I had a very ‘Bloomsbury’ weekend recently. I took a friend to Charleston Farmhouse in East Sussex and as I haven’t been for quite a few years I was completely bowled over again at the sheer creative endeavour that flowed from this house; writing, painting, ceramics, textiles, furniture, cooking, gardening, sculpture…. the list is endless.

Artists Vanessa Bell and Clive Bell had a very open marriage, both taking lovers throughout their lives. Vanessa had affairs with artist and critic Roger Fry and with the painter Duncan Grant who also moved to Sussex with their unconventional household. Over the following half century Charleston became the country meeting place for this group of artists, writers and intellectuals now known as the Bloomsbury Set. You can only see the house by taking an official tour but it’s a very informative guide that fills you in on the anecdotes behind each piece in the rooms. I loved the artist’s studio for its roughly painted burnt umber walls and (of course!) the lovely grey wallpapers and hand painted textiles and furniture. I was unable to take photos in the house so tried to capture a few from the garden…

The farmhouse from the front garden

I loved these ceramic pots in the garden, also available to purchase!

The gorgeous garden

If you in the area you must also visit another Bloomsbury group home, Monks House which is where Virginia Woolf and her husband Leonard lived and wrote. I visited on the same summery day as Charleston so it was washed in beautiful sunlight. The house is decorated and furnished with Virginia’s sister Vanessa Bell’s work; everything from textiles, beautiful painted tables and chairs to ceramics. Here you can walk around at your own leisure, making it much less formal experience than at Charleston. I loved the particular green Virginia insisted on using:

The green fireplace

More of Virginia's lovely green

The gardens are wonderful and have remained pretty much how both Leonard and Virginia planted them.

A stunning poppy

The writer’s hut lies to one side of the garden, tucked under a tree and is where Virginia wrote Mrs Dalloway and To the Lighthouse. There is no access to the inside but you can peer in through the windows and imagine her sitting at the table with her typewriter.

The writer's hut - a room of one's own

There are also plenty of black and white photographs of the couple and their literary friends including T. S. Eliot, E. M. Forster, Roger Fry and Lytton Strachey who came to stay at Monks House.

TS Eliot, Virginia and Mrs Eliot who is on the right - fascinating body language!

One of the reasons for buying this house was its amazing views of Mount Caburn…

The view towards Mount Caburn

On the way back - Mount Caburn from Firle, close to Monks House and Charleston

Posted in art, interior design, review

It’s Brighton and Hove Artist Open House time, a unique experience for people to drop in on the lives of artists’ homes and studios.

I managed to visit The Old Forge in South Heighton just the other side of Newhaven in East Sussex. It’s a beautiful flintstone house and a wonderful wild garden setting for the outdoor sculpture of the owner Christian Funnell. Inside the house there are paintings by Sarah Young and Guy Funnell (who I loved) textiles by Wallace Sewell and Cressida Bell to name just a few. If you’re feeling peckish they have got the most scrumptious cupcakes, buns and cups of tea.

The garden at The Old Forge. Image courtesy of theoldforge.blogspot.com

After leaving The Old Forge I walked down the lane and stumbled across the most amazing place. South Heighton Pottery is celebrating the 60^th Anniversary of Ursula and Norman Mommens work and life where they lived. It’s another beautiful Sussex house and studio with pottery buildings and like The Old Forge has a remarkable garden setting,  perfect for displaying sculptural pots and garden seats by the potters Chris Lewis and Chris Ford, and collages by Jane Robbins which you come to first in the studio barn.

South Heighton Pottery

The garden at South Heighton Pottery

A bench in the garden by Chris Lewis

Small figurine

I hadn’t heard of the work of Ursula Mommens before so I was very happy when entering the house to discover a retrospective show of her and her husband’s work including pottery, paintings and sculpture. Ursula was a direct descendent of another famous potter, Josiah Wedgwood and a great granddaughter of Charles Darwin.  She trained at the Central School of Art in London and then at the Royal College of Art in the 1920s and here you’ll see pieces that stretch from these very early days to others made to celebrate the Festival of Britain.

