kathy dalwood studio blog

Mini Europe

2012-01-18T14:08:00.000Z

Frequenters of my blog will know how much I love a French chateau - but you'd have to be only an inch high to visit this one because guess what....

.........it's only a model!  This Loire Valley 'Chenonceau' is just one of the iconic landmarks at..........

......Mini-Europe, in Brussels.

Good luck identifying the buildings and cities - I was scratching my head at some of them.

You can't help laughing!

See the giant silver ball seeming to drift behind the Eiffel Tower and the roof of the Pompidou Centre? That's part of the Atomium which I posted about a while ago. It was from the top of the Atomium that I spied Mini-Europe - wow, I MUST go THERE - I LOVE model buildings!!

Some of them really are unbelievably realistic and well made like this Corbusier Notre Dame du Haut

That's Justin, my other half, I wanted some 'human scale' in the shot - he said not to mention him when I wrote the post, but too bad, he doesn't read my blog much anyway!

LOVE the people - so busy busy.

This P&O ferry must have taken a rather bizarre route across the English Channel as it's now drifting in front of the Royal Crescent in Bath (you can see the back of the terrace)

Look at the road - so cleverly done.

I think what's really funny is when iconic buildings get mixed up with other random places - here for example is the Houses of Parliament bang next to a North Sea Oil drilling platform.

What ARE these guys doing??

Above and below, the Grand Place, Brussels. Brilliantly made. I'd love to have seen the workshops where all the models were made. I think it took them quite a few years and they had to keep adding new models when the European Union kept expanding. They must have thought, 'Oh no, not ANOTHER country, I thought we were done!'

It was a November afternoon and it started to get dark - but then all the lighting got switched on which created a fantastic atmosphere.

I absolutely love model buildings so this was a very exciting visit for me and I just wish I'd had longer - I was madly rushing around snapping before they closed.

I don't know quite why I like architectural models so much - maybe it's because when a building is so reduced in size that you can see every facet, it becomes a very sculptural object.

See my other posts on model buildings:

mini-buildings

model chalets
architectural models

Chateau de la Hulpe, Belgium

2012-01-02T07:55:00.000Z

A misty November day at dusk turned out to be a perfect and atmospheric time to wander through the parkland and formal gardens of this 19th century château near Brussels.

Isolated pieces of sculpture in vast open spaces like these have a very powerful resonance. Imagine some of these views without the focus of sculpture.

The intense colour of the autumn leaves seemed accentuated against the backdrop of grey mistiness

I love the contrast of sculptural, formal hedges with the loose, organic shapes of the trees.

Châteaus and gardens are top favourites of mine - see some of my other posts:

Manoir d'Archelles

Manoir d'Archelles - garden

Normandy Manoirs

Chateau de Bruniquel

Mme Maigret, plaster bust

2011-12-19T17:55:00.000Z

My latest bust is a departure in some ways from previous sculptures in the collection as I've started looking at contemporary fashion - particularly Japanese design - for references for the costumes.

And I'm experimenting with different, more unusual ways of styling the photo shoots I do with them. Here, I've used a crumpled sheet if newspaper (further down I've explained how this links with the bust itself)

Pulling the silicone mould (as below) away from the first cast - it came out well! Doesn't always happen.

As you can see her hat is 'adorned' with a Citroen DS -the car made famous in the iconic 1960s TV serial featuring the Georges Simenonsleuth, Maigret - hence her name.

You can catch a glimpse of the Citroen here. I made the costume entirely frompaper and card - scrunching it and folding it - usingnewspaper in the photo shoot referred back to these originalmaterials.

The green foil paper I found on a country walk - someone's discarded balloon - great howdiscarded rubbish can be transformed into something intriguing and glamorous inanother setting.

As always, I purposefully keep the mould lines in the finalcast. The fact that my finished sculptures have an air of roughness andimperfection is very important and no two busts are the same despite comingfrom the same mould, the antithesis of a mass-produced object.

The hat and collar I cast from papertake-away cups. I'm really getting interested in using discarded and low-keymaterials to create my costumes.

Mme Maigret was one of the hardest busts to make so far -working with stiff paper and card, it's hard to manipulate the shapes and getthem to sit around the form. In researching Japanese contemporary fashiondesign, I've been amazed by how sculptural the designs are and I'm finding itexciting to keep discovering more. I've made 2 other busts using thesereferences and am just completing the moulds now - looking forward to seeinghow they come out.

And also looking forward to my firstproject of 2012 which will be........ creating two busts to celebrate the LondonOlympics!! It's not that I'm at all a sporty person but I think there's an ocean of crazy and interesting imagery to work with. Absolutely dying to get started, and who knows - maybe they'll be themust-have souvenirs of London 2012!

Thanks to all my readers during 2011- I really appreciate your interest and feedback. Happy Christmas!

