Daily Art : "Ryder and Amies" in Cambridge

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“Ryder & Amies” by Paul Margiotta is one of a series of paintings of shop fronts on Kings Parade – the famous street opposite Kings College in Cambridge. Margiotta is based in Cambridge and has worked as magazine and book illustrator, medical and scientific illustrator, art director, graphic artist and cartoonist in the past.

Louis Vuitton at Wimpole Hall!

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My tour of English Stately homes continues, with the latest being Wimpole Hall near Cambridge. It is a stunning mansion dating back to 1640 and as usual had a succession of beautiful rooms, but what I found fascinating was the basement. The below stairs offered a glimpse of the labor required to run such great houses. I could imagine the hustle and bustle downstairs with staff scurrying around the corridors, with the senior staff directing from their offices - the Housekeeper’s room and the Butler’s pantry. Most fascinating of all was the Steward’s Room, where I found a stack of gorgeous Louis Vuitton trunks! These were brought down and looked after by the steward who then loaded these onto waiting carriages.

The trunks look like they have travelled the world. Notice all the different Cunard first class stickers, specially the one at bottom left for the Blue Star Line ship “Avila the Star”. Imagine the stories these trunks would tell if they could only speak. My imagination is running riot at the thought of it!   

Yastik by Rifat Ozbek

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Rifat Ozbek graduated from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in 1974 and had founded his own fashion brand by 1984. His label became very successful in Turkey by the end of the nineties. That is when he decided to express his creativity through cushions. Why cushions you might wonder? He says “The cushion is very important. It is a luxury, a thing of beauty, it might have a memory – someone might have given it; someone might have left it; or it might have come with an armchair.”

His first store Yastik (which means cushion in Turkish) opened in Bodrum and Istanbul five years ago. Now with their shop on 8, Holland Street in London, Ozbek and his partner Erdal Karaman are wowing everyone with their individually handcrafted, limited production cushions. Each cushion is like a work of art with a fusion of sumptuous materials, vibrant colours and delicate embroidery. Even the store looks like an art gallery with stark white shelves lined with cushions.

So what exactly is the secret of these cushions?  The answer lies in how each cushion is designed.  Much thought is given to mixing and matching fabrics. Ozbek chooses from new and antique materials he has collected from his travels all over the world for years. Among these are Anatolian Brazilian flower pattern prints, striped English fabrics, Ottoman silks and African prints. Each cushion is sewn with great care and displays a high level of craftsmanship. Ozbek also adds fragrant dried lavender to the down inside each pillow, so that each time you lean against one of them, you are hit with the fabulously soothing scent which also fills the store.

All images courtesy Yastik by Rifat Ozbek 

Daily Art : Self Portrait by Jo Beer

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The artist Jo Beer lives and works in Cornwall, England. She likes to paint people and capture the little details that make them different from the next person. More of her work can be viewed here.

Food Discovery Friday - Pink Radish!

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Food discovery for today has to be the pink radish, for it is such a contrast to the radish commonly eaten in India. Back home a radish is usually white and extremely pungent, so pungent that it would make your eyes water. They certainly always made mine water and I never liked them. So imagine my surprise when I saw these small pink jewel like vegetables in the radish section. They looked so pretty, I had to try them and I am glad I did, they taste much milder and sweeter than the radishes I am used to.  

As the weather slowly gets warmer, I am beginning to like salads again and salads are the perfect place to put pink radishes. Being so mild, they lose their flavor on cooking, so they are best enjoyed raw and combine very well with most types of salads – you can toss some with mixed leaves to create a pop of pink or mix them with potatoes to make a Russian style salad, they also go well with cucumber and apples.

However, the recipe that I really like combines them with oranges. It makes for a very colorful salad with the zingy citrus flavor a perfect partner to the peppery radishes. Adding Parsley enhances the sharp citrus theme of this salad and the green looks gorgeous next to the pinks and oranges. I like to call this my Vitamin C salad, as all the ingredients are rich in this Vitamin; in fact, Parsley contains more Vitamin C than oranges!  

Here's the recipe. It serves two people. 

10-12 Pink Radishes

1 Large Orange

Handful of chopped Parsley

Juice of half a Lemon (for the dressing)

Slice the radishes thinly in round disks. Peel the Orange and remove skins and seeds from the slices, chop these in half. Now just combine these with the Parsley and Lemon juice. And you're done! 

My vitamin C salad sitting on the window sill and matching perfectly with a Cherry tree in bloom.  

No I do not have an in-house stylist, it's just a happy coincidence.Thank you Nature!

      

Want to share my breakfast?

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Just wanted to share images of my simple breakfast.  It’s just tomato, lettuce and mayonnaise sandwiches, you cannot get any basic than that. But sitting by the window, with the Sun shining down on my plate and working its magic, even the simple meal appeared special.

 



Celebrity Home - Will and Jada Pinkett Smith

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I have been touring English Stately homes recently. Wandering around the sumptuous rooms and enormous gilded galleries makes one wonder - what exactly did the common folk think about the grand owners of these houses? Living in small communities where they were the richest and most powerful, their immediate neighbors usually villagers living in a little village named after the grand house. Did this situation inspire awe in the villagers or contempt for the ostentatious display of wealth?

To find the answer I looked at the elite of today’s society and their homes. The closest in profile to English landed class would be the Hollywood stars of today with their enormous wealth and penchant for displaying it through their houses. A perfect example is the home of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith featured in Architecture Digest. The house is the height of luxury and ostentation, I am even having trouble calling it a house, especially when my own little flat would neatly fit in their hallway (with ample room leftover). But it gives a fair idea of the awe and wonder the stately homes must have inspired in the simple folk. For me it also tells a tale on the shifting nature of celebrity.

