November 20, 2011 in inspiring places
There is nothing quite like a walk by the sea, even on a cold and cloudy day. The fresh sea air, inhaled deeply, is just a wonderful change of scene for a city dweller like me. The blustering wind making our noses run and blowing away cobwebs, cheeks glowing and fingers tingling. Seagulls soaring and clouds threatening to rain, laden with grey precipitation. Dungeness nuclear power station was on the edge of our view and a reminder that Derek Jarman‘s Prospect Cottage was not so far away. I must visit his little coastal retreat one day, a good reason to return.
So our little family visited the coastal town of Rye in Sussex one grey, moody day last month. It is a very sweet town with cobbled streets, antique shops for browsing, steeped in history and stories of pirates and pistols, smuggling and shipwrecks. We felt like we were part of an Enid Blyton adventure.
We returned to London that evening, blown away by the wind, saying good bye with our pockets heavy, laden with found loot; pebbles, shells and dried seaweed, to be treasured and admired as mementoes at home.
I photographed our finds rather like a Victorian collector cataloguing their discoveries, layering papers and using graphic stamps as a detail. Little nothings to display on shelves and evoke lovely memories.
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November 12, 2011 in handmade goodness, inspiring places
I managed to catch the end of Sophie Smallhorn’s show Notes on colour at Westbourne Studios in Notting Hill recently. I am a huge fan of Sophie’s work and I love her colour use, graphic style and how she experiments with their relationships in her screenprints and 3D artworks. I wake up to one of her images every morning as it sits on a shelf in my bedroom (see my previous post here) and it was a joy to see so many of her prints together. I also saw some of her work earlier this year as part of a collaboration at the Craft Council’s Collect, the international art fair for contemporary objects, at the Saatchi Gallery.
Sophie says:
Notes on colour
Having been involved in a number of long-term projects recently, I wanted to work with a process that would allow me to move through ideas quickly and instinctively. ‘Notes on colour’ started some months ago as two hundred sheets of paper, a basic screen printing set-up and a desire to play. The project has been a fascinating time and for me, an essential back-to-basics way to sketch out thoughts on colour, form and composition without becoming preoccupied by ideas of perfection. Mistakes were made and then made something of, one print informed the next and no single print has taken longer than a day to complete. ‘Notes on colour’ is in a sense a thought process illustrated over one hundred screen prints. Collectively it is a story, a story about colour.
To see more of her work visit Sophie’s website
The day after we went for another big dose of artistic inspiration…
With a young family it’s all about finding a balance at the weekend and doing something we all love, and luckily my children love art. So we made a family trip to Tate Modern on Bankside. A quick walk around the amazing turbine hall and then first stop was the fab Tate shop for some Moleskine note pads and Tate pencils to keep the children occupied, drawing their favourite paintings and sculptures.
A trip to any of the Tates is a wonderful day out, enjoyable and educational and if you are able to visit regularly then the annual membership is brilliant, allowing access to the paying exhibitions too. The current Gerhard Richter exhibition was a fantastic show, enjoyed by us all. One of the other benefits of membership is is the view from the members’ rooms balcony on the 6th floor, I snapped the view across the river in the reflection of the famous glass windows.
We also took a browse around a couple of the permanent collections and my daughter loved the fact that by coincidence her outfit matched one of my favourite paintings there, an abstract from 1914 by Vanessa Bell – one of the Bloomsbury group and Virginia Woolf’s sister.
There’s no doubt we’ll be popping back soon for more artistic inspiration!
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September 22, 2011 in inspiring places, interior styling
This is one of my very favourite café-bar-galleries – Velvet – on a quiet side street in the middle of the city of Zagreb. We stopped in on the way home from holiday last month for a light lunch after visiting my grandmother and before we hopped on the plane back to London. I was very kindly allowed to take a few pictures inside and wanted to share them here. The interior is the vision of the talented Croatian contemporary artist and florist Saša Šekoranja. I met Saša briefly a couple of years ago when I had visited the original smaller café and gallery with my mother and had bought a book of his drawings as a gift for my husband. He also owns a florists near by which is like an art gallery, exhibiting the most amazing floral creations combined with his artworks.
Velvet’s decor is filled with creativity, style and quirky details. I love the contrast in the centre of the room for example – a stack of ornate chandeliers boxed in plain, untreated wood resting on a big table, making an unexpected sculptural centrepiece.
The café-bar has now expanded next door with a darker, more vintage feel and a delightful terrace outside. Saša’s artworks are everywhere and are beautiful, expressive, decisive and I just love his mark making – it makes the interior so individual. The smaller café’s walls are covered in frames, some filled with drawings and some left empty, ready for new pictures that he draws when he visits. He uses a lot of aesthetic techniques that I love – simple line drawing, painted graphics, patina, texture. monochrome and subtle colour. It’s probably why I love it so much!
An exhibition of handmade ceramics displayed against a chalkboard wall with simple white chalk drawings mirror the geometric, monochrome paintings on other walls.
I love the use of classic black bentwood chairs, each one uniquely customised with a simple, expressive daub of red paint or the end of one chair leg dipped to match. The vintage tables too have been numbered with large simple stencils all adding to the graphic effect.
I love the details. Vintage books, tied in bundles as displays and placed individually on each table with the menu stuck inside.
Vintage metal containers used as planters and up-ended as side tables with an old mirror and bench are typical examples of the quirky but sophisticated decor. Our lunch was simple, fresh and delicious – fresh tomato and mozzarella and Caesar salads with homemade lemonade. It’s also a great spot for people-watching, with lots of stylish locals passing by or chatting over coffee or a glass of wine. I know I’ll be stopping in again next time I am in Zagreb.