Brussels sputnik a.k.a. the Atomium

2011-11-29T16:35:00.000Z

I don't know how this fantastic structure managed to lurk unseen in the shadows during my previous Brussels visits - I must have had my eyes too much at street level checking out the fab old-style brasseries- anyway, I was thrilled to finally come across this bizarre GIANT monument to the atom which turns out also to be a quintessential piece of mid-century sculpture.

The Atomium was built for Expo 1958 - the Brussels World Fair. It was designed by Andre Waterkyn. It has nine steel spheres connected so that the whole forms the shape of a unit cell of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times - apparently.

But the best thing - you can actually go inside it!

This is looking up through the glass roof of the lift as it hurtles up to the top sphere.

And wizzing up one of the escalators. Very hard to believe when you're inside the Atomium that you're actually travelling along the steel tubes linking the spheres.

The inside of the structure reminded me of the inside of large ships - all steel sheets and rivets and complex shapes welded together.

A really fantastic structure - so space-age, well, space-age 1950s-style.

How great is this?? Even the banisters are atomic.

I took this photo while on the escalator, looking up through the portholes, hoping to catch.................

A shot of one of the atoms!!

Now this has got to be one of the coolest restaurants on the planet. It's in the very top sphere and I am definitely having lunch there next time I go to Brussels.

In this sphere is a kind of Youth Hostel for young people - they sleep in 'atom pods'. !!

Needless to say, the view from the top was amazing - despite the November mist.

Needless to say, the view from the top is amazing - despite the November mist.

The Atomium was scheduled for demolition after the Expo - thank goodness they had second thoughts!

Priory House - extreme interior

2011-11-17T15:15:00.000Z

(I've had to invent a brand new category for this post! And I'm adding the sub-heading 'Bollywood meets Bohemian Rhapsody' which is the phrase I've finally come up with to describe Priory House (Lincolnshire) following our recent weekend visit there at the kind invitation of Roger and Carole Lee.

It all started with my blog... no, it all started with a post I did on a show of my father Hubert Dalwood's sculpture at Leeds City Art Gallery. A visitor to the show happened to be Roger Lee who was a student of my father's at Hornsea School of Art in the late 1960s. Roger found my blog post, made contact and the rest is.........lots of great comments from Roger on my blog - he's a sculptor so we have lots in common - plus an invite to visit him and his wife Carole at Priory House. 'You must come and see our pile' he said......

- and 'pile' it certainly is. He told me the place was a bit crazy, but I'm afraid that definitely didn't prepare us............!

Priory House is a massive edifice (9 bedrooms I think) mostly Georgian but with earlier and later elements and has huge grounds with many outbuildings. Roger and Carole use some of the downstairs rooms to host weddings and have a couple of bedrooms for B&B but that still leaves an awful lot of space for their respective studios, workshops, storage spaces, living quarters and above all - their MASSIVE, idiosyncratic, collection of STUFF!

You'll see what I mean...........

About the mannequins: it turned out that Carole had been a very successful fashion designer in the 70s and 80s creating wild and outlandish outfits for the rich and famous. Amazingly she still has an extensive archive of her dresses which, as well as adorning the fabulous (if rather spooky) models throughout the house, languish under polythene wraps in at least 3 of the bedrooms plus in one massive shed outside! Such a shame - we talked a lot about how she should exhibit this wonderful collection.

Purple stair carpet and turquoise walls are the least of it.........

This is the 'The Old Brewhouse' - an Elizabethan Long House next to the main building which they turned into a self contained apartment to rent out to wedding guests and weekenders. Slight change of theme here, maybe more Ann Hathaway meets Out of Africa & The Arabian Nights!

I really loved the mannequins - it was very strange coming across these silent, glamorous creatures lurking behind doors and curtains.

This is the room where you can get married - imagine! Beats the dusty old registry office.

I think this dress gives an idea of Carole's 'signature style' - a fantastical, imaginative creation with lots of different references - who'd think of teaming up a Marie Antoinette bodice with a flower-power tie-dyed skirt? Carole! And it doesn't stop there.

This is the kitchen (very utilitarian and functional as you can see!) and there's Roger kindly frying us eggs for breakfast on the Aga.

Plenty to look at while he grills the toast.

Carole in the 1980s. I was thrilled to find a photo album she had full of shots of their London shop in trendy Chelsea. You can see she had style...........................

(yes - one of my plaster busts - a thank you present)

And she definitely hasn't lost it - here she is at breakfast with her fabulous pink and magenta hair and glamorous Sunday morning (?) outfit.

Without a doubt, someone needs to rediscover Carole Lee ! Come on all you fashionistas out there....

One of the B&B rooms.

Another of Carole's original 80s cool outfits.

Hard to describe the massive number and variety of objets in Priory House - everywhere you look, even under the piano, there's another set piece or still life of unlikely things. But every arrangement is a carefully considered part of the whole.

