Browse Available Manchester Paintings Looming Manchester buildings started it all Manchester streets the source of more inspiration
Martin Lewis, no, not that Martin Lewis, was a New York artist, originally from Australia. He had an extraordinary understanding of the play of light and shadow and created amazing night scenes. A photographer's eye. No, a cinematographer's. He seemed to have a love affair with the night or twilight. But he also etched, or painted, marvelous scenes with almost no shadows as well. Just magic. I learned about Martin Lewis from one of the great brochures I received from The Old Print Shop. Relics, 1928 Subway Steps Great Shadow Derricks at Night Night in New York Shadow Dance A book online: Peeps at Great Cities- New York with illustrations by Martin Lewis Haunted Tree, Manhattan Winter Moon Arch Midnight Passing Storm Circus Night Quarter of Nine, Saturday’s Children, 1929 Chance Meeting “Sandy Hook, Connecticut. The mailbox bears the name ‘Landeck,’ referring to Lewis's friend Armin Landeck" The Glow of the City. 1929 Shadow Magic Late Traveler Fifth Avenue Bridge At the Wall, 1949 Stoops in the Snow, 1930 East Side Night, Williamsburg Bridge Spring Night, Greenwich Village, 1930 The Little Penthouse, 1931
Paddington Reservoir Gardens is bounded by Oxford Street opposite Underwood Street and Perry Lane, Paddington. The gardens incorporate the former Paddington Reservoir, which is on the NSW State Heritage Register. The reservoir was part of Sydney’s third water supply system, and was designed to contain water pumped from Lords Dam at Botany Bay which had been built in 1815. The Paddington Reservoir was the high level reservoir which worked in tandem with the low level reservoir in Crown Street, Surry Hills, both designed in 1857. Crown Street was finished in 1860 but work did not begin on the Paddington Reservoir until 1864 and it was completed in 1866. Ten years later the reservoir was enlarged at the eastern end creating a total capacity of 2 million gallons (9,092 megalitres) with a dimension of 33 metres long, 31 metres wide, and a water depth of 5 metres. Paddington Reservoir operated between 1878 and 1899 when the Centennial Park Reservoir was commissioned. After it closed in 1899 Paddington Reservoir was used for storage by the Water Board, and from 1914 to 1934 it housed the Board’s garage and workshop. The Reservoir was sold to Paddington Municipal Council in 1934 which leased the western chamber for a service station while the eastern chamber was still occupied by the Water Board until the later 1950s. The service station continued to operate under various lessees until 1990 when the roof collapsed. Since then the reservoir has been closed off and unused, with a further roof collapse occurring in 1993. Walter Read Reserve was established on the roof of the Paddington Reservoir in 1953. Walter Read was an alderman of Paddington Council 1937-1948 and Mayor in 1942, 1947 and 1948. The adjoining John Thompson Reserve, opened in 1976 on the former Grand View Hotel site, is named after one of the founders of the Paddington Society. Both reserves provide open space in the Paddington civic precinct which includes the Town Hall, Post Office and Juniper Hall (1824). Paddington Reservoir Gardens, incorporating both the Walter Read Reserve and John Thompson Reserve, opened in 2009 following major restoration and landscaping. The gardens include a community facility within the renovated former reservoir.
Am really fond of old engravings of parterres. Here are some from the marvelous Archive of Historical Gardens and Landscapes "Catena, the Digital Archive of Historic Gardens and Landscapes, is a collection of historic and contemporary images, including plans, engravings, and photographs, intended to support research and teaching in the fields of garden history and landscape studies." There are details about the construction and design at the delightful Jane Austen's World page on parterre gardens. "Kensington Palace Parterre Gardens, From the South, 1724 The ornamental parterre gardens that we so frequently see on the grounds of great mansions and 18th Century gardens, and mentioned in historical novels, grew out of the knot garden. The knot garden was a medieval form of symmetrical flower bed made up of hedges which separated various plants, such as flowers or herbs. Knot gardens have an intricate woven effect which is very labor intensive. Their hedges must be clipped and manicured daily to maintain their precise shape, thus the knot design grew out of favor. Parterres do not weave in and out and require slightly less trimming, though this is in relative terms. The modern gardener would still find this elaborate design labor intensive. Parterres look their best when viewed from above, if even from a slight angle."
