A Winter Landscape

Beautiful, aren't they? 

By artist, Martin Beek...

The winter landscapes began in late October. They are often based around Ipsden or Oxfordshire locations, most were drawn in or near to my car on the way to work. They are often bleak open places, influenced by Graham Sutherland's etchings or Rembrandt's small landscapes, they are bisected by the page divide...

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Kids on the Block

Axel Void

ROA

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The Riff-Raff, The Proletariat and The Hoi Polloi

I draw the people around me in the subway and the bus back from school... (Iririv)

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Pantheon-esque

Perfection in the Sir John Soane Museum...

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Sten and Lex

Aren't these fantastic? The extraordinary work of Italian Street artists based in Rome - StenandLex...

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Gleaming

A client, of British interior designer Harriet Anstruther, once said this about her work:

She knows the importance of the quality of small things; a handle on a door, a switch on a wall. The parts of an interior that we touch every day are the parts we see every day and remind us if we love or hate where we are, if it works or grates. It shows attention to detail, a love of what she does and a wish for the client to continue to love their home long after she has torn up the snagging list and gone home."

Here is Anstruther's 1840's London town house, which she resurrected from shambles to sanctuary...

See and read more here

Chandler House

Popping into Chandler house is like receiving a generous infusion of instant happy-meds. It is akin to walking into a beautifully curated English home - the perfect mix of unpretentious elegance, eccentricity and whimsy. In fact, in a bout of languor, all one desires is to curl up in one of the swallowable armchairs with the Brothers Karamazov. Paintings stand out against the inky blue walls and are surrounded by a plethora of antiques and collectibles from Dominic Touwen, plus colanders, plates, scatter cushions, furniture and not to mention an assortment of ceramic phrenology heads, all bedecked from... well, head to oesophagus, by the talented pen of artist, Michael Chandler in doodles of exquisite detail. Everything is for sale, which is practically sacrilege, should one disturb the perfection that is every room...

Visit the website here (Chandler House, 53 Church Street, Cape Town)
Photos by Philippa Berrington-Blew

The Orangerie

Via here (Photograph by Sebastian Schutyser)

A Small Hibernation

The main areas of the Rijksmuseum have been under extensive renovation and closed to the public for a decade. Reported to have cost over €300million, I am certain the much anticipated April-13 opening has the whole of Europe (let alone Amsterdam) atwitter...

Reading Room

Atrium

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The Anne Wagner Book of Friendship

Anne Wagner’s friendship chronicle contains entries made between 1795 and 1834. The handcrafted cover includes its creator’s name and the book’s title: Memorials of Friendship. So beautiful - a fine example of the sweet sentimentality that is Victorian scrap-booking...

Willow-Grove, Oct. 6th, 1795. Madonna del Altana (artist)

Collages

Consecrated to Anteros by Carmenta

Friendship is the Joy of Reason

Alpha & Omega! (Elizabeth, Willow-Grove, August 16th, 1795) 

The striken Deer will weep

Mrs. A. Hemans

Memorials of Friendship. (cover page)

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Charming

The whimsical sketches of French artist and poet, LP Promenheur...

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