By coincidence I had been flicking through August’s Croatian Elle Decoration magazine a few days before and a four page spread immediately stood out and grabbed my eye. I then realised it was Saša’s work. Simple, natural, expressive. Just lovely.
If you ever find yourself in Zagreb then I highly recommend stopping in at the florist gallery on Ilica (No. 82) then on to Velvet, just round the corner on Dezmanova Ulica. See the Velvet website for more details.
Food, family, friends, art and flowers in a fabulous setting – what better way to spend some time?
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September 15, 2011 in inspiring places
Sometimes I find when I’m rushing around the busy streets of London it’s easy to forget to look up. But there are visual delights up high everywhere in London – architectural features, vintage signs, statues and sculptures. I was on Oxford Street yesterday, nipping into John Lewis for some haberdashery supplies before heading on to have a look at a location house for the final shoot for my book. As I left I glanced up and remembered this wonderful sculpture that has graced the wall of their building since 1963. It’s called ‘Winged Figure’ and it’s by Dame Barbara Hepworth, one of my favourite artists. I had my camera so took a photo, and it reminded me of my visits to her home and studio in Cornwall.
The Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden is one of my favourite places in the UK. I have visited a few times with my family whilst on holiday in St Ives. It’s absolutely beautiful and I could spend all day here even though it is relatively small. Dame Barbara’s sculpture studio has been left exactly as it was in 1975 when she died at the age of 72, with sculptures still in progress and tools lying all around. It’s run by Tate who also have the main Tate St.Ives gallery there. Both are must-sees if you are ever in the area.
The sculpture garden is wonderful too. It’s raised from the street and almost feels like you have stepped into another country. My little boy said it was his favourite place we visited on our holiday, even more than the beach!
There is also a large Hepworth sculpture at Snape Maltings in Suffolk that we visited in June and my son recognised the similarity with the sculptures he loved in St.Ives.
The new Hepworth Wakefield gallery opened earlier this year and looks amazing, I can’t wait to visit – a definite trip to plan for the future. And I’m sure my children will be happy to come along too!
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August 28, 2011 in inspiring places, news
I have been holidaying in Croatia since I was born. My mother is originally from the capital city Zagreb where my grandmother still lives. As soon as school in England finished for the summer my brother and I would head off to spend the holidays there.
We still return almost every summer to the small fishing village on a little island in the Adriatic Ocean where the sea is beautiful and clear, the food is simple and delicious, the cicadas chirp noisily all day and the stars shine brightly all night in the deep black sky.
My grandfather bought a barren, rock-covered plot of land almost fifty years ago and built a little one-room holiday home which has been added to over the years. There is no internet access (we only had running water connected a few years ago!) so it feels like a real holiday.
The food is amazing. Fresh fish, bought directly from the island’s fishermen that morning as they unload their catches, are delicious cooked on the wood barbecue. Olives grow everywhere and the local families all make their own olive oil. The fig trees in our garden are covered in the most deliciously sweet fruits that you can pick and eat straight from the tree. And everyone grows huge, juicy tomatoes – perfect simply dressed with a little salt, homemade olive oil and vinegar. Heaven.
I’ve always made things whilst there and over the last couple of years we have been updating our little holiday home too. I’ll be posting photos of some of the things I’ve been up to whilst on holiday so do pop back soon. Hvala (Thank you!)
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June 28, 2011 in inspiring places, interior styling
I met Julia about ten years ago when I was an assistant stylist on a photo shoot and we just clicked, it’s that simple. I love her relaxed way and we have remained friends ever since. When I started working as a stylist in my own right Julia and I shot together and I’ve also made props for her. There are some images in my portfolio of our work, and hopefully there will be more soon.
Julia is a fantastic photographer specialising in photographing children, mainly fashion and interiors, for commercial and editorial and has worked for companies including Monsoon, Marie Chantal, Jigsaw Kids, Caramel and Harrods and magazines including Vogue Bambini, Milk, Junior, Marie Claire and Red amongst others. Her kind, relaxed and fun way of working means her shoots are too and I think it shows in the children’s faces.
Last weekend we went to stay with her and her family in their new house in Suffolk with her two girls, husband Ben and Poppy the sheep dog and they have started decorating and remodelling. Julia and Ben have great style and I couldn’t help but ask if I could take a few quick snaps of their lovely home. Just a little snippet. I can’t wait to see how it progresses.
Top photo – Good luck charms: a silk flower garland hangs on the back door.
This painting is by Sue Skeen and from the Kettle’s Yard Found sale.
Below is Julia’s favourite photo which was a gift from her husband Ben and is by the renowned photographer Mario Giacomelli. There is currently an exhibition of his landscape work running now until 30th July at Ben’s gallery, Atlas, at 49 Dorset Street, London W1.
The little collected shells in the bottom left corner were threaded on a stick with a sweet little message from the girls for their dad.
Julia’s story in the May/June issue of Vogue Bambini is just amazing and I love it. She has a story in the new July issue too which I can’t wait to see.
You can see more of Julia’s work on her personal website here and also on the One Photographic website. If you have 5 minutes, have a look, her work is beautiful.
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A place to share my work and the things I love: interior styling and great design; fine art and contemporary craft; exciting new products and flea market finds; handmade and homemade; celebrating the old and embracing the new; creativity, family and fun. The things that I believe make your house a home.
Line Up contemporary craft exhibition, curated by Sania Pell, at Flow Gallery, 1-5 Needham Road
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