Am really fond of old engravings of parterres. Here are some from the marvelous Archive of Historical Gardens and Landscapes "Catena, the Digital Archive of Historic Gardens and Landscapes, is a collection of historic and contemporary images, including plans, engravings, and photographs, intended to support research and teaching in the fields of garden history and landscape studies." There are details about the construction and design at the delightful Jane Austen's World page on parterre gardens. "Kensington Palace Parterre Gardens, From the South, 1724 The ornamental parterre gardens that we so frequently see on the grounds of great mansions and 18th Century gardens, and mentioned in historical novels, grew out of the knot garden. The knot garden was a medieval form of symmetrical flower bed made up of hedges which separated various plants, such as flowers or herbs. Knot gardens have an intricate woven effect which is very labor intensive. Their hedges must be clipped and manicured daily to maintain their precise shape, thus the knot design grew out of favor. Parterres do not weave in and out and require slightly less trimming, though this is in relative terms. The modern gardener would still find this elaborate design labor intensive. Parterres look their best when viewed from above, if even from a slight angle."
Martin Lewis (1881 - 1962) ausztralian artist. In 1900, Lewis left Australia for the United States and learned from Edward Hopper the basic...
Image 4 of 13 from gallery of Lennox Residence / Artau Architecture. Courtesy of Artau Architecture
Image 18 of 43 from gallery of Victims of Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall / Architectural Design & Research Institute of South China University of Technology. Photograph by Zhan Changheng - Ma Minghua
When I went to my first tourist shop in India I noticed something I'd never seen before in the West, except in the enormous, elaborate, old palaces in Italy. It was inlaid stone designs, done with semi-precious stones of various kinds. Sometimes this stone inlay work was on small brown stone boxes but usually it was inlaid into super white marble. Like this. It's only now, years later, that I looked up more information about this work, learned about it on the web. The name of the work is pietra dura (hard stone in Latin) or parchin kari in Hindi, the national language of India (which is rarely spoken out of a handful of North Western Indian states). Here below are typical tourist shop boxes of white marble with semi-precious stone inlay. The inlay here is, as far as I can see, tiger's eye, carnelian, agate, turquoise, sodalite or lapis, jasper and I'm not sure about the green stone, maybe malachite. Here's an octagonal box with more intricate work, mostly in sodalite or lapis. So graceful and delicate the thin, curving lines, the flower tendrils. This one must have been done by a master artisan. On the sides of the box the marble is pierced into a kind of stone lace, this is called jali. It's a traditional Moghul idea, making this lace of rock, using it both for decoration and practical purposes. The box below is made by an artisan named Imran. A little backstory. The Mughuls invaded India from about 1000AD to the mid 1700'sAD (about 600 years, during what was in Europe the Dark Ages to the Renaissance). When the Mughals came from what is now called Iran (then Persia), they brought with them brilliant artisans, introducing styles of art and crafts into India that had not been used or well developed before that. Because the Mughal Empire was an Islamic culture, the art of that religion, Islam, also came into Hindu-Buddhist-Jain India and what was the culture of Persia mixed with the culture of India, creating a new culture, known as Mughal. One of the great emperors of the Mughal Empire in India was named Shah Jahan. Shah Jahan on the peacock throne, the Mughal emperor from 1628 until 1658 . The seat of the Mughal Empire was in North India. There were several cities where the Mughal emperors settled and created their huge fortresses. One of those cities is Agra, south of Delhi about 157 miles. When his third wife Mumtaz, died, Emperor Shah Jahan built her an enormous mausoleum, known as the Taj Mahal, now often referred to simple as "the Taj". Mumtaz, for whom the Taj Mahal was built as a memorial. She died giving birth to her 14th child, Gauhara Begum. The Taj is not a grave. The bodies of Mumtaz and Shah Jahan were interred elsewhere. However, there are empty tombs in their honor, known as cenotaphs, which are placed at the center of the Taj Mahal. Mumtaz Mahal (6 April 1593 – 17 June 1631) (Persian, Urdu: ممتاز محل [mumˈt̪aːz mɛˈɦɛl]; meaning "the chosen one of the palace") born as Arjumand Banu Begum was aMughal Empress and chief consort of emperor Shah Jahan. The best artisans of the day in the mid 1600's