The stars commissioned architect Stephen Samuelson to design an adobe-style residence full of free flowing spaces, organic forms, and handcrafted details. The exterior of the house sits comfortably in the landscape and the adobe walls - reminiscent of baked mud huts of Africa, offer protection from the hot Malibu Sun. The interiors designed by Judith Lance are a complete assault on the senses. But what redeems the interiors for me, is that the stars have their personality showing through in every corner. Their love for Indian and African style oozes through all the rooms, in the form of ethnic textiles and prints, rough-hewn wooden sculptures and warm earthen colors.

 

The house’s massive front door was salvaged from a fort in northern India



The pair of vintage resin tusks flank the carved wooden columns and the lanterns at left are Moroccan.










Rustic reclaimed timber complements the nature inspired furniture,
notice the Sitar by the window and the Indian Haveli door

 



The iron four-poster in Willow’s bedroom is draped with a canopy of patterned silk

The private terrace off the master suite 



All images via Architectural Digest

Graham and Green Goa Villa

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Look what I found! A 150 year old traditional Portuguese house lovingly restored and furnished to a high standard by none other than Graham and Green. In their own words, “The Graham family have a strong love of spicy colour & eclectic Indian style. Paired down chic with a touch of Bollywood sums up the flavour of this exotic holiday let."

If that is not irresistible enough, Casa Tota is situated in the village of Assagao, one of the most sought after villages in the Bardez province of North Goa. The house is entered through a portico shaded by deep overhangs and has a central courtyard with a kitchen and decorative water feature. The bedrooms have colonial four-poster beds and comfy armchairs and the back veranda opens onto a lush lawn and garden. Graham and Green’s have achieved a simple but stylish mix of tranquil calm and colonial cool. When I look at these pictures it makes me want to take off my shoes, and let my bare feet touch the cool terracotta floors. I know exactly where I’m going for my next holiday, if you feel the same visit here. 

All images courtesy Graham and Green 

Apethorpe Hall

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As part of my course at the University, I recently visited Apethorpe Hall in Northamptonshire. A Grade I listed building of exceptional importance which is currently undergoing renovation. Dating from the 15^th century the stately home has entertained Tudor and Stuart royalty, notably Elizabeth I and James I. The house contains one of the last remaining Jacobean interiors in England.

The estate is accessed through the village of Apethorpe, a quaint little village of thatch roofed cottages which is England at it’s very best. 

It was a surprisingly hot day for this time of the year and beautiful spring flowers were in bloom everywhere. We decided to walk through the gardens first which comprise of seven acres of meandering pathways leading through archways into formal lawns with topiary and lotus ponds, walled herb gardens, enchanted trees and sweeping meadows.

The gardens form a perfect setting for the breathtakingly grand mansion. Built in the late 15^th century for Sir Guy Wolfston, who served as constable of the nearby royal castle at Fotheringey, Esquire of the body to Edward IV and sheriff as well as MP for Northamptonshire. In 1551, Sir Walter Mildmay who was to become Chancellor of the Exchequer acquired the property. He rebuilt the South Range to provide the state rooms where Queen Elizabeth I was entertained in 1566. Sir Francis Fane who married Mildmay’s  granddaughter, remodeled the state rooms and added a long gallery in fine Jacobean style in 1622-25 at the orders of King James I for his ‘more commodious entertainment and princely recreation’, The king provided Oak trees for the purpose from Rockingham forest. The house was clearly a favorite of the early Stuart Monarchs. There were at least thirteen royal visits between 1566 and 1636 – more than any other house in the county. There was also a hint of a scandal as it is said that it was at Apethorpe that James met George Villiers, his favorite and later to become Duke of Buckingham.

   

Romancing the Roads by Rohit Sharma

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A while ago I came across the artwork series - Romancing the Road by Rohit Sharma, a Delhi based artist. These paintings reminded me of my earlier post about rickshaws in India so much, that I decided to make it part II of a series of posts about Indian transport and art.

Sharma's works focuses on the nuances of everyday life on the roads of Delhi. These paintings depict ubiquitous but easily ignored elements that are found on the roads in this chaotic capital city - auto rickshaws, trucks, taxis and cows. Summing up his inspiration, he says, "Every city has a way of encompassing individuals in its own way. The diversity of the Delhi is spell-binding as there exists landmarks representing the ancient, medieval and modern that gives Delhi a unique identity. The roads that lead on to these landmarks have their own stories to tell."

Cows, often found lounging on roadsides, crossings and parks in Delhi, play an integral part in his works. He has shown them to be at odds with the rapidly changing urban scenario. Rohit uses red in several of his paintings in a conscious effort to draw attention to the road rage evident in Delhi. Portrayed against a background of the Delhi road network, the innocent animals depict a moment of calm contemplation in the angry chaos of the city. In other paintings, he suggests that milk trucks are the modern cows of a metropolis. The depiction of the vehicles with tails, bringing milk into the city is an interesting satirical observation of cultural and technological changes in the city.

Another dominant element in Rohit’s paintings is the auto rickshaw, an indispensable part of the commuter’s experience in Delhi. Delhi-ites share a love hate relationship with the unscrupulous auto-wallah (auto rickshaw driver) who needs to be cajoled, pleaded or threatened in order to reach your destination. The painting “The young man with a backpack” makes a subtle comment on this complex give and take and the everyday struggle of a commuter in Delhi.

These works overall, are a reflection of Rohit's intimacy with his city, his love of its various simple aspects from the roads, the cows, the old cars, inviting all of us to look at the obvious with a new understanding and sensibility.

 

All images courtesy Rahul Sharma