Would WM approve ?

"Thank you very much for sending me the drawing of Kelmscott. I think some alterations are needed. The chimney-stack mixes up too much with the gable, & is much too small I should say. The markings of the stone work joints are too black and heavy, and would give the block a sooty look. The copings of the gables are wrong I should say; I think some indication of their mouldings must be shown I think. I think also that the stone path up to the porch might be drawn with more literality. Again the plants against the house wall are vines and should have some indication of the habit of vines".

From a letter by William Morris to Charles March Gere, December 20th 1892.

There are many such discouraging letters from WM to his illustrators for wood-cuts for The Kelmscott Press, so I  think I know the answer to the question of whether he would approve of my work. In my design (no 1. from the east) below, my chimney stacks are engulfed by the gables as I try to make sense of the geometry of the Manor.

Design 1 is nearly finished and will be used for the first part of my glass and wallpaper installation in the Brewhouse.

Would May approve ?

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.

Featured artist, ART

The artist featured this week is Alice Rowan Tinsley, aged 7 (nearly 8) from Cardiff. Her drawing above shows Kelmscott Manor from the east, what I call the "News From Nowhere" side, as drawn by C.M. Gere to Illustrate Morris' novel of that name and shown on the right above. Alice was particularly pleased with the way she worked out how to draw the roof gables on this, her second attempt at the Manor, drawn from memory in the Brewhouse.

Her next drawing is a confident linear design for a dish, which she said was not a copy of any particular one in the Manor but was her own idea for a plate, inspired by what she had seen. The third drawing is from memory, with very well observed lips and hairstyle and based on Rossetti's portrait of Jenny Morris on the right below.

All Alice's works are pencil on A4 paper, signed by the artist.

Drawn on the 30th of July

"The Dragon on the Hedge" by Mabel, aged 5

When children visit, we ask them what their favourite thing is at Kelmscott Manor, and then to draw it. The same objects and views are reappearing in the collection of drawings I have in The Brewhouse, but this week I got three excellent drawings of new favourite items : the topiary Icelandic dragon Fafnir by Mabel (above), May's tiny birds in an oval box by Cosimo (below) and WM's bed by Claire (below left). Claire Morris' brother in the pushchair is called William.

Photograph of Claire and William Morris alongside Claire's drawing, photograph of Cosimo in the Brewhouse drawing his picture from memory.

Chair, possibly by FMB

In Jane's bedroom, The Garden Hall, my bedroom

I recognized the chairs as soon as I saw them in Kelmscott Manor as I have one in my bedroom at home. I had no idea it was a Morris & Co. chair possibly designed by Ford Madox Brown. When I looked through my old school sketchbook trying to find something last week, I came across this drawing of the very same chair. It was drawn in my family's sitting room that was papered with WM Marigold wallpaper in olive green (not included in the drawing!).

From my school sketchbook, 1977