I was pretty excited to sell another painting the other day through Millwood Gallery in Thorndon - a nice positive sign in a climate filled with talk of recession. Business is good for Murray so he's keen to take a few more of my pieces - a lovely floral still life, a pastel sketch of the Grand Canal while I was in Venice and a landscape. Yay! Unlike other artists who churn out the same thing year after year I like to keep my work fresh by engaging in new techniques and subject matter. One artist who doesm't do this admitted that painting for him has got to the stage where it is paint by numbers - can't imagine there is much passion in that! Right from the start Murrray has been a great supporter of my work. When I first approached a gallery (after reading Julia Cameron's The Artists Way and summoning up courage the gallery I approached was really rude and told me my work was too "naive." Murray at Millwood loved them and took all three - promptly selling them too! Interestingly his business is still thriving and the other gallery has closed.

Art sales are booming in other parts of the world too - particularly in the Middle East. While up in Auckland last month I heard of several NZart galleries setting up shop over there.

I thought you may be interested to learn what's going on over there in case you want to get in on the action or just need a good news boost.


The Middle Eastern market – Sotheby’s arrives in Doha [Feb 09]
(source: http://web.artprice.com/ami/ami.aspx)

In August 2008, the Art Market Insight published an overview of the boom in Iranian art. The United Arab Emirates, the new eldorado of cultural tourism, is building its Louvre in Abu Dhabi and its Guggenheim in Dubai, the city that has established itself, in two years, as the new capital of the Middle Eastern art market. In 2008, auction revenues in Dubai amounted to USD 34.9 million, a +70% increase on 2007.

In the Middle East, the number of collectors has increased (investing, as a priority, in their compatriots) and the market has rapidly become international. Following its first auctions in Dubai in 2006, Christie’s has included a greater representation of modern and contemporary artists in the London and Paris sales. In 2008, Bonhams followed the lead set by Christie’s in opening a local branch, while Sotheby’s plans to follow suit in Doha.

The first Sotheby’s Doha contemporary art sale is planned for 18 March 2009, the opening day of the Art Dubai fair (18 to 21 March). In order to attract both local art lovers and international collectors, the auction house’s strategy is to mix leading Western contemporary art figures such as Andy WARHOL, Damien HIRST and Gerhard RICHTER with the fastest-growing Iranian artists in the market, Farhad MOSHIRI, Charles Hossein ZENDEROUDI and Mohammad EHSAI already having achieved fairly spectacular auction results during the 2008 first half.

Charles Hossein ZENDEROUDI of the 10 up for auction found favour with collectors despite the fact that the artist had exploded a pre-sale estimate of USD 20,000 in April 2008, setting a new sale record of USD 1.4 million (Tchaar-bagh, Christie’s Dubai).

Farhad MOSHIRI, has also been seriously bid up by collectors since 2006. Sotheby’s bought in its two Moshiri canvases at its London sale on 6 February 2009. On 18 March, Sotheby’s hopes to achieve USD 250,000 to 350,000 for Moshiri’s Diamond Head, the work featured on the cover of the catalogue. Will the highly symbolic nature of this work be enough to tempt collectors? It depicts a falcon, the iconic emblem of the Persian Gulf, crossed with the eagle, the more universal symbol of courage and strength. The head of the bird is adorned with the famous crystals often used by the artist. In March 2008, these same crystals were to ensure a new sale record of USD 900,000 for the work Eshgh (Love), compared with a pre-sale estimate of USD 200,000 (Bonhams, Dubai).

Amongst the other headline lots in the 18 March sale: a calligraphic composition by Mohammad EHSAI, estimated at between USD 300,000 and 400,000. The artist proved resilient during the autumn auction round, achieving sales of between USD 400,000 and 430,000 in Dubai followed by London and may benefit from the renewed confidence of market players (AMCI) whose buying intentions are very high (70% of voters).

