Another Bloomsbury Life

In 1982 I was marbleizing and glazing and such for a couple of restaurateurs in Atlanta. When they mentioned they were building a house and asked would I be interested in helping out I was all –oh, of course, yes, and yes again after they showed me a book brought back from London called: Omega And After, Bloomsbury And The Decorative Arts. This was really new thinking for Atlanta at that time –to reach back into near history to seek the influence of postimpressionist London. I was surprised at my clients’ Bohemianism and as it turned out they weren’t quite ready for it themselves. It didn’t matter because I took the idea and ran with it.






Some of my Bloomsbury inspired work never made it out of my sketchbook but other ideas became painted furniture, curtains, a pedestal, a folding screen, and lot’s of painting on the walls in my little Atlanta bungalow. I did start a room for the restaurateurs but they got really cold feet. They were in no way prepared to live the sort of life Duncan Grant, Venessa Bell and the rest lived at Charleston. Ironically I adapted Grant and Bell designs for a condo in Florida. It’s a little sanitized but I think it looks quite nice in Hobe Sound, a wealthy little enclave just north of the Palm Beaches.




The Bloomsbury group and their descendants have become a growth industry, cultish though it may be. I have those four titles pictured above but there are so many more books on the subject. One day I must make a pilgrimage to Charleston. Until then I live another Bloomsbury life in L.A.

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YOU ARE SO BRILLIANT.

Agreed.