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London Art Fair: Edit in collaboration with Artsy. January 2021
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I am absolutely pleased as punch, over the moon, excited, delighted, in awe and completely jealous (if I am honest) to have commissioned this stunning dyptch from @sophie_carter_artist for an absolutely beautiful interior design project by @yokokloedendesign. The scheme has blush pinks, tobacco tones and some gorgeous fluffy fabrics which we sent to Sophie who nailed it from the first second I saw WIP. I only work with the best. It makes my job easier and delivers a superb result for my clients who in this case were the interior designer AND the proud new owner of this stunning work. Work sourced from @surfaceica.
🎉🎉 GIVEAWAY TIME 🎉🎉
I love this snap as it sums up perfectly the process of creating a gallery wall with a client - it is an entirely creative collaborative process. It is the sort of thing you sit around and chat about in your bare feet or socks. It is the sort of thing that emerges, that gets created, that is good fun and extremely satisfying once it is cracked. This is the before shot of the wall. We took this all down and planned it all out on the floor (see photo 2) The client is bravely hanging it all as we speak (one of the few people I know who has a man handy enough 😂) and I can’t wait to see the finished result. A gallery wall consultation costs £150 for two hours. We normally do one wall and rejig several other spaces in the house during the time.
One of the perks of my job is having the opportunity to repurpose old things in new ways. So when my lovely client showed me these recently inherited plates and said she loved them but didn’t see herself using them - it was a no brainer for me to suggest she put them on the wall in this fab colour popped pantry. Now she can gaze and reminisce at these while scrubbing football boots. Art IS emotional and sometimes the quietest and most out of place place you can hang sentimental things makes living with them very special indeed. This wall was one of four spaces we curated in a two hour session costing £150. 🧡💛🧡💛
Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. It is so lovely to hear that this client loved the process as much as the finished result. So what is that process? Well I come and have a look, get to know you, have a chat, often a laugh and I ask you what YOU want to feel in the space. I then charge £150 for 10 ideas. Often I crack it in the first batch and if I don’t I keep sending you ideas until I do. Then we chat about framers and which one is best suited to the project, then I send you framing choices and quotes. I arrange delivery to and from the framers and arrange hanging as well. I generally attend during hanging just to make sure our vision is achieved. The hanger I work with often manages to make it look even better than I dared imagine possible. I love my job. But I don’t really see it as work - more of a juicy, creative completely fulfilling process that I am completely blessed to do. The fact that it brings joy to other people makes me very very happy indeed. 🙏☺️☺️🤗
I’ve been working on a project for a client who needs a cool painting. And I absolutely cannot get this one out of my head. I am ObSessed. Is it the mysterious subject? The apparently almost monochrome FEELING of the painting in contrast with the actual colour of the work? The silky inky black of the background or those wonderful tones of khaki green against the celadon? Is it the straightness of the back? The fact that, in all likelihood the person under the bag (if it is even a bag) can see something? And what can they see? What is the purpose of them seeing? Or can they not see something? And what is the purpose of them not seeing? Do I love this painting because it is about seeing and looking and realising that even when we think we can see, we often can’t. I spent much of my marriage with my head metaphorically covered with a paper bag. Some of it was self imposed, some of it was imposed and some of it was so sub consciously imposed I still sometimes reel with shock at what I was able turn a blind eye to, to blind myself to. Maybe I love this painting because this person is standing ready to have the bag removed. It is the promise of seeing, of all being revealed. It is the promise of truth. Maybe we all walk round with our heads in the sand, with our paper bags on our heads. Maybe we all have the potential to stand tall and be just moments away from everything being revealed if only we can find a way to take the cover off our eyes.
I admit it. Kate Moss is my absolute favourite celebrity art photo crush. If you would like Kate to wink at you when you walk in the house or just before you go to sleep at night then go over to @surfaceica for all the details! I can imagine this on a number of my client’s walls ;) Oops - the winks are catching!
Happy Mother’s Day to me, my mother and every mother out there. This is the hardest job I have ever done that’s for sure. And not helped by the fact that it is the one I have had the least training for. Why couldn’t I have done an A level in parenting or a degree in ‘negotiating with teenagers’. (Maybe someone realised that even with three years of training they will still have the upper hand and drive you completely bonkers so you might as well study something you love and live in blissful ignorance for a few more years?) I find it amazing, looking back, what little preparation and pretty much bugger all support I got as a mother when it came down to it. The sheer physicality of pushing out my babies, the subsequent devastating physical effects on my body and then the overwhelming GUILT of feeling like I was constantly failing my three babies under four years old. And it has never left me - that feeling of failure, of not being good enough, not ‘fun’ enough, not ‘calm’ enough, not ‘perfect’ enough, not ‘present’ enough, not ‘engaged’ enough, not ‘not distracted’ enough, not ‘not spread too thin’ enough, not ‘not shouty’ enough, not ‘homely’ enough, not ‘patient’ enough, not ‘crafty’ enough, not ‘home cooked’ enough, not ‘relaxed’ enough, not ‘quiet’ enough, not ‘unopinionated’ enough, not ‘not worried’ enough, not ‘worried’ enough. Well I say FUCK THAT to that guilt (do father’s feel the same - I somehow doubt it but am willing to be challenged on this) and today I urge you to celebrate that you ARE a good mother. A good enough mother. Not a perfect mother but one who does her best. Mostly. You try doing something to the best of your ability for 18 years - thats 6570 days straight. Everyone is allowed some off days. Hell, some days OFF. You are a good mother. You are a good mother. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat again. Keep repeating.
Lovely to be the lead image in an article by @mad_about_the_house and @nicolegraystylist in this week’s Mail on Sunday @youmagazine.
If you buy art through me I make sure (for free) that the downstream bit works too which can make all the difference to how the work looks on the wall. Do not underestimate this. I advise (for free) on which framer you could use and then once we have selected them I work with that framer to select the right frame for the space. I lean heavily on their expertise but it is very much a collaborative process. Committed followers will spot a print from this same artist is framed in a different colour for a different client - because one size does not fit all and different interiors need different approaches. Once the works are framed, I arrange delivery and for me and my hanger to attend (you pay the hanger but my time is not charged) and we plan the hang together. I normally then bugger off and let the hanger work in peace without me breathing down his neck. Here are some shots resulting from that process that I was sent yesterday by the hanger. Absolutely breath taking. 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
This has been a gorgeous but challenging project to work on from start to finish. The house is one of the most beautiful spaces I have worked with (@tracearchitects and @yamstudios) but it was so beautifully consistent it meant that it was unforgiving for any artwork that didn’t match its wonderfully high bar. Any silliness, frivolity or touch of trite was immediately shown up for what it was and so the gauntlet was laid down for art that complemented the interior without detracting from it. These two gorgeous collage works added a touch of colour whilst paying homage to the earthy tones and their curved and linear forms connected them to the space and the central light feature in particular. I was back at this house yesterday hanging some work and I have to say that it really does make my heart skip a beat every time I am there. So grateful for the best job in the world.
This lithograph by @carolinewalkerartist @enitharmon.editions looks gorgeous installed this morning in Spring’s morning light. The clients have a smart Clapham flat and it looked amazing with all their cool plants on the other side of the room. I love 💕.
Impartial Fine Art Advice
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