In London, Charles Saatchi has opened his gallery to young Middle Eastern artists with a three-month exhibition Unveiled: New Art from the Middle East (30 January to 9 May). His trend-setting role can only be beneficial for Diana AL-HADID, Sara Rahbar and Marwan RECHMAOUI, who have yet to make their saleroom debuts.


The race for art island: Louvre and Guggenheim battle it out

Already, the giant of the art collection world, the Guggenheim Foundation, has signed up to build a museum in Abu Dhabi designed by the architect Frank Gehry that will open in 2012. Now, in a race of cultural brand names, the Louvre is attempting to beat them to it, with the leading French architect Jean Nouvel to create a new museum that will display works from the Louvre.

Abu Dhabi, which has more than 9% of the world's oil reserves, plans to make the museums the centrepiece of a £14.5bn cultural and financial quarter set on an island named Saadiyat, Arabic for "isle of happiness". There will be three other museums, luxury hotels and golf courses. But the government is aware that in its competition to lure tourists away from the shopping haven of Dubai, the Louvre could be the deciding factor. More than 7.5 million people trooped through its doors in Paris last year. Abu Dhabi is said to be prepared to pay Paris more than €750m (£500m) for the jewel in its cultural crown.

Delicate diplomatic negotiations to transport the Louvre to the Arab world have taken place for more than a year in Abu Dhabi and Paris, with the French daily Libération asking whether the project was the "most novel and controversial deal in the history of French cultural politics". Like the Guggenheim, French curators will not exhibit nudity or religious subjects likely to offend in the location. But some in the arts world say the deal is less to do with culture than political and economic interests, and France trying to flex its muscles on the international stage. Already, French curators are advising on the construction of an Islamic art museum in Qatar designed by I M Pei, who created the Louvre's glass pyramid.



Backstory

They were once little more than oil outposts in the desert, wealthy but remote, seven emirates bound together in a federation on the south-eastern tip of the Arabian peninsula. But the United Arab Emirates are fast reinventing themselves as a cultural and recreational hub, with tens of billions of dollars of investment transforming Abu Dhabi and Dubai in particular. Abu Dhabi, whose petrodollars give it one of the highest per capita incomes in the world, is styling itself as the cultural alternative to Dubai's more ritzy holiday and retail destination.

The emirates capital plans an "upscale cultural district" on Saadiyat, with the $400m Guggenheim museum part of a $27bn government-funded development that will include museums, a concert hall and art galleries alongside two golf courses, hotels and an "iconic 7-star property". The Dubai plans include indoor ski slopes, an underwater hotel, a $4bn theme park, and the elite island development known as The World.

Business is booming in NZ!
Check out Deanna Gracies’s order book – this amazing jewllery designer says business has never been so good. Her order book is jam packed. If you’re in the market for a custom designed work of art contact Deanna now before you have to go on a waiting list! Recession? What recession? There’s always a market for quality pieces of art that sets the soul ablaze with joy.

To get hold of Deanna and view her latest works click here

Labels: architecture, Cultivating Creativity

This organic eco building is so cool I just had to share it with you.







Here's the original commentary uncovered by me while researching organic archtiecture - i've bolded the points of interest to me

Ricciotti Designs Bamboo 'Pterodactyl' Nest
December 17, 2007
By Robert Such
“A bird’s nest for a greedy pterodactyl” is how French architect Rudy Ricciotti describes a bamboo building he has designed in Paris. The $41 million project, dubbed T8 after its plot number, will provide offices, shops, and some 40 apartments overlooking an irregular-shaped courtyard pool. Built on a concrete platform astride a railway line, the seven-story, 47,684-square-foot building will occupy a two-acre rectangular site in the up-and-coming Tolbiac Chevaleret quarter, opposite the French National Library.



Images: Courtesy Rudy Ricciotti
Rudy Ricciotti surrounded the exterior of the T8 apartment building in Paris with a screen of bamboo, resembling a bird’s nest. Unlike typical French multifamily blocks, the building’s interior features an irregularly shaped courtyard garden and pool.


