Forde Abbey in Somerset – My Building for June

Forde Abbey, in Somerset, is the perfect example of a living evolving building. It has seen much change in the last eight hundred years and is still very much alive as a family residence and an example of our national heritage.  There was probably a building here before the Cistercian monks arrived in the twelfth…

Medieval Wall Paintings in Kelmscott, Oxfordshire.

Last week we visited the village of Kelmscott and found the wall paintings in St George’s Chapel. The church, a modest limestone building from the fourteenth century, standing quietly beside the Thames meadows is one of the most atmospheric small churches in the county. Its simplicity is part of its charm: a building that has…

The Istanbul Modern

Istanbul is a city we have been meaning to visit for years and we finally arrived a few days ago. But what to write about. The architecture of the old city is amazing from the Byzantine Hagia Sofia to the seventeenth century Blue Mosque. But I have chosen the Museum of Modern Art a few…

Happy Christmas from White Box Art

Not quite Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer, but nevertheless my Christmas painting for this year. I have always wandered how things of great beauty can become so commercial and, dare I say tacky. And this poor beast has suffered this fate over the years.  Sir Edward Landseer already had a reputation for painting and sculpture…

Happy Christmas from White Box Art

Not quite Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer, but nevertheless my Christmas painting for this year. I have always wandered how things of great beauty can become so commercial and, dare I say tacky. And this poor beast has suffered this fate over the years.  Sir Edward Landseer already had a reputation for painting and sculpture…