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Jan 3

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January blues? Dream of the summer

There is only one way to get through these cold winter days, bleak and grey as it was in London today. Either book a summer holiday, or dream of one. Or better still, create summer in your home. Christmas is over, New Year is done. What else do we have to look forward to? With this rather depressing thought in mind, I went about stimulating each of my senses with the promise of a forthcoming 2012 summer.

Beloved Cappuccino... this one in Mallorca's Port d'Andratx

Ears: on the CD player, I played the albums of Cappuccino, the ultimate in Buddah-bar cool, emanating from the chic Mallorcan coffee chain, its music reminding me of long evenings spent under the stars in the Marbella version of the cafe chain, cicadas chirping and the warm mediterranean waves lapping upon the sandy shore as I drank wine and ate almond tart. The second and third senses crying out for satisfaction are smell and taste, and what could be better now than to put away the spicy Christmas chutneys and dried up cold meats, and open a good old Spanish cook book. Entering my third day of a Spanish festival of cooking, today it was Andalucian spiced stuffed aubergines, patatas bravas and a good rioja, the summer smells of cooking garlic and a spiced tomato bravas sauce pervading the cold winter air of my flat.

Spanish cooking: Trout stuffed with serrano ham, with chorizo chickpeas and andaluz spinach

Fourthly and all importantly: sight. It’s my summery paintings which get an airing now. Marbella – the town’s long sandy beach, lined with cafes and unusual art deco architecture, the town supported by the stunning backcloth of its Sierra landscape, its buzzing Paseo Martimo reflected into a wide, sparkling expanse of mediterranean sea. On the beach, Henry Moore inspired sculptures soak up the warm rays of an all-encompassing joyful sun, banishing thoughts of winter and reminding all concerned of the joie de vivre of summer.

 

El Faro de Marbella (with Sunbathing Henry Moore's) (oil on canvas, 2010 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown)

Over the Mediterranean, my mind is racing to Tuscany, and my painting Tuscany Wharf captures the essence of that place I love. Hills rolling elegantly into one another, lush green rolling landscapes broken up by perfectly lined up grape vines and bales of hay, while from beyond the windy road interspersed within the valleys, the glorious towers of San Gimignano emerge, a medieval spectacle, one tower after another, climbing in an apparent ascendancy to heaven itself. And as if to remind me in my daydream of summer of the bleak reality of the English landscape around me, a slice of northern industrial England cuts through Tuscany’s rolling hills, cypress trees replaced with chimneys, hills with terraces, and roses with barbed wire, the polluting plumes emitted by factory chimneys managing to escape, pouring out into the previously clear turquoise Tuscan sky.

Tuscany Wharf (15km to San Gimignano) (oil on canvas, 2010 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown)

Back to Spain for the evening, and as the sun sets over a peachy bellini-tinted sea, a postcard floats in the air recollecting memories of a Spanish summer holiday spent indulging in thirst-quenching sangria, ice cold San Miguel, and an unctuous paella, while the evenings are spent whisked away by the rhythmic hypnosis of a flamenco dancer’s wailing cries, or the swish, ballerina movement of the Toreador’s vivid red cape.

Souvenir of Spain (oil on canvas, 2010 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown)

Ahh to dream of the Summer. Check out more of my paintings at my main site www.delacy-brown.com. In the meantime, I’m off to dream of summer…and look for cheap holidays online!

Postscript: Today WordPress included my blog in Freshly Pressed! Thank you so much WordPress and for all those who have previously and subsequently supported my blog and posted comments. Your support means so much. Please come back for more artistic jinks at The Daily Norm!

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2005-2011. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Jan 2

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Happy New Year from the Daily Norm!

It’s been yet another bank holiday here in the UK, and so once again the Daily Norm has shut up shop for the festive season along with much of this strangely quiet city of London. However as the city’s working residents brush off their suits and iron their shirts in readyness for the first difficult day back to work tomorrow, the Daily Norm is firing up its production line just in time to wish you all a brief Happy New Year! 2012 – who would have thought it? The Millennium celebrations only feel like a couple of years ago to me. However this year, 2012 promises big things, for London in particular, as the Olympics hit our shores.  And if the NYE fireworks in London were anything to go by, London will be a faultless and fantastic host of the big games.

