A mood board for 'artnlight'

I have to share with you this new news- which is that I'm taking an e-course on blogging by my most favourite blogger and author of the iconic decor8. Holly is the person because of whom this blog exists and I have always been amazed by how she does what she does. Like I know that for me, much though I love blogging, there are times when I just dont have the time or the energy & truth be told even the inclination to blog. So when she announced the "Blogging Your way ecourse" I knew I'd sign up. Here is a woman who posts daily atleast twice and never once does she flag, no post seems just a quick thoughtless filler. And she always sounds like she speaks to me. How does someone pull this off 365 days of the year? I had to know. And the time seemed just right, I've quit my full time job to do what I love doing & blogging is one of them. And how the hell does an ecourse work??!! I had to know. And I will tell you this- this ecourse so far has been fully paisa wasool (meaning worth every penny) :)
And today I want to share with all of you one exercise which we've been told to do- create a mood board for your blog. Wow. the 1st mood board I ever created was for a competition Holly ran on her blog much before I started blogging. (You can see it here) And this is the second mood board I've made. This time for 'artnlight' the way I see it and what it stands for. It was really challenging. Cause I never went about this blog with any foresight or planning. And to think about what I want this blog to be therefore what pictures should go into this moodboard has been challenging to put it mildly. But I just pulled out images which anyway appealed to me, some of my design post cards, and things lying around at home & put this together. I think unwittingly it speaks of what this blog is about and what I am about.

I got so excited when I saw "world design meets India" put it in the center and my fav designs- "the world belongs to optimists" and "Doing the best in this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment" I've never said this - but this blog along with being about eyecandy is really about inspiration. I write this blog because I feel inspired to & if it in turn can inspire other person- what more can I ask for?

This one isn't the best picture, but this is how it looks in totality. Full colour kitschy and bright.

I'd happily keep each and every one of those cushions at home & those little blue birds are such beauties. One of my vintage car coasters.

Rajasthan love, a buddha head, a Jaipur blue pottery coaster and a kerala mural art paper weight.

I LOVED this silver and jewellery part, next to 'Abundance'. It was funny- though I dont feature much of jewellery on this blog- this was soo beautiful to edit out. I cut them up carefully from this Vogue I had lying at home & arranged it around this old invitation to an exhibition which I'd saved from a while ago. The word you see in orange is actually "warm" & not warn ;) An little Indian elephant on a metal engraved lid.

"Let the beauty of what you love be what you do" And this book-'In Indian culture Why do we (do what we do) is a most interesting book which I will blog about soon (before returning it to its rightful owner)
So that was my moodboard which I had a ball putting together- along with some anxious moments of 'this is not coming together well at all!' But I really love the way the colours look :)
If you havent considered doing a mood board for your blog- do try it. Its a great exercise & very insightful to see how you gravitate to a certain style & certain images.

The Society Inc

Its strange, but I promise I was technicolour. You should know. You've been around here long enough. And its disconcerting to see yourself act out of charachter. And I see a lot of that nowadays. So even when I have a choice, I see muself drawn to all things deep and really non-colour. But these images from The Society Inc really had me. I love the way they are styled. I love the mood they create. I love the typography that fits right in & I love the non-colourness of it all.

"Set up by long time interior stylist Sibella Court in an 1800s corner shop in Paddington, its contents and interior will change 4 times a year, each time a new 'theme' will transport the visitor to different societies. The first is The Indigo Blues Society followed by Travellers&Magicians. Each theme will be accompanied by seasonal paint colours designed by Sibella for Murobond Paints." Check out the themes here.

All images from thesocietyinc.com

Colours from Kerala

My camera goes where I go and these pictures are from my many trips to Kerala, my home state. Having home and family in Kerala for me has meant that I've not really done the touristy thing and 'seen' the place like my friends have, so no backpacking along backwaters has happened. But for me along the years, some of the things that will charachterise Kerala are the many colours on the Kerala trucks, green from the coconut leaves and brown from the coconuts without which there is no concept of cooking in Kerala.

I remember the locals looking at me really suspiciously as I shot these pictures-I had to tell them I'm researching local design :)

You can see more of the Kerala truck graphics from my earlier post here.
Wall painted signage in Malayalam- the language of the state.

In the markets- colourful plastic vessels for water

A sign that says 'Hotel'

I hadn't imagined I'd have so much blue in my kerala post- but here it is. Check the different metallic surfaces.

Bananas are grown locally and exported to neighbouring states as well. Keralites put bananas into sweets, have it raw as vegetable, deep fry them as savouries & chips.

Aah.. Papad or like we say it in Kerala- Pappadam.

Loved this antiquated latch and the textured blue door

Astrology is big in Kerala. Photography is not really permitted at the temples, but this one was by the main road & I sneaked a quick click.

The ubiquitous Coconut

the shells with the coconut all scraped

Chicks - used as blinds.