were called in to make the Taj Mahal, which took around 21 years to build. The artisans remained in the city of Agra since then, continuing on in the stone inlay (parchin kari) and stone piercing (jali) tradition just the way it was done centuries ago although now using slightly more advanced tools. The stone used to build the Taj was marble brought in from Western India, in Rajasthan. Then the white marble was decorated with stone inlay or with pierced marble work. Pietra dura or pietre dure (see below), called parchin kari in South Asia, is a term for the inlay technique of using cut and fitted, highly-polished colored stones to create images. It is considered a decorative art. The stonework, after the work is assembled loosely, is glued stone-by-stone to a substrate after having previously been "sliced and cut in different shape sections; and then assembled together so precisely that the contact between each section was practically invisible".Stability was achieved by grooving the undersides of the stones so that they interlocked, rather like a jigsaw puzzle, with everything held tautly in place by an encircling 'frame'. Many different colored stones, particularly marbles, were used, along with semiprecious, and even precious stones. Here is how this work is done in India. Marble Sculpting in Agra Agra Marble: the art of Pietra Dura Marble to marvel... pietra dura inlay work in Agra India Novica: Marble inlay artist Imran Some of the stones used in the pietra dura work in Northern India Lapis Lazuli Malachite Mother of Pearl Ocean Quartzite Sodalite Tiger's Eye Stone Variations SEMI-PRECIOUS STONES: Agate Carnelian Moss Alabaster Amethyst Aventurine Green Pink Banded Onyx Cat's Eye Clear Quartz Rock Crystal Coral Real Reconstituted Cornelian Hematite Imperial Red Jasper Jade Black Green Jasper Green Red Lace Amethyst Lapis Lazuli Real Reconstituted Leopard Skin Agate Malachite Real Reconstituted Obsidian Black Green Onyx Wide selection of rare and unique varieties Rhodonite Rose Quartz Sodalite Sugilite Tiger Eye Tiger Iron Turquoise Real Reconstituted Carnelian Sugilite Quartz Jasper Detail of the pietra dura work in the Taj Mahal, Agra, watercolor from the British Library Tops of the cenotaphs of Shah Jahan and Arjumand Banu Begum, Taj Mahal, Agra 1808, watercolor from the British Library Carving Marble with Traditional Tools Detail of the pietra dura work in the Taj Mahal, Agra, watercolor from the British Library These are typical table tops one can buy from Northern India, made with marble and parchin kari stone inlay from the Agra artisans. This one is particularly beautiful. India's leading high-quality marble mineral concentrated in the Indian state of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh. Makrana is a town in the Nagaur district of Indian state of Rajasthan. Makrana is famous for the white stone as marble mined from the mines around it. It is said that theTaj Mahal was built from Makrana marble. Makrana is a small town, but it has plenty of marble outcrops. Most of the residents in this town work as marble miners. Indian marble mine This site has good images of the Moghul Architecture in and Around Agra, India The Taj Mahal, in Agra, India The Taj before sunrise Image of the interior of the Taj Mahal, watercolor from the British Library Copyright: © M & G Therin-Weise Taj Mahal, India, Flowers relief detail General view of the Taj Mahal, Agra, from the river, watercolor from the British Library The Taj Mahal was built by the Emperor Shah Jahan (r.1628-58) for his favourite wife Arjumand Banu Begum upon her death in 1631. Constructed of India’s finest marble, quarried at Makrana near Jodhpur, it took 12 years to build involving 20,000 craftsmen from all over Asia. The tomb and accompanying buildings are organised around a garden divided into four parts by raised walkways with water channels at their centres. The pietra-dura was done with thousands of imported precious and semi-precious stones arranged in floral designs that embellish the exterior and interior of the building. The domed white marble mausoleum stands on a plinth with tapering minarets on each corner. Its harmonious proportions and exquisite craftsmanship have made the Taj Mahal one of the wonders of the world. This drawing shows the Taj from the river, showing the mosque, mausoleum and assembly hall, with a boat in the foreground. A little virtual tour of the Taj Mahal © M & G Therin-Weise Copyright: © Tim Schnarr Image Source: WHC Description: Taj Mahal Date: 08/01/2008 Copyright: © E. de Gracia Camara Travels with Siv and John Travels with Siv and John Making jali screen, Agra Jali (pronounced "jolly") screen Traditionally screens are use in Mosques to separate: -male and female areas -religious and secular areas Besides visual separation, the perforation allows gentle light to