Ribbit

Feel the frog love.

Domestic Godess

I won GOLD, oops I mean Leyla won gold for 'her' daffodils ,oh the shame of cheating, I had no idea it would go this far, what the hell was the criteria for marking? height? bloom? colour? Oh well, she was over the moon and did not grass me up bless her.

I keep a little note book for jotting down names of artists/photographers etc Kitty often writes me a list of research she would like me to undertake for her homework assignments, Leyla has seen this so she decided to copy her and so wrote me a list of bits and bobs she wants me to bring home.

It says...Black Bord Chork Paint brash When we were at the Tate she was itching to buy something and found a little blackboard, I realised I had one at work, that is what she is demanding , luckily for me I have found it.

Dries Van Noten V Kurt Jackson

Texture.


Stripes


Colour
I have had this work by Kurt Jackson lurking in my 'in tray' for ages, when I pasted the Dries Van Noten pictures in, I couldn't help but notice the similarities, The rich colours, the layering, the textures, all seem to be interlinked and playing off each other, yet their influences are probably completely different. Jackson spends much of his time working in Cornwall, his work is often on a very large scale with thickly built up layers of paint, often with text scribbled into it. The work is really beautiful and he seems very prolific his recent work can be found at an excellent gallery on Cork St called Messums the web site has a very comprehensive catalogue of his work to look at. I think Van Notens work is sublimely beautiful and a work of art in itself, if only my purse were a little fuller!
All photos here & here & here

Dries Van Noten

Just how wonderfully inspired are these?

and these, such a simple idea but such exquisite execution

Dries Van Noten

The whole show is so exquisite probably his best yet.

Photos here & here & here

Issey Miyake

How beautiful is this?

All photos here & here & here

Mina Perhonen

Just how beautiful is this skirt from Mina Perhonen


I really like this yellow with black and white.

Project Alabama

Project Alabama you can see more of these beautiful clothes here
The detailing is exquisite I love the 'rawness' of their clothes. I have a habit of cutting the hems off my skirts to create this feel, I also like the silhouette of the nipped in waist and the shape of the skirts.



I took this photo last year in our old bedroom, my feet look filthy but I promise you that's how dark I am, also we have no shoes allowed in the house and only bare feet in the bedrooms, so all photos at home will be sans shoes. I had intended to document more of my wardrobe mix, but ran out of light and time, its a bit like photographing your breakfast, I love the idea but I always run out of steam and appear to lack the discipline. I have posted this to encourage myself to do more. Now the wardrobe is upstairs next to a very well lit window it should help. However a small self conscious blip also stopped me, that of the increasing girth around the midriff. I have previously tried hard to keep it under control through exercise, but since giving up the car my gym regime has lapsed really badly. Exercise does not come easily, as I can only do short bursts before my foot goes completely numb (a very old injury of badly torn ligaments across the bridge of the foot) but I did try hard to go 3x a week. I have now joined a gym closer to home, I can walk there and back and then shower at home. I am going to try really hard, as the 'view from here' is getting fat. I did reflect that everyone in my family is overweight, not obese but non of us are slim, and we all struggle with our weight, so I am fighting the genes as well as the flab, oh lucky, lucky, me.

Fog Linen

What a beautiful shop Fog Linen is very much my kind of lifestyle aspiration.


This is me at work! (I wish)
Fog Linen Work Apron and Skirt
While performing the daily chores at home, you may as well scrub in comfort and style. Yumiko Sekine, founder of Fog Linen Work, treasures simplicity and embraces practicality with her iconic fashions for the home. All Fog Linen Work objects are produced in Lithuania where flax has been grown for generations. from selvedge

Yohji Yamamoto

pictures from here

I love that silhouette. Yohji Yamamoto is just a style genius.

Blue circles

A guerrilla shot taken inside here yesterday, I wish I had taken more now because I love the blues in this.

