Norms | The Daily Norm

Oct 2

Norm’s Autumn Banoffee at Palau March

As the green leaves of summer turn gradually to shades of auburn and brown, it’s time again to reflect on that sunny island of Mallorca, where the higher temperatures of summer live on, and the sun’s midday warmth embraces all locals and visitors alike with its life-enhancing optimism. But even Mallorca and the Mediterranean is not immune from the seasonal momentum of the planetary system, and as evenings draw in before winter descends, and the sunlight hours diminish, the locals and Norms of Mallorca’s capital Palma look to the cosier pursuits in life.

And can there be anything cosier in the emerging autumn than a late afternoon tea, with a slice of Cappuccino Grand Café’s classic banoffee pie, consumed while sitting on the comfy sofas of the Palau March café under the colonnades ofthis elegant city palace? This little Norm certainly does not think so, and indulging in the very height of afternoon delight, he sips upon his coffee and digs into his oozing caramel-filled banana and cream tart with a gusto which is more than justified when exposed to such an exquisite dessert. His little heart beating to the sumptuous sounds of Cappuccino’s jazzy sound track, and his eyes otherwise entertained by the unbeatable views of Palma’s historic centre beyond the colonnades, this Norm is all set up for an autumn afternoon of insurmountable delight, and is frankly the envy of all of us who can not be there with him.

Norm at Cappuccino Palau March (2013 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, acrylic on canvas)

My little Norm painting is acrylic on canvas and currently hangs, so I gather, in the stunning Ibiza Botafoch café of the Grupo Cappuccino. Now that’s got to be a double whammy for this little Norm.

Check out more Norm paintings in the new Norm galleries of my (almost) completed new website.

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2013. 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.

Mallorca Map Commission Part 1 – Mallorca and Ibiza (daily-norm.com)
Mallorca Map Commission Part 2 – Palma (daily-norm.com)
Norm cocktail in the Port of Andratx (daily-norm.com)

Sep 26

3 Comments

Norm cocktail in the Port of Andratx

It’s been a bit quiet on The Daily Norm front this week, as behind the scenes, the Norms and I are scurrying around working hard to redesign and develop my art website which, when it is finished, should provide the perfect partner to this blog, acting as a permanent platform to show my artwork to the world. So while the hard work continues in the offices of The Daily Norm, and as the chillier autumn evenings start to draw in, its surely time to pay one of our Norm friends a visit, over in the warmer climes of the Mediterranean, where the summer extends, that much longer, into the darkening autumn days.

Norm at Puerto Andratx (2013 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, acrylic on canvas)

To the island of Mallorca, and onto the stunning little Puerto Andratx, a naturally enclosed semi-circular marina, flanked on all sides by steep green hills leaving only a slight cerulean slice of horizon visible. In this idyllic little port, where fishermen still cast out their nets and store their fishing paraphernalia on the dock side, and where little cafes and restaurants are lined along the still lapping waters and cobbled harbour walls, the persistently chic Cappuccino Grand Café has acquired itself the nicest spot of all, directly next to a little harbour arm, where old wooden boats bob up and down, and the omnipresent sunshine sparkles like a discotheque over the surface of the water.

There, on rocking chairs set out alongside the sea, this hedonistic Norm is soaking in the ultimate pleasures which this cafe paradise can provide: a lavish location, melodic jazzy music, warm midday sun, and a cocktail in her one, well manicured hand.

Now this is surely the way to spend an autumn day.

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2013. 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.

Mallorca Map Commission Part 1 – Mallorca and Ibiza (daily-norm.com)

Jun 24

3 Comments

Norms do… Cézanne’s Card Players

Although perhaps best known for his repetitive, almost obsessive landscapes of Le Mont Saint Victoire near his home town of Aix-en-Provence, and his groupings of apples and oranges painted as simplified geometric forms with zealously applied paint strokes, the so called father of cubism, post-impressionist master Paul Cézanne also painted another set of rather astonishing works which in my opinion easily qualify as some of his most captivating works. A gloomy tavern, a waxy dark tablecloth, a set of playing cards and the concentration of two card players, focus furrowed deep into their brows as we look upon them in the midst of a game – I am of course talking about Cézanne’s Card Player series, a series of some 5 paintings and numerous preparatory sketches, in which Cezanne took the tradition 17th century French and Dutch genre painting style of a rowdy tavern scene, and reduced it to a simple card game, full of intensity and, surprisingly for its tavern setting, sobriety.

