Newport Street Gallery in Vauxhall, pretty deserted in the snow around lunchtime today, with the latest exhibition of two new artists, English artist Rachel Howard (born 1969) and American artist John Copland, (born in 1976). Howard’s work ‘Repetition is Trust – Via Dolorosa’ starts with an image based on the iconic photograph of Ali Shallal […]
International collectors are flooding into London, despite the snow and cold, for the auctions of impressionist, modern and contemporary art, with work ranging from Monet and Rodin to Grayson Perry and Banksy, including a preview of the Peggy and David Rockefeller Collection to be auctioned for charity later in the year at Christie’s in New […]
He bought well, this European architect-collector whose name we do not know, but who has several works from his collection on show at Christie’s in their Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale in London, including Leger, Picasso, De Chirico and Morandi. Look carefully; can you tell the architectural links in the paintings through geometry, colour, […]
Inside the house, the walls, carpets, bedspreads and fabrics on the chairs and sofas are almost a catalogue of William Morris & Co, while outside the gardens are gradually awakening as winter turns into spring. Home of the Beale family, Standon House was built between 1891 and 1894 by Philip Webb who, true to […]
Near Lamberhurst in Kent, down in a lower area of the estate, are the romantic ruins of Scotney Castle, surrounded by its moat and gardens of azaleas, kalmia and rhododendrons, dating back to the 14th century, though inevitably it was much altered and extended over the centuries. At the top of the hill is the […]
By a strange fluke, romantic Valentine’s Day today coincides with Ash Wednesday in the religious calendar – roses, chocolates and champagne contrasting with 40 days of fasting for Lent. In London, Valentine’s Day and London Fashion Week is being celebrated with red inflatable cuddly love hearts floating on top of or inside London landmarks, […]
It is so white that you feel absorbed by it, and it feels a jarring insult to the all-embracing whiteness to be wearing coloured clothes that disturb the peace of the space. Really we should be dressed in white as we enter. Look closer at the squares on the walls and they having flowing […]
Is it a coincidence that artist Brian Griffiths work has a touch of the theatre, given he was born in Stratford on Avon in 1968? Is it something in the water, or the influence of an education influenced by Shakespeare and the many buildings to which Shakespeare is connected, including his old classroom. In ‘No […]
With Valentine’s Day next week, this is the second year of Sotheby’s on-line auction, ‘Erotic, Passion & Desire’ with works from the antique to the contemporary around the themes of sex and love. On show in the seductively-lit galleries, the auction includes a first-century Roman terracotta scene of a brothel, white marble classical sculptures of […]
Outside is the modern city of London, with the gardens of Berkeley Square not far away, the bulbs beginning to burst through the cold earth as the first indications of spring. On approaching the modern building, the large glass door in front opens silently as you are drawn in to what seems another world – […]
"The many great gardens of the world, of literature and poetry, of painting and music, of religion and architecture, all make the point as clear as possible: The soul cannot thrive in the absence of a garden. If you don't want paradise, you are not human; and if you are not human, you don't have a soul."
(Thomas Moore)
To be an architect means having a wide range of interests - architecture, art and creativity in all its variety of forms, sustainability, science and innovation. The greatest interest is often where these different worlds overlap and collide - that is when something imaginative often occurs that pushes us all forward to another place
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