The Textured World of Ingres

2nd August

  The textures and details of our homes remain such a key part of our lives.  It’s what often draws us towards one another as we recognise a shared love of a certain style be it classical or rustic, and each create our own nurturing space.   Textures can offer comfort and reassurance whilst objects...

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Buddhism, calm, Carl Jung, Circle, Connection, Geometric, Hindu, Mandala, Map, Sanskrit, Square, Symbolism, Universe

The Calming Map of a Mandala…

8th May

This spring, we launched a new table mat and coaster collection inspired by the beauty of the mandala, a symbol of calmness and unity that seems so particularly relevant during these changing times.   In this month’s Journal entry, we explore some of the mandala’s history and how artists and creators have been inspired by...

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BrilliantLittleBrands

1st April

In these challenging times, an exciting venture was launched to turn your purchases into support for our community. We joined up with BrilliantLittleBrands a curated collection of fabulous small businesses, with the commitment to make a 10% donation when customers provided a charity code at the checkout.  In this way, since April 2020 we have...

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Arts & Crafts, Burne-Jones, Industrial Revolution, Jane Burden, John Ruskin, Rossetti, William Morris

William Morris

24th September

As many young students return back to Oxford for the start of their new academic year – or arrive for the first time – we take a look at one artist who also took the same path… William Morris (1834-1896) is widely known as a multi talented figure who was not only a British textile...

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Ballpoint pen, Biro, Bleu-Topique, blue, drawings, Faces, Johan van Mullem, Musee D'Art Classique de Mougins, Portraits, Rembrandt

Interview: Johan van Mullem

25th May

We had the pleasure to interview Belgian artist, Johan Van Mullem during his recent exhibition REVERENCE in London, following his successful exhibition Bleu-Topique at the Musee d’Art Classique de Mougins in France. Driven by emotion and human gesture, Johan van Mullem’s art captures traces of ethereal portraits which radiate through earthly tones. Every face is...

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Celebrating Spring Blooms in Art

16th April

Flowers in their infinite varieties have been used to convey meaning in art for centuries. One of the most celebrated Dutch flower painters of the early 17th Century, Jan Breughel the Elder, was also one of the first artists to create still life paintings where flowers were the primary and sole subject. This trend for...

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camera obscura, Cezanne, French Salon, Golden Ratio, Gustave Courbet, Leonardo da Vinci, modern art, Mont Sainte-Victoire and Chateau Noir, Rilke, Salon d'Automne, The Bathers, Theory of Colours

Cézanne’s Sixteen Shades of Blue

13th March

In 1907, the poet and novelist Rainer Maria Rilke travelled to France and visited the Salon d’Automne, an annual art exhibition in Paris, where he saw the work of Cézanne, a year after the death of the artist. Rilke wrote a series of letters to his wife, the sculptor Clara Westhoff, reflecting on the paintings of...

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Canvas, Cirrus, Clouds, Cumulus, JMW Turner, John Constable, John Ruskin, Luke Howard, Royal Academy, Stratus, Tacita Dean, Tate, Thomas Gainsborough

Clouds, a Canvas in the Sky

19th January

  Clouds are mysterious and ephemeral aerosols, each one a visible mass of condensed watery vapour. It was the amateur British meteorologist, Luke Howard, who created the name clouds that became universally adopted, so becoming known as the father of meteorology.  His curiosity was born from daily musings on the different shapes of clouds he...

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