filter through and encourage natural ventilation. Jali is the term for a perforated lattice window screen. Widely used in ancient Indian architecture, jalis are most commonly carved out of stone, using intricate geometrical patterns. Windows with jalis served two purposes, one being aesthetically beautiful and the other more practical in nature; providing natural air conditioning. When summer winds from the desert air threatened to overheat a building, the jali which invites natural air flow, cooled the building’s interiors. The complex designs in this jali are a combination of geometric forms and shapes derived from nature, showing strong Islamic influences. They are said to create the impression of unending repetition believed to be associated with the infinite nature of God. Travels with Siv and John © Arthur Thévenart/CORBIS Photograph by Susan Ford Collins from her marvelous Flickr sets Unfortunately, a lot of the work the artisans do in Agra is in a shape that is not interesting to Western customers. Maybe rich people from Saudi Arabia have homes for the huge marble table tops or Mughal style garden furniture but these forms are not practically things most Americans or Europeans want. I think the people who guide the artisans in choices of what to make for sale need to guide the artisans about what work is to be done with more thought to what Western customers might actually buy. I say this because the art of this beautiful stone inlay is slowly being lost and the artisans end up literally selling peanuts on the street or doing some other thing to survive. Typical marble coasters with stone inlay, an example of something on which I think this beautiful art form is wasted, because people in the West rarely use coasters, especially not expensive marble ones. Yet another thing that is rarely bought in the West, a mini Taj Mahal replica in marble. I think the artisans would do more successful business in the West if they made things that were more popular at this time for the house. Like desk accessories or mantelpieces. or this shape but in stone. Or clock faces with stone inlay or candle holders with stone inlay Western designers need to help the artisans of Agra to create the basic marble designs that will be desired in the West, on which the stone inlay work can be done or this art will be lost. The jali screens around the cenotaph inside the Taj . "The octagonal marble screen or jali which borders the cenotaphs is made from eight marble panels. Each panel has been carved through with intricate piercework. The remaining surfaces have been inlaid with semiprecious stones in extremely delicate detail, forming twining vines, fruits and flowers." The jali screens around the cenotaph inside the Taj Tomb of Shaikh Salim Chishti - 30mm thick marble jali screen Pierced Stone Jalli Screens via Palace of Akbar, 1574. Detail of Mashrabiyya in tomb shrine of Sheikh Salim Chishti (1580) Inside a contemporary jali screen Photo: Doctor Casino
From Willem and Els's garden Rather than going in strictly chronological order, I've decided that, at least for the Netherlands portion of the trip, I'll group my comments and pictures by city or theme. Since Utrecht was our home base, I'll start there. We landed on a foggy morning. As a photographer, I actually really like fog; it softens things and adds mystery. However, it does have its challenges. As Willem drove us from Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam (pronounced SKRIPF-hol) to Utrecht, I glanced at the broad, flat fields on either side of the road, and asked aloud what I was looking at . . . turkeys? Vultures? Some kind of large bird. No. They were cows. In the thick fog, I'd only been able to see the splotches on the cows sides. Kind of a Rorschach test. But it became a running joke throughout the trip, especially as we saw many, many cows in both Holland and Switzerland. But the most remarkable thing on that first morning was the narrowness of the roads. Near Willem and Els's house That, dear friends, is a two-way street on which parking and bicycles are permitted. This was not an anomaly. The drivers there all took it in stride, but I would likely have been frozen in a giant grid-lock if I'd been driving. After a strong coffee and typically Dutch breakfast of bread, cheese, and deli meats, Winkie and I took a nap. When Els came home from work, we all visited the University of Utrecht botanische tuinen (botanical gardens). I had mentioned by e-mail that I loved gardens, and Els had remembered this garden, which she had heard of but never visited. We were not disappointed. Eventually, these rock-encrusted spheres will be covered with living things. The gardens were not large, but they were plenty of challenge for our tired selves. I also discovered that my 75-year-old auntie had considerably more stamina than I did. That