Ursula believed in making pots that people could use on a daily basis; their shape and forms are soft and flowing, taking on the roles of every day objects, jugs, plates, cups and bowls with a subtle, understated beauty. Many of the pots on show in the house are earthenware using a clay body she developed herself with ash glaze.

A display of pots by Ursula Mommens

There are chalky and natural clay feeling vessels with some of the plates on display having dark tan and black hues illustrated with cobalt and iron brushwork. Ursula shared her pottery with Chris Lewis (who also curated this beautiful show) in the later years thus enabling her to work well into her 90’s and she lived to the grand age of 101!

An older Ursula still at work

There are also more delicious teas and cakes here all served in wonderful ceramics. If you’re in the area please pop in you will really enjoy it! The exhibition is on every weekend til the end of May and you can find it at:

South Heighton Pottery
Newhaven
East Sussex, BN9 0HL
Tel. 07754814067

Posted in art, design, handmade, review

Towner is always lovely so when I had a bit of time to kill in Eastbourne at the weekend I popped in and came across an exhibition by Elizabeth Magill

At around 30cm x 30cm – a real departure for Magill who usually works on a much bigger scale – the small pictures were hung in a huge room. But instead of feeling dwarfed, the contrast in scale actually made it easier to focus on the details in the paintings and they took on a slightly mystical quality. A lovely show!

Casement. 2009 - 2010. Oil on canvas. (c) Elizabeth Magill

Elizabeth Magill, ‘Green Light Wanes…’ is on until 19^th June
Towner
Devonshire Park
College Road
Eastbourne, BN21 4JJ
Tel 01323 434660

Posted in art, review

A few days ago I was in snowy Stockholm for only my second ever visit to the city. Luckily I had quite a bit of time to wander around and also squeezed in a visit to Mariefred and its castle, which is about 1 hour away.

The magnificent castle in Mariefred

It was -20 degrees and very snowy!

Back in the city, I have been a huge fan of architect, designer and artist Josef Frank since my degree days at Camberwell and so a visit to Svenskt Tenn was a ‘must do’. This time was better than ever as they have temporarily re-located whilst renovating their original store and currently running a pop-up shop in an old Art Deco cinema , the Astoria which is amazing!

The exterior of the Astoria Cinema

Interior which has made a feature of the original screen

The Astoria is a great setting for all the products; the stage houses some huge sofas upholstered in the newly launched Josef Frank ‘Marble’ velvets, influenced by the work of Jackson Pollock which he first saw in New York. Have a look at this animation of the Marble 4420 print:

Marble 4420 by Josef Frank. Motion graphic designer Mika Pollack

Where the audience seats used be has been left pretty much as it was (but with the seats removed obviously!) and is eclectically styled. You have to keep reminding yourself that Joseph and Esrid Ericson produced these pieces over 50 years ago because it looks so of the moment right now.

As you can tell I really, really loved this current shop. It seems to have transformed the Svensk Tenn look, generating a younger feel. I hope they keep it alongside the newly refurbished store. And can we have one in London please?!

Another totally awesome visit was the Nordiska Museum housing Swedish trends and traditions.

I could have spent all day here and will definitely visit again. The folk art rooms are lovely, an artform that blossomed in Sweden during the 18^th and 19^th centuries. They have everything from knitted socks to beautiful Swedish furniture on display.

A detail of decorative folk art

Hand knitted socks

Elsewhere is the Nordiska’s interiors section with room sets of each Swedish home setting rather like a cross between our V&A and the Geffrye Museum

One of my favourites was the Table Settings exhibition which is really beautifully put together in little room sets featuring settings from 16^th century to 1950’s Here I have taken a few snaps (as they are behind glass they are a bit blurred but some how that makes them look more authentic I think!)–highlighting food and drink and the customs and traditions linked to meals .

Posted in architecture, art, design, handmade, interior design, pattern, textiles

Having been put off by chilly weather a number of times, I’d been waiting for the perfect day to visit Kensington Gardens. But, realising that there are only 2 more weeks to go, a visit to Anish Kapoor’s installation ‘Turning the World Upside Down’ became a priority. As long as wellies are donned and scarves tied tight, it’s a great experience.

