Fiona McLees

A pathway with bordered by straight, low hedges leads to a dark doorway through a huge bank of topiary yew tree hedge, in fluctuating and wave-like forms

Unreachable places and ungraspable forms in the cloud-like hedges at Powis Castle. One dreams of green cut-yew steps leading upwards to impossible rooms inside that dark tunnel…

Definitely keeping this one. Makes me want to retrain as a gatesmith!

A partly empty tray of sandwich wraps, with crumbs. A small card behind it reads “your inspiring reality…”

Still remember this sign I encountered at a conference once. Too on the nail

A black and white book cover titled “Davies Brothers Gatesmiths” by Ifor Edwards, with three photos of elaborate ironmongery

Sorting through my Dad’s books, and there are too many I want to keep. Who could resist this niche beauty, for example?

They are meant to bring luck and ward off evil!

Llyn-y-Cau, lake near summit of Cader Idris, North Wales, oil on canvas, 1774, by ‘the Welsh Claude’, Richard Wilson, born #OTD 1714; inspired by travel to Italy & Claude Lorraine’s landscapes, he returned to Wales to paint sublime scenery; later influenced Constable, Crome & Turner. Tate Britain

Llyn-y-Cau, lake near summit of Cader Idris, North Wales, oil on canvas, 1774, by ‘the Welsh Claude’, Richard Wilson, born #OTD 1714; inspired by travel to Italy & Claude Lorraine’s landscapes, he returned to Wales to paint sublime scenery; later influenced Constable, Crome & Turner.
Tate Britain

A perfection of hagstones, the lithic dreams of Hepworth manifested by the sea

Oh!

Just heard some Dodgy pumping out of a bar. Jeez.

We are thrilled to announce our annual conference, this year in collaboration with the National Gallery! Join us on 26-27 September, to celebrate together their bicentenary, exploring the theme: ‘Creating the Museum: exploring the museum impulse in local, regional and national contexts’. (1/2)

This month’s Museum Book Club: Charlotte Williams’ Sugar and Slate. The daughter of a white Welsh-speaking mother and a Black father from Guyana, Charlotte Williams' memoir explores the intertwined history of Wales, Africa and the Caribbean, through her own travels and historical research.

Any pics of the inside? What was in there?

Duchamp: ... I wanted to be free of any material obligation, so I began a career as a librarian, which was a sort of excuse for not being obliged to show up socially. From this point of view, it was really a very clean decision. I wasn't trying to make paintings, or to sell any. I had several years' work ahead of me. Cabanne: You made five francs a day at the Sainte-Geneviève Library, didn't you? Duchamp: Yes, because I was 'kindly' doing it for nothing For amusement, I also went to take courses at the School of Paleography and Librarianship. Cabanne: You took that very seriously? Duchamp: Because I thought it was going to last. I knew very well that I would never be able to pass the examination at the school, but I went there as a matter of form. It was a sort of grip on an intellectual position, against the manual servitude of the artist.

How did I not know Marcel Duchamp worked as a librarian?

"A sort of excuse for not being obliged to show up socially." :)

This was in 1913. From Pierre Cabanne's Dialogues With Marcel Duchamp

Tranquility is a pretty word

A wooden shelf with various scoops, callipers, brushes, scissors, spoons. A propped up sign reads “Tranquillity”.

Tranquility: Ordered tools in a peaceful pause (though perhaps never to be used again). The Leach Pottery Museum, St Ives.

Maybe that should be fearsome, instead of grumpy? She looks exceptionally intimidating

Yes, definitely. Also the scale! Haven’t seen the ones as Somerset House. We have a small handful of his works at Amgueddfa Cymru, including this masterful (and grumpy) pencil portrait of Hilda museum.wales/collections/...

Yes. & unless I’m misremembering, there is a sense of redemption in his depiction of such tasks, & spiritual significance of making clean again, especially after his WWI experiences. The chapel is just fantastic - I saw Spencer as more of a side-note curio until I went there (reflects poorly on me!)

This is wonderful

Gosh I love this Degas. Almost Gauguin-like in those big fields of colour. Here’s some more laundry going on, from Stanley Spencer’s superlative Sandham Memorial Chapel, a unique and extraordinary place to visit

The National Slate Museum is looking for a conservator to work with these beautiful wooden patterns - 4,500 of them, that were used as casting templates in the foundry. 2-year post based at Llandygai, Bangor nmwtest.ciphr-irecruit.com/Applicants/v...

Oo some similar vibes, for sure

Ah you might like this too, if you like industrial heritage👇
As an aside, when I studied at St Andrews (over 20 years ago) my techno-DJ housemate used to organise raves at the Secret Bunker nearby - an interesting experience! Not much good when you want to catch a breath of fresh air though…

That’s so lovely

Yes! I like the look of that one very much

An interior of the sign museum in Amman: a jumble of hand painted signs mostly in Arabic

The exterior of the Museo de La electricidad in Lima - a low rise building painted yelllw with green shutters

The paper museum entrance, covered in creepers on a sunny street

A friend of mine leads a peripatetic life and sends me photos of museums I might like from around the world. A sign museum in Amman, an electricity museum in Lima, and a paper museum in North Macedonia: I doubt I’ll ever get to any of them but I love these snippets from other places

A collage of typographic details from Black Sabbath’s first four albums, shown alongside cropped specimens of the typefaces used.

New on the blog: The arcane alphabets of Black Sabbath

To commemorate Ozzy Osbourne, we took a deep dive into the obscure typefaces used on Black Sabbath’s first four album covers.

fontsinuse.com/uses/35835/t...

(Buckle up, it’s a long one.)

🙋‍♀️ snap

A slightly ramshackle assemblage of low-rise buildings. At the front a creeper-covered entrance way, with a sign reading “Paper Museum”

This entrance to a Paper Museum in the Republic of North Macedonia is basically so perfect that I wonder if it’s just a lure for people like me? It’s the most enticing signage and museum façade I’ve ever seen. Sadly I’m not there, but a friend sent me this on his travels

Three shelves against a whitewashed wall, piled with wooden cogs and other wooden shapes

A table and shelves piled with wooden carved cogs and pipes and bits

Picabia’s ink drawing Alarm Clock, 1919 (Tate), a spare drawing on cream paper of cogs and broken circuits

Maybe my favourite part of the National Slate Museum at Llanberis: the pattern loft, where these beautiful wooden cogs & parts pile up on many shelves. They were used to create moulds for casting replacements for broken machinery. They make me think of Picabia, Duchamp, Nash, Wadsworth…