woman could walk! She also shared with me one of her secrets: Arnica. It is a homeopathic treatment for inflammation, pain and bruising. She gave me a vial of sub-lingual arnica, and it made a huge difference, almost overnight. My chronically aching joints and mysterious bruising subsided dramatically over the two weeks we were away, and arnica has now become a standard item in my purse. (Sub-lingual is great when you're on-the-go.) But back to the gardens. Although most of The Netherlands is incredibly flat, this garden had a hill. More a hummock, really, but when you have sore hips, this counts as a hill. (Note: you will see several similar photographs of flights of stairs or switchbacking paths throughout this travelogue.) Actually, it was the hips and lower back that hurt after climbing; the knees were what hurt after the coming down. I just adore willow trees. Our hosts kept apologizing for the lack of flowers this late in the season. Hah! These were called Cardinals' Caps. I think this was gorse, which we had seen from afar in Ireland (with its cheery yellow flowers). What a daunting plant that is! The weather was refreshingly mild, and the sun was out, so we had a pleasant time. These don't look at all poisonous. After our lovely afternoon, we came home to Prosecco and beer on the back deck. What a fine welcome! On our last day in Holland, we also spent a morning in Utrecht, wandering through the oldest parts of the city. One of the things I hadn't appreciated about Europe (despite how often it is shown in movies) is that fresh flowers are a household staple. Seriously. Willem made a special trip out on Saturday morning to get flowers, even though we were leaving that day for Brussels. In Utrecht, as in other cities on our travels, I fell in love with the narrow, cobble-stoned lanes with skinny houses crammed right up against the sidewalks. Behind those houses are courtyards that Willem showed us (I would never have found them myself), but I will write more about those in a future post. And, of course, you can't visit Europe without seeing one or one hundred churches. In a city founded circa 50 CE, "new" and "old" are extremely relative terms. If you are restoring an old church, how far back do you go? And you have to keep your eyes open to see surprises like this. Look closer: Rope "hands" holding the tracery together. A stonemason's little joke that has lasted centuries. But, as with many European cities, there is also a drive to meld ancient and modern. The results, in my mind, are not always as beautiful as either might be. If you did a word-association test about Holland, I can almost guarantee a few words would come up: canals, bicycles, and windmills. So here are a few words and pictures about each. CANALS In warmer months, I'm sure this cafe would be full of people. Canals, of course, are an integral part of The Netherlands as they've used ingenious engineering to remove water from their fertile lands. As well as serving agricultural purposes, the canals are used for transportation, as they are in Venice. BICYCLES Bicycle parking is actually a problem. Bicycles are almost omnipresent, except on limited-access highways. On our way in to Utrecht, I glimpsed a beautiful young woman, blond hair flying behind her, wearing a pink sweater, and perched upright on her bicycle, riding along merrily in the bicycle lane beside our car. There is no way I could have had my camera ready for that, but the image is stuck in my mind. But if you look at the bikes, they are not the many-speed, athletic bicycles that we use here in North America. They are workaday bicycles. They have sturdy baskets and racks, fenders to keep the mud off, and the kind of handlebars I grew up with. They are meant to be ridden at a casual pace, not in a race. (We saw several school groups bicycling on their field trips, rather than taking a school bus. Wouldn't that be an interesting municipal effort to curb youth obesity: make bicycle travel part of the curriculum.) WINDMILLS The old-fashioned four-bladed windmill is no longer the main means of diverting water from arable land. Nowadays, they use diesel engines and the windmills are more for scenic value, but I did love seeing them and, eventually, Willem made a detour so I could get a pretty picture of one, outside of Utrecht. Next stop: Amsterdam!
Completed in 2018 in Sudbury, Canada. Images by Bob Gundu. LGA Architectural Partners designed Laurentian University’s McEwen School of Architecture to prepare young architects for the critical design issues...
In this article we will take a close look at the architectural concept and how it fits in with the design process.
Village corner of St-Cirq Lapopie - Perigord, France
Architecture® designed by Angelo Vito. Connect with them on Dribbble; the global community for designers and creative professionals.