There are 4 large-scale stainless steel sculptures located around the park, which can be found using the handy map opposite the Serpentine Gallery. However half the fun is stumbling across the pieces by accident as they glimmer from behind a tree or peek at you across a path or a lake.

Sky Mirror, 2006 by Anish Kapoor. Copyright, the artist

Once up close, you can see how they distort and play with their surroundings, the mirror-like surfaces forcing you to look at your relationship to the landscape in a new way.

C-Curve, 2007 by Anish Kapoor. Copyright, the artist

It’s the first time these major works have been installed in London so this is a real treat and can be yours until March 13th.

Posted in art, review

I popped into the Whitechapel Gallery to have a look at the John Stezaker exhibition -a really great show based on his collages which he makes from taking classic movie stills and vintage postcards.

Image copyright John Stezaker

Whilst there, I also checked out the Richard Wentworth piece which is an interesting cabinet of curiosity and another piece in Gallery 6 called ‘A Confiscation of String’. Wentworth plays with perceptions of volume and length, mis- judgements and misperceptions, raising questions such as ‘how long is a piece of string?’ The work, orange string threaded through nails to make vertical lines on a white wall is very nice and graphic.

John Stezaker is on until March 18th and Richard Wentworth: Three Guesses ’til March 6th.

Posted in art, review

Reading the paper a couple of days ago I came across a story about Spitalfields, the area in which our studio is based. Yesterday saw the opening of the first Spitalfields Life photo show dotted across 3  local venues (The Golden Heart in Commercial St, Agnes B and Rough Trade East on Dray Walk), which includes portraits by Jeremy Freedman of the personalities behind the weekly antiques market.

He’s a contributor to the amazing blog, Spitalfields Life which is a great read. Whilst you’re online it’s well worth having a look at the fascinating entry on historic wallpapers in one of those lovely Fournier Street houses, such as this from the 1820s:

A fragment of wallpaper from the 1820s. Image courtesy of Spitalfields Life

Jeremy Freedman’s photos will be up until the 10th March.

Posted in art, review, wallpaper

I popped into the Royal Academy to see Art Fashion Identity, part of the GSK Contemporary season. It was really interesting and far much bigger than I was expecting. Exhibiting work, are artists and designers that have used fashion and clothing as a means for exploring our identities.

I was initially attracted because I wanted to see ‘Say Goodbye’, Helen Storey’s evaporating dress. A really beautiful piece, this bio-degradable enzyme dress slowly dissolves over time as it is dipped into a huge Perspex bowl of water, making the comment on society’s desire to buy clothing all of the time.

'Say Goodbye'. Image courtesy of the Royal Academy, (c) Helen Storey

The exhibition website also includes a film about her project.

But aside from Storey’s work, there was so much more I enjoyed seeing including films by Cindy Sherman, Yoko Ono, Marina Abramovic, Gillian Wearing and a mesmerising installation by Hussein Chalayan. I also particularly liked the layout and display of work by Marie-Ange Guilleminot, inspired by a visit to the Hiroshima Peace memorial museum. Her huge pink kimono with the cut –out stencil print really stood out.

Posted in art, fashion, review

Also whilst at the V&A make sure you see the fabulous Shadow Catchers a show of camera-less photography, using processes such as C-type prints, dye destruction print, gelatine – silver print and my favourite is photogram and of course Cyanotype which I have mentioned before

Artists Pierre Cordier, Laszlo Moholy- Nagy, Floris Neususs, Gary Fabian Miller, Susan Derges and Adam Fuss give an insight into their world of making pictures that come from the soul and are focused in catching the “moment of life”.

Photogram by Floris Neususs, image courtesy of Flickr

From the series of My Ghost. Courtesy of Thomas Paul Fine Art, (c) Adam Fuss

Daguerrotype by Adam Fuss. Image courtesy of The Independent

There’s also a good selection of artist’s videos on the V&A site here:

Totally awe inspiring!

