Round Like A Circle In A Spiral...

The dome for The Foyer, (which Peter wants to call 'The Great Hall', as he thinks 'Foyer' sounds too French) has arrived from Perth and has been installed by the builders. It is 2.5 metres in diametre measured from the outer cornice, and 1.8m at the dome aperture, which is required as that is the same diametre as the chandelier.

There is LED strip lighting going around the lip of the inside cornicing which can be lit separately to the chandelier, which may prove useful as a night light for guests, or for more subdued lighting if one does not want 64 bulbs glowing all the time.

At one time we did toy with the idea of having the dome glassed and open to the sky above, but that would have required a dramatic reconfiguration of the roof design...

I was very keen to have a coffered dome like the pantheon ceiling...

But alas could not find one the right size pret a porter, and the builders estimated it would take about three of them seven days to make one, which was not in the budget, so we had to stick to a more elegant design (the word 'simple' is banned in our household).

Painted domes are OK if you can commission a Michaelangelo or Antonio Verrio to paint them for you, otherwise you risk them looking iffy. These designs are quite well executed...

Hotel George V, Paris.

Capital Building, Washington DC.

Castle Howard, Yorkshire.

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The dome is centered over a circular design in the marble floor, similar to these examples...

Below: The foyer marble plan...

The statue of the Rape of the Sabines, unfortunately, has been put on hold. So, until then, we are thinking of putting a lovely urn on a plinth in the inner curvature of the staircase, which is a very Georgian idea. Below are two photos of the hall at Osterley Park, with urns inside...

We could use this urn:

Chagall and Picasso..

Above: The view from our hotel window in Nice

Last year when we were in Nice, we visited the Chagall and Matisse museums. The Chagall museum was stunning. There was one of my favourite works there, La Maternite Rouge, of which there are 50 signed lithographs. I had looked at one of them in an art gallery in Sydney a few years before and had ummed and ahhed about it until it was too late, so it was much solace to find another one of the 50 at the museum, where everyone can enjoy it for perpetuity.

Above: La Maternite Rouge (Colour Lithograph, 1980)

Above: Vue sur Notre Dame (Colour Lithograph, 1980)

Apart from the lithographs there were many oils on board and canvas, and some examples of his stunning stained glass work:

Above: His window depicting the 5th and 6th days of creation

Above: Abraham entertains the three angels (oil on canvas, 1960-66)

Above: Jacob wrestling with the angel (Oil on canvas, 1960-1966)

We have a couple of Chagall lithographs at home, and just last week we acquired another one to add to the collection:

Above: L’Odyssée I - Protée (Colour Lithograph, 1974-75)

You will find goats lurking in many of his pictures. Marc Chagall was from Russian Jewish ancestry. Many theories abound about the reason behind the goats (and also the hens). I'm not sure any are better than another. Some critics suggest that the goat, omnipotent, represents God himself, present in the background of daily life. Some suggest that it represents the atonement of mankind's sin, linking the goat in the painting with the goat of the Jewish day of atonement, which traditionally had a red ribbon tied around it's neck before being driven off into the wilderness. Reasons aside, I love Julia Robert's line in Notting Hill: "Happiness isn't happiness without a violin playing goat", referring to Chagall's painting La Mariee .

Above: La Mariee (gouache pastel, 1950)

I think that Chagall's dome mural (above) for the inside of the refurbished Paris Opera House (La Palais Garnier) in 1964 is stunning (despite the controversy it caused at the time). He also painted two large works for the Lincoln Center for Performing Arts around the same time, The Triumph of Music and The Sources of Music. Alas I could only view them through a window in passing one evening on a layover (below).

We are currently renting most of our artworks out. Others we have include a few colour lithographs by Pablo Picasso, such as:

Le Picador (colour lithograph, 1961, signed)

and Corrida (wash and colour crayon, 1959)

Once the hotel is up and running at Willowbrook Park, we hope to display these in the communal areas and one in each bedroom, and that the art collection will be one of the many attractions for our guests. I know other people out there are big fans.