Blog & News

Margaret Mee

Margaret Mee

Illustration
MARGARET MEE (1909-1988)The botanic art is a matter the British people have always considered very seriously. They have a well-known prestigious national institution: the Botanical Arts & Artists, entrusted to preserve and promote the tradition and many new artists constantly arise and produced exquisite quality works with a perfect balance between science and aesthetic joy.Margaret Mee's life could have been used to write a great novel and to shoot an unforgettable movie. The perfect wild English lady who is a bit eccentric too such as Katherine Hepburn in 'The Queen of Africa' working as a painter and moving to the Brasilian Amazone rainforest. She embarked on a trip into the jungle and for weeks she painted orchids with an only companion, (our much admired Bogart), surrounded by danger, with a…
Read More
Quentin De La Tour

Quentin De La Tour

Painting
I was always intrigued by both the self-assurance and the kindness of the painter Maurice Quentin De La Tour (1704-1788) shown in the self-portrait made in the fullest expression of his fame also showing astonishing technical skills. Admiring that smile and the elegant blue coat it is difficult to think of the sad end of this French artist, one of the best painters, he was a much prominent figure in the Rococo period. The last years he stayed representing got mad and lived in seclusion.De La Tour was one of the greatest pastel painters with a much delicate technique which requires specific paper or boards with the adding of a fixative to avoid the colours to peel. All these problems can be solved using materials produced nowadays. In the past, the…
Read More
The Café Ajenjo

The Café Ajenjo

Singular places
In the middle of the Malasaña neighborhood, there is a tiny little attended pedestrian street called Galería de Robles. This is where Café Ajenjo is located, with an old-fashioned look but so cozy, so quiet, mostly unchanged as the years go by, true to itself far from the hustle, such a wonderful oasis, a lost island. Everything seems to welcome the visitor who is passing by, the facade, the old lanterns, a subtle golden light coming from the inside. I always think of the Ajenjo café as the right place for Antoine Roquentin, it should have existed a placed like this in Bouville; a place where he should have ended his rides to sit at one of the tables to read, to take notes on his book about the Rollebon Marquis…
Read More