The back of the house and terrace. Out of picture is a massive rambling garden, beautiful old brick walls and mature trees and many sheds and outbuildings which I'm looking forward to exploring next time! (No pressure Roger and Carole - but I'm afraid one visit to Priory House just whets the appetite!!) And many thanks for the hospitality so far.

But dear reader, don't wait for my next post, why not check out Priory House yourself for a B&B weekend and sample some extreme decor yourself!

Meanwhile check out Roger's sculpture, he mostly works in metal but his drawings are great too.

He's got a bit of scatter gun internet presence but here's some links to get going

Roger's sculpture on Flickr

Links to Roger's work + Priory House and events

(p.s big thanks to Adelina for making sense of this cacophony of images and getting them into some kind of order)

Maestro - plaster bust

2011-11-02T17:25:00.005Z

I seem to be on a roll with my plaster busts at the moment with lots of ideas for new ones and just the long-winded process of making them lagging behind my imagination. Anyway, here's introducing Maestro - I think she was a top violinist in an obscure eastern European orchestra - with a penchant for African neck coils!

This shows the silicone mould being peeled back from the plaster cast - it's weird to see negative and positive versions of the face at the same time.

The first coat of silicone poured over my original sculpture - created as always from real materials and objects.

The violin is balancing on a model pear - I love the shape of pears, so three-dimensional and better than apples or oranges because asymmetric in form.

The scary moment of peeling back the silicone from the first cast! Luckily it worked out fine, my mould-making skills have improved a lot since I first started this collection a couple of years ago. All trial and error!

I'm trying out some new styling ideas when I photograph the busts. In this shoot I included just low-key objects and materials - folded newspaper, a black plastic bag and the bucket I use for left over dried plaster. I want the busts to look weird and contemporary so am experimenting with more unusual contexts. If you have a crazy idea for settings please comment!!!

I'm really in to these fan shapes at the moment - I like the crispness and rythmn. More coming soon...........

Massive thanks to the wonderful Adelina for arranging and uploading this post!! Regulars to my blog will know she interned for me for well over a year while she was at art college in England. She's now back in Romania and has just landed her first job in the design world (I knew it wouldn't take her long!) but she's very kindly volunteered to keep handling all the images in my posts and she is SO MUCH better than me at making visual stories from the picutres so I am very grateful. Thanks Adelina!!

p.s. - she's got a post up at the moment of shots she'd taken in my studio - really interesting to see it through someone else's camera lense.

Timewarp hotel

2011-10-21T17:55:00.003+01:00

Is this the coolest hotel in Birmingham? While the trendies desperately seek out achingly fashionable haunts on the other side of town, the retro hideaway which is the Fountain Court Hotel seems to be a well-kept secret.

Luckily for us we stumbled upon it during a recent visit to Birmingham. We were there to see the exhibition Some Domestic Incidents at MAC ARTS. My partner Justin Mortimer had paintings in the show which was curated by brilliant art writer and curator (and friend!!) Matt Price. Matt first put on the show in the Prague Biennale - hence my post on Prague a few months ago.

But back to the hotel................

We were utterly thrilled when we walked into the lobby - and it just got better and better!

Now this is the kind of bar where you feel obliged to order a Gin and French - or some other old-style cocktail.

As Jackie, the super-friendly owner, explained to us, the hotel has been run by their family for over 30 years and the decor and furnishings just developed organically during that time. Actually a very sustainable approach - why replace solid 1970s furniture if it hasn't worn out? And after all, style is a circular beast and every design gets at least 2 chances of being trendy before it wears out for good!

Anyway, feast your eyes........................

I absolutely loved the old-style (60s, 70s?) reception area, complete with coal-effect electric fire for cosiness.

The hotel comprises two buildings knocked together and this room - with original wooden panelling - is in a house built in 1908.

With its stone fireplace and leather baronial-style dining chairs it really didn't look like it had changed much since then.

I LOVE a window seat, even better with leaded windows. I can't believe there are any other Edwardian houses in the area which have retained so many of the original features and even more important the original atmosphere. It really is a time warp - and I know Jackie won't mind my saying that because I took the words from her own mouth!

How long since you've seen this kind of relief Anaglypta wallpaper? Pure 1970s

And let me tell you - the full English breakfast was FANTASTIC!!"

Fountain Court Hotel - reasonable rates, charming hosts, lashings of other-worldly style and atmosphere - GO THERE!

Gold Digger - Plaster Bust

2011-10-11T14:48:00.001+01:00

Introducing the latest character in my plaster bust collection - if you are feeling the earth move, Gold Digger must be coming your way!

The busts are made by direct casting from real objects and materials. As far as the headdresses go I never have a pre-conceived plan, I just wait to see which random objects catch my eye. In this case I spied a 1970s metal toy bulldozer in a car boot sale. I loved the angular 70s design.

First layer of silicone when making a mould from my original sculpture.

Peeling back the silicone in the first plaster cast - always a breath-holding moment.

