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Apr 26

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Tuscan Towns #4 – Castagneto Carducci

For a town with a mouthful of a name, Castagneto Carducci, just uphill from the sandy beaches of Donoratico, is paradoxically small. Distinctive for its coloured houses painted, unlike so many of the stone villages of Tuscany, in sunny shades of pink, yellow and other pastel tones, Castagneto contrasts perfectly with its surroundings of green hills and perfectly regulated striped vineyards. This is not the first time the village has featured on   The Daily Norm, since it is the closest little Tuscan town to my in laws’ home. In fact as we proved on this occasion, a brisk 40 minute walk through the vineyards of Donoratico followed by an uphill climb will see you arrive on foot at the church topped-summit of the town in no time. From there, it is views a plenty, not only of the surrounding countryside but of the quaint streets spilling out across the hilltop.

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Like so many of the Tuscan Towns I am featuring on this blog, Castagneto is a town which oozes idyllic charm. While the tourist trade has made sure to embellish the town’s best features and offer visitors boutique shops selling local produce, cuddly wild boars and hand-painted ceramics, my favourite places to visit are those which are the preserves of the locals – the small little cafes where locals prop up the bar to drink an espresso and a brioche; the hilly side streets whose pot plants and strung out washing are just as picturesque as the countryside views over which the tourists ogle; and the little passages where a simple parked vespa or a decorative street lamp look like works of Italian art.

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If you can only get to tour one or two of Tuscany’s quaint little towns, Castagneto is a perfect choice. With its various cafes and small up-scale shops, several restaurants making the most of the views and a perfect winding route around town which will take in the small church and iconic town hall, Castagneto has all the ingredients to afford the visitor a satisfying stroll. And if I were to recommend Bolgheri at around 5pm for a cocktail or afternoon coffee, Castagneto is a perfect choice for a morning coffee. Our sun drenched cup accompanied by brioche and croissants stuffed with frutti di bosco and cream was the best breakfast experience of my trip, and should not be missed, especially with views as fine as this.

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© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2017. 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. 

Dec 31

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2016: My Year in Photos

It’s beyond crazy that a year has passed since I last compiled a photographic review of my photos. I remember exactly where I was sitting when I last did it, the rush I felt at writing the post before jetting off the following day to Venice…I practically remember what I was drinking (gingerbread green tea surely… it comes highly recommended). Short of remembering the clothes I was wearing, it seems so ridiculously proximate in time that I feel almost in a state of dreamlike disorientation as I engage on the annual tradition of writing this post. Even filing through my many thousand of photos does not convince me that enough time can have passed for a year to be up already. And there was I thinking that leap year 2016 had one more day to its number.

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And yet my calendar tells me that we are once again here again, coming to the end of another year, and one which for me has been very, very busy but full of light, sunshine and happiness. All of these things have mainly been the result of my location which, for another full year, was based on the paradise island of Mallorca in the Mediterranean sea, a backdrop which provided a daily life rich in sensual pleasures, and from which other fantastic locations such as Barcelona and Granada were only a short plane’s hop away.

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Yet asides from the visual riches so inherent in Spain, 2016 was a year which provided us with the opportunity to explore old favourites such as the enduringly attractive city of Rome, and also to embrace the new: the island of Menorca, Split in Croatia and Vienna in Austria were just three of those exciting new destinations which we were lucky enough to discover in 2016. It was also a year of discovery for my young family too…One of my highlights has to be the visit to Mallorca of my sister and young nephews, and experiencing their joy as they dipped into the warm sea for the first time.

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When I look back over 2016, I remember a year of stark contrasts. Because for all of the beautiful experiences which manifest in these photos shared today, I cannot deny a feeling of trepidation as I leave a year which presented so many new dangers. As if Brexit in June was not bad enough, the Trump election in the US just 5 months later was like rubbing salt into a still unhealed wound. And in my personal sphere, the news that I will soon be leaving to Mallorca to take up life again in London likewise will come with its share of challenges. Only time will tell how this cocktail of external and personal factors will play out, and the experiences which will result. However I am confident that in 12 months time, another year will have quickly passed. I look forward to sharing with you the photographic gallery which will surely result.

