Whether you are a great lover of nature, authors and books, films, castles, whiskies, historical subjects or whatever your tastes you can be sure to find in Scotland a thematic trail about your favourite author or subject. Of course you can create your own itinerary as we’ve done in our previous trips in Scotland, but what I’ve discovered quite recently … Continue reading →
These photos of Margaret and Charles Rennie Mackintosh date from a time when they were young and happy, still brimming with enthusiasm and activity, working together at great projects. Portraits of the Mackintoshes at the time of their arrival in the south of France, in 1923, would certainly show the ravages of time for after a great period of … Continue reading →
Art is the flower – Life is the green leaf. Let every artist strive to make his flower a beautiful living thing – something that will convince the world that there may be – there are – things more precious -more beautiful – more lasting than life. But to do this you must offer real living – beautifully coloured … Continue reading →
Before resuming our ‘Journey around Scotland‘, with next episode leading us to Glasgow, mainly in the steps of Margaret and Charles Rennie Mackintosh, why not make a detour via the Roussillon, in this very nice and sunny region of France, where the famous Scottish artists spent the last and probably the happiest years of their life. A ‘Mackintosh Trail’ … Continue reading →
Charles Rennie Mackintosh circa 1900 “Let Glasgow Flourish” can we read on the city of Glasgow coat of arms… Charles Rennie Mackintosh is certainly the artist who most contributed to make Glasgow flourish! The Art Nouveau style he gave to a number of buildings in his native town, and which came to be known as ‘The Glasgow Style’, has … Continue reading →
The Mackintosh Trail in Roussillon, known in France as ‘Le chemin de Mackintosh’, was inaugurated in Port Vendres in June 2004 in memory of the great Scottish artist. It was created on the initiative of the Mackintosh Association and it is marked all along its way with panels put on the many different Mackintosh’s painting sites. On one side these … Continue reading →
I’m very happy to be back on Scotiana after a short trip to the south of France and very eager to tell you about it. Iain and Margaret had very kindly invited us to meet them in Carcassonne where they were spending a week’s holiday and we first went there to meet them before going on southward up to … Continue reading →
Margaret MacDonald is my spirit key. My other half. She is more than half – she is three quarters – of all I’ve done. We chose each other and each gave to the other what the other lacked. Her hand was always in mine. If I had the heart, she had the head. Oh, I had the talent but she … Continue reading →
The House for an Art Lover : Building the Dream of Charles Rennie Mackintosh –Part 1 For Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s admirers it’s something to find oneself in front of this elegant white building with its emblematic façade, so representative of the artist’s style and to think it has been built, more than seventy years after his death! If they came … Continue reading →
The House for an Art Lover : Building the Dream of Charles Rennie Mackintosh – Part 2 After our virtual visit of Queen’s Cross Church, let’s open the gates of the House for an Art Lover. Who could believe that this Mackintosh-style house has been built seventy years after the death of the great Scottish architect? In Bellahouston Park, the … Continue reading →
Queen’s Cross Church story begins when John Honeyman of Glasgow’s Honeyman & Keppie architectural practice was given, from the Free Church of St Matthew, the contract to build a new church, near Maryhill, a poor neighbourhood with tenements and warehouses. We are in 1897. A young artist, studying at the Glasgow School of Art is gaining popularity inside the city’s … Continue reading →
Hi everybody! No green leaves on the trees yet, but my window is wide open this morning and a very pleasant spring atmosphere is coming up from the garden! Here’s the spring, at last! This winter seemed to be a never ending one this year! Now, if you could have a look at the sunny room where I’m writing, you … Continue reading →
Germany – Art Nouveau – Sheet 3 Stamps As a “suite” to the great post that Mairiuna wrote about Mrs Kate Cranston’s tearooms, revealing Charles Rennie Mackintosh as the artist behind the magnificient decorative style of its interiors, I would like to emphasize today on the symbolism that lies underneath Mackintosh’s creative designs. But first, to put ourselves into context, let’s step back a century … Continue reading →
