The Aesthetes

Over the past couple of years the popularity of art photography has risen with some photographs selling from £700+.

Gone are the usual art photographs of tower blocks and "everyday people" not looking their best or as Pulp lyrics go "because you think poor is cool" .
These have been replaced by beautiful tonal images which include a subject with splash of one contrasting colour. These images are incredibly reminiscent of the fabulous fashion photographs seen in Vogue Magazines in the late 1970's early 1980's. Not only because of the attention to detail in the colours but the subject matter and natural scenery surrounding the whole shot. Even the black and white images have reverted to beautiful lines and contrasts. The use of photoshop is very most likely to still be used (  there are still some photographers who relish working in a darkroom rather than on a computer and their photographs cost much more), though whereas you can distinctly spot a shoot/shop/sell photograph these new photographs have had thoughts, planning and processes behind the shot. After many years of seeing decay, untidiness or half an image in photography regurgitated year after year it is wonderful to see the new photography movement merge and grow. Aestheticism in photography is slowly returning.

So if you can't afford a few hundred pounds on an art photograph can you still use photographic images in the home? Of course you can, but like  paintings  your home can look fabulous or tasteless.
Here are just a few pointers.
Photographic canvas prints where a photographic image has been printed onto a canvas are a great alternative to paintings, if you are between the age of 12-22. A bit more upmarket than a poster but perfectly fine as a starter for developing taste if still living at home with parents.

The most understated home accessory are the family photographs. I remember going to visit the grandmother of a friend, I was drawn to the mantelpiece which was covered in fabulous black & white photographs of members of the family all in beautiful frames, a mixture of small and medium sizes.
Apart from the way they were presented ( the colour, frames etc..) it was actually the way the shots were taken. Thought had gone into where to stand, what was around in the back/foreground, the "natural" ( not posed) shots projected a genuine warmth of that moment coming from the person in a photograph taken 70 years ago.

The digital age has changed certain aspects for the better but also losing the connectedness to situations .
The digital camera is a very convenient modern day tool. How else would people have made money on ebay, or post images of a baby which was born 15 minutes ago on Facebook or Twitter. But everything is double sided and are the images that people shoot now good enough for the mantelpiece?

One of the things we miss out on is the moment of finding the old suitcase or box filled with old photographs that seem to appear every couple of years. Sitting on the floor and going through every photograph and album. The present stops for a couple of hours and getting lost in memories from the past (good, bad,funny,sad) take over until the phone rings or you realize that you could do with a cup of tea ( or tissues as you have come across the 120 photos of your first pet). Would you get the same effect from the files of images on the computer? Sadly no, and even more sadder is that unless this changes, generations will not experience this genuine reminiscent behaviour.

Not only has the equipment changed but most photographs are absolutely terrible. With all the power of editing and deleting at your fingertips why do some people not use these features. Photographs that really should not be seen pop up on Facebook
( I'm using Facebook as an example as many people use this to communicate rather than picking the best photos and posting them by mail ). An example of this is when my sister wanted to see what my old school friend looked like now. When I showed her a picture she said "oh wow, isn't that lovely, volunteering her time, good for her!"   Confused I asked her what she meant by this comment. She replied " she's helping in some kind of institution or home, isn't she? Is it run by a charity?" I replied "er no, that's her boyfriend and those are his parents". For next few minutes all that was said was "Nooooooooo! Noooooooooooo!"

The lesson here is be careful what your subjects are doing and the setting of the photograph. White and cream coloured walls with minimal furniture and bad prints or even worse portraits on the walls along with a tub of Flora on the dining table does give an impression of some sort of institutional residence.

To have a great photograph worthy of putting on display you have to go back to "old school" thinking and practices. A "that'll do" attitude shows through in the finished product. There seems to be a theme of narcissism rather than natural charisma in photographs nowadays. Genuine warmth and personality has been replaced by what is known as "one look" ( popular phase quoted from the film Zoolander). Coincidentally my mothers early photographs were of her doing "one look" but as she pointed out  " you would have that face too if you had to stand or sit still for 2 hours waiting for the photographer to take the picture. There was no messing about or playing incase a hair was out of place or our clothes became dirty or creased". Ah the days before looking untidy was considered a badge of honour of how hard your life is . For full frontal photographs remember to take the slippers off before the snap button is pressed ( unless the person taking the photograph really hates you and takes the shot anyway).

