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| Dining - beach style |
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| Kara's Wave, 2009, 24 x 36 inches |
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| Fiona's wave, 2006, 48 x 77 inches |
Since I posted about Sonia King's fabulous mosaic art, I have been taking more of an interest in the new style of custom mosaics that are around. Now modern technology allows a glass-mosaic mural to be made of any .jpeg you have. The possibilities are endless. See here.
Not normally wanting to post photos of myself, this one is to show the size of the art on the wall of my friend's apartment, where we dined last night. Fabulous abstract done in oils. Who'd painted it? A friend of a friend's father in Bosnia, commissioned for a very reasonable price. Though the photo doesn't do it justice, I am thinking of asking for a painting myself of our beautiful azure seas. 
I have been looking at this site several times through Materialicious and think the art is just gorgeous! Sonia King, from Texas, is a mosaic specialist and has come up with Nebula Aqua in all my favourite blue colours. I'm a little mixed about some mosaics (the old fashioned kind), but this is just WOW! Sonia uses: smalti, gold, vitreous glass, stone, unglazed ceramic, glass, found objects (pebbles, fossils, shells) and semi-precious stones. Looks great on the wall, but I bet a commission would be priced out of my reach. Will have to start collecting instead! Have a great weekend. 
On Lopud island last Saturday I visited the Your Black Horizon art pavillion, free entry. The unusual modern art was created by Danish-Icelandic Olafur Eliasson and London based artist David Adjaye. See here. The art was commissioned by the "Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contem-porary" headed by Francesca von Habsburg, Austrian royalty, who is an avid art collector herself and active with land/property on Lopud.
Croatian artist Niko Cuckovic was the first person we turned to 5 years ago when we wanted to commission a logo for our company, combining real estate and yachting. Incredible how after our brief he came up with 7 stunning options. Niko, who studied art and glass in San Francisco and Florence has over the years created fabulous glass works, especially the sailboats sunk into a pebble. He also accepts commissions for virtually anything; I'm rather partial to my friends' mirror and glass table top which Niko created. 
Friday is my time to post fab photos which inspire me and which I love. I have had these photos on file for a while from Architectural Digest. Hugh Jacobsen is the architect. The top photo is not the same property as the other two, but I love the simplicity of the house with the pool in front. Lots of glass to clean though!
At the end of my postings now so will sign off with stunning photos from a great designer I have discovered called Frank Roop, found through House of Turquoise . Sadly not of my house, but this gives me inspiration for what it could be like, lots of white, light and airey with a beachy feel. Have a great weekend! 
Well our Dubrovnik weather continues to be ... 'nothing weather'. Depressing for the mind and soul and everyone I speak to cannot wait for the sun to return. So nothing new to report except working hard as always. To cheer myself up I am posting some views of my dream house, the de Givenchy Residence in The Bahamas, the architect being Tom Scheerer This style is just up my street, so I may start looking at my own apartment for redesigning. Courtesy of one of my favourite daily blogs materialicious. 
I was delighted to receive a message from my long time friend Michelle Gill back home in Yorkshire. She is so artistic both with painting and the camera and has just launched her website. You can see it here. Michelle & hubby Adi came to Croatia in 2006 and we went sailing for a week around the islands; a fantastic inspirational voyage. The above photo is it the Caribbean? No! It's Barra in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. I wish Michelle all success.
Shocking weather day today, so no good for photos! I have in my file this painting, which I think is fabulous. Unfortunately I don't have the artist's name, but I think the painting is just like my view some days when I strain my eyes to see the yachts, then remember I have binoculars!
I had the great pleasure to meet the famed architect Robert Dallas this morning as he walked into our office. Over the last 40 years he has become synonymous with his distinctive style of authentic houses created in the traditional provencale manner adapted to modern living. This style he is introducing here in Croatia as he has fallen in love with the country. His past clients have included Michael Schumacher, Sir Roger Moore, Rod Stewart and Sir Sean Connery. 
I look at all the gorgeous photos on my Canadian friend's blog House of Turquoise daily. Here, Erin introduced me to the stunning artworks of Charles Wildbank. I just love his "Cool Wave" artwork, and this fits my Azure theme perfectly. Coincidentally Charles was commissioned in 2004 to paint a mural for Cunard's Queen Mary, Cunard being a company I worked for for 5 years. Also he painted the portrait of David Hockney; I originate from the same city in UK as this illustrious artist and have posted his earlier works here 10 days ago. Now, how can I get my hands on a "Cool Wave"? Isn't it gorgeous? 
We have a contemporary painting in our living room showing Dubrovnik Old Town. It is a massive 1.60m x 1 metre (63 x 40 inches) and dominates the room. We were given it "free" by a friend, whose (famous) father painted it, and had it in his kitchen for years. So is it abstract or is that splashes of cooking fat?? Will look at getting it restored one of these days.
Originating from Bradford like the artist David Hockney, I admire some (not all!) of his art especially the ones here - "Day Pool with 3 Blues" and "A Bigger Splash". His permanent exhibition is in Salts Mill in Saltaire, close to the town of Shipley where mum lives.