The Great Sept of Baelor
Am really fond of old engravings of parterres. Here are some from the marvelous Archive of Historical Gardens and Landscapes "Catena, the Digital Archive of Historic Gardens and Landscapes, is a collection of historic and contemporary images, including plans, engravings, and photographs, intended to support research and teaching in the fields of garden history and landscape studies." There are details about the construction and design at the delightful Jane Austen's World page on parterre gardens. "Kensington Palace Parterre Gardens, From the South, 1724 The ornamental parterre gardens that we so frequently see on the grounds of great mansions and 18th Century gardens, and mentioned in historical novels, grew out of the knot garden. The knot garden was a medieval form of symmetrical flower bed made up of hedges which separated various plants, such as flowers or herbs. Knot gardens have an intricate woven effect which is very labor intensive. Their hedges must be clipped and manicured daily to maintain their precise shape, thus the knot design grew out of favor. Parterres do not weave in and out and require slightly less trimming, though this is in relative terms. The modern gardener would still find this elaborate design labor intensive. Parterres look their best when viewed from above, if even from a slight angle."
A breathing artwork by Alexander Knox is now the façade of 300 George Street, Brisbane, which emulates the effect of sunlight rippling on water.
Olá, quantos calcúlos, temos que fazer para um projeto de arquitetura... Milhares e milhares. Falando de arquitetura de fachadas, tetos, paredes com decorações lindas, só mesmo horas na prancheta para que o resultado, fique perfeito. TETOS, PAREDES, FACHADAS um post para olhar para cima!!!! SID LEE, Arquitetos Uma criatividade fenomenal! Arquiteturas Modernas, são maravilhosas... Abaixo, a beleza da claraboía com todo o seu trabalho de molduras laterais. Com um toque Clássico bem acentuado, mas em um espaço atual... Show Room CLIVE, NY. Molduras e apliques nas paredes e tetos bem decoradas. Portas, trabalhadas e seus apliques. ...quando os acabamentos rústicos, simples e naturais, tornam um charme... Paredes com alturas bem altas, são perfeitas para receber decorações. Um piso de madeira machetado, e o teto altamente trabalhado. CLÁSSICO, sempre presente neste blog! Explendoroso... Olhar, cada detalhe destes lindos trabalhos antigos, requer tempo e interesse. São tantos. Quando além, dos detalhes de gesso, madeira e outros, as pinturas completam uma beleza surreal! O Clássico como a sofisticação do teto. Dourados, prateados, coloridos pinturas únicas. Difícil calcular o tempo, que estes verdadeiros mestres, da arquitetura antiga, levavam para executar estas imensas paredes, fachadas e tetos dos castelos, igrejas, catedrais, palácios entre outros. Hoje, em viagens aos países mais antigos, a beleza continua a encantar seus visitantes e a inspirar os arquitetos. Mesmo, não sendo de sua preferência, uma decoração clássica ou super moderna, ver, conhecer, apreciar e um pouco mais de cultura, no seu caminho por esta vida... Faça isso, olhe para estes detalhes com curiosidade e descubra maravilhas. Te aguardo, no próximo post.
The Ministry of Agriculture's building in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan in the Russian federation, is a magnificent work of eclectic architecture with a beautiful, massive wrought-iron tree that inspires pastoral agricultural images - and its construction was completed just a few years ago. The tree was designed to cast its shadow on the building's lobby below.
Martin Lewis, no, not that Martin Lewis, was a New York artist, originally from Australia. He had an extraordinary understanding of the play of light and shadow and created amazing night scenes. A photographer's eye. No, a cinematographer's. He seemed to have a love affair with the night or twilight. But he also etched, or painted, marvelous scenes with almost no shadows as well. Just magic. I learned about Martin Lewis from one of the great brochures I received from The Old Print Shop. Relics, 1928 Subway Steps Great Shadow Derricks at Night Night in New York Shadow Dance A book online: Peeps at Great Cities- New York with illustrations by Martin Lewis Haunted Tree, Manhattan Winter Moon Arch Midnight Passing Storm Circus Night Quarter of Nine, Saturday’s Children, 1929 Chance Meeting “Sandy Hook, Connecticut. The mailbox bears the name ‘Landeck,’ referring to Lewis's friend Armin Landeck" The Glow of the City. 1929 Shadow Magic Late Traveler Fifth Avenue Bridge At the Wall, 1949 Stoops in the Snow, 1930 East Side Night, Williamsburg Bridge Spring Night, Greenwich Village, 1930 The Little Penthouse, 1931
Here we want to show you how to find architectural ideas and inspiration through tried and tested processes and methods.