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 20136and The Daily Norm. All rights are reserved. 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. 

Nov 14

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A weekend in Barcelona

Barcelona: the creative beacon of Catalunya, a thriving city with all the charm of a seaside town, a capital for culture and a statement in gastronomic, stylistic and artistic innovation. It is a mere hop across the sea from Mallorca; on occasional days of peculiar weather, some have even declared that one place can be seen over the horizon of the other. And yet Barcelona may as well be a world apart. It is not just a pretty city fringed by palm trees and an attractive port – it has been the inspiration for some of history’s most famous creatives, and today continues to be an icon for stylists, fashionistas, foodies, designers, architects and artists across the world.

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Famous for its modernista architecture by the likes of genius Antoni Gaudí, as well as for its connections with the likes of Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró, and more recently for the 1992 Olympics which put it firmly on the global map, Barcelona is a veritable feast of visual inspiration for any artist or photographer. Yet as I took the opportunity to fly the short 30 minute journey across the sea to Barcelona last weekend, I found myself so utterly wrapped up in the striking city vibe that I quite forgot to photograph anything. Almost complacently I walked the ravishing streets, soaking in the atmosphere but forgetting to capture the sights all around me in a two dimensional form. That is why, as a new week begins, I am left with a head full of wonderful memories and few photos to support them.

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And yet those few photos which I did capture are fully representative of the kind of weekend which we really enjoyed. For rather than prioritising previously experienced touristic sites or much-explored museums, this trip was about reconnecting with the urban vibe, and enjoying all of the accompanying pleasures which inevitably partner a large city. For us that meant a combination of (largely window) shopping, particularly in chic concept stores such as Jamie Beriestain, where Christmas has come early in the form of full-sized pine trees glittering with gold, or fully indulgent fine dining in new eatery hot spots such as the El Nacional food market or the impressive restaurant, Petit Comite.

This little album is therefore representative of a weekend in Barcelona which involved much dining, and much refined wine-ing, strolls in the autumn sunshine and the odd Gaudi interaction. In short everything which a weekend in one of my favourite cities is guaranteed to offer.

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© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2016. 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. 

Oct 31

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A Portrait of Mallorca

Sometimes I just want to paint what’s on my mind. The energetic fusion of ideas applied to canvas in a mixed and multifarious revolution of form and colour. But unlike the Expressionist movement, which tended to splash and splosh their emotion onto canvas in more of a literal application of paint, my variety of expressionism materialises in more of a controlled fashion. I suppose it says something about my rather controlling mind (a tendency for which my partner may testify). For my wildest form of expression is something more cubist in nature. I have always been enchanted by the age of the cubists. The ability to show an object or a subject on multidimensional planes has always filled me with an ultimate sense of pictorial satisfaction. And while my cubism is less a single subject and rather more a mixed bag of ideas, it definitely belongs to the genre.

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Portrait of Mallorca (2016 ©Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, acrylic on canvas)

This cubist work, which also belongs to my interpretative abstract way of thinking, is the latest canvas to hop off my easel and says everything and anything about the island on which I have spent the last two happy years of my life. It is for me a true portrait of Mallorca, because beyond the tacky tourism for which the island is so unfortunately infamous, the island is one of true bucolic peasant culture, with its own cuisine and characterised by a stunning mixed mountainous and coastal landscape. All this is represented in the imagery packed into this “portrait” which includes the spiralled ensaimada pastry for which the island is famous, the lacey headdress and straw hat worn by the traditional peasant women, as well as their flowing striped skirts flapping in the Mediterranean breeze. There too are the mountains and the beaches, the glittering coast and the yachts which encircle the island like moths around a light source. And of course the sails of the windmills, which likewise characterise the lower lying stretches of countryside.

It is a painting which fully encapsulates the multifaceted personality of an island which is much, much more than Magaluf.

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2016. 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. For more information on the work of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, head to his art website at www.delacybrown.com

Sep 21

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Norms Palma Series: Café Gran Hotel

The Norms have been away for an awfully long time. Unreasonably long, one might surmise. After all, The Daily Norm is a blog named after the funny little blob like creature, and it feels somewhat redundant when the eponymous protagonist of the piece is missing. But everyone is entitled to a rest, Norms included, and the Norms have been taking their time off seriously indeed, partly meditating amongst the citrus trees of Capri, and party philosophising deep in a Grenadian jungle.