So the subject of the photograph is presentable ( or in another word, clean and the clothes fit correctly). The other point to take in is the back/foreground and composition of the shot. Photographs for display must be properly composed. By composed they don't have to be as rigid as a passport photograph but there is a difference between a shot of a brother and sister giving eachother a hug laughing and a shot where the only thing going through the mind is that in 10 years they'll have an ASBO each or worse.

The other in vogue photographs or images to put on display are photographic prints. For example vintage postcards or vintage photographs of people and places. These have replaced the quite common Far East travel/holiday photographs on walls. It seems as the world gets smaller and travel is more popular there has been a leaning towards purchasing images whether  vintage postcards or  vintage photographs of people from the past ( not related ) for example  a soldier from China in 1906 or a group of actors from a small village in Austria in 1918. Very random, very unique and very interesting. There may not be a bloodline connection as you would have if it was a picture of your great grandmother on her wedding day but they are part of history. To take a good photograph to put on display you have to go back to the past and retrain.

ART
Buying art for the home is not as easy as it sounds. Anything goes, but as with everything these days  you have to read the small print. In the next few blogs I shall cover paintings, prints, photography and everything else.

PAINTINGS
Nothing speaks volumes regarding good style than having original oil paintings on the wall. Paintings have been staples for home decor since the pre-historic era, from Greek/Roman murals to oil painted family portraits of generations hanging in stately homes around the UK.
There is a tiered system with oil paintings always at the top
( never mention the A(crylic) word ) and that's just the material used let alone the style or content of the piece. It can be a minefield but like everything else only if you let it.

The biggest misconception is that original one off oil paintings are expensive. I didn't believe this was still the case until I read a small piece in a popular women's magazine where the journalist stated that the words "affordable" and "art" don't go together. A very pre - internet dated statement but then again it wasn't a Conde Nast publication so the quality was already missing.

Ok, so you want to purchase a painting , where do you start?
Firstly take your time, if you don't like it don't buy it. The good thing about buying paintings is you will not get talked into buying something you are not sure of. If you ask a question you will get a straight answer
There are 2 options.
Option 1 -  have a wonder around and have a look in small galleries or framers. As with everything there are pros and cons. Some galleries and framers seem to be a tad "samey" with incredibly similar pieces on show rather than a wide variety and they don't seem to change their stock for years. After  traipsing around and experiencing this for the fifth time it does get frustrating.
A good small gallery or framers would have a section where artists can leave  business cards or brochures giving details of their website so you can have a look. If you like an artists style don't be afraid to e-mail them any questions, ask them how often do they add new works onto the site ( it would be a welcome change from the "we can get you on googles front page" annoying messages). Our artist receives e-mails  asking questions about whether or not to frame a painting  -  which paintings would compliment a room which has been painted a certain colour from a Dulux paint chart, anything regarding paintings.
Check directories on the internet in your area rather than searching for galleries and framers  as you will be hit with a plethora of useless information.
Do not think that because a gallery or framers is located in an affluent area that the service or quality of the work is of a high standard. I went in search of some quality paintings in Stoneygate, Leicester. I couldn't find anything ( a bit "samey") but  in one of the framers/gallery the chap was incredibly rude and when I asked if he had any cards or brochures from artists his reply was " don't be stupid, I've got enough of my own stock to sell let alone advertising someone elses stuff". Needless to say his shop was empty and when mentioning this to people his shop is known as the place with the "samey" art and a t**t as a manager. On the totally opposite to this was another framers who were absolutely brilliant, they didn't have anything outstanding but the couple were friendly, helpful and had a selection of cards and brochures from artists, it was an absolute pleasure to be in that shop. So that shop is mentioned to others as a brilliant place to get pictures framed and to have a look at their stock.