Posted in art, printing, review

If you haven’t seen it yet then there are only a few days left to visit the V&A’s enormous Diaghilev exhibition showing the work of the Ballet Russe, created over a century ago. This show is a monster and will truly inspire.  It includes costumes and set designs from drawings to films to actual Picasso scenery backdrops for Le Train Bleu

Looking around, I could see some trend directions for spring-summer 2012, such as bold coloured prints and use of satin and metallics… mmmh very Mui Mui!

Posted in art, review, trends

Another exhibition looking at the links between artists and applied crafts is Louise Bourgeois: The Fabric Works at the Hauser & Wirth gallery on Savile Row. Her textile art reflects how important a role fabric played in Bourgeois’s life, having grown up surrounded by the textiles of her parents’ tapestry restoration workshop. Her work in this area was quite prolific but I’ve managed to select 3 of my favourites!

Untitled, 2006 (c) Louise Bourgeois courtesy of Hauser & Wirth

titled, 2006 (c) Louise Bourgeois courtesy of Hauser & Wirth

titled, 2008 (c) Louise Bourgeois courtesy of Hauser & Wirth

Hauser & Wirth has quickly settled in to its great new space designed by Annabelle Selldorf so if you’re popping into town for some Christmas shopping, it’s worth popping by. The exhibition is on until December 18^th.

Posted in art, review, textiles

Once again Pallant House is staging a brilliant exhibition. ‘Contemporary Eye Crossovers’ explores the relationships between artists and crafts with work from Grayson Perry, Jeff Koons, Tracey Emin and Polly Morgan. Here are a couple of my favourites, ‘Georgie and Orchids’ by Gary Hume and Damien Hirst’s butterfly wallpaper

Georgie and Orchids by Gary Hume image courtesy of the Saatchi Gallery © Gary Hume

Butterfly wallpaper by Damien Hirst © Damien Hirst

Posted in art, design, review

Not far from Tent, on Redchurch Street, the Heretic Printmakers temporarily set up shop to create off-beat, fine art screen prints. Squeezed into the MEN gallery’s tiny space, they looked like they were having a lot of fun.

Freshly made prints at Heretic

You can read more about what they got up to at their blog.

Posted in art, handmade, printing, review

The other reason for going to the Serpentine was to catch the exhibition of Wolfgang Tillmans’ work.

The photographs of Wolfgang Tillmans are beautiful. I especially like the huge C-Type prints. ‘Urgency XXI’, looks like drops of red dye floating and dispersing in water- very delicate and I love the pink hue.

His take on exhibition display techniques is so refreshing. Many of the prints are either simply stuck with Sellotape directly to the walls or hang from bulldog clips and nails. He also experiments with different printing techniques, photocopies, C-Types on matte and gloss papers giving his work a uniqueness.

One room features large cubed blocks of colour in the form of shiny C-Types which create a striking ensemble of blue, turquoise, yellow, white, red and violet; some dense in hue and others faint and tonal. But my favourite is the forest print ‘Wald (Tierra del Fuego) II’, a huge monochromatic C-Type; I love the matte paper and the depth of tones.

Wald (Tierra del Fuego) II © Wolfgang Tillmans

I also learnt something new and must try to remember to watch out for the next transit of Venus on the 6^th June 2012 I may well forget so it was nice to see Tillmans’ photos of the last event, which occurred in 2004. After 2012 it won’t happen again for another 125 years so better put the date in your diary! Meanwhile, pop in and see this before it closes this Sunday.

Posted in art, printing, review

For the front garden of the museum, designer Kei Ito has been commissioned to create a brand new light installation. Called ‘Sitting the Light Fantastic’ her work takes inspiration from the content and themes of the Geffrye as its starting point. The installation of chairs and lamps, made of woven fibre options, will glow at dusk.

Photograph from Museumaker © Kei Ito

The installation will be unveiled to coincide with the London Design Festival but if you can’t wait til then, she’s keeping an online diary as her project nears completion.

Posted in art, design