Wrapped in a bamboo latticework skin, the building is divided into three principal parts by a T-shaped courtyard. Ricciotti, who won the French Grand Prix d’Architecture in 2006, offers here a different approach to traditional Parisian courtyard design. Most courtyards are square or rectangular and lack greenery. In Ricciotti’s project, plant life will hang from green roofs in what he describes as an “imaginary Eden.” The building depth will range from 39 feet to 66 feet, creating an undulating surface of green-tinted glass around the central pool.

In terms of materials and colors, Ricciotti chose a somber palette for the street-side facades. Shop and cafe signs will be made of bronze, brass, or copper. Floor deck profiles will be made of rough black concrete. To bounce daylight throughout the interior, on the other hand, oyster shell-based plaster will line entry halls.

Ricciotti intentionally limited the number of materials in the project, and employed a simple palette, but maximized the ways in which each one was used. “No other material will be used, such as aluminum, PVC, or other rubbish that’s in vogue in the French (construction industry),” Ricciotti says. Residents of this iconoclastic bamboo building should be able to feather their nests when construction finishes in 2011.

Labels: architecture

When I tell people that I am studying organic architecture most people ask me, "you mean like tree houses?"

Close, and some designs like the ones above just outside of Kaikoura, are tree inspired. But organic architecture is far, far more expansive than trees.

While doing some research I came across this entry which sums things up nicely:


WHAT IS ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE?
More than green, beyond individual, Organic Architecture describes a way of thinking about design that transcends the common, everyday buildings around us.

ecological + individual = organic

While Organic Architecture does describe environmental concerns, it also embodies the human spirit, transcending the mere act of shelter into something which shapes and enhancesour lives. 

While Organic Architecture does describe an expression of individuality, it also explores our need to connect to Nature. 

Using Nature as our basis for design, a building or design must grow, as Nature grows, from the inside out. Most architects design their buildings as a shell and force their way inside. Nature grows from the idea of a seed and reaches out to its surroundings. A building thus, is akin to an organism and mirrors the beauty and complexity of Nature.

Understanding the systems of Nature, architects like Eric Corey Freed regard each design as an organism and each component as an interrelated extension of that organism. He designs the proper organism for its environment in accord with the relationships of each piece to the whole, and the whole to the surroundings. Through an extensive interviewing process, Eric begins to shape this new creature and provides the biology. The clients are an integral piece of this development as they are the the true designers of their building. (this I like!)

Through this process we feel our clients are "designing their autobiography."

The result produces unique and original forms that reflect the personality and needs of the client that also happen to be environmentally friendly. With a tendency toward natural forms and materials, these buildings often resemble organic creatures or plants, but are wholly new and inventive. This creative approach to design results in the opportunity to create an autobiography for yourself which lives in harmony with its surroundings and the environment.


WHERE DID THE TERM COME FROM?

The term "Organic Architecture" was invented by the great architect, Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959).

"So here I stand before you preaching organic architecture: declaring organic architecture to be the modern ideal and the teaching so much needed if we are to see the whole of life, and to now serve the whole of life, holding no traditions essential to the great TRADITION. Nor cherishing any preconceived form fixing upon us either past, present or future, but instead exalting the simple laws of common sense or of super-sense if you prefer determining form by way of the nature of materials..."
Frank Lloyd Wright, An Organic Architecture, 1939

Frank Lloyd Wright used the word "organic" to describe his philosophy of architecture. It was an extension of the teachings of his mentor, Louis Sullivan, whose slogan "form follows function" became the mantra of modern architecture. Wright changed this phrase to "form and function are one," claiming Nature as the ultimate model.

Although the word "organic" is now used as a buzzword for something that occurs naturally, when connected to architecture, it takes on a new meaning. Organic Architecture is not a style of imitation, but rather, a reinterpretation of Nature's principles to build forms more natural than nature itself.