But now the Norms are back, where they have returned to their favourite mediterranean city of Palma de Mallorca. Everyone knows that the Norms are a social folk, and they love nothing more than to sit back in a bustling cafe and watch the world go by. In Palma, there are plenty of cafes to choose from, but one of their decided favourites is the Cafe Gran Hotel, directly outside what was once a likewise named hotel of supreme art nouveau elegance. These days it finds itself the home of one of Spain’s many bank-run art foundations, a fact which both vexes the Norms and delights them in equal measure. But whatever the contents, the building retains its period glamour. Hence why the ever elegant Norms adore to sit in its shadow.

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Norms at the Café Gran Hotel, Palma (2016 ©Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, pen and ink on paper)

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2016. 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. For more information on the work of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, head to his art website at www.delacybrown.com

Jun 19

Appreciating the everyday: Waking up to Palma

It’s all too easy to be complacent, to get used to the good things in life and stop appreciating them, and here in Palma de Mallorca, where we are literally surrounded by the utmost of urban and then rural beauty at every stretch I am constantly reminding myself just how lucky I am. Such complacency resides more than anywhere else in the home, where we enjoy the same stunning surroundings every day, but the constantly changing beauty of our immediate environment provides a frequent reminder that it should be appreciated afresh every day.

Such were my musings when I got up one early morning a few days ago, and looked out of the window onto the multi-coloured panoply of old town streets which surround our apartment. Radiant in warm yellows, terracottas and greens, the nearby streets are archetypally Mediterranean, and look simply resplendent under the golden morning and evening sun rays. But what enchants me even more is the length of the early shadows, adding fresh stripes to an already linear landscape which move across the facades with the sun.

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This small set of photos was snapped quickly before work, when in a sudden moment of realisation, I was made to stop and appreciate my daily views afresh. Even my sculpted model, made during my first ever sculpture attempt in London back in 2011, appears to be captivated by the view she now enjoys on a daily basis. And who can blame her.

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2015 and The Daily Norm. All rights are reserved. 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.

Jun 19

The Daily Norm: 3,000 followers and counting

Since posting my last article on The Daily Norm, I gained my 3000th follower of this blog. Despite having written this blog almost every day since the end of 2011 and therefore being well accustomed to using words to express my feelings and experiences, I struggle to put into words just how delighted I am with the success of this blog, and how grateful I am for all those who have followed me since its inception. 3000 followers is as incredible number, and I can only hope that all those who have supported me will continue to do so as the years of blogging go on.

I was always a prolific diary writer (I’ve been writing a diary packed with pictures of my art and travels for 19 years now), but blogging really took my diary writing to a new level, not just because it enables me to share all of the photos I have taken and art works I have made in a digital format, but because it enables me to share my life with a far bigger audience. Because I try to keep my blog as an all-embracing homage to the good life, full of the positive notes which embellish my life with the colour and excitement that gets me out of bed each day, knowing that my blog enables me to translate that positivity to a wider audience has encouraged me to see life for all that is good in it.

When I go on holiday, I start compiling in my head how I will present those wonderful new experiences on The Daily Norm; when I create new artworks I get excited about sharing them on my blog way before they ever get seen in an art exhibition; and when I take photos, I get even more pleasure in perfecting the results knowing that now it is not just me and my family who will share in these images, but an audience of thousands. In short, blogging has changed my life.

French Norm (2011 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, digital image)

French Norm (2011 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, digital image)

So I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone for following me and sharing in my life, and hope that you will continue to do so. I want to thank my dear friend Cassandra, who suggested blogging to me as a way of expressing my relentless flow of creative energies, and also wonderful Wordress for giving me this fantastic platform to share my thoughts with the world, and with such ease and pleasure.

So by way of celebration I thought I would share, appropriately, a picture of my Norm, the character who is at the heart of the stories and illustrations which I post intermittently between art and travel posts on this blog. This picture was created digitally on my ipad, taking inspiration from David Hockney who has used the medium to create some of his most engaging recent works. My French Norm plays on all of the stereotypes of the typical Frenchman – the stripped jersey, the beret and the string of onions, and I just love him.

