Rowley Gallery Blog
This is the view from John Lewis’s Olympic gift shop at Westfield Stratford. Here you can buy all kinds of sponsored trinkets and souvenirs for London 2012, but thankfully this view is so far logo free. Here are the Olympic Stadium, the Aquatic Centre, the Water Polo Arena and the Orbit, Anish Kapoor’s sculptural look-out tower. Continue reading “Orbit”
Meghalaya's Living Bridges – Incredible India by dm_50ac6337ca078
In North-East India, in The Land Of Clouds, people have found an ingenious natural solution to the challenge of crossing a torrential flood river. Conventional bridges would be swept away, so they have devised a kind of slow organic joinery.
I sometimes describe Rowley Gallery picture-frames as slow frames, but 500 years to build a bridge makes them seem instant!
The Basilica of San Francesco in Arrezo, Tuscany, a late medieval church dedicated to St Francis of Assisi. In the chancel, the Cappella Maggiore, is one of the masterpieces of the Italian Early Renaissance. The walls are covered with a sequence of frescoes by Piero della Francesca depicting episodes from The Legend of The True Cross. Behind the suspended crucifix, at the lower right of the window is The Vision of Constantine, an image which has haunted Patti Smith for years. Continue reading “Constantine’s Dream”
At first sight this year’s Serpentine Gallery Pavilion resembles a giant table on the lawn with fairy lights hung beneath it. It was designed by architects Herzog & de Meuron and artist Ai Weiwei, the same team that created the National Stadium, aka the Bird’s Nest, for the Beijing Olympics. Continue reading “Serpentine Gallery Pavilion”
I just saw this sweet video and couldn’t resist it for Frames of Reference. I can remember building stuff and wishing for an audience too. It’s instinctive. It’s what boys do. But this little boy is a prodigy.
Three carved wooden panels made by Sir Frank Brangwyn for the facade of The Rowley Gallery in 1933 were destroyed in a fire last week at Chilford Hall. They had been part of The Rowley Gallery showroom until 1941, when the premises were hit by an incendiary bomb during WW2, but amazingly they survived that blaze only to be lost to arsonists 71 years later. Continue reading “Brangwyn’s Frieze No More”
I’d been curious about the Swan Hotel at Radcot for years, ever since we framed this memorable painting. In fact it doesn’t look much like its portrait at all, but it’s a good place to start from and a welcome spot for a riverside drink upon the return. This walk was inspired by a chance meeting two years ago at Jazmin Velasco’s house with Ron Emmons, author of Walks Along The Thames Path. I arrived just as they were about set off on the Richmond walk. In his description of this Radcot & Kelmscot walk, Ron says ‘This is a walk for when you really want to get away from it all’. Though there’s no escaping the jubiquitous Union Jack these days. Continue reading “Radcot & Kelmscot”
Our neighbours down the road at Kensington Palace just had a makeover. They recently reopened their doors to visitors after months of redecorating. The entrance hall is entrancing. It features a luminous lace light sculpture adorned with Swarovski crystals, in homage to the Royal Dress Collection. It’s tree-like structure appears to be related to the new concourse canopy at King’s Cross. Trees and branches also make an appearance in other rooms. Look out for the bottle-tree and the dolls tree-houses. Here below are more photographs from the palace. Continue reading “Kensington Palace”
King’s Cross station has a new concourse, enclosed by a beautiful, sculptural roof which grows from a steel trunk and spreads into a tree-like canopy of intersecting branches. They meet the ground along the semi-circular perimeter, which is a continuation of the arc of the Great Northern Hotel, which was in turn shaped by the curve around a bend of the River Fleet. Continue reading “A Walk From King’s Cross (With Labels)”