Option 2 - The internet
Again there are pros and cons. It can be really frustrating as there is so much, how can I put this.....rubbish. You can spend at least 4 hours trawling through before you hit a site that you like. One of the problems is that artists don't really advertise but then again where would you look for an artists work...in a fashion, home decor or art magazine? That is counterproductive for the artist but then again artists have a similar attitude  that a few years ago the tailors in Savile Row had. They concentrate on the work, customer service and word of mouth rather than advertising. There is somewhat of a simple pleasure in finding an artist than going down a normal mass production route.
Firstly before even typing abstract/original paintings set the location to the UK/USA/France etc..
I know this is not what marketers like to hear but I have never purchased anything from the first to at least 6 pages of my searches. I just do not find anything really special or suitable on these pages. I end up wasting time that I can never get back on listings that are totally useless for me. I always find much more suitable online stores quite a few pages into a search. Sometimes I just randomly pick a number either 1-10 or from 10-100 and bingo, I seem to pass by allot of "junk" by doing it this way. There is a choice in which way you can look for oil paintings online either by doing my random way or by a "recorded message, press 1, press 3, press.. etc" way.
Another option is by doing a search but using sites with images. The first few pages will be packed with online sites selling paintings. Some will be sites that sell work on behalf of an artist. These sites split into 2 groups. One group approach  artists if they would like to sell their work on the site. Platinumgallery.co.uk is one such site. Other online galleries accept anyone - there's no prerequisite, more painters than artists are on these sites. Even without a trained eye you can tell the difference between the sites through the work shown. Unfortunately there are many of these sites and the work may not be entirely genuine.

A certificate of authenticity has lost its value also. But there are certain factors that genuine artists still use. Sides are either painted plain or left blank and paintings are initialed, signed and dated. Depending on the artist the painting could be signed on the front,side or at the back of the canvas. Our artist signs the back of the canvas so that her customers can hang their paintings which ever way they prefer.

All of our paintings are one of a kind. Our artist refuses to have the images reproduced even as prints. Prices currently start from
£30.00 from the sale section - £1500.00 for very large paintings.

When you find a site that meets your taste but hasn't got what your looking for at the moment, don't forget to bookmark it. I have stumbled upon many great sites and have forgotten to bookmark them, then they seem to get lost in the infinite internet.

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Special Offers Be Biased
Brogue Meets Stiletto Art Gallery
Be Biased Contemporary Art

ARCHITECTURE

The saying is that you can tell allot about a person by their architecture, art and furniture. Looking around there are excellent examples of architecture from the past but not many good examples of modern architecture. This is the same with modern renovations.
There have been many poorly designed apartment blocks which have popped up. One of which was described as "Balamory flats" or as a friend had described " Balamory set in a communist block" thus bringing about a list of alternative Balamory characters ( you can imagine). It begs the question why can't we have well designed buildings? Surly there must be some creative architects in the UK.
I recently visited a friend at her new apartment and experienced  a touch of architecture envy. The apartment was part of a converted church and was owned by the Housing Association. It had wonderful large rooms and most importantly a square window, a round window and an arched window. And because the floors were wooden ( not laminate) it was sound proofed aswell. A wonderful example of renovation architecture (upcycling). I left with my architecture envy back to my dull rectangle style boring windowed, mortgage paid home.
I noticed a large difference between how out of towners and locals dealt with their architecture over the years. Most of the homes which have excellent architecture design that have been put up for sale have been purchased by out of towners. These homes have been slightly run down but the OOT's have restored these homes back to their original beauty and even if something has been added it has been done with good taste that hasn't affected the original characteristics of the architecture.
Unfortunately some of the homes that did have excellent architecture design have had their individual beauty destroyed. There was a beautiful home which had wonderful gardens where the owner for some reason sold the land. A bunch of badly designed new boxy builds sprouted up offering no privacy for the original house. Some houses have been changed so much that they have lost their original beauty and look very cheapened. This has been the same for a couple of other wonderfully designed houses.
Good examples of architecture are sometimes hard to find so why do some people do that?  It would be like taking the painting  Mona Lisa then painting her hair that awful burgundy colour, adding false eyelashes and  Daffy Duck lip implants and a track suit then hanging the painting back up. Standing back and viewing something that behind all of the modern vulgarism was once beautiful, characterful and made with precision, thought and love.