I went into central London to see the fireworks live for the first time this NYE, and I have to say, while they may be stunning to watch on the TV, in person they are utterly exceptional. We had been enjoying an excellent dinner at the nearby Boyd’s Brasserie (dripping in art deco marble-clad elegance) and upon exiting found ourselves, fortuitously, in a cordoned off viewing area slap bang next to the Hungerford Bridge with a perfect view of the London Eye. This was fortuitous indeed, as the bulk of the 250,000 people crowd had arrived in the middle of the day to get a good viewing spot. But for us, only a few minutes wait were required before Big Ben started it’s notorious toll and the final countdown lead to an explosion of spectacular magnitude from both the Eye, and Big Ben itself.

What followed were 11 minutes and 15 seconds of surely unsurpassed breathtaking brilliance, a display which sent vibrations all around and quivers down my spine. What a way to start the new year! And stood amidst that crowd of similarly awed spectators, all happily revelling in the party atmosphere, I felt proud to be a Londoner, resident of a city which is not all about riots, or gang murders on Oxford Street, but which is filled with decent well-intentioned people who celebrate the good things in life. It’s a spirit which I anticipate will ride high throughout 2012, when not only the olympics come to town, but we will also celebrate the Queen’s diamond jubilee. Here’s for a good one! I leave you with some of my photos of the fireworks. Check back tomorrow for my look at some of the amazing art expected to come our way in 2012. Happy New Year!

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Dec 31

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2011: My year in photos

It’s the last day of 2011, and for my second review of the year that’s almost behind us, I’ve looked back on all the photos I’ve taken this year and selected a few of my favourites. In this way, I can share with you my year. It’s been a pretty good year for me in some ways – trips to Paris, Mallorca, Madrid and Marbella as well as Liverpool and Cornwall in England. All made for some inspirational scenes which begged to be captured on my camera. But so to does home continue to inspire, the autumnal glow of nearby Clapham Common and Richmond Park offering stimulating riches with which the lens so easily engages. So please enjoy the photos I have set out and in the meantime I trust that all the readers of The Daily Norm will enjoy a superb New Year’s Eve and have a very prosperous 2012. My little online paper has only been running a short while, but I am truly appreciative of all the support garnered so far. Please continue to drop in on my Norm-world in 2012 and help to spread all things artistic, aesthetic and beautiful around the globe. Happy New Year!

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2005-2011. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Dec 30

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2011 – The Daily Norm’s top five (and floppy five) exhibitions of the year

When looking back on any year, it’s very easy to concentrate on what a rubbish year it’s been. And this year is no exception, what with economic gloom, a projected double-dip recession, euro-zone gloom, riots and unemployment gloom. Lot’s of gloom basically. But for that reason alone, I, ever the optimist, try to look back on the highlights of the year. And these tend to consist of two main categories – holidays (of which, sadly, there are not enough to fill a review such as this) and art exhibitions (of which there have been plenty). I am lucky enough to have attended the lion’s share of the exhibitions which London, and further afield, had to offer in 2011, and therefore, in a season when all the papers seem to be doing “roundups” of the year, I thought I’d share my thoughts on the best (and worst) exhibitions I’ve seen this year.

No.5 | Toulouse-Lautrec and Jane Avril: Beyond the Moulin Rouge – Courtauld Institute of Art, London

Jane Avril in the Entrance to the Moulin Rouge, c.1892 © The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London

