Real life Fantasy Homes.

Real life Fantasy Homes.

And now on a brighter note…….I thought I’d look for something that would lighten the mood and take my mind of this bloody awful weather. So here’s what I came up with, real life fantasy homes. These homes actually exist; can you imagine waking up every morning as part of your very own fairy tale??, now that has to bring a smile to any ones face.




http://proto-knowledge.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/real-life-fairy-tale-houses.html

http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-eccentric-buildings.php

If you can't have a complete fantasy home then take an ordinary home and install extraordinary windows.

http://www.viahouse.com/2011/02/another-fairy-tale-house-design-the-hello-kitty/another-fairy-tale-house-design-the-hello-kitty-architecture/

http://picscrunch.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/amazing-fairy-tale-houses-in-real-world.html



And last but not least, my own personal favourite, plus interior.

Glasgow in the 30's, Architecture.

THE BERESFORD

On a recent visit to Glasgow this building caught my eye. It’s a very striking, recently renovated, Art Deco Building which stands proudly on a junction of Sauchiehall Street (famous for the Rennie Mackintosh tea house,’The Willow tea Rooms’).

See Willow Tea rooms here
http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/journal/item/34/Art_Sunday_Interiors
And here
http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/photos/album/54/Willow_Tea_Rooms_Glasgow_Scotland




Sauchiehall Street is one of Glasgows most famous streets, it’s right in the heart of the city and links the city centre with the older more bohemian West End.

It is a brilliant area to live, residents can usually walk anywhere within the city or use the network of underground trains.
The Beresford is now full of brand new apartments,  it’s a high quality conversion of one of Glasgows most impressive Art Deco buildings.

The building was originally built as ‘The Beresford Hotel’ in 1938, it’s ten storeys high,  was the tallest building erected in Glasgow between the wars and was described as Glasgows first skyscraper.

The hotel was first used for visitors to the Empire Exhibition, and then became a favourite
Stop over for American servicemen during the Second World War.

BERESFORD HOTEL / BAIRD HALL
Sauchihall Street / Garnet Street
Weddell & Inglis 1937-38

The Beresford Hotel is seen here not long after its opening in 1938. The Art Deco curved towers of the facade reflect the design found in many of Glasgow's cinemas of the 1930s.

The architect, William Beresford Inglis of Weddell & Inglis, was also the hotel's owner and managing director. After the war demand for hotel accommodation dropped off and for a while the building was used as an office block. The University of Strathclyde acquired it for student accommodation in 1964 and they renamed it Baird Hall.

In 2003 it was sold on from the university and work began on its re-conversion into private apartments.

Reference: Glasgow City Archives, D-CA 8/2962 Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Libraries Information and Learning.

These images are from Glasgow when The Beresford Building was built, it just makes you realise what a remarkable building it must have been at the time.

 

Art Sunday, Detail, Robert Adam

Robert Adam (3 July 1728 – 3 March 1792).

 Scottish neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer, noted for his almost obsessive  attention to DETAIL.

 He was the son and apprentice of William Adam (1689–1748), Scotland's most famous architect of his time. He worked initially  with his older brother John, also an architect, and together they ran the family business started by their father. This business included work for the Board of Ordnance.

Starting in 1754 he left the family practice and spent almost five years travelling Europe and studying architecture. Amongst others he studied under Charles-Louis Clérisseau and Giovanni Battista Piranesi. Once back in Britain, rather than return to Scotland, he started a London practice with his younger brother James.

Here he developed the world famous "Adam Style", based on his observations of antiquity and ancient structures. He was very successful and held the post of

‘’Architect of the Kings Works from 1761–1769’’.

He is remembered as the greatest architect of the late 18th century and one of the most influential figures in European and North American Architecture. He lead the early stages of classical revivalism in England and Scotland between  1760 and  his death in 1792. A remarkably long ‘reign’ at the top!

His astounding success can attributed to his ability to design everything, from the outside in, down to the smallest detail. It was this attention to detail that made him different and allowed him to become one of the greatest architects Scotland has ever produced.

 

Entrance front of Hopetoun House, designed by William Adam and modified by the Adam Brothers

 

Kedleston Hall. The South front by Robert Adam, based on the Arch of Constantine in Rome

 

One of Adam's masterpieces: Pulteney Bridge, Bath

 

Details for Derby House in Grosvenor Square, an example of the Adam Brothers' decorative designs.

 

Syon House, A design for the hall by Robert and James Adam.