The Courtauld’s Card Players

This now familiar composition by Cézanne, one of which hangs so happily close to me in London’s Courtauld gallery, made the headlines as recently as last year, when sold to the Qatari royal family for around $275 million, it became the most expensive piece of art work ever sold. While the price may be bonkers, and the painting’s final destination into a private collection lamentable, the art loving public can at least be reassured that four versions of the work remain on public view and as if that wasn’t enough, on top of that, the Norms have now staged their own version too!

Norm Card Players (after Cézanne) (2013 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, acrylic on canvas)

Yes, being as, when you read this post, I should be somewhere in the Lavender-scented verdant rolling landscapes of Cézanne’s beloved Provence, and heading to his home town of Aix as my final destination, the Norms thought it only appropriate that before heading off on that trip with me, they would reimagine this renowned Cézanne scene, composed as it is with a rusty authentic depiction of a Provencal tavern complete with what are believed to be two of its local farmers playing cards. The Norm version is based upon the Courtauld’s canvas (above), and consequently the scene concentrates, as Cezanne latterly did, on the two solitary card players rather than two players with spectators such as populate some of the other works from the series. I’m not entirely sure how Norms manage to play cards so well with only one arm, but I suppose they have their ways, as Norms always do…

So without further ado, I leave you to enjoy the Norm Card Players, in this almost still-life, intense moment of concentrated card play. And some of Cezanne’s originals are included too.

Spot the difference…

The d”Orsay Card Players

The Qatari Card Players

Card Players at the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

and at the Met, NY

And some studies…

A bientot.

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2013. 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.

May 28

4 Comments

The Daily Sketch: Norms take the tram in Soller

Travelling from Palma de Mallorca to the little town Soller, on the old rickety Ferrocarril railway, is like stepping back into the time of Agatha Christie. You fully expect someone in a trilby hat or a feathered tiara to shout murder! at any second. After making it to the charming little town of Soller, set near the North coast of Mallorca deep in a vast mountainous valley, further rickety old wooden trams, running from the Ferrocarril station down to Soller’s picturesque port, give the town its undoubted charm, taking tourists and locals alike back to the good old days when transportation was slower, yet undoubtedly more reliable.

Norms in Soller (2013, © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown)

Take a glimpse in Soller today, and you can see the Norms trying the tram out for speed. Queuing in a little group, waiting patiently in the shadow of the imposing facade of Joan Rubio i Bellver’s Sant Bartomeu church, and besides the town’s charming little restaurant-filled square, these Norms are all prepared to take a ride on Soller’s iconic tramline. One Norm has even dressed for the occasion, bedecked in top hat as befits such a classical mode of transportation. There’s really no beating the good old golden age of the trams, as these Norm-packed carriages prove. Happy tramming Norms!

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2013. 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.

Norms at Cappuccino Pollença (daily-norm.com)
Mallorca (Part X) – Photography Focus 3: Favourite Shots (daily-norm.com)

Mar 29

6 Comments

Dulces de Convento

I’m not sure what it is about Easter which makes me think of Spain’s greatest export, marzipan, as I gather that the little soft almond sweets are more the preserve of Christmas time than Semana Santa. But then again, mazapan, as the spanish call it, is a sweet originating from the closed convents of one of Spain’s most fervently religious strongholds, Toledo, and it is perhaps understandable therefore that my mind drifts to this very sacred city around this Easter time.

I was never a great lover of marzipan as a child – perhaps the almond flavours were too bitter for my very junior tastes. But when I visited Toledo a few years ago with my mother, I became completely seduced by these little sweet treats, which could be found everywhere, from little corner shops to cafes filled with little (slightly surreal) dolls of nuns captured in the act of marzipan making.

The beautiful city of Toledo

A Toledo cafe

While marzipan lasts a fair length of time (they contain no dairy, so stay fresh for a while), even those I bring back from Spain each visit in earnest do not last for long (partly because I scoff them fairly rapidly). It’s come a great relief therefore to learn that marzipan is so easy to recreate in your own home – if you’ve got some ground almonds and sugar, you’re pretty much there. For an Easter treat I decided that the Norms needed to become manifested as marzipan forms. But feeling like a little variety, I also made these delicious panellets de piñones – a succulent, slightly coarser lemony marzipan surrounded by a pine nut shell – delicious!