Part 1 covered the use of a good LP cover as an alternative wall hanging. Part 2 will cover the use of a good LP collection as a stylish home accessory which can be used.

The consensus generally states that there are three areas within which a persons style / character can be judged upon. Their art, architecture and furniture. This could be true up until about eight years ago when people tended to purchase property as more of a cash cow rather than a home. Due to the recession and many other factors ( which funnily enough seemed to have happened at the same time and yet have no media defined link) consumers have accepted that moving will not be possible for many, for at least six - eight years.
New relationships  are starting everywhere. The relationship between an owner/renter and their home ( not house). The days of disposable houses - disposable design -  manufactured pieces are slowly disintegrating. Like Japanese whiskey, quality design and distinctive personal tastes are in vogue again in the mainstream.

Vinyl collections seem to be only seen in broadsheet weekend magazines and fashion magazines showcasing stylish homes. But anyone can have a good vinyl collection. It is not solely for actors, models, muses, designers etc... and most of us still have a collection in the attic.
Sales in reconditioned old radios ( prices start from £1000+ ) as a decorative piece and a product have risen.  The record player is slowly catching up. Apart from the mixing decks which were a popular feature in the stylish home between 1997 - 2004
( wannabee Fat Boy Slim phase ) many have disposed of the record player/all in one systems. Thankfully there are some beautifully designed record players which do not have to be purchased as in the all in one systems of old.
Think Roche Bobois  style pages rather than the awful badly designed "change your vinyl to mp3 files" players in the free inserts. The "new" record players have a chic retro feel to them and vinyl collections can be kept proudly in full view or placed in record cases ( black and silver metal ).
When all set up there is only one question. After a vinyl binge day will you put your LP's back straight away or rebel and leave them on the floor until the next day?

Record Store Day is on the 16/04/2011.
The LA Times recently had an article about the rise in popularity of vinyl amongst consumers. People now have a record player for their vinyl and an mp3 player for downloads. Urban Outfitters now sell vinyl in their stores. This article was not about death of vinyl but death of the CD.

During an insomnia "moment" I switched on the TV and watched an episode of Turn Back Time - The High Street. This episode was trying to recreate shops in the 1970's. One of the shops was a record shop which was run by a chap who was actually quite good at customer service. Unfortunately the customers he had to serve were a cross between people who want to "keep up with the kids"
( in what they think is "keeping up with the kids" ) and teenagers who gave the impression that in their household their parents had thrown out all of the LP's and the only knowledge of LP's is through NME.
There were two record shops I used to frequent in the UK. One was good for latest releases. It was run by the same two men for many years. My sisters used to go there, I used to spend my paper round money in there every week, so when it closed allot of people felt a loss.
The second shop had all of the imports, remixes and rarities. Bootleg heaven!  Unlike the the smaller shop, the assistants had a bit of an attitude and for some god forsaken reason the record section was really badly merchandised. The rows of records were so piled that if you wanted something beginning with C and it was near the wall then I'm afraid unless you were Mr Fantastic you were not going to reach to have a look. And if you asked you were either tutted or laughed at for your choice.
The best record shops ( which I was reminded about when watching TBT-THS) that I have visited were in Paris, Holland and the States. They were well set out and the owners and staff reminded me of the characters in High Fidelity ( friendly but not so intense). Picking up LP's then placing my behind on a stool with a small record player, headphones and in Paris and Holland a small ashtray to the side and being left alone whilest I listened to my choices before purchasing. There are still these small pockets of hidden gems but they do have to be found and tend to be frequented by the music elite.

But when the LP's were being commercially phased out was the quality of the album cover going too? Ask yourself when was the last time you said to someone " Have you seen that cover, I absolutely love it!"
I remember buying a CD I didn't like because the cover was such a great cover that it stuck in my mind. When I played the CD it was a " euh, I don't like their music" so subsequently put it on sale on ebay.

