GARDENS: Edwin Lutyens, 100 Cheyne Walk, London SW1

Designed by Edwin Lutyens in the 1920's, 

revived and elaborated by John Stefanidis

Note: Monkey topiary made with ivy on a wire structure
 to replace stolen Lutyen's 18th Century statues [right]

A pond could not survive under an ancient Mulberry tree
Arabella Lennox-Boyd advise clipped box - hurray!

LIVING BY DESIGN: Chester Square, London in the 1970's

The plainest of staircases with a round window above head height

 - lots of light but no mediocre urban view -

CULTURE: Victoria & Albert Museum, LONDON

A morning spent at the V&A is a morning well spent

 ‘David Bowie Is’ 

[March 23- August 11, 2013] 

A remarkable show, outstandingly well curated.

An excellent, informative article on Bowie, his life, by Ian Buruma ‘The Invention of David Bowie’ in the New York Review of Books [May 23-June 5, 2013] …Bowie changed the way many people looked in the 1970’s, 1980’s even the 1990’s…it is entirely fitting that the Victoria and Albert Museum should stage a huge exhibition of Bowie’s stage clothes, as well as music videos, handwritten song lyrics, film clips, artwork, scripts, storyboards, and other Bowieana from his personal archive..

In marked contrast, the Zeitgeist of the past decades, a well-mannered show Treasures of the Royal Courts shows the Tudors and Stuarts had close relationships with the Russian Tsars.  Elizabethan silver-gilt at its most magnificent lent by the Kremlin Museum.  Objects given to the Tsars, once looking dismal and tarnished in their glass cases, can now be seen in all their splendour.  

POETRY: Ezra Pound, Selected Poems [from CANTO III]

NEOCLASSICISM - A VAST SUBJECT Part I

The Acropolis, Athens

Starting with the Roman copycats, Neoclassicism has evolved and transmuted over centuries...

Villa Rotonda, Vicenza

PALLADIO

I have been in all of Palladio’s villas, and in each and every one I was uplifted and longed to inhabit them.  Palladio’s architecture is convivial, agreeable and inspiring, all in proportion to man’s inspirations.

ROMANO

Raphael's self-portrait with Giulio Romano

A great favourite of mine is Giulio Romano [1499-1546] – his architecture is not of the purest, like Michelangelo, or the grandest, like Bramante, but nobody beats him for playfulness and sensuality.  Palazzo Te in Mantova is the most fun building to visit in Italy and at present off the tourist trail.
   

     Room of  Psyche

                                      Hall of the Horses

                                     Room of the Winds

Room of the Sun and Moon

                                          Architectural details

TRAVEL: ITALY: Bologna, Ferrara, Vicenza

Palazzo dei Diamanti, 

Ferrara, Italy

 

At Palazzo dei Diamanti, there is a splendid exhibition on the films of Michelangelo Antonioni, a native of Ferrara, and best known in the UK for 'Blow Up'. 

Until June 9, 2013

Patrizia Medail 

is a 'genre' painter, 'assemblagiste' in the tradition of surrealist art - her work is astonishing. Here are examples in her Bologna house.

Forresteria di Villa Valmarana ai Nani, Vicenza

Frescoes by Tiepolo [1727-1804]

Teatro Olimpico, Vicenza

'Son et lumiere' at the Teatro Olimpico 

...theatrical with music - a waltz - most inappropriate! 

Basilica Palladiana, Vicenza

Designed by a young Andrea Palladio 

LIVING BY DESIGN: A Wiltshire Bedroom

Views of the Downs, a bedroom filled with light, always cheery, thanks to pull-up blinds beloved of sash windows, and the bright 18th Century colours of French wallpaper - not in rolls but, following tradition, in squares - Madame Sube in South West France is dedicated to producing these marvels [in a freezing chateau with no heating!].

Madame Sube, Chateau des Eveques, 40180 Saint-Pandelom, France Tel: +33 1 558 987 219 

JS pile carpet that successfully looks like matting but is more practical and softer under foot.

LIVING BY DESIGN: JS Scribbles

Leonardo da Vinci, Ingres and Mattisse - look to your laurels... here are some John Stefanidis scribbles!

GARDENS: Beth Chatto

On a recent visit to friends in Essex I was taken to the charming Beth Chatto Gardens where rare and unusual perennials can be bought in the adjoining plant nursery.

.http://www.bethchatto.co.uk

ART I admire: MARC BOXER [1931-1988]...all rather old hat