The mould filled with plaster inside it's own plaster jacket

As the collection has developed I've found I'm moving away from historical costume and trying to introduce more contemporary shapes and styles. The pleated top is based on a 1998 design by Junya Watanabe (no, I'd never heard of him either but I love his crazy, sculptural clothes)

Plaster leaks through the mould seams and I snap it off - I purposefully keep these rough elements, reminiscent of industrial casting methods as used in civil engineering

I was pleased the hair came out well in plaster. Hair - or a material which can resemble hair - is almost the biggest challenge in making these sculptures.

I've documented the making of all of my plaster busts - for example:

Demoiselle D

Ms Chattanooga

Aviatrix

The rest are listed on the side bar under My Studio

Another bust coming soon!!

Palm Springs

2011-09-22T18:48:00.002+01:00

This is the second to last post (I think) to come out of my California trip in April - what a mass of images that tour provided. Following an intense week in ridiculously gi-normous and uber-urban Los Angeles, we felt we needed an injection of raw nature so headed east for Palm Springs (via some very scary 14 lane LA highways!!)

I knew Palm Springs was an oasis for modernist architecture and wow, did they get that right - but just as thrilling, the desert got thrown in too! My first real-life experience of this kind of extreme landscape - which I found scary as scary as the highways in it's own way.

Everything's about Palms, as you'd expect.

Many of my pictures are of hotels - of which there are a huge number. Apparently, after gently decaying for a couple of decades Palm Springs got re-discovered by the cool set and large private houses and old motels were reborn as trendy boutique hotels.
Above is the famous Del Marcos Hotel, designed by William F Cody

The most unexpected and important visual feature of Palm Springs is the desert mountain backdrop.

All the roads at one side of town come to a halt at a sheer, vertical face of the San Jacinto mountains. (Actually, from my limited observations in California, it's only the mountains which put a stop to the continuous urban sprawl)

Many of the Modernist buildings have been beautifully restored - we wandered around trying to pick our favourites but it was too hard

One thing I didn't expect and which I was very impressed by was the colours used in the building materials - stone, concrete, render, paint etc. The colours echo exactly those in the desert and mountains and because of this, even though the geometrical forms are the antithesis of shapes found in the natural environment, the colour enables the architecture to live perfectly in this setting.

I would never have envisaged lilac-pink for a modernist - or any - building, but how fantastic with the sludgy purple and bracken-brown.

Textured grasses as contrast to flat surfaces work amazingly - and are everywhere.

My first sandstorm!! So exciting - only ever seen one in the film Laurence of Arabia. This is the road from Palm Springs to the Mohave Desert and Joshua Tree.

In terms of creating abstract photographic compositions Palm Springs architecture hands it over on a plate.

I was taken aback to find voluptuous, intensely coloured southern Mediterranean shrubs and flowers. Magenta and shocking pink Bougainvillea were everywhere along with every type of summer flower in huge abundance. (more in future Palm Springs post). Of course by rights, none of these flowers should have been growing here!!! After all rainfall is literally nil.

At Palm Springs they developed their own Modernist style called Desert Modernism. The town sprung up in early Hollywood days when rich film stars vied with each other to commission the coolest and hippest young architects to build them houses to party and relax in. It's a fascinating architectural history and they do tours of the best houses in Modernism Week in February

The famous Del Marcos hotel again. We stayed here - nice architecture, shame about the shabby interior - and the service!

Del Marcos at night. Lots of the buildings are lit up at night - they look wonderful, I specially like the palm trees with fairy lights

Obviously cacti are de rigeur

Here and in other parts of the desert, I was amazed by the impossible situations people managed to build their houses. I took this picture on a zoom - it was way up the side of the mountain, virtually camouflaged from a distance.

This is part of the museum. See the horizontal line of rock on the mountain-side? That's a steep path we took, photos from the top further on.

I thought these high-up, horizontal house with their palms and shaded verandas were idyllic - really the mid-century modern dream

Empty lots were beautiful as these indigenous plants would sprout up fast and high

Just to give you a flavour of the typical lifestyle and demographic!

This was one of my favourite hotels - the Horizon (also by William Cody)It was restored a few years ago and is an iconic Mid-Century masterpiece. Read an interesting history of the building. Lots of famous clients back in the day, Sinatra and Elvis to name but two. But then they all hung out in Palm Springs -seems it was party central.

The setting really is to die for.

There are many private house at Palm Springs and to tell the truth it isn't always easy to know if they were built in the mid-century or in the style of.

But one thing's for sure, as a European it was a mind-altering experience to see SO MUCH MODERNISM in one place! We can only dream of that, in Britain people prefer pastiche Tudorbethan, worse luck.

I found the gardens totally sculptural and exotic

But in a way I preferred these gorgeous empty building lots colonized by desert plants which don't require massively expensive piped water to keep them alive.

When we climbed above the town and looked down we were staggered not to see one solar panel on any of the hundreds of flat roofs!

