Charles Fairfax Murray

Intricate Designs by Sasha Ward

Inside the Quiet Room, Churchill Hospital, Oxford.

Inside the Quiet Room, Churchill Hospital, Oxford.

Our refurbishment of The Quiet Space/Multi Faith Room in Churchill Hospital is almost finished. It used to be a white walled storage space  and now, after much consultation, I have designed glass and acrylic panels, wallpaper, lino floor, and bought some new furniture. Often, during the development stage, my designs are more intricate than everyone else thinks they should be - despite much loved examples of really complicated patterns used to decorate buildings throughout the ages. 

Details from the Vyner Memorial window, Morris & Co. 1872. On the right rare (for stained glass) initials of EBJ, designer and CFM, glass painter. Christ Church, Oxford

Details from the Vyner Memorial window, Morris & Co. 1872. On the right rare (for stained glass) initials of EBJ, designer and CFM, glass painter. Christ Church, Oxford

Medieval grisaille glass: left from Exeter Cathedral, right from Christ Church, Oxford c.1350

Medieval grisaille glass: left from Exeter Cathedral, right from Christ Church, Oxford c.1350

These medieval grisaille windows are my favourite examples for showing the techniques of painting and staining on different types of coloured glass and the combination of geometry and plant life  that I use in my own work. I was shown around by great guides at Christ Church; Jo Cottrel who also volunteers at Kelmscott Manor and Edward Evans who has written the Pitkin Guide to the windows and therefore knows the history of every single window in the cathedral.

Old sketchbooks again by Sasha Ward

Three drawings of WM on his deathbed by CFM, dated 3rd, 3rd & 4th October 1896.

Three drawings of WM on his deathbed by CFM, dated 3rd, 3rd & 4th October 1896.

In William Morris' bedroom at Kelmscott Manor there is a pencil drawing of him by Charles Fairfax Murray who was there when he died in 1896. Looking at pages from my 1995 sketchbook below, you can probably see why it reminded my brother of the drawings I did at our father's deathbed in St. George's Hospital, Tooting. It's not the facial features that are similar, it's the pose or something more profound. As my fourth drawing in particular shows, I was fascinated by the "life support" and monitoring apparatus. 

Would May approve ? by Sasha Ward

One of the first things I liked in Jane Morris' bedroom was not this portrait of her, a CFM watercolour copy of a DGR original, but her daughter May's comment displayed alongside. "It bothered me to have house and church and boathouse all brought together when they were really in different directions..."

Aided by aerial photographs of Kelmscott Manor in the 1972, I have been turning my drawings into designs that are topographically correct, and include paths and rivers where I have seen them in relation to the Manor.

Ink sketches above : design 1 (from the east), design 2 (from the south), design 3 (from the north east). Sketches for repeats based on designs 1, 2 & 3 below.

3 designs.jpg