‘One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art’.
So said Oscar Wilde, not only a celebrated Victorian author who happily clogs my bookshelves, but also a very important figure in the Aesthetic Movement in Britain, one which was dedicated to the artistic pursuit of beauty.
An exhibition has opened at the University for the Creative Arts in Canterbury displaying the work of internationally renowned artists such as Tracey Emin, David Hockney and Gillian Golding.
Continue reading Art Exhibition at University for the Creative Arts
“You’ve got to know the rules to break them. That’s what I’m here for, to demolish the rules but to keep the tradition.”
The words of Lee McQueen are written across the walls of the V&A’s hotly anticipated show Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, and I attended the press preview this morning to see the exhibition.
Treat your mum this Mother’s Day with a thoughtful gift. What would she like?
Continue reading Mother’s Day Gift Guide
I went to Hampton Court Palace to see the Cumberland Art Gallery – a newly restored suite of rooms housing an inspiring collection of masterpieces by artists – including what may be Caravaggio’s earliest surviving painting, Rembrandt’s self-portrait aged 36 and portraits by Hans Holbein the Younger.
Continue reading Cumberland Art Gallery at Hampton Court Palace
Time for a little ornithological existentialism. On my window sill I have a little toy bird in a birdcage and every single day a blue tit bird comes to visit. It’s the first thing I hear in the morning: the sound of the blue tit delicately landing on the window to see the bird-in-cage ornament.
It’s the little pretty things that I have the most difficulty resisting. I like to surround myself with eye-catching ornaments. Flippant fripperies.
Guildford has a little secret.
If you wander down one of the picturesque backstreets off the busy high street in Guildford, you’ll find one of Surrey’s most treasured historic gems.
2015 marks the 150th anniversary of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll spent a lot of time living in Guildford and he finished the second Alice book Through the Looking Glass during one of these stays in 1871.
Continue reading Lewis Carroll in Surrey
I visited Denbies Wine Estate near Dorking as I was keen to see the place where almost half a million bottles of wine were created during the last harvest in 2014.