This small exhibition at London’s superb Courtauld Institute at Somerset House was no less brilliant by virtue of its size. Taking up space in only two of the Courtauld’s many galleries, the show was an intimate but atmospheric examination of the Absinthe-tinted shadowy underworld of the Paris cabaret-scene so emblematically captured in the works of post-impressionist master, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. It is thanks to him that seminal movie moments such as Baz Luhrman’s Moulin Rouge have been able to capture the essence of 1890’s debauched Pigalle social scene, filled with wonderful personalities such as La Goulue (the Glutton), Grille d’Egout (Sewer-grate) and Nini les-Pattes-en-l’air (Nini legs-aloft) as well as other characterful prostitutes, drunks and dancers. One such dancer who became synonymous with the Paris dancehall spectacle was Jane Avril, one of the stars of the Moulin Rouge, who undoubtedly played the role of muse to Lautrec’s portrayals of that same infamous nightclub. Such was her prominence in his work that her flame-red hair and exotic dance moves became symbols of the Moulin Rouge spectacle, as her fame was assured by a series of dazzlingly inventive posters in which she was the central attraction. However, her influence on Lautrec went further, and this exhibition features a number of stirring, more emotional portraits of Jane Avril which show the dancer off the stage, in private moments of introspection.

At the Moulin Rouge, 1892-95 © The Art Institute of Chicago

Such was the importance of this artistic coupling between aristocratic Lautrec and courtesan-born Avril (née Jeanne Beaudon) that the Courtauld placed the relationship at the centre of its show, including photographs of both the Artist and the dancer, and examination of the peculiar “St. Vitus’ Dance” disease which gave Avril her unique, disjointed dancing style, and an attempt to explore Avril’s persona, both in public and in private. This core objective was explored effectively by the Courtauld, but for me, the real winner of the show was simply the basic exposure it gave to this wonderful atmospheric Parisian world of the 1890s. Therefore for me, the star of the show has to be this piece leant by the Institute of Chicago, At the Moulin Rouge, a scene which perfectly depicts the atmosphere of the dancehall, complete with a self-portrait of Lautrec himself, the emblematic red hair of Avril, and the looming ghostly green face of May Milton, one of the performers, imbued with even more Absinthe-green hallucinogenic mystery than the melancholic daze induced by the green fairy in Manet’s masterpiece, L’Absinthe.

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Dec 19

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Banksy’s Christmas Present to Liverpool

Just a quick one today – the Daily Norm has been blighted by a severe strain of a malignant, violent and all-encompassing virus otherwise known as the common cold, and consequently even the movement of my hands on this keyboard is enough to provoke a series of earth-shattering sneezes which does not make for pleasant results on the Daily Norm’s nice glass desk. Just enough time to reflect upon the new offering by evasive British artist, Banksy, which has been presented to the Walker Gallery in Liverpool as a Christmas present (indefinite loan) to the nation. Banksy, who is of course renowned for his pop-up stencil-effect street art/murals has waded into one of 2011’s hot topics: the Catholic church sex scandal. Called “Cardinal sin”, he offers up a replica of an 18th Century stone bust of a Cardinal, its face sawn off and replaced with a mosaic of small tiles (usually found in a swimming pool, bathroom or kitchen splashback – although not, I suspect, to such effect). The tiles are placed in such a way as replicate the pixellation effect which is commonly used on television news or in the print media to protect the identity of sex crime victims.

Presenting the piece to Liverpool’s Walker Gallery, the ever elusive Banksy, his own identity forever shrouded in mystery, issued a statement which said: “At this time of year it’s easy to forget the true meaning of Christianity – the lies, the corruption, the abuse”. He also stipulated that the work should be placed alongside the Gallery’s period collection which includes works by the likes of  Van Dyke, Poussin and the Pre-Raphaelites.

Cardinal Sin placed in the Walker Gallery

Banksy is renowned for making measured often controversial and political statements with his work. With Cardinal Sin, he reflects on a previously untouched controversy, doing so in an effective, accessible manner. The point he makes is not particularly clever, nor deep or insightful. It does not promote active contemplation in its audience. But nonetheless, his work is an intelligent pun casting further focus (as if any more were needed) on the devastating plight of the many thousands of victims of sexual abuse at the hands of the Catholic church. The work should not be seen as an indiscriminate attack on the Catholic church (despite the impression give by Banksy’s statement) but rather an interesting piece of contemporary art which, unlike so much work filling art galleries these days, has a valid point to make which will resonate with all of society.