Just as in Nature, Organic Architecture involves a respect for natural materials (wood should look like wood), blending into the surroundings (a house should be of the hill, not on it), and an honest expression of the function of the building (don't make a bank look like a Greek temple).

The Philosophy of Organic architecture continues today through the work of hundreds of students of Mr. Wright.

source: http://www.organicarchitect.com/organic/

Labels: architecture

Does bad design really kill? Does it create killers? Can truly great design at life to individuals, communities and environments. Intuitively I say "yes!" The curious me is heading off to see world acclaimed expert Dr Janis Birkeland tackle this critical topic in Wellington on Thursday.

Take a look at the state of our mental health services in Wellington - healing or killing? The whole place looks toxic - if you weren't mentally disturbed before you got there, in my view you'd take a turn for the worse just approaching this wretched looking place.

SOME OF THE ISSUES THAT WILL BE ADDRESSED BY JANIS:

• Why ‘positive development” – explanation of the principles of “ positive development with an emphasis on the outcomes sought and its value case

• Explanation of the different form of design required to implement the principles of “positive development” and achieve sustainable urban form

• Examples and case studies of design projects in an urban context that have implemented or embody principles of ‘positive development

• Details of the design process required to incorporate the principles of “positive development’ within urban development, and retrofitting of urban form

If you are not able to head off and see her in person check her out here:

Listen to Dr Janis Birkeland's interview on Nine to Noon, Radio New Zealand - http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/20090216

See Dr Janis Birkeland's interview on Sunrise, TV3 8.10am tomorrow, Tuesday 16th

Labels: architecture

Why do we live in boxes? The question had never crossed my mind before. Until I came across this thread on an architectural dicussion board:

"I cannot stress how important it is to have people like Thom Mayne because otherwise we'd be living in rectangular boxes (which most of the times are not functionally or formally organic, and I wonder why no one criticises those) and thinking thats the way where our children should be taught, civilians are being judged, food is served ... etc. No architect can give an definate answer as to how those spaces should be, but they (the ones who are not regressive) spend all their life contributing possible answers to those questions, and that is why I think they courage is admirable. "

To see the rest of this discussion click here:

Do you know why we live in boxes? I love to hear your views? My theory is that largely it's because we lack imagination and mistakenly believe that square houses are cheaper and more efficient to build. IF this were the case why didn't Eskimo's or African tribes people, and other low income groups, build boxes to live in?

We Call it Home: a history of State Housing in New Zealand
State houses in New Zealand subscribe to the box theory of pracitical design. The Ministry for Culture and Heritage iuntertook a history of State Housing in New Zealand. 'We Call it Home' was an online exhibition designed to get past tenants and suppliers of state houses to tell their state house stories. Visit the website for further information at
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/state-housing-in-nz: and see if this shed's further insight. It's not that living in a box is necessarily a bad thing - let;s face it, much of the world's population is grateful just to have a roof over there heads. I just wonder if, given money is being spent in creating these box homes, living in something more organic (derived and inspired by nature) could be better.

research confirms that building organicially pays off check out this thread here

What do you think? Feel? Believe?

Here's what one organic architect believes:

“Non rectangular spaces are more life enhancing both inside and outside. But they are much harder to work with as enclosures of pace- harder but possible. The issue is not between rectangles and non-rectangles: why do something differently unless there is good reason? The issue is between living and lifeless forms and spaces, life-renewing and life sapping environments.”

Christopher Day, architect (designer Steiner Kindergarten in Wales)

I also learned that London's very iconic Gherkin (as it is affectionally known), designed by Foster and Partners was originally going to be a rectangular shape - why? Because all the office furniture had right angles and it would be easier to pack in more people! Says it all really. Thank goodness good design and the courage to break out of the box prevailed. The Gerkhin is London's first ecologically designed building! Well done!

Labels: architecture

Organic architectural maestro Frank Lloyd Wright once famously decreed that houses should be of the hill, not on the hill. Look around you and see how many architects get this so wrong. Like wind farms so many houses stick out on the landscape like sore thumbs - irritating not consoling. Offending not inspiring.