Mazapan de Toledo

My marzipans are adapted from the recipes of Claudia Roden (in her 2012 book, The Food of Spain) which are in turn a treasure-trove of recipes collected from across the multifarious gastronomic regions of Spain. For the Marzipan Norms, all you need to do is whizz up 200g of ground almonds with 200g of icing sugar in a food processor. Add around 3 drops of almond extract (being careful not to add more as the flavour can become overpowering very quickly) and 2-3 tablespoons of water, one at a time. You don’t need much water as the almond oil holds the mixture together. Knead into a smooth soft paste and then you are ready to start modelling.

My Norms, awaiting their fate

The beauty of marzipan is that the world is quite literally your oyster. You may want to model yours into Norms, but equally, why not try little balls, or as in Toledo itself, how about a mixture of figuritas shaped into fish, snails, shells, saint’s bones…whatever takes your fancy. Once they’re shaped, leave the marzipan figures out on a baking tray. They’ll soon go harder on the outside. After a few hours, lightly whisk up the whites of one egg with a tablespoon of icing sugar and brush a very little on the marzipans to create a glaze (you really don’t need much). Place them under the grill for a minute or in the over at 200C for 2 minutes until slightly browned.

Panellets de Piñones

These panellets are a delicious, slightly more complex version of plain marzipans, but the method is similar. Whizz up 200g ground almonds with 150g caster sugar and the grated zest of 1 lemon, with 2.5 tablespoons of water. Plend for a few minutes until the almond oils start to really bind the paste. Break this into equal sized pieces and roll into balls (I got around 16 at around 4 cm in diameter each). Then comes the tricky bit. Roll the balls in a lightly whisked egg white and then into a bowl of around 200g of pine nuts. Press as many as you can into the marzipan in the palms of your hands. But inevitably some with fall off so you’ll have to fill the gaps with the nuts by hand, pressing them in slightly. This is slightly time consuming and fiddly, but SO worth the effort. Once you have a complete “shell” of pine nuts, roll again in egg white and set out on a baking tray.

Once all your balls are all covered, pop them into an oven at 200C for 10 minutes until slightly golden. Once done, you’ll need to leave them to cool slightly before taking them off the tray, or they will quickly break apart.

All that remains is for me to wish everyone reading The Daily Norm a Happy Easter, and a fiesta of unapologetically unrestrained chocolate egg and marzipan indulgence!

Feb 11

92 Comments

Valentine’s kiss for equal marriage

Love is in the air as Valentine’s Day draws ever closer. The empty shelves of post-Christmas and post-sales shopping have been filled with rosy red pleasantries, boxes of indulgent truffles, delicate red roses and cards making declarations of ever lasting love. But there’s something about the commercialisation of love at Valentine’s which has always slightly unnerved me. Yes, it’s a chance to remind your loved one that your cherish them, but isn’t there something contrived about telling them this only when a card shop tells you to?

For these two Norms however, there is no need for a card, a box of chocolates or a bouquet of flowers to demonstrate their true bond of love and affection – a simple, heartfelt kiss will do, here shared in front of one of the most iconic buildings of Paris’ 4th arrondissement, the Hotel de Ville. On holiday from London and staying in the Marais (which also hosts Paris’ gay district), these Norms also have something else to celebrate this year asides from their own love – the British Parliament has just voted by overwhelming majority to give same-sex couples the right to marry.

Doisneau Norms share a valentine’s kiss in celebration of equal marriage (2013 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown)

In doing so, Parliament have not made a statement about faith or religion, nor attempted to widen the extents of religious marriage beyond the bounds with which the church is comfortable. Rather, they have recognised, quite simply, that for both men and women who love those of their own sex, being gay is not a choice made or a lifestyle favoured, but who they are, and how they were born. Why then should gay men, women (and Norms) not be afforded the equal opportunity to marry when they, like heterosexual couples, find themselves in a relationship so strong and so loving that they want to devote themselves to that person for the rest of their lives?