The acid yellowy-green, the grey concrete, white rock, the dark green palms and the blue sky - certainly not an English palette.

Talking of life-style, when I took these last few pictures we were wandering around a residential area on a beautiful Sunday morning - it was about 70 degrees with a light breeze - perfect. But the only people we saw were sitting inside, looking out, with the air-con on. Absolutely nobody was sitting on their terrace with a pot of coffee and the morning papers. Now that's a life-style trait which I think the Europeans have got covered - we really love alfresco.

THIS is the proper setting for gravel and rock, PLEASE NOT in a tiny front English garden in a damp grey climate!

Even the mail box is cool.

So this is how it looks from that path going up the mountain.........

......and then you get higher........

.......and higher - and see that what you thought was just a cute little town with a few cool houses actually goes on for ever and ever and ever as far as your eye can see ...... But then that's America!

I had to end with this shot - here I am even higher up the San Jacinto Mountains, where a tribal ranger is pointing out the San Andreas fault lying under the distant Mojave desert. See, I told you it was scary old place!

You might like my other posts on California:
Los Angeles
Culver Hotel
Trompe L'oeuil Photoboxes, Culver City
Hayden Tract, LA

Les fleurs de la rue

2011-09-08T15:04:00.003+01:00

I'm back from my month in France where as usual I found lots of fantastic, unpredictable things to photograph. So first of all, eat your hearts out all you upmarket and trendy florists! These flower arrangements lining the streets of a small village near Carcassone created the most spectacularly gorgeous installation.

The village of Fanjeaux was having its Fete weekend - dances, communal meals and a vide grenier (flea market) - and the fete committee went to extreme lengths to get the village decorated.

All shapes of large plastic containers were cut down to create 'vases' which were filled with flowers from peoples' allotments, gardens and the hedgerows. Could anything be more simple and perfect?

The centuries old market / communal hall in the village square was set up for the lunchtime meal with flowers on every table stuffed in cut up plastic bottles. It looked fantastic - and I couldn't help muse on what people pay the wedding organizers to decorate their marquees with hot-house flowers!

On the square just outside the market hall, as they always do at these events, a bar was set up where you can get a coffee or a beer with huge upended barrels to serve as bar tables.

I really, really love the way they use random mis-matching bits of old furniture for these things. I think the table top is an old door - how great does it look with a coat of someone's left over gloss white?

Who needs cut-glass crystal I say!

The texture and colour of old walls and timber, faded paint, render or stone, make a perfect foil for the vibrancy of the flowers

Chinese paper lanterns! Yes! Cheap, simple and beautiful and...............

.....with the same colour palette as the flowers

I know I've posted a lot of images, but YOU try editing this cache of photographs!

I was lucky to arrive before they started laying up or I would have missed this exquisite photo-op.

' Tres bien fait' a la comite de la fete de Fanjeaux!

More French snaps coming soon.

Prague

2011-08-29T10:00:00.001+01:00

This first picture may not quite summon up what people imagine as a quintessential image of Prague. It's one of the underground metro stations and in my recent visit to the city (for the Prague Biennale) these station interiors were far and away the most interesting pieces of design I saw.

Clearly 1960s stylistically (Daleks???) the shapes, the low relief and subtle colour palette along with the stunningly simple graphics are sublime. I was awestruck. More images later.

Meanwhile, above ground and back to 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th century Prague! We stayed in a stunning 500 year old house on a little cobbled square high up near the castle. Beautiful old interiors.................

This corner looked very Vermeer like to me.

It's the pale yellow house with the creeper.

I was on the lookout for classic Czechoslovakian mid-century design which is sadly now pretty hard to find. I love this graphics and the crazy (to me!) abstract accents on the letters.

18th century formal garden - probably more along the lines of what people expect to drool over in Prague. Of course, being a 3D person I've always adored topiary - pure sculpture. I liked the way they planted blue inside the hedges.

These kind of gardens were constructed in many hidden spaces behind the richest houses and mostly are on a slope as part of the old city was built on a steep hill, surmounted by a massive castle.

Moving forward two or three centuries, back to these wonderfully composed underground spaces. Every aspect of the design - the vestibule, platform and ceiling, the choice and juxtaposition of materials, the pattern, colour and surface - all work together to create a perfect, restrained harmony.

We only had time to travel a few stops but I couldn't resist getting off at each station to revel in each design scheme. We were travelling on Line C which was built between the mid 1960s and 70s

I love the simplicity of font and layout.

This station was something else - thousands upon thousands of industrial-looking glass tubes.

The brushed aluminium 3 D writing is pure poetry!

It was evident that a major effort went into the design of each station - every one a work of art in my eyes. Funny, I've never had that response to any of the underground stations in London or Paris, or Barcelona or Lille or...........................