 

Dun House, Montrose, was built by Robert Adam and is not far from where I live. I visited it some time last year and here are the pictures.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/forget-me-not5275/sets/72157600970113070/

 

 

And this is the information on Dun House.

http://www.aboutbritain.com/houseofdun.htm

 

The rest of the photos are here.

http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/photos/album/166/166

 

 

 

The House for an Art Lover

The History of House for an Art Lover

THE COMPETITION

 

In 1901, Glasgow’s most famous architect, Charles Rennie Mackintosh entered a competition to design a ‘House for an Art Lover’. The competition was set by a German design magazine which sought entries to design ‘a grand house in a thoroughly modern style’, and challenged architects to develop ideas which were fresh and innovative. Mackintosh worked on his submission together with his new wife, Margaret Macdonald and her sister Frances, both decorative artists. Unfortunately he submitted his designs just too late and  was disqualified before the competition even began, It’s widely accepted that if he had actually entered the competition he would have won. The designs were awarded a special prize for “their pronounced personal quality, their novel and austere form and the uniform configuration of interior and exterior.”  For the first time, Mackintosh and Macdonald were allowed complete freedom of artistic expression, their designs not conforming to client specification and demand

 

The sheer determination and conviction of  consulting engineer, Graham Roxburgh, led to building the House in the late eighties, over one hundred years after the designs were first created, the House now stands completed in Bellahouston Park. His dream to build the House for an Art Lover became a reality in 1989 when building work began.  However, recession in the early Nineties forced the project to be temporarily halted.  Building work resumed in 1994, revived by collaboration between Glasgow City Council and the Glasgow School of Art. 

http://www.houseforanartlover.co.uk/the-story/

Art Sunday, Interiors

First, an apology, this is very, very late, as some of you may know I have been a little ‘sidetracked.’ So determined was I to enter a video actually IN the body of a blog, that I became oblivious to all else until the task was done. This probably seems like a very simple task to most people but for me it was………..a mammoth task, it seems Multiply has changed the way things are done, or I was being particularly dense and just not getting it. Either way the end result is that I spent a couple of days obsessing over videos in blogs to the point where I didn’t get my Art Sunday sorted OR respond to every one who commented on my Picture Perfect…………..(which is where I’m off too now)

So………….here it is, better late than newer I suppose

The rest of the photos are here

http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/photos/album/54/Willow_Tea_Rooms_Glasgow_Scotland

 

The Willow Tea Rooms, Glasgow

The Willow Tea Rooms are my choice for ‘Interiors’ because it really is the most fabulous interior you could possibly imagine, In December 1983, Anne Mulhern recreated the Room de Luxe in the original location and the Willow Tea Rooms were reborn. It is possible to sit in these rooms, surrounded by the décor designed and installed by Charles rennie Mackintosh over 100 years ago

 

Charles Rennie Mackintosh

(b. Glasgow, Scotland 1868; d. London, England 1928)

Charles Mackintosh was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1868, he began an apprenticeship with John Hutchinson in 1884 and began attending evening classes at the Glasgow School of Art. In 1889 he became an architectural assistant with Honeyman & Keppie and enrolled at the Glasgow School of Art. In 1890 he won a travelling scholarship and toured Italy before settling down into practice.

While the Glasgow School of Art, Mackintosh developed a close relationship with Margaret MacDonald, her sister Frances Macdonald and is friend Herbert McNair. The were collectively known as "The Four". ‘The Four’ were at the forefront of the Glasgow based movements in Art and Design. They were part of the groups of artists known as ‘The Glasgow Boys’ and ‘The Glasgow Girls’. These people revolutionised concepts in art and design throughout Europe. During the late 19C & early 20C. They were recognised internationally and  exhibited posters, furnishings, and a variety of graphic designs in Glasgow, London, Vienna and Turin.

Mackintosh disregarded the architecture of Greece and Rome he believed in Scotland’s own heritage, he saw no need to ‘borrow’ classicism from ancient Rome or Greece. His buildings clearly demonstrate this belief. Mackintosh created buildings notable for the elegance and clarity of their spatial concepts, the skilful exploitation of natural and artificial lighting, and skillful detailing. He felt that each design should work as a whole to which each carefully contrived detail contributes. He did not design buildings as empty shells to be filled by others, he with the assistance of his contemporaries designed every detail of a project from the exterior roof tiles to the interior furniture. His wife, (he actually married Margaret Macdonald), her sister Frances Macdonald (who had married Herbert McNaitr) and several of their friends from the Glasgow based Arts and Crafts movement contributed much of the interior design for many of his projects.

In 1913 Mackintosh left the firm of Honeyman, Keppie & Mackintosh where he had been a partner since 1904. After unsuccessfully trying to establish his own practice, he dedicated his time to landscape painting.