A good album cover in a frame speaks far more than a painting. A painting invokes, emotions and your senses to colours and textures but an album cover releases memories and experiences that no one will ever take away from you because they are all yours. Nobody looking at your painting will speak with as much enthusiasm as they would if they were to see a framed LP - " I loved that album! I drove my parents crazy  playing that!"

LP's are are a good size too and with the right frame are a great wall hanging. But which LP? The most common is The Sex Pistols , God save The Queen but it is verging on the wall hanging equivalent of an image of a rose or an old masters  cheap copy. However it is an iconic cover.
Finding a great LP cover is actually not an easy task mainly due to not looking for the beauty and creativity involved for so long. As in yoga if you don't use it, you lose it, the eye has forgotten to see. This includes the designers, musicians and everyone involved in selling the artist.

Looking at the top 100 on HMV there is a great mixture of contemporary photographic images which would not look out of place in a small gallery. Some covers are ruined by an awful use of fonts and colours in the text. Many are just what I would describe as lazy, a student taking GCSE in Art and Design could do a far better job. Then there is also what could be described as "old school" album covers. These have an arty look about them and you can see that someone has put  some thought into them.
Out of 100 I have seen 6 covers with great contemporary photographic images and 12 covers which are "old school" and would look great framed. So that is 18 out of 100 which are good album covers, not a great variety of choice. The only band that seem to hit the nail on the head in style and content at the moment is Fleet Foxes. In my opinion they haven't failed at the cover and substance. Most of the artists that have great covers do seem to be in the Indie category which is a tad disappointing as it gives the impression that good design is not worthy to listeners of different genres of music.

So there are two questions to ask your self:
1) Do I like the music of the artist/band?
2) Is the LP cover good enough to have a place on my wall?

Happy hunting!

We have had more people read our blog this month ( nearly as much as our homepage) than having a look at our items.
So we have put a notice up that we now have some sale items.

SALE BROGUE MEETS STILETTO OIL PAINTINGS

SALE BEBIASED OIL PAINTINGS

SALE - GIFTS

SALE LE FLEA C'EST CHIC


More news and changes starting in January 2011!
Thank you
The Aesthetes Team

At the end of last month local businesses were invited to have a Christmas tree at the Our Lady's Convent chapel for their Christmas Fair which was to raise funds for a school in Africa ( we put details on our facebook and twitter pages).

We had 10 days to design a tree. There were many options, as long as it was tree shaped. We didn't want to place a normal plastic tree with plastic decorations as it was to advertise our business for a few hours and our products are an alternative to mass produced items. When designing our tree we had to keep in mind certain aspects
1. Safe and sturdy (children running about etc..)
2. Design had to be contained as
a) The tree would be in a chapel ( no Yoda on the top of the tree)
b) Our town is very provincial ( a locals word not ours) so don't go too far with the design.

So first things first we decided the decorations will take the most time. What to do? We had 2 options - cross stitch and working with some wood that we had due to pollarding ( this needs another blog). The wood needed to dry so we decided on cross stitch.
We remembered seeing some wonderful graffiti by a group of American artists. These artists painted on walls and buildings in bright colours certain uplifting phrases and  sayings such as " Holler and hear my heartbeat" and " See me like I see you, beautiful".  So we decided to cross stitch lines from traditional Christmas carols in a toned down graffiti style.
Our tree was made from boxes that we had ( if your item was sent in a box with a tiny hole, it was part of the tree!) and some left over wallpaper which was given to us. Our tree did stand out.

Whilest we were making our decorations and viewing the response to our tree (before we took the tree to the fair) we did get some quite unpleasant looks and comments ( locally may we add, we had an order and they have sold out). One comment was " cross stitch is what they do in The Towers"

One of us calls it "the grey coat syndrome".
She had a grey coat years ago. Fleecy on the inside and waterproof it was like a parka. In winter it was warm, in summer it kept the rain out and doubled up as great pillow when traveling. The over 50's hated it - " lovely girl, but that grey coat". The under 50's loved it - "can I borrow your coat I'm just popping out quickly please. Excuse me, where did you get your coat from".