By varying the colour of the tiles within a palette of grey/brown they created not just a functional but a beautiful surface. (love the mini o on the U)

Who would have imagined a juxtaposition of metallic chrome yellow with coffee/bronze marble? Genius.

As you can see - not many people around, luckily for my snaps!

Back to the Baroque..................

These exquisite contemporary mini-glasses were in a cabinet in the dusty and neglected museum of decorative art - there was no label at all so no idea what clever person designed them. One of my main disappointments in my Prague visit was the lack of any good contemporary design on show in shops or galleries. The design tradition was extremely strong throughout the history of Bohemia and right through the Communist era but now seems to have been abandoned, which is a crying shame. I had fully imagined that the art schools would have built on these superb historic and contemporary design traditions, developing leading edge design departments and showing and exporting cool design, but alas, the Czech artists I asked about this said that this hasn't happened at all since the fall of Communism. What a tragedy. Plenty of 'Bohemian Glass' on sale of course - if you like tacky Chinese sub-copies that is!

One good thing in Prague is all the funny old-style bars and restaurants (the food served there though - aah, slightly different matter.)

One of the Castle buildings with painted trompe l'oeuil bricks

There is a very interesting tradition throughout Czechoslovakia of painting ornate patterns on the buildings. I loved this black and white one.

The view as you cross over the famous Charles Bridge, but.............................

.......................don't look down! Aarrghhh - tourist central!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A typical Prague street. The architecture throughout is certainly stunning and so intact (not bombed in the war luckily for them). Since medieval times Prague stood at the crossroads of important trading routes and consequently architectural influences from far and wide had a big impact on the developing city.

Brutalism...........................................

We happened on this decaying football stadium during a wander.

No idea what this now obsolete tower was all about.

3D graffiti - rather reminscent of the metro signage I thought.

So, Prague - my advice? If you want to visit, first go back in time at least 20 years. If you can't manage that then at least DO NOT GO THERE ON ANY SPRING OR SUMMER WEEKEND!!

Sadly Prague has now joined my list of never-to-be-visited-again European 'Themepark Cities' - and they could have done it so differently!

See some of my other posts on cities

Los Angeles

Knoxville Old City

Brussels & Antwerp

Andrew's Brussels apartment

2011-07-29T12:00:00.005+01:00

We recently spent another brilliant weekend in Brussels (such an overlooked city - why does everyone only go to Paris??) which was made even more exciting because our friend Andrew had moved to a new apartment in the Ixelles area which I was dying to see. It turned out he'd decanted all his wonderful antique furniture, objets and art collection to the new place and instantly re-created his special look of quirky luxe.

Everyone should have a tray of glittering cut glass decanters for their whisky, brandy and port! Though I don't know anyone else who does. So 'comme il faut' and classy - especially when flanked by flowers and paintings - like a set from a 1940s movie.

There were some shots of Andrew's last apartment in a previous post about Brussels - and also some pictures of his zany up-market pet accessory store.

The apartment is in a large purpose-built block built in the 1920s. Unlike in London, many people in Brussels (and other European cities) rent apartments rather than buying which means that they have the flexibility to move when ever the fancy takes them. It also means there are lots of fantastic apartments to choose from.

Always a strong animal theme wherever Andrew lives! He is animal crazy and very knowledgeable on the subject.

All the flats and houses I've visited in Brussels have massively high ceilings - which I love. The hall is very light as there are wide glass doors from the main living area - these double doors are also a Brussels feature.

This room is classic Brussels layout - i.e. interconnecting rooms often with folding glass doors between, that's the way all the 19th century houses are built and the style has been copied in these apartments.

Every surface has an exquisite still-life of various objets with wonderful juxtapositions of form, colour, texture and scale.

I lost count of the vases of flowers - all of them dramatic and in scale with the room's proportions.

I spotted this old cornet at a junk shop we visited and Andrew agreed it was a wonderful piece of 'sculpture'.

Andrew is the only person I know with real 18th century antiques - get the Versailles look!

A huge gold mirror is totally de rigeur in a space like this - framing and reflecting space and contents, colour, pattern and shape.

The lime green horse tapestry was another of my finds in the junk shop (5 Euros!). As well as fitting with Andrew's animal passion the colour picks up on spots of green elsewhere. I propped the picture against the wall just temporarily because I couldn't resist the lime green and magenta combination - YES!

The painting of the blonde girl below is by my partner Justin Mortimer (done more than 10 years ago) - Andrew is a major collector of his work and has about 11 paintings I think.

The most important element of Andrew's decorating style is his art collection. Real paintings and sculptures make a room live and bestow a unique personality. The number one rule in my book for creating intriguing, beautiful and one-off interior spaces - fill them with art!

Andrew had his massive sofas recovered when he changed apartments - introducing the Scottish Baronial look!

There's a small balcony area off the kitchen where Andrew's created a wonderfully verdant and almost tropical garden in pots and containers.