Bathroom Ideas

I have all these books which I use regularly and are dear to me for decor ideas & even to give a prospective client an idea of what might look good. I've been wanting to share with you my old & trusted 101 Bathrooms from the BBC GoodHomes Magazine. Infact its a part of a series. I also have the 101 Living rooms & the 101 Bedrooms- which are both dog eared by now from excessive use. Whats so neat about this book is that unlike other decor manuals which can be tomes and weigh a ton, these are really handy and easy to carry around.

A shot of my dining table- had a few flowers extra from the pooja & the colours were just right.

Glorious wood combined with ceramic chocolate tones create this warm though dramatic bathroom. Wooden grained furniture completes the look.

Sunlight shines on the small gold squares of the wallpaper through white painted shutters. The deck flooring smartly covers a concrete sub floor.

Colonial style shutters complement the ethnic appeal of the Moroccan cupboard.

Fiery orange creates a welcoming atmosphere. And this picture holds a variety of different textures from wood to metal to plastic all in a similar palette. The yellow stool and the metallic shower curtain add a lot of style to this bathroom.

Earthy autumnal colours make this hig ceilinged room cosy. The CD rack makes for ideal storage for toiletries

Space saving: Although light cool colours give an illusion of space, deep warm colours will make your room feel cosier, bamboo accesories give an oriental touch.

This one is my fav- checkered yellow wallpaper holds together chinese style plates and a moroccan inspired blue alcove. The ornate Moroccan lantern and scalloped detailing of the shelves all add to the decorative appeal of this bathroom.

Grooved panelling and cream colours make for a soothing bathroom

Powedery pastels calm and refresh at the same time. A painted console table with curved legs holds the bowl styled basin and the candle chandelier adds a romantic touch.

Crisp and clean, the metallic surfaces and steel ladder for hanging towels creates this contemporary look. Red towels add a pop of colour and that mirror is an inspired touch.

White painted shelves, trelliswork door panels and leafy potted plants give this bathroom the airy elegance of a Victorian summerhouse.

Dar Bibine, Tunisia.

Since my ongoing fascination with turquoise continues, here is turquoise all the way from Tunisia. With a white and blue palette and a minimalism reminiscent of Santorini, Dar Bibine is a guest house located in the heart of the preserved medina of Erriadh, in Djerba.

This is good design
- love those circular grooves with towels in them

The pool at 2 different times in the day.
All images from darbibine.com

Coastal Living

Some colour happiness and sea brightness to make your day happier :)

Coastal Living sent me a link of some really refreshing colours and the coastal life in style

Photo Deborah Whitlaw Llewellyn, Stylist Elizabeth Raines Beeler

My idea of a vacation

Photo J. Savage Gibson, Stylist Heather Chadduck

Pillows and the sea

check the mappy bed spread

I love how smart stripes look

How cheerful is this room- it would be impossible to sit here & be glum :)

These white walls against the tropical lush is a great contrast!
All images from Coastal Living

Lalla Essaydi

Isabella from Germany is a regular reader and a blogger friend. So as usual I hopped across her to her interesting blog Anarkali & was struck by these pictures & how could I not share this! Calligraphy and that too Islamic - I had to find out more. These photographs are part of a solo exhibition at the DeCordova Musuem [close to Boston] by Lalla Essaydi, a New York-based, Moroccan-born photographer, painter, and installation artist. Over the past decade, she has risen to international prominence with her timely and beautiful work that deals with the condition of women in Islamic society, cross-cultural identity, Orientalism, and the history of art.

This particular series called Les Femmes du Maroc is a modification of Les Femmes d’Algiers, a painting created by French Romantic artist Eugene Delacroix in 1834.

Ingres, Jean Auguste Dominique (1780-1867). The Great Odalisque. 1819. Photo: Thierry Le Mage. Louvre, Paris, France. Image: Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource, NY

Almost all the photographs in Les Femmes du Maroc are based on specific nineteenth-century European and American Orientalist paintings. Essaydi has, however, radically transformed the antecedents. While she retains the compositions, gestures, and general costume of the original paintings, she strips them of their opulent colors, removes male figures (or transforms them into women), erases any cues to social status, clothes all nudity, and simplifies the settings by eliminating props and attributes while introducing all-over draperies, and of course her ubiquitous calligraphy.

"In Islamic cultures, until very recently, calligraphy was an art form practiced exclusively by men for the transcription of sacred texts from the Qur’an, the Hadith, and other sacred writings. Henna is traditionally a women’s art—domestic, decorative, ritual, and erotic. And Essaydi’s text is her own, taken from her journals."

Les Femmes du Maroc also involves a changed approach to text. In earlier photographs, Essaydi’s calligraphy was legible, and communicated her own ideas about cultural identity, memory, communication, and artistic and intellectual freedom. In the recent work, the text is obscured by its presentation—loosely applied, obscured by shifts in scale and the overlapping of figures and draperies, at pitched angles, with words applied atop words like a palimpsest. Even readers of Arabic cannot fully make out its meanings, which are deeply personal and intentionally kept that way.

There is also a book called Les Femmes du Maroc by Fatima Mernissi & Lalla Essaydi. You can buy it here.
You can read the entire pdf of the exhibition & the artist here. Or an an article here.