For years I've had an "irrational" passion for hills. I paint them, I photograph them, I sit on them, I walk barefoot upon them, I touch them. I've had a similar passion for wood, nature, rocks, rivers and skies.....but oooohhh the joy of discovery when I realise I can blend my passion in the wonderful forms of organically created architecture - of the land, non on the land.

It still seems incredible to believe that after many years dreaming of indulging my passion for healthy, happy homes and organic design that the opportunity to study architecture full time should have come up. That is real-time testimony to the creative power of passion.


Partly it began when over eight years ago I picked up a book “New Organic Architecture: the breaking wave” at the library, by best selling author, organic architect and city planner David Pearson. I still remember the thrill I got each time I read the text and poured over the images. Here was something that fed my soul, something I understood, something I believed in with such a passion that now, eight years, later designing organic homes will become my reality.

Two years prior to this I had abandoned my interior architecture degree to support my daughter after the ending of my relationship. Now she is happily settled at Canterbury University I am free to create again – only this time with a focus on both the exterior and interior architecture of space.

Pursuing ones passion is not easy. It often requires great sacrifice – I’ve had to rent out my home to make my shift to full time study affordable. The good news is, tho, that I couldn’t have wished for better tenants – a wonderful family from Rome.

“Organic architecture”, says David Pearson, “is rooted in a passion for life, nature, and natural forms, and is full of the vitality of the natural world with it’s biological forms and processes. Emphasising beauty and harmony, its free-flowing curves and expressive form are sympathetic to the human body, mind and spirit, in a well designed “organic” building we feel better and freer.”


This is so true. There is something inherently “right” about houses designed around organic principals – the materials are less poisonous, the angles less vicious, the air less toxic.... and oh the beauty of being safely enclosed within its walls.

You can follow this exciting journey as I take a big career leap and pursue my passion for architecture here
- there's lots of real time tips to help anyone contemplating a big change in career

What to see someone who is living and working with his passion for rocks? No one is more passionate about stones than my dear friend Carl Gifford – affectionately known as Carlucci. Check him out here or visit him in person at the fabulous Carlucci Land!


Great links

Check out the following organic architecture sites:
California Institute of Earth Art and Architecture www.calearth.org

Ecological Design Association – http://www.edra.org/

Ecological Design Institute – http://www.ecodesign.org/

Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation – www.franklloydwright.org

San Francisco Institute of Architecture – www.sfia.net

The Earth Center www.earthcentre.org.uk


Want to know more about “The soft and hairy house?” Intrigued by Salvador Dali's provocative statement about architecture of the future, the clients - a young couple of architectural journalists - had commissioned a "soft and hairy" house from Japanese architect Eisaku Ushida and English architect Kathryn Findlay, “Covered with a carpet of wild grasses - the same species growing on the surrounding wasteland - the house, which is entwined around its patio, was conceived as an embodiment of the couple: the body of the man and the body of the woman coiled around the body of the child represented by the womblike shape of the bathroom.” Click here to learn more



For other useful information, search the Internet under “Organic Architecture.”

Stay posted as I begin my own organic architectural project to convert my garage to a studio and apartment! Very exciting!

The Architecture of Happiness – “One of the great, but often unmentioned, causes of both happiness and misery is the quality of our environment: the kind of walls, chairs, buildings and streets we’re surrounded by.” Read, watch and listen to more about philosopher Alian De Botton’s research into the architecture of happiness

Labels: architecture

I was really excited to receive this email from my dear friend and very talented artist Max Gimblett today about the painting which has been included in the "Third Mind" exhibition currently on show at teh Guggenheim museum in New York. Significantly, MAx is the only Kiwi to ever have been invited to showcase works of art - it's not hard to see why. This piece (above) is truly stunning. I am the proud and very passionate owner of two smaller pieces which I simply adore.