Even his kitchen table is a repository for a carefully arranged still-life. Andrew can't resist laying out his objets wherever a flat surface presents itself. There definitely isn't much chopping space in his kitchen!

Showing the crazily shaped lobbies- I mean why have square when you can have diagonal and triangular? Far more interesting manipulation of space.

The entrance - fantastic mosaic floors and double glass doors everywhere. Andrew will soon be on the hunt for a quirky old house in the Ardennes mountains and I'm very much looking forward to seeing that decorating project. See a few images of Andrew's previous Brussels apartment and his pet accessory shop - City Barn.

P.S. I'm off to France for my annual August trip - hurrah - so back in September with lots of snaps I imagine. However I've got what I hope is an interesting post lined up for while I'm away so watch this space.

Ms Chattanooga

2011-07-29T10:00:00.000+01:00

"Pardon me boy, is that the..........?" you know the rest! Introducing my latest plaster bust, Ms Chattanooga - complete with 'real' American steam train perched on her head.
Ms Chattanooga was commissioned by cool on-line design store Roost Living and is available exclusively through them.

It was brilliant that Laura of Roost Living had confidence that I'd create a new character that she would like. Luckily she did - and I hope her clients do too.

This was the first time I poured the plaster into the silicone mould I'd made.

Having taken the silicone-filled plaster from the jacket next stage is to pull the silicone away to find out if the mould worked OK - nightmare moment as many days work wasted if not.

Peeling it back

Her headdress turned out a lot bigger than I consciously intended partly because of the size but also the detail is very tricky to cast - not my initial intention, I just got carried away.

I have a friend who's an ex-barrister and one day when she was clearing stuff out she gave me a big pile of her starched, winged collars - those are what I made the hat from.

The train was extremely difficult to cast from as it's so detailed but it's such an iconic object I couldn't resist.

The plaster which leaks out of the mould edges is snapped off, purposefully leaving mould lines on the finished cast.I want the sculptures to be rough and ready and far away from a mass produced object.

When I began the sculpture I'd just been to a show at the National Portrait Gallery of Thomas Lawrence, Regency portrait painter, and in the bust I made direct reference to the style of dresses worn by his aristocratic clients .

I liked the juxtaposition of stylized roses and engineered object.

Actually, I've been to Chattanooga in Tennessee, and guess what? I never got to see the train!

I really enjoyed creating Ms Chattanooga and was very flattered to be commissioned by Laura to make an exclusive sculpture for Roost Living.

I'm looking forward to getting started on the next few busts I've got ideas for - as soon as I've finished the public sculpture commission I'm nearly coming to the end of. Frustrating not to be able to get my head stuck in to new work so roll on September!

Trompe l’oeuil photoboxes, LA

2011-06-16T06:29:00.015+01:00

In our recent Los Angeles trip it turned out we made a lucky choice by choosing to base ourselves in the cool art district of Culver City because not only did we get to stay in the wonderful Culver Hotel (see post) around the corner from crazy architecture street the Hayden Tract (see post) but right outside our hotel were these fantastic trompe l'oeuil photo sculptures by artist Joshua Callagahan

Actually I didn't notice them straightaway as they are so much a part of the environment but when I did I was mesmerised - what a brilliant way to introduce art to the outdoors. Most public art is pretty dire in my view and often bears no relationship to the location but Joshua really came up with a cool idea here, simultaneously disguising ugly utility boxes and creating beautiful sculptural objects.

 I had no clue who the photoboxes were made by so when I came to write this post I made a very unsuccessful search to find out who the artist was. Then I had a brainwave and contacted the wonderful David Hall from the Culver Hotel who had been so helpful to us during our stay. David knew exactly where to look and got all the information for me from the Public Art department of Culver City.

As can be seen in these images, the concept is very simple; Joshua took photographs of areas behind the variously sited utility boxes and then pasted them on top of the boxes themselves, creating  weird double worlds from this often mundane urban landscape. Genius!

In my photos of the photos I've lined up the real and fake but, as when viewed in real life, the misalignment between the two brings a jolting friction - which is what makes the sculptures so intriguing and fascinating.

Los Angeles is so exotic to a European like me! I never expected that.

I love the slithers of imagery on the thin sides of the boxes

It's clever the way the artist hasn't just chosen the most photogenic views - the boxes with the least 'intrinsically interesting' imagery are the most weird.

Showing the setting of the boxes all around the Culver Hotel

A bizarre aspect of the photos is that although we feel we're looking at a scene in the here and now, actually we're looking at that view as seen in a specific moment in the past. Space time freakiness!

The only bus lay-by in LA with a handle!

When three boxes are together the visual confusion is even more intense.

A box is surely the most three-dimensional of objects but the surface treatment of these boxes has all but destroyed their actual three-dimensionality.  It really is a clever and interesting concept which works on so many levels.

 Must be pretty cramped inside that box - no wonder she's got her legs sticking out!

I wish I'd thought of this project - it must be have been extreme fun doing it.