Broadsheet magazines have raved about the return of cross stitch this year and sales speak for themselves. Everything will have  positive and negative responses  as long as the positives are from  people who matter. There's no point in trying to please everyone. It's just down to "the grey coat syndrome"

It had to happen one day.
The term "handmade" is now used so loosely even the  lucky lucky chaps shout it out aloud.
There was a time when "handmade" conjured up images of a crafts person happily ( though not late in the afternoon), (or when it is cold), (or when the light isn't good) creating items from scratch. Putting thought into the design and colours. Stepping back to see if the item needs tweaking and then the item is ready to be admired or set aside by the public.

Now the word "unique" has started to be used quite freely too, though in a suspect manner.
I was taken aback when I noticed a medium sized colour advert stating that a shop sold "Unique Homeware". The trouble was that the items in the image were of  cream/white painted furniture. Not even unique cream/white painted furniture, but the type that has been seen everywhere for the past 4 years and as a result copied and mass produced.

The word "unique" used correctly should encompass values of which there is only one, unequalled and  unusual. Such as "handmade" should return to be viewed as a self possessed art form instead of dodgy overseas practices.
So how do you know that your item is as "unique" as you are lead to believe? It used to be that if an item was  handmade or unique it would  not be 100% perfect as only manufacturing machinery  could do that. Unfortunately mass manufacturing,pumping items out as fast as possible and cutting back on the quality of materials the roles have swapped. The standard of unique or quality handmade items has stayed the same and the quality of mass manufactured items has fallen.
Do a bit of research, not hours, just a few clicks.  All unique items will be signed somewhere by the maker. All of our handmade items are hand signed or sewn. Also we only have one in stock so there is no point in asking if we have any more to match that item.

There are some incredibly beautiful handmade "unique" items available, even cream/white painted ones. And you can spot the not quite unique pieces quite easily maybe subconsciously even though a shop will not purposefully advertise their products as "Slavishly Homewares"

The Aesthetes

Well we have been a tad quiet over the past few weeks but there has been plenty of action behind the scenes.
Firstly we did put a notice up stating that there were going to be some changes with regards to the website. We spent about a month designing a new look site. Also we have learned that when a hosting company states in large letters that they do a 30 day money back guarantee they don't mention that when you try to contact them they won't answer your emails,answer or call you back on the phone,their live chat suddenly gets too busy and also do not reply to the recorded delivery letters that you send them.

Anyway back to the site. When we re-designed the site it looked far too generic. As we sell unique items rather than mass produced stock, it didn't really fit. Out of all of the home wares websites that we had a gander at the only one that stood out to us (pre original website) was Anthropologie.com  and we have used that kind of individuality stamp as a benchmark. Now considering that our web designer has had 2 job offers from other companies due to "the fresh design" we decided to go back to the original design and layout.

Also coming in 2011 we will not be selling solely from the website. We do have some exciting plans in 2011.

Brogue Meets Stiletto Contemporary Art
Be Biased Art
The Aesthetes Home Decor

Some kind of change regarding what you see has always been associated with lifting your mood. Whether it is a spring clean, a new outfit or even moving house. Changing what you look at can boost your mood positively and it does not have to be costly.
Statement pieces such as furnishings, paintings and other home accessories do lose the interest that they originally had. Once the brain registers that these are stagnant pieces that are seen constantly in the same place it ceases to register them, to the point that the beauty can be forgotten. 
Here are a few suggestions to kick start the aesthetic eye.
1. Move a few pieces about. Whether it is moving the sofa  across the room  or swapping the paintings from the dining room /hall to the living room. The moving the sofa bit can be difficult as the character Joey from Friends once said" you don't have a tv,what's all your furniture pointing to"
2. Add a different accessory . A new rug, throw  or cushions on the sofa or a new lamp.
3. One popular idea is to have 2 or 4 different sets of paintings. Like a good wardrobe having summer/winter sets you can have paintings that you would hang during the spring/summer and paintings that you would hang in the autumn/winter. The good point to this is that once you have purchased your paintings and have put half of them away ,whenever you unpack the paintings in future years it will feel as if you have new pieces everytime.


Brogue Meets Stiletto Art Gallery