The Doisneau original

So this Valentine’s day, even if you do not have a loved one with whom to share a Valentine’s day kiss, take some time to consider the enhanced rights which have been afforded to gay men, women (and Norms) all over the UK. Finally, like their heterosexual counterparts, they have been given the opportunity to validate their love in marriage like everyone else.

And for those eagle-eyed art lovers amongst you, you may recognise the scene which these two Norms now recreate. It is, of course, based on the famous photograph, Le Baiser de l’Hotel de Ville, by celebrated French photographer Robert Doisneau. Last Valentine’s I recreated another of his famous kiss photographs from the 1950s on canvas, in Norm-style. Here is that painting, and the Doisneau’s originals.

Le bazier de l'opera (after Doisneau) (acrylic on canvas, 2012 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown)

Le baiser de l’opera (after Doisneau) (acrylic on canvas, 2012 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown)

and the Doisneau original

Happy Valentine’s day to all and everyone, especially those celebrating the manifestation of an equal right to love and marry, at last.

Norms do…Robert Doisneau (daily-norm.com)
Valentine’s Kisses: Norms do…Klimt (daily-norm.com)

Feb 2

9 Comments

Happy Half Birthday to Me!

Call me indulgent if you will, but being a summer baby, a pursuer of all things Summertime, by the time I get to the beginning of February, I am usually pretty fed up. Months of gloom, of dark evenings, and even darker mornings, freezing temperatures and ages still to go until those much yearned for summer holidays. And it’s the same every year, which is precisely why, as a young boy, I decided to brighten up this time of gloom by inserting a celebration bang in the middle of the winter gloom – my half birthday! And today is that glorious day, the day when, despite it’s being still 6 months until the always much anticipated date of my birth, I have a little mid-winter celebration, and find another excuse to indulge.

My half birthday cake!

It’s true that my friends and family have always considered my propensity to celebrate a half-birthday to be a little eccentric to say the least, but I was particularly interested to learn, from a quick search for images on google, that I am not the only one who likes to use this 6 months marker as an excuse to celebrate when our full birthdays seem so far away. And why not? Of 365 days of the year, is it not right that we can feel at least half as special on one extra day as we do on the one day which we can call our birthday?

So in recognition of the auspicious day, I merrily headed out to Marks and Spencer to buy myself a cake which I then proceeded to cut in half (I’m not overly sure what I will do with the other half yet… something tells me it won’t keep until next year). In the meantime, I’m not the only one celebrating. Here is Norm celebrating his half birthday, with a half cake, half balloons and a half birthday card to boot. Just a shame that without the other half of that card, he has no idea who it was from!

Norm's Half Birthday - Norm looks for the other half of his card (2012 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown)

Wishing you all a fantastic weekend.

Jan 27

4 Comments

Norms do… Dalí

In a strange distant land, almost like the manifestation of a dreamlike unreality, where sharp craggy cliffs are reflected into the mirrored surface of a completely still ocean, and lone eggs cast elongated shadows into the bleak night, three Norms are left flattened, distorted, and almost draped over a series of nonsensically placed objects. Like overly ripe camembert or a floppy wet sardine, the Norms have been reduced to near 2-dimensional formulations of their once rotund gelatinous anatomies, bending and flopping over the inhabitants of this mystifying land: a morphed bird-like manifestation, a bleak, apparently root-less tree, and a cubic structure set like a stage for a nonexistent theatre troop. No one is clear why they are there, or when they will go, but in this eery, intransigent episode, one thing is clear: this milieu has no timescale, no locus, sense of rationality or reason, other than to clarify one indubitable observation: the Persistence of Normativity.

The Persistence of Normativity (after Dali) (2013 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, pen on paper)

Confused? Who isn’t, but since the Norms have been suitably inspired by Salvidor Dalí’s The Persistence of Memory, they thought a Delphic description was suitable to narrate this inconclusively surreal scene. Replacing Dalí’s famous melting clocks, these Norms fill the scene suitably, with their lucid organic forms, yet retaining all of Dalí’s characteristic inclusions, from the eggs and the craggy landscape of his home town, Cadaqués, to his ants, his flies and his strange bird-like forms. This is pure Dalí, with a little spice of Normativity.

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2012. 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.