The Willow Tea Rooms Commentary

The Willow Tea Rooms in Glasgow is one of the most famous Mackintosh projects. Although it is generally credited to him as a whole, many parts of the interior décor and most of the utensils, including the menu cards, table lined, china, cutlery and much more, was in fact designed by |Margaret and Frances Macdonald and some of their fellow artists from the Glasgow Arts and Crafts Movement. The Willow Tea Rooms were designed for Miss Cranston, they occupy a narrow infill slot on Sauchiehall Street (Scots word, which means alley of willows). The four story building facade sits carefully in its urban context. Its top cornice generally aligns with the four story buildings on each side. The pedestrian and most public levels are distinguished from the more private upper stories with an intermediate cornice, and large central windows of these first two floors contrast with smaller windows in the wall of the upper stories. In contrast, however, to the neighbouring masonry facades, dark and heavily detailed, the Tea Rooms are stuccoed white, and the small paned windows, iron standards and window braces, and ornamental tile inserts give it an elegance and lightness appropriate for its purpose.

The facade is a subtly crafted asymmetric composition. The first two floors have large central windows, although the door is placed to one far side. The second floor is bowed over the first, so the first floor window and door are slightly recessed. The upper two floors have larger windows in a smaller bow positioned above the door, repeating the motif of the second floor but also distinguishing the importance of the door and the circulation system behind it from the rooms.

The ground floor of the building extends back into the block, with a skylit mezzanine level overlooking the ground floor dining. Stairs lead up to rooms overlooking the street at the second, third and fourth floors, with the most important Room de Luxe behind the large bow window.  

"The Room de Luxe, being the most complete and best known of Mackintosh's tea room interiors, is on the first floor overlooking the street. Its white walls, silver painted high-backed chairs, crisp white tablecloths and blue willow-pattern crockery, soft grey carpet, chairs and settees covered in a rich purple, leaded mirror glass, enamels in pastel pinks and mauves, and the famous leaded-glass doorway, combine to create a glittering elegance, widely celebrated."

"Mackintosh and his small group of associates were  responsible for both the decorative scheme and the structure of the building, (Mackintosh taking full responsibility for the structure of the building) which occupies four storeys on a narrow site. The interior consists of various tea rooms, two major dining rooms, a dining gallery, and a timber-panelled billiards room on the top floor."

The Creator's Words, by Mackintosh………………..

"(The artist) must posses technical invention in order to create for himself suitable processes of expression - and above all he requires the aid of invention in order to transform the elements with which nature supplies him - and compose new images from them."

http://www.willowtearooms.co.uk/buchanan.htm

http://www.flickr.com/photos/forget-me-not5275/sets/72157605396828240/

 

 

ART SUNDAY, DO YOU WANT TO KNOW A SECRET??

Art Sunday, Do you want to know a secret??

 

Phoebe Traquair was a truly wonderful Scottish arts and crafts artist, she was multi talented but it is her mural work that I’m looking at today. I may be wrong but I believe her unique murals must be

'one of the best kept secrets of the Scottish Art world,'

not with in Scotland of course but so few people outside of Scotland seem to know who she was or how remarkable her work is.

THE MANSFIELD TRAQUAIR CENTRE; (click on picture to enlarge)

 

 

Phoebe Anna Traquair (1852-1936)

 Phoebe Anna Traquair's place in history is unique. She was the first important professional woman artist of modern Scotland.

To rank as such might be enough to ensure her fame, but Traquair was also a central figure within Scottish Arts and Crafts practice, working prolifically in such diverse fields as embroidery, enamelwork, leather book-cover tooling and, not least, manuscript illumination and mural decoration.

Inspired by a wide range of arts and cultures, she was driven by a quest for ideas and a passion for materials. She considered that the arts should collectively express and celebrate the spiritual depth and wholeness of life. She ignored traditional boundaries of ‘fine’ and ‘applied’ art, and was therefore refused even associate membership of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1900. Only in 1920 was she eventually elected an Honorary Academician.

Born Phoebe Anna Moss, near Dublin, she was inspired from childhood by ‘The Book of Kells’. Following marriage in 1873 to Scots palaeontologist Dr Ramsay Heatley Traquair (1840-1912), she moved with him to Edinburgh. She provided detailed illustrations for his research papers until his retirement in 1906 from the Museum of Science and Art (today the Royal Museum). Such detailed drawing of fossils prepared her for the closeness of manuscript work, but the latter gave new scope for the imagination.

Traquair exhibited her crafts internationally from 1893 and painted the interiors of no fewer than four Edinburgh buildings between 1885 and 1901, including the chapels of the Royal Hospital for Sick Children (1885-1886 and 1896-1898) and the Song School of St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral (1888-1892). The best known is the vast former Catholic Apostolic Church (1893-1901) in East London Street which has been called ‘Edinburgh’s Sistine Chapel’ and was decorated in parallel with her manuscripts of the ‘Sonnets from the Portuguese’ and ‘The House of Life’.