So please come back and see many more Norms, art works and travel tales on The Daily Norm soon and tell all your friends – 3,000 followers is incredible, but can it be bettered? I hope so.

Nx

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2014. 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. For more information on the work of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, head to his art website at www.delacy-brown.com

Mar 10

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Post 500: Norms at La Pedrera, Barcelona

I am celebrating the publication of my 500th post on The Daily Norm! It’s unbelievable to think that I have sat at my computer over the last 2 and a half years, and typed out such a mammoth number of posts for my Daily Norm readers. But writing this blog has become such a naturally occurring, integral accompaniment to my life that frankly, my surprise at seeing 500 posts notched up is on a level with my daily surprise when I realise how quickly a year is passing. Still, there can be no complacency about the achievement of reaching this very significant hallmark in my blogging history, and a huge thanks has to go out to all of my readers and followers – somethings I feel like I really struggle to give back as much thanks and support as you deserve, but your readership really is important to me. As for the blog – well what a life changer it has been. To have this platform to share my thoughts, my creativity, my sketches, prints, photos and paintings – well it has made so much of what I do in my own little world worth the effort. After all, doesn’t every creative always yearn for an audience?

So what better way to celebrate my blogging achievement than to share a brand new insight on the world of “the Norms”, the characters who were the whole reason I set up this blog in the first place. Today we join the Norms in the beautiful Spanish city of Barcelona, which is a coincidence, because of course I have only come back from the city myself. Here we see the Norms visiting one of the most famous buildings created by architect genius Antoni Gaudi, La Pedrera (otherwise known as the Casa Mila). Famed for its quarry like facade and its tiled chimneys which look more like whipped meringue nests, La Pedrera is a masterpiece of modernist architecture and a much loved tourist destination for the Norms, not least because one of the chimneys appears to bear a very striking resemblance to a Norm…

Norms at La Pedrera (2014 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, pen and ink on paper)

Norms at La Pedrera (2014 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, pen and ink on paper)

So from the Norms in Barcelona, to my own trip to the city, join me later this week on The Daily Norm as I make headway through the next 500 posts of my blog which I cannot wait to write, and share with you. See you then!

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2014. 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. For more information on the work of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, head to his art website at www.delacy-brown.com

Nov 18

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Daily Norm’s 2nd Anniversary/ 30th Birthday/ new website/ exhibition preview spectacular!

Christmas may be merely 5 weeks away, but its been all about a mighty great November for me. Not only have I been celebrating the relaunch of my official art website this month, but I have also been busy organising the first solo gallery showing of my artwork in 6 years, which will make its debut in London in the Spring of next year – more details will follow soon. Not only that, but I am still reeling from the shock of turning 30 earlier this year, but nevertheless still determined to celebrate it for as long as the year goes on. And finally, this month (and in fact the 14th November last week) marks the two year birthday of The Daily Norm!

From its very humble beginnings, this blog has now been freshly pressed 3 times, gained 2,332 followers, had 301,364 total views and even received 2,527 comments. And statistics aside, it has just been a joy from beginning to end – an outlet for my creativity; a mirror on my soul, and a magnificent far-reaching channel through which my thoughts and experiences can be shared with the world. So a huge thank you just has to go to everyone who has supported my blog all of this time. I feel incredibly honoured that you take the time to share just a little of my life with me.

My paintings on show at the Benugo Drawing Room private cocktail bar, last Friday

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So how best to celebrate all of these marked feats of November jubilation? Why, to throw a private party of course! Yep, last Friday night, the best and beautiful of my inner circle – both friends and colleagues alike – gathered in their glad rags to belatedly celebrate my birthday, mark the relaunch of my website, reflect on the success of The Daily Norm, and look forward, in equal measure, to the prospect of my solo art exhibition next Spring. And in celebrating the latter aspect, what better way to anticipate what I hope will be the art show of the 2014 Spring season than to kick things off with a warm up preview of some of my latest works!