Norms do… Hopper’s Nighthawks (daily-norm.com)
Paris: la visite d’art – Exhibition 3: Salvador Dalí (daily-norm.com)

Jan 23

7 Comments

Norms do… Hopper’s Nighthawks

The streets of the city are deserted. Not a soul stirs, even the birds have gone to bed for the night. The roads are traffic free, and the shops are shut up. But turn the corner and a strange glaring light bounces off the blackened windows of the building opposite – it is the light and the long shadows, cast like a jarring artificial human invasion upon the darkness of nature’s night time veil. This is the intrusion of the night cafe, the all night American diner, hangout of the lost and lonely, last retreat for those Nighthawks who are unable to sleep.

In Normies diner, three enigmatic norm figures sit at an otherwise deserted bar, served by the one lone bar tender who has drawn the short straw of the night-shift. Their stories are a mystery, their relationships even more so. Do these Norms know each other, or is it a coincidence that three such Norms should stare, so passively into the night, caught in the confines of their own introspective imagination. Are they in trouble? Why can’t they sleep? They’re questions which will remain forever unanswered as we glimpse, unbeknown to the Norms, into the world of their solitary nighttime shadows.

The Nighthawk Norms (after Hopper) (2012 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, pen on paper)

This Normy scene if of course based on Nighthawks by Edward Hopper. With its enigmatic narrative and uncomfortable conflict between darkness and light, Nighthawks is easily Hopper’s most famous painting, and one which I was delighted to have met face to face at the recent Grand Palais exhibition in Paris. Now of course the Norms are inspired, and it’s only reasonable that they should want to recreate Hopper’s most well-recognised image.

(Upon creating it, I (the Norms’ illustrator) soon realised just how complex this painting of Hopper’s is – full of steep angles, and a superb perspective, I had to work hard with my pencil and ruler before I even got started on this one – so many straight lines to map out, so many angles to get right. And then there were the shadows and his excellent contrast between lightness and dark – difficult to achieve in black and white pens, although not impossible – Hopper’s own lithographs and etchings, also on show in Paris, demonstrated that much. I hope you enjoy the result.)

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2012. 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.

Paris: la visite d’art – Exhibition 1: Hopper (daily-norm.com)

Dec 26

6 Comments

On the Eighth day of Christmas, my Normy gave to me…

…eight maids a-milking

Normy and Normette haven’t had an easy ride as far as Christmas gifts have gone. Ever since trying to emulate the lyrics to the Twelve Days of Christmas in making daily gifts to Normette, Normy has gone from one disaster to the next, what with collie birds flapping all over the place, 5 golden rings which led Normette to accuse him of having an affair, and 6 geese who preferred to lie out on loungers in the Caribbean rather than lay eggs as the carol dictates.

However, for the 8th day, Normy was sure he was onto a good thing. It’s Boxing Day, so it’s unsurprising that Normette, ever the fastidious cook, has run out of milk. It was all of those coffees yesterday, not to mention the custard that all her guests poured liberally over their Christmas pud. However, for today, Normette wants to make her favourite of all desserts – a Norm-shaped blancmange – a traditional affair at Christmas time for all Norms who like the novelty of eating something as white and bouncy as they are. Imagine then Normette’s disdain that in preparing for the dessert she realised she had run out of milk! And with all the shops around her closed too! But on hearing the news, Normy was suddenly excited – he realised that at last the opportunity had arisen for him to shine and prove that he could give Normette a worthwhile present – for what had he prepared for her 8th Christmas gift? Why, none other than 8 maids a-milking!

Full of excitement, Normy brought each of the 8 maids he had acquired for Normette into the kitchen. Once Normette had unwrapped each maid, she too became excited at Normy’s ingenuity. It was only when she then asked for the milk that Normy realised the error of his ways. He had managed to lay his hands on 8 maids, but he had completely forgotten about the cows! And where on earth would he find 8 cows at this time of the year?!

After many phone calls and several expressions of anger from Normette, Normy managed to find a single cow, and out they trekked, deep into a snowy field, while all 8 milk maids set about milking that poor single cow. But so shocked was the cow at being grappled by no fewer than 8 milk maids at one time that she could barely produce a milliletre of milk. Normette was far from impressed. I wouldn’t want to be in Normy’s household tonight…