Delft Tile Tray

I found this mid-century cheese tray at a local thrift store for $1! Frankly, the tiles alone are worth more than that. It was originally medium brown wood, and those little right-hand circles were red magnets, but I covered the whole piece in some coats of Old White Chalk Paint. I might use it as a tray for craft projects, or I might hang it on a wall and secure some fancy knobs into those left-hand circles as hooks.

Either way, I'm in love with the painterly blue and white tiles!

Ottawa Parliament Plate

What an appropriate thrifting find this is, considering it's January 2017, the beginning of Canada's 150th year! This souvenir plate features Ottawa's Parliament buildings. The back is stamped with "Johnson Bros England The Old Dominion" which indicates that it's likely pre-1920. Parliament as we know it today was completed by 1922, the Peace Tower added in 1927. The curious thing, though, is that the plate's illustration doesn't exactly represent the current Parliament...or the Parliament that burned down in 1916. Was it created between 1916 and 1920 as a proposed design of the new building? Is it some stock image of a British castle from the library of Transferware designs? Or maybe it's just a bit of artistic license? Hmm...

Carbide Willson Ruins

 This 1911 mill is an enthralling structure of abandoned ingenuity!

Its massive, warped window frames have an elegant industrial feel.

Salt patterns on the stone

Contemporary cave drawings

So much rough texture

A grand spot for photoshoots

A Venetian Doorway

A beautiful painting by Wilfrid Gabriel de Glehn from 1913.

Henri Le Sidaner's Tables

I clipped this picture out of a Victoria issue from the '90s. Smitten with the colors and intimist style, I checked out the artist, Henri Le Sidaner. Apparently he really liked painting tables, and, frankly, he makes them seem like the center of the most heavenly retreats. Here's just a few:

 La Nappe Rose

La Table, Automne, Gerberoy

 La Table D'Automne

La Table, Soleil dans les Feuilles  

La Table aux Lanternes

La Table Bleue

Le Dejeuner

Audrey: The Life of Audrey Hepburn

I got this book for next to nothing at a book sale and was pleasantly surprised when I cracked it open and read it. As a biography, I was expecting a dry sequence of dates, names, and places, but Charles Higham did Audrey more justice than that. It is factually yet descriptively written, actually quite beautifully written at times. 

The book covers Audrey's childhood to the end of her career in film. In particular, I enjoyed learning about what led her to entering the film industry, as well as the shocking situations she was in as a child working with the Dutch resistance during WWII. It's a captivating read!

Vintage Vogue Illustrations

March 1923.

There is something extra special about vintage Vogue illustrations. I would love to plaster them all over my walls. Artists like Helen Dryden, Harriet Meserole, and George Wolfe Plank were incredibly talented at creating these dreamy images of sartorial splendor! 

 April 1919.

 June 1922.

 May 1924.

May 1939.

You can find the full archive of Vogue covers, starting with issues from 1916, here.

Art Repros

I've been working on reproducing art from various movements, and I just wanted to share a few of the results! My versions are done in acrylic paint on 5'' by 5'' and 4'' by 6'' sheets of canvas paper. Through this project I've familiarized myself with different styles, and discovered a long list of artists' work I greatly admire.

Because of my love for textiles, of course, I decided to recreate a William Morris print from the Arts and Crafts movement. This one is titled Pomegranate and is originally from 1866.

I enjoyed replicating the bold architecture in Restaurant de la Machine à Bougival by Maurice de Vlaminck from 1905. Fauvism is one of the most bright and cheerful art movements!

I duplicated this Roy Lichtenstein work from 1963, Woman in Bath, as it is one of my favourite Pop Art images.

Finally, this is my reproduction of Exterior of a Restaurant at Asnières by Vincent Van Gogh in 1887. The bright yellow wall and potted plants make this Post-Impressionism painting so lemony and fresh!


The Secret Artist

A fluttering lens was barely noticed as it inconspicuously traipsed down mid-20th century streets. The moments were captured, the negatives were labelled and boxed up in a crowded attic, and the photographer modestly dissolved into the abyss of unrecognized creativity. Then, somewhere between shouts and slams of an auctioneer’s gavel, John Maloof, a filmmaker and historian, snagged several mysterious boxes at a Chicago auction house in 2007. His $380 purchase unveiled a jaw-dropping treasure. 30,000 negatives and prints made up the invaluable time capsule. Vivian Maier, an American street photographer, was finally discovered, and her fame erupted after her death in 2009. This is the kind of story that astounds me. It goes to show that people have undiscovered talents and potential--and talk about a fantastic auction find! You can check out this site for more information. I love that Vivian took photos of the ordinary and the incidental extraordinary, and I appreciate the ability to see some of those sights. Her self portraits, like the one from 1954 above, are especially unique. Here are some of my favourites of her photos.

1953 New York, NY.

1950s Canada.

1953 New York, NY.

1953 New York, NY.

1954 New York, NY.

1953 New York, NY.

1954 New York, NY.

1954 New York, NY.

1954 New York, NY.

1956 New York, NY.

1956.

1961 Chicago, IL.

1963 Chicago, IL.

 Audrey Hepburn at the Chicago premiere of My Fair Lady at the RKO Palace Theatre, October 23rd, 1964.

 August 1960 Chicago, IL.

Undated.

 August 1975.

Canada.



 July 27th, 1954, New York, NY.

 July 1957, suburb in Chicago, IL.

 June 1954, New York, NY.

 May 16th, 1957, Chigaco, IL.

 New York, NY.

September 18th, 1962.

November 8th, 1955.

 New York, NY.

January 1953, New York, NY.

 Self-Portrait 1955.

 September 13th, 1953, Empire State Building, New York, NY.

 Undated Color.



September 3rd, 1954, New York, NY.

Self-Portrait May 5th, 1955.