Piet Mondriaan ~ his influence continues to enrich us ~

I took this photo at Gemeente Museum ~ The Hague when I was last in the Netherlands a few months ago. I've tried to find it on their site or elsewhere online to find the title and when it was painted etc, but to no avail! And my picture here is not ideal, as the glass reflection undermines the luminosity and beauty of this work. I think it was quite an early piece, before his more famous works, which everyone knows off by heart.

I notice that there's an exhibition on at the Pompidou Centre in Paris, and there's an excellent little film clip about that here.

Picture on the left shows the beautiful original Art Deco design of the Gemeente Museum in The Hague. All the interior, fittings and everything are elegantly original Art Deco. The whole building is a museum to that.

Its worth a visit if you're in Europe.

art deco place mats

These exquisite hand made place mats are from the 1930's. They are perfect. The colours glow, the weaving is just so neat, the colours are jaw-droppingly beautiful (the reduduction I have created here really doesn't share how saturated and radiant the colours really are...). I inherited them from my mother. She had a draw full of linen and straw place mats. These were the best ones. They are some of my favorite things, and continue to nourish my eyes and heart with their simple beauty.

Art Deco box

Yes, I think this is an appropriate place to start. I inherited a very large collection of costume and design items from my mother. And not only many of the objects from it in life; but I realize more and more that I absorbed everything she gathered and hunted and inherited herself from her rich cultural life, by osmosis and I imagine: DNA. So I'm very very lucky. And I have a big responsibility, not only to my family, but to all interested in, or passionate about beautiful things, to pass on this extraordinary legacy. And that's why I'm inbetween things. I have been making jewellery for years and years. I still love to make jewellery. But I also paint and draw. And I also design and create logos, design styles and images for other people, including my own 'house'.
So here we are. I've finally started this blog, and hope it brings you as much inspiration and creativity as it brings me.