Max is extremely honoured that his painting Lion, 1985 (90" quatrefoil, metallic pigments and acrylic polymer on canvas) is included in The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia: 1860-1989, curated by the Guggenheim's Senior Curator of Asian Art, Alexandra Munroe, and that four of his limited edition Enso etchings published by HuiPress, Maui (where I joined Max last August for his Sumi painting workshops), are available exclusively in the Guggenheim Store for the duration of the show.

The Guggenheims's webpage for the show is here.

The show runs through April 19th, 2009.

Max is also giving a number of Sumi Ink Painting workshops in the Guggenheim's studio. Dates of workshops can be found on the Guggenheim's website here.. I see from looking at the site that the workshops have already been sold out! Luckily they are scheduling some extra ones. I feel very, very privileged to have been able to attend the workshop with him last year in the very serene and spiritual island of Maui

To purchase the show's catalog and/or any of Max's four limited edition Enso etchings published by HuiPress, Maui, exclusively available through the Guggenheim, visit the Guggenheim Store online here.

I had been pondering the prospect of entering some design competitions in preparation for my portfolio at year end for entry into the 2nd year of architecture when lo and behold while flicking through a magazine I discovered a competition for furniture and home objects.

Without delay (closing date is 2 days away) I sent away my entry

Here's what I included by way of a brief:


About the furniture:


This hall table was inspired by the architectural and design work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Like Macintosh I was also influenced by Japanese design and the Chinese principals of Feng Shui.

In the Japanese arts furniture and design focused on the quality of the space, which was meant to evoke a calming and organic feeling to the interior. The hall table has been created with these qualities in mind.

It is crafted from Jarrah and has routed squares of Tawa inserted. The glass top is etched with squares and is a half moon shape – symbolising the ebb and flow of life. Metal elements have also been incorporated in the design. Metal is an element used by many practitioners of Feng Shui to pull energy together. It is believed to stimulate the brain's intellectual abilities while bringing the energy of the room together. Increasing the metal energies of a room will allow one to focus one's thoughts.


Like Mackintosh’s work the hall table employs a simple and solid massed form with little ornamentation, yet it exudes light and space, and the use of colour and decoration is carefully conceived using natural forms and materials.



About the designer:

Cassandra Gaisford
Cassandra is an architect, artist, stylist and author. She has an intense passion for art in all its guises. She believes in the power of creativity to transform people’s lives, making them feel refreshed, playful, inspired and adventurous.

As fellow artist Paul Klee says – "one eye sees and the other feels" Cassandra’s creative collections are echoes of our culture when we are at our most happiest. Sometimes all it takes is one sensual piece of furniture, one evocative image or one sensual painting to evoke a radical reinvention of one’s life.

Handcrafted in Aotearoa, New Zealand Cassandra’s pieces all embody the essence of her beliefs and speak to her soul mission: to live life to the fullest, to take risks, to be playful, to create beauty and to always have fun and to help others achieve the same.

Visit Cassandra’s website to learn more about who she is and what she creates

www.cassandragaisford.com



You can learn more about these awards here

The winning entries and a selection of the finalists in the April/May 2009 issue of HOME New Zealand magazine.

Labels: architecture

The following quote arrived in my inbox today

Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. 
— Thomas A. Edison (1847 - 1931)

It struck a chord with me - does it strike a chord with you?

For me its arrival today is particularly relevant as, despite a severely challenging financial climate out there, I try to stick to my dream and passion for architecture. You can follow the journey here:

In the meantime here are a couple of my favorite overcoming obstacles quotes:

“Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.” - Michael Jordan, Basketball star

“Perhaps one of the greatest distinctions between five-sensory and six-sensory people is that five-sensories worry about how they’re going to make it in the world, whereas six-sensories always know that the Universe will there to help them in every way.” - Sonia Choquette, Author

To those I will add one of my own:

"Maintain a positive mindset. Setbacks are, with the benefit of hindsight, often opportunities in disguise>"