Best of all, the work will no doubt turn the focus of Banksy’s huge global following towards Liverpool’s Walker Gallery. I visited the gallery for the first time in September and was beyond impressed with the array of work on show. It’s well worth a visit, especially in 2012 when the John Moores painting prize will be back in the gallery – a worthy rival to the less accessible Turner Prize. And for those culture vultures amongst you, the equally excellent Tate Liverpool is just down the road.

Dec 16

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All the joys of the Nursery School Nativity

The photo says it all doesn’t it. Deserted old baby doll, an MDF crib and a hastily assembled sheep made from silver foil rolls, cotton wool and PVC glue. Add to this several pairs of gold cardboard wings, some tinsel halos, 3 paper crowns (sharp-edge free), plenty of stripy sheets and even more recycled curtains and what do you have? The show any perfect Christmas wouldn’t be without: the School Nativity. It’s the pride and joy of every parent, but also the source of their greatest anxiety: Will they remember their words? Will they cry or have a tantrum mid-way through? Or will they, like the nightmare of one parent at a nativity my sister attended last year, projectile vomit all over the front row of the audience? For the teachers, even the smallest nativity is a mass production of prodigious strategic complexity… reminding the children to smile, to sing, to stop picking their noses, steering the little angels in the right direction, and pulling them away from where they’re not meant to be, remembering the words to the carols on their behalf and of course watching out for that same nativity-shattering tantrum.

Nativity Norms (Pen on paper, 2011 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown)

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Dec 14

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The age-old dilemma of wrapping odd-shaped Christmas presents

It’s an age-old dilemma. Just how do you wrap odd shaped Christmas presents and make them look good? It’s a dilemma which has been frustrating the hell out of me all morning. For example, my grandmother asked me to buy her a very specific vase. It’s red, beautiful, glass, but also oval, like a rugby ball. I started wrapping it up and soon enough, when I got to either end, the vase almost slipped out of my hands twice, and I went through three attempts to neatly fold the ends of the paper without 1) a huge excess of folds and 2) all the paper scrunching with so many creases that I might as well have wrapped it in newspaper. What I ended up with is frankly not the gem of my collection. The present looks like a wrapped up over-sized potato. I attempted to hide my various folding faux-pas with ribbon, but this resulted in a merely trussed-up looking wrapped up potato. I soon gave up. It will have to do. Doesn’t all the paper end up swiftly in the bin anyway?

The dilemma of wrapping a Norm-shaped Christmas present (Pen on paper, 2011 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown)

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Dec 12

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Paris v London: What ever happened to British Café Culture?

I was reading the post of one of my favourite Paris-based bloggers, Becoming Madame, the other day which described a truly resonant and idyllic scene which she witnessed when sitting inside a Parisian café. Like many of the readers who commented on the post, I was struck by how easily one can be drawn into the romanticised ideal of the Parisian café. It was the same when I was there two weeks ago: There’s something about Parisian cafes which exudes effortless elegance. Some of them are tatty, have tired looking waiters who have been doing the same job for years, browning mirrors and horrible toilets. But there’s something about them, with their hand-written blackboards, mirrored walls, wicker chairs and round tables squeezed outside, and cosy booths inside set amongst an array of old posters and photographs, that just IS romantic and offers us  the very epitome of café culture. This quintessential idyllic view of the French café was very much indulged in my favourite film of all time, Amélie, and yet, despite the cinematic interpretation, the quirky little cafe  captured in than film is wholly representative of reality.

My queuing experience in Starbucks yesterday

So all of this got me thinking (while stood in a massive queue in Starbucks yesterday), while the streets of Paris are literally dotted all over with cafés and brasseries on every corner, each inviting us to indulge with its cherry red awnings and cosy pavement heaters, why is it that in London, the best we can manage is a starbucks or a Cafe Nero every 100 metres? What happened to the Lyons Teahouses which were at the centre of polite society? Or the little privately run café to which everyone would flock for a gossip? In Paris you sit down and are greeted (not always immediately, warranted) by the friendly(ish) face of a smart French waiter. You order your coffee, you sit back, and you indulge in the sweet pleasure that is people watching. In London you queue for a coffee for what seems like an age. You can attempt to sit down, but most of the cafes are turned over to the takeaway trade, so seating is both limited and purposefully uncomfortable so that the turnaround is quick and no one stays too long. Because of the people rushing in and out, the doors are always open. Your experience is cold and drafty and usually, because of lack of accommodation you have to leave with coffee in a paper cup, the small hole in the lid badly designed for sipping so that generally you get half of the scalding liquid down your face before you’ve managed to sit down and enjoy it. And yet the thing is, these cafés are always full, and you get the feeling that in London there really is a growing coffee culture. So why can’t we have the relaxed café culture of Paris?

