Interior Design
Art of Living Well – Antiquity to a Residence Australia
Today our art of living well has evolved since antiquity in Europe to a residence in Australia through a diverse and special mix of peoples and their cultures.
Chinoiserie – Pavilions, Porcelains and Passionate Pursuits
By the eighteenth century in Europe and England all things Chinese had assumed incredible proportions as fashionable society sought to transmit their ideas about the magical land of Cathay through a multiplicity of imagery.
The Culture Concept Circle – You Tube Channel
On our You Tube Channel you will find our mini-documentaries, which provide an insight into the evolution of art, design, music, fashion and style.
The Bed – Sleeping Stylishly in the Chamber of Love
We spend at least one third of our lives in bed. Every culture is steeped in customs superstitions and folklore surrounding this unique piece of furniture. But what about the bedroom? When did the bed gain a room of its own? How was it decorated? Where can we begin to relate its story?
French Country Style – Provence tres chic ‘indiennes’
Among the cargoes brought into the port of Marseilles in Provence during the mid seventeenth century by the Compagnie des Indes Orientales were desirable cotton prints from India. They consisted of dazzling patterns and striking colours, which captured the imagination.
What is an Antique?
An antique is something made in a previous era. However, according to antique dealers, their associations and the tax man, it is not really that simple at all.
Raphael – Weaving Tapestry Magic for the Sistine Chapel
The Raphael Cartoons were made up of a mosaic of hundreds of sheets of paper glued together and then fixed to the wall. Raphael and his assistants would have painted them before they were transported to Brussels to Pietr Van Aelst’s studio, where they would have been cut up into strips for use by the tapestry weavers.
The Rococo Style – Sophisticated and Yet Enchantingly Pretty
The Rococo style was delicately elegant with a distinct preference for asymmetry. It was presided over by France’s King Louis XV’s mistress, Madame du Pompadour, a sophisticated lady of impeccable style.
Australia – Culture in the Colonies
Captain Arthur Phillip laid the foundation stone of Australia’s first government house within four months of sailing into Port Jackson on January 26 1788 with the first fleet. Against a background of a natural environment its indigenous inhabitants had never disturbed, at the time, it was an assertion of culture in the colonies.
Chinese Ceramics – ‘Knowledge Comes from Seeing Much’
Chinese ceramics became known to the wider world from the Tang Dynasty (618- 907) onward; the word ‘China’ eventually became the generic name for porcelain
Tapestry Tales, heavy with meaning and intention
A commission of six tapestries for William Knox D’arcy’s Dining Room at Stanmore Hall in Middlesex illustrates the story of the Holy Grail quest, as told in Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte d’Arthur. They took five years to weave and are considered among the most significant works made during the nineteenth century when romanticism was at its height and they paint a beguiling picture of lovely maidens and dashing knights in a style that was very appealing.
Le Corbusier – The International Style
Swiss born Charles-Edouard Jeanneret (1887-1965) was 29 when he went to Paris. Soon after his arrival he adopted his maternal grandfather’s name, Le Corbusier, as a pseudonym. He changed his persona from Jeanneret the small-town architect to Le Corbusier the world’s next visionary artist. He expressed a view that architecture had lost its way. He was convinced the bold new industrial age dawning required an audacious style of architecture. Who better to design it than himself. “We must start again from zero,” he proclaimed.
Arts & Crafts Movement – William Morris the Art that is Life
In England, during the second half of the nineteenth century, painter, writer, textile designer and social activist William Morris (1834-1896) became the spiritual leader of a revival in arts and crafts that encompassed all the visual arts, including architecture and interiors.
Fashion, is it more than a Frock?
From skinny self sacrificing super models to those demanding the use of ‘real people’, costume accommodates a desire to be noticed. It is the look at me, look at me syndrome, which has been in play for thousands of years. Today it collectively reflects a western society in which privacy has been stripped completely bare. But is fashion about more than a frock?
A ‘Compleat’ Gentleman, more than a leader of style
In London much of the development in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century was in the hands of aristocratic landowners. But were they ‘compleat’ gentlemen?
La Casa di Villa – Dwelling under the Tent of Heaven
The precise location of heaven on earth has never really been established, but it could very well be a villa designed to cultivate the head heart body and soul
Asides
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