So for all those friends of mine rocking up at the British Film Institute’s secret cocktail bar within its main Benugo bar last friday evening, they were treated to an impromptu display of some 20 of my works, including a selection of my latest Compositions series, a few of my Norm originals including my Norm take on Manet’s Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe and Flamenco Norm, and also a few examples of my more contemplative works, such as Pink Bf, Return Journey and Pupillage.

The evening was a fantastic success, a wonderful opportunity for some of my latest colourful paintings and more subdued, delicate etchings to benefit from an outing to London’s cultural South Bank centre, and a fine way to touch base with my ever faithful friends, many of whom I have not seen for months, if not years. And I sold 3 more paintings to boot – which can’t be bad!

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Sadly, as far as recording this magnificent event goes, I can only show you photos taken as the paintings went out, but before the people came in. No sooner had the first friend arrived than I was occupied talking to my guests all evening – and my well intentioned desire to record the evening through photos got quite lost in the revelry. But that is surely a sign of a good party.

Stay tuned, as ever, into The Daily Norm for exclusive details of my May 2014 art exhibition – coming soon!

And in the meantime another huge thanks to all those who have supported me and my blog for the two years of its happy existence. Here’s to the next!

 

Mar 6

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Valencia (x) – Photography Focus 4: Favourite shots

Is it any surprise that when I struggle into the London tube every morning, my personal space reduced to a bare millimetre minimum, struggling to breathe against the handbag digging into my ribs, that I immerse myself in a world of Spanish rhythms, that I listen to the clap and wail and melancholic guitar of flamenco in my ears, and that I daydream of Spanish plazas, of old town streets, of sunshine and long shadows, of the sparkling droplets of a fountain’s eruption suspended in mid aid, glinting in the sun? How can I fail to drink in every detail of the architectural splendour, the decadent charm, the warm sun-drenched colours and the almost unfathomable blue of a mediterranean sky when its very manifestation is like something from a vision of paradise?

Valencia is not unique in being so aesthetically rich, so inexorably inspirational that as an artist, and photographer, I was elevated to a new sense of creative freedom with every step I took in the city. In fact it is just one of many a Spanish city which has had such an effect on me. But as a city of so many facets, from the crumbling, baroque old centre to the lavishly innovative city of arts and sciences, Valencia is surely unique in the extent to which its visual appeal can extend. The proof is in the pudding: not only has the city inspired me to write some ten blog posts, each featuring a ripe selection of my photos and anecdotes, but across two cameras and my iPhone, I returned with some 1500 photographs after only 4 days of sightseeing, with barely any destined for the trash can.

It therefore comes with no surprise that as I end my Valencia series, I do so with so many photos left to explore, and hard choices to make as to which of those shots I feature in this, a miscellany of some of my favourite photos of the as-yet unpublished series. The final set, published in a gallery below, is as richly diverse as the city itself, from the minor details: rusting door knockers and cracking wood carvings, to the wider picture – the grand plazas, the ceramic blue domes, and the richly sculpted baroque facades. As with so many components that make up a city, so much beauty can be found in even the smallest details – whether it be the channels of bird poo which have run down the bronze sculptures of a grand fountain, or the cracks and staples in a plant pot.

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You’ll notice that many of my favourite shots are from Valencia’s historic quarter. While the dazzling white architecture of Calatrava’s new architecture is visually alluring, there is very little, as a photographer, which one can do with these buildings, other than shoot them from various angles, reflected in the surrounding waters, and seen from close up and at a distance. Far more inspirational for me is age and histroy, the effect of time, and the continuation of rich traditions in the modern age. Take the fleeting glimpses I took of Valencian women in their traditional dress – was Valencia ever so perfectly represented as by those women in their ornate sashed dresses and peculiar elaborate headdresses?

But as ever, I could attempt to describe in words what could so easily be done in a photo. And of those there are plenty to share. I leave you then with this final selection of Valencia shots, and a big thank you for allowing me to share my Valencia trip with you. Being inspired is only one part of the creative process. Sharing it with others is where the ultimate satisfaction is realised. With thanks.

All photos and written content are strictly the copyright of Nicholas de Lacy-Brown © 2013 and The Daily Norm. All rights are reserved. 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. 

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