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Dec 9

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Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree… (Part 2) My Top 10 Tips for decorating the perfect Tree

Ok, so following on from yesterday’s little exhibition of my Christmas decoration winter wonderland here at The Daily Norm offices, here, just in time for the weekend, are my top-10 fail-proof tips on decorating the perfect Christmas tree.

1. The Tree

Real tree or fake tree? That is the question? It’s a personal choice, but a lot will depend on the house you live in, the kind of theme you are going for with your decorations, and also the degree of control you want over your tree. I live in very modern house, with contemporary interiors. I want my christmas trees to bring festive sparkle into the space, but also to compliment my modern lines. I also want a very controlled, “designed” look. I therefore go for fake trees of varying colours. I love real trees, particularly the smell, but I think they look a lot better in a more traditional home environment. If you have a period property with a big open fireplace and high ceilings, your home is just made for a large bushy tree plucked straight out of the forest. Also keep in mind that real trees, with their floppy branches (which get floppier still as the days go on) are harder to control and are not really for the perfectionists amongst us. They also make a dreadful mess so think about disposal, floor surfaces and so on.

2. The Decorations

Colour co-ordination is the key to success. This is my mantra in life. I think that trees which do not follow some kind of dominant colour theme are difficult to control and can end up looking disorganised and consequently unglamorous. Not that I am adverse to this look. Some people, like my family or Kirsty Allsopp, like a tree to be sentimental, and consequently they bring out old decorations which have been in the family for generations, none of which match each other, but each of which has its own history, more and more being added every year. If you do want to go for a miscellany of decorations, my tip would be to try and pull the tree together with strong tinsel co-ordination (see below). Don’t try and place single-coloured lights on a tree which is going to be full of different decorations – multi-coloured will probably work best.

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Dec 8

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Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree, How Lavishly Decorated Are Your Branches… (Part 1)

It’s that time of the year again. Dusting off the baubles, fluffing up the squashed tinsel, and finding that the fairy lights have broken, fused, lost a bulb or have become completely tangled requiring three hours of painstaking work to redress the problem. Yep, it’s time to decorate again, to fill our homes with festive cheer, lights dazzling aplenty, glitter sparkling, and a sense of joy reignited after a year of economic depression, rubbish weather, riots, European crises and all that kind of thing…

Now being the artistic chap I am, it will not surprise you that I take great care in decorating the offices of the Daily Norm each year (i.e. my home). I do not restrict my attempt to one tree either. In fact, I have four principal trees, one in each room, each decorated in such colours and style as reflect their interior designed surroundings, along with a variety of smaller trees and Christmas installations to compliment, and ensure that festive joy is spread into every corner of my home. Now everyone knows that Christmas is a time for sharing, so I thought it only appropriate that I feature my very own trees in today’s edition of the Daily Norm. But, since I fancy myself to be something of a skilled tree decorator, I thought I’d also impart with you all my top fail-proof tips for decorating the perfect tree. Follow my guidance and you cannot fail to impress this year, thus helping to extend the Christmas spirit further by making your friends and family alike completely jealous (this being the unfortunate result of their not reading The Daily Norm…) However for all that guidance, you need to wait until tomorrow I’m afraid. For today, let’s take a look at my trees…

My first tree stands in my lounge which follows a strict red/black decorative scheme. Consequently, complimenting its surroundings is my sophisticated black tree, decorated in a tight scheme of silver, red and white baubles with white LED flashing lights, red tinsel and some very lavish Venetian masks and, even better, Parisian sparkly Tour Eiffels to boot. Et voila…

Black tree with venetian masks, Eiffel towers, red, silver and white decorations

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