Daffodils

At 6.30am this morning I could be found outside in the garden in my dressing gown digging up daffodils. Why? Last year Leyla asked for £1 to buy some daffodil bulbs from school which she was to plant at home then take back to school for some kind of competition, needless to say they were popped under the sink in a polythene bag and promptly forgotten, until weeks later I found them slimy and rotten. I threw them away and pretended I had planted them in the garden. Well last night we found a letter in her school bag asking for the students to bring in their pot of daffodils! So this morning spade in hand off I went, needless to say all the clumps of daffodils have come up blind except one set, deep in the furthest recess of the garden by the pond, where they were unceremoniously wrenched from their idyll and shoved in a pot to be taken to school, and then poked and prodded by hundreds of grubby school childrens hands. No wonder the other flowers didn't raise their heads, too much sense.

One glimmer of good news though after the freezing of my pond killed one of the frogs we now already have frogs spawn, yeah.

The view from here pt 2

I also went to a great exhibition of watercolour paintings at the Bankside Gallery, which is also right next to the Tate. Sadly their website is so poor its not really worth looking at, but if you are ever in the area check out the gallery, I finally blew the budget in a fantastic book shop called Marcus Campbell art books. It is a wonderful shop to spend an hour in, full of old catalogues, and secondhand books. I purchased 3 huge Phillips photography auction catalogues and a beautiful Ben Nicholson monograph of recent paintings on paper.

Arturo Di Stefano

And then I went to Purdy Hicks which is just round the back of The Tate Modern. A wonderful space in an old Victorian warehouse, the current exhibition was Arturo Di Stefano which was good especially some of his courtyards and interiors. I also got the catalogues of some of the artists I had seen on their website, the staff are really helpful, I think Mr Gagosian should send his staff here to see how to treat the public.

Man Ray

Second exhibition of the day was Duchamp Man Ray Picabia This really was fantastic, so much to see it was almost too much for one visit, so I shall return later. The person who put this together deserves so much praise as the range and diversity of work was amazing and yet very cohesive.The photo above by Man Ray is one of my favourites of all time, there was a whole room of fantastic photograms which got me wishing to spend a day back in the dark room playing around like I used too. You can read a less gushing review here

Juan Munoz

First off was this great retrospective of Spanish artist Juan Munoz, I loved it, very esoteric and witty, with some very beautiful drawings.

The view from here

Today I took 42 girls to The Tate Modern. All school trips come with a lot of stress as well as a lot of pleasure. I like the fact they love a day out but dread anything happening to any of them. The upside is I get to have a look around too and I managed to squeeze a lot in. The view is from the balcony in the members room where I ate my lunch and what a beautiful day it was. I must confess that after 20+ years of living here, I still have not been into St Paul's, shame on me!

From Russia

A wonderful show with rather a lot to see. It had lots of French Impressionism as well as various Russians including Kandinsky and Malevich. The best part for me was the Early Russian painters including the one above of Paris at night by Konstantin Korovin.

Simply Breakfast

I love the Simply Breakfast blog. This photograph is of Leyla's favourite breakfast over half term, mozzarella on French bread with cherry tomato's. It's not until you do this yourself that you realise what discipline it takes not to a) not eat the food before you take the photograph ( or even place it on the plate) and b) prepare something different everyday. I am very predictable every morning I have muesli with banana during the week and at the weekends French stick with jam. So I take my hat off to anyone who can come up with such a huge variety of delicious breakfasts. Never look at this blog if your even slightly hungry!

Laduree

Two small cherry macarons, delicious.

Roman Signer

We also went to see Roman Signer at Hauser & Wirth
What a beautiful space.

Leyla loved it

Joe Goode

This show was just fantastic, the images are really huge and layered with a thick gold encrusted impasto, so much better than the images on the net.

Peter Doig

I had very mixed feelings towards this exhibition, the early work is very powerful and really pulls you in but his most recent work for me is very weak, lazy and lack lustre, especially in comparison to other tropical island residents such as Gaugin. But it was worth a visit and I always love seeing painting on this scale.