Traquair’s reading of poetry and related work in manuscript illumination was initially inspired by her close friendship with John Miller Gray (1850-94), first curator of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Gray admired the poetry of Garth Wilkinson and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, encouraging Traquair to produce modern manuscripts of their work. In 1887 she wrote to the critic John Ruskin for advice, and received in return the loan of French manuscripts to copy and understand.

From 1890 Traquair leased dedicated studio space in the Dean Studio, a disused church (a gap site since the 1950s) next to Drumsheugh Swimming Baths in Lynedoch Place, where her major manuscripts, including ‘Sonnets from the Portuguese’ and ‘The House of Life’, were illuminated. Her first major multi-page manuscript was of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s ‘In Memoriam’ (1890-1892) for Sir Henry Hardinge Cunynghame. It was immediately followed by ‘Sonnets from the Portuguese’.

While working on her ‘Sonnets’, Traquair also illuminated Robert Browning’s ‘Saul’ (1893-1894), William Morris’s ‘Defence of Guinevere’ and ‘The Song of Solomon’ (both 1897). Her last great manuscripts were of Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s ‘The Blessed Damozel’ (1897-1898), Sir Thomas Browne’s ‘Religio Medici’, Rossetti’s ‘The House of Life’ and Dante’s ‘La Vita Nuova’ (1899-1902). Several of these manuscripts, including ‘Sonnets from the Portuguese’, were published on completion by William Hay of Edinburgh.

In the 1900s Traquair changed direction. She took up enamelling, to be set as jewellery and formal display pieces such as triptyches and caskets. From this time watercolour paintings for reproduction as commercial book illustrations replaced illumination.

 THE WEST WALL OF THE MANSFIELD TRAQUAIR CENTRE,

 (click on picture to enlarge)

 

As I said, she was remarkable in that she produced work in all areas of the arts and crafts movement. From the 1880s to the 1920s she worked in a wide range of media, including easel painting, embroidery, manuscript illumination, book cover tooling, enamelling, as well as mural decoration. She exhibited in Chicago, London, Turin and St Louis in the 1890s and 1900s. The decoration of the Mansfield Place Church helped to confirm this international recognition.

The third daughter of a Dublin physician, Phoebe Anna Moss attended the art school of the Royal Dublin Society and moved to Edinburgh following marriage to the Scottish palaeontologist Ramsay Heatley Traquair (1840-1912). The eldest of their three children, also Ramsay Traquair, became Professor and Director of the School of Architecture at McGill University, Montreal, in 1913.

 

The Mansfield Traquair Centre

 The Mansfield Traquair Centre is a former Catholic Apostolic Church building at Mansfield Place, beside the roundabout at the foot of Broughton Street.

It is now the national headquarters of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations.The church was designed by Sir Robert Rowand Anderson and built between 1873 and 1885.  It has stained glass by  Ballantine but is best known for its large murals painted in the 1890s by Phoebe Anna Traquair.

The Catholic Apostolic Church was established in 1835, set up under apostolic rule, anticipating the imminent Second Coming of Christ.  The church gradually became extinct during the 20th century. Its last priest died in 1971. The Mansfield Traquair Trust was established in 1993 to preserve the  Mansfield Traquair church and its murals. Renovation of the building was completed in 2002 and the restoration of the murals was completed in 2005. The Friends of the Mansfield Traquair Centre provide tours of the building and its murals, once a month on Sunday afternoons, throughout the year, and more frequently during the Edinburgh Festival each August.

 

(click on picture to enlarge)About the Architect

 The Catholic Apostolic Church in Edinburgh was the first of a series of major commissions in the 1870s that were to transform Robert Rowand Anderson's career. The Catholic Apostolic Church was an important step in Anderson's career and it remained the most ambitious of his churches.

Anderson left the office of George Gilbert Scott in 1859 and set up his own practice in Edinburgh in 1860. During the 1860s his main work was small churches in the 'first pointed' style that is characteristic of Scott's former assistants. By 1880 (after the Catholic Apostolic Church) his practice was designing the most prestigious public and private buildings in Scotland: the University of Edinburgh Medical School and the McEwan Hall, The Scottish National Portrait Gallery, and Mount Stuart for the Marquess of Bute. These buildings demonstrate two notable qualities in Anderson's work: his ability to revive any of a variety of historical styles intelligently and his preference for massive, imposing forms.

THE MURAL IN THE SOUTH CHAPEL

 

And that my friends is my Art Sunday Secret, the secret of Phoebe Traquair's little known murals.