And this is how boring these metal boxes would have been without Joshua's intervention!
Turns out he's done lots of commissions like this so check them out on his website in the Public Art section.
Please, please, please will someone in England commission him to do the same thing here to alleviate the dreariness and predictability of some of our city centres!

See my other posts on LA
Los Angeles
Culver Hotel
Hayden Tract

Hayden Tract, Los Angeles

2011-06-02T12:59:00.002+01:00

Around the corner from our favourite Culver Hotel (previous post), deep in the heart of Culver City, we found a hidden-away street of the craziest architecture - this turned out to be the Hayden Tract. Alongside refurbished industrial buildings, now housing small creative businesses, are some fantastical constructions mostly designed by Eric Owen Moss, apparently he describes these experimental buildings as 'Conjunctive Points'.

Actually this isn't one of his - this is a re-furb but it's got to be the BEST cactus garden I've ever seen.

The simplest and coolest idea.

The weird ones are by Eric Owen Moss.

Reminds me of a scaly eyed sci-fi monster!

It's not hard to frame an interesting shot with so much going on in these buildings - in fact the issue is more trying to leave something out!

There are 2 (among other) great things about America and architecture: 1) they don't have many rules about what you can and can't build hence all kinds of amazing structures exist and 2) they have plenty of space to do it so the scale can be vast. I wish, wish, wish we had a more open attitude to contemporary architecture in Britain - I sometimes feel we live in a historical theme-park.

All this de-construction is a bit confusing I find.

I don't think Eric Owen Moss can be a Le Corbusier fan.

I did love this parking lot though. I saw plenty of the cropped bamboo hedges in trendy parts of LA - simple shapes and great texture against the raw concrete.

Pretty stunning I have to admit - notwithstanding the references to exploding greenhouses and aircraft hangers!

I reckon this ultra-simple high-level garden structure got my top marks in the Hayden Tract.
The 'Conjunctive Points', while extremely impressive - and you have to salute the engineering- are rather too self conscious for my taste and above all have so much going on. However, it's definitely worth a look at the Eric Owen Moss website, the guy certainly has an imagination. As I write this I'm slightly questioning my response to his work, perhaps I should wedge my mind a bit more open to this flamboyant - and I think strangely figurative architecture - after all you can't swoon at the feet of Modernism for ever. Yes, I think I'll do that.
Here's an interesting article about his Culver City buildings in the New Yorker magazine
All in all a fascinating morning stroll and oh for some edgy architectural enclaves like this a few blocks from my house!

My other posts on LA are:

Los Angeles - the city

Culver Hotel

Culver Hotel, Los Angeles

2011-05-06T17:54:00.010+01:00

I don't know how we did it but on our recent LA trip we managed to book in to the oldest building in the district - well not old by European standards but 1924 is going some in California. The Culver Hotel (west L.A.) was built by the founder of Culver City, Harry Culver, and his pal Charlie Chaplin - so straight in at the deep end of movie history for us! Actually though it was the architecture and interiors which appealed. The building is being very sympathetically restored following years of mouldering away in a variety of non-hotel guises.

There's something about a white table cloth and folded napkin - pure sculpture actually.

The hotel is the local 'flat iron' building but it's also a bit ship-like, proudly towering over everthin surrounding it.

Culver City has undergone a big transformation it seems in the last decade - previously run-down and a bit of a no-go area, now the core of LA's contemporary art scene have moved in, converting industrial buildings to galleries and attracting cool design companies and restaurants.

Entrance to the breakfast room/lounge. I thought they were brave with the colour scheme, the black, white and kingfisher so cool together.

Of course, being America, the ceilings are massively high so plenty of space for this unbelievably amazing row of chandeliers.

Nothing makes you want to sit down more at a restaurant table than a starched white tablecloth and glittering cutlery - to my mind anyway. Not really a typical American hotel breakfast scene above, which is what made the experience so enjoyable every morning

A peek through to the lobby corridor - note all the original (or at least, period) tiles and furniture.

I really was transfixed by these tables. Make you imagine a scene from a 1940s Hollywood film, a pair of lovers just about to take a seat and have a very intense exchange!

Something poignant about the single chair and the finished meal.........

More sculpture!

The lobby/ restaurant/lounge. This room is massive! a double height room with huge windows on two sides. A fantastic space.

The pillars are very high but have still been given the treatment - love the colours.

Breakfast room serving table - look at the fresh melon and pineapple. The breakfasts were FANTASTIC!

The Ladies' restroom. Not sure if the taps are original 30s - but wow.

So glam n'est ce pas?

A lovely terrace too for an evening beer.

And this was the view from our 4th floor room! An original 1930s Movie Palace.

...................with a few palm trees behind it - of course (this being LA!)

We LOVED the Culver Hotel - so atmospheric and the staff couldn't be more friendly and helpful -go there!

See my previous post on Los Angeles