison's original prints will be on view in Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5 from October 15 to 18.
       Then the accessories will be available at the Paul Smith boutiques in Bangkok's Emporium and Siam Pargon. Have a look at www.PaulSmith.co.uk.
       Calling himself a long-time "friend and admirer" of Aitchison, Smith says he particularly likes the colour and simplicity of his paintings.
       Aitchison, who honed his skills at London's Slade School of Fine Art in the 1950s, uses intense,
pure colours to form shapes in paintings that depict religious themes, landscapes, portraits and still-lifes.
       In 1955 he travelled to Italy on a schol-arship and soaked up "the clear light and natural
'Biblical' landscapes". Now a member of Britain's Royal Academy of Arts, he continues to present "what is unique or even odd in the commonplace".
       You can expect to see flowers, crucifixes, dead birds and his beloved and very-much-alive Belington terriers in many of his pieces.