Wednesday 25 May 2011

Things I like today

I have been fortunate enought to spend most of the day swinging in our newly erected hammock. It really is in a very nice spot, with lots of sun and little spots of light from the mirror ball (yes mirror ball, don't you have one in your garden?!) playing over the plants. This has made me very happy, as the small things in life often do and so I am including a few more little things that have made my day.

1. Fishy paintings
700 Grunt school facing  - 26x40 66x101 cm - OIL - Giclees available670 Soldierfish school - 24x36 61x91 cm - SOLD - Giclees available

 I'm loving these super colourful and summery paintings by Patrick Chevailler. Patrick is an artist living and working in ST Vincent and the Grenadine islands - nice life! I've always had a bit of a thing for fish, in fact anything water related and when I was younger this manifested itself as a mini version of the London aquarium in my bedroom. I now have three rather more modest goldfish!

Its not very often that you see fish as subject in paintings, but Patrick has clearly been influenced by his beautiful surroundings and all his paintings are of fish. I love his quirky compositions and his attention to detail. They may not be quite right for my home in London, but I'm sure that if I had a little place in the Grenadines there would be a few of these adorning the walls!

See more at http://www.patrickchevailler.com/

2. Home fit for a screen legend

For sale: Elizabeth Taylor's sprawling Bel-Air mansion, which features stunning English rose beds, is on the market for $8.6m

Today I saw that Elizabeth Taylor's house in Bel Air has gone on sale. Im a big fan of Miss Taylor - her work and her life and I'm sure she will crop up on the blog again in some crazy full blown homage.

Anyway, I'd always wondered what her house might have been like and to be honest I'm surprised - nice surprised.

The house its much less grand than I had imagined and the garden is truly beautiful. It really looks like a  traditional English country garden. I'm sure that to achieve this is no mean feat in the Los Angeles climate. I am under no illusion that Dame Liz kept the garden herself, I can't quite see her scrabbling around with a pair of seceteurs grasped in a hand so bejewelled with bling that she can barely lift it, but who knows!

Rambling: The entrance is a tell-tale sign of the home's grandeur with it's private driveway leading past a security gate to a rambling brick-lined court

Its really refreshing to see a celebrity home that isn't completely screaming for attention and trying desperately to be chic and expensive, and usually failing miserably at the first. Who knows what the interior is like - I'm seeing pink!

Beautiful: The ground surrounding the home features a homely patio complete with mosaic pool

The property is on for $8.6 million dollars if anyone is looking. The house has over an acre of land and the home its self is 7000sq ft, which for a women reportedly worth near to a billion dollars seems pretty modest. Wonder who'll buy it?

3. IL Pelicano



My third thing is the Il Pelicano hotel in Italy. Actaully its not the hotel I'm interested in - not to say that I would mind staying there, but I'm looking at this from a purely artistic perspective of course. So its the photo itself of the hotels famous clifftop pool that I like.

I saw this in Paris Vogue and it was very very small but, it still caught my eye. I think the composition is fantastic, there is a real sense of anticipatipation as if you are walking between the shady pines, just about to step out into the white sunshine and the sounds of the splashing pool water.

I liked the photgraph so much that I am currently painting my own take on the scene, which I have begun in oils but will be finishing in mixed media. I will put it up here when its done and then the world can cast judgement - or the two people treading this, same thing!

Well I was going to make this five of my favourite things today, but actually I'm going to spread out the goodies over a few days. This is surely only sensible as who knows tomorrow I may see nothing of interest - highly unlikely thought!

Ciao

Tuesday 24 May 2011

Coincidence?



Yesterday I popped into the Grapefruit gallery on the Fulham Rd. It is definately worth a visit if you like modern prints. They have a particularly impressive collection of vintage Olympic posters which are truly fantastic.

Well I walked in and the very first thing I saw was this original TWA poster for Spain! I couldn't believe it. I've never seen a real one anywhere, then the very day after I wrote about them here, I walk into a gallery I've never been in before and there it is!

I love it when things like that happen! I would have loved to have bought it but I fear the price tag is slightly prohibitive - maybe one day.

Well, I feel like I'm slowly getting into the swing of putting things down in this blog. It certainly doesn't come naturally to a person who prefers to rip things from magazines and paste them into  a rather messy scrap book. I keep thinking of things that I want to share here - and there is a lot, but I have to start somewhere and so I am going to begin by introducing a good friend ...

Her name is Lisa Jarmeus and she is a really fantastic photographer. You can find some of her work and more information at lisajarmeus.com. I love photography and will put some of mine on her at some point. Lisa's photo's have real atmosphere. She takes great shots of simple scenes and has a way of making the mundane and dare I say it unattractive interesting and evocative.


Flatsharing (2007)

Lisa did a fantastic series of photgraphs called In Retrospect of council estates in London. I have slightly mixed feelings about the subject of In Retrospect, not being a huge fan of the architecture. Depsite this I find the work genuinely interesting and almost beautiful.

 Many of these structures are now listed, which is something that shocked me when I first heard, feeling that they were truly ugly. However I can now see that listing isn't just about preserving beautiful buildings, its about preserving design history.

These buildings represent an attitude to housing and building that was truly new and desireable in the 1950's. Time may have shown that we prefer not to all live in these types of sprawling hives of humanity, but it is important to remember them as part of our Country's design heritage.

You may even have seen one of these shots on the London Underground as part of their art below season!




Sunday 22 May 2011

Come Fly with me ...


Today I am well and truly at home but the thought of travel is never far from my mind. I found a copy of one of these fabulous posters in a draw today and thought I would share them with you. They really are the perfect combination of two of my passions - art and travel. I know we have all heard, ad nauseum that air travel isn't what it was in the glory days but these posters really illustrate that.

The posters were made by David Klein for TWA - an airline that no longer exists. They were originally commisioned in the 1950's and perfectly capture the sense of optimism and excitement that surrounded air travel at this time.

I love their retro feel which reminds me of the jetsons in its almost space age imagery. Who wouldn't be tempted to book a ticket to a far away place after seeing these?


Well the posters are one thing but once on board the retro fun didn't end there as this amazing photo shows ...



Actually this 'Tiger lounge' which was developed for the new Boeing 747's was never put into production but it certainly highlights the different approach taken to air travel at the time.

Next time you're on a plane in your small seat watching a Jennifer Aniston movie on your ipod sized in seat screen, cast your mind back to the tiger lounge and imagine the fun that you could be having instead! Maybe its time to bring back at bit of retro design spirit to the airline industry!