Monday, August 6, 2012

Eye Candy


I have been working on organizing my study, a room that has been taken over by too many books!  My study was supposed to be a room for reading and writing, an orderly room where you could find a book if you needed to or locate an article on that writer that you love.  The dream was that books would fill the book shelves and files provided with inspiration would fill the cabinets.  When we moved to our house ten years ago I unpacked a lot of things from the old house and stored them in those study cabinets, meaning to get to them one day and replace them with files, but somehow never got to it.  Ten years have passed and the files have never been made.  And books have been piling up all over the place.

A couple of weeks ago I made up my mind to begin this project.  I started by going through everything in those cabinet drawers, which included many treasures from the past:  articles, magazines, catalogues, stationary, cards, everything I had been collecting over the years.  To keep or throw away, that was the question.  The goal was to clean out the drawers and make space for the files.  Oh the amount of things I threw away!  But, there were also many treasures -- one of my favorite discoveries were the postcards and catalogues I have been collecting over the years from our travels and visits to museums, art galleries, and historic houses.  I put some of them out on my desk and I loved the collage they made.  A friend of mine described them as "eye candy."  And she was right.  I just love them!

Here are some of my favorites:

Duncan Grant, "At the Ballet" (1938) from The Bloomsbury Workshop in London

This  London gallery had an exhibition of works by Vanessa Bell, many years ago
I probably received this invitation in the mail

Vanessa Bell, "Self Portrait" (c.1958) from Charleston in Sussex, England

Catalogue for an exhibition of works by Roger Fry at The Bloomsbury Workshop

Notecard with a drawing of Knole, the ancestral home of Vita Sackville-West in Kent, England

Painting of Lady Ottoline Morrell by Simon Bussy (1920) at the National Portrait Gallery in London

The Bronte sisters, oil painting by Branwell Bronte at the National Portrait Gallery

Bloomsbury Silhouettes, 5 postcards by Anna Fewster, bought at Charleston last year

Snapshots into the past and reminders of travels and interests from many years ago -- these are just some of the souvenirs I have discovered during my adventures in cleaning up my study.  It feels a bit like a travel diary.  And there is so much more...I had no idea this would be so much fun!

12 comments:

  1. Love the silhouettes-also the entirety of the post! pgt

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  2. Sunday,

    Hello! What a wonderful day spent going through your souvenirs and your memories. I love to do that also, although at times it is overwhelming to have so much "stuff".

    I hope you have a fabulous week! Elizabeth

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  3. Once again!
    You show all my favourites!
    xoxo,
    p

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  4. Sunday, You have a lovely collection of memorabilia. I adore the self portrait of Vanessa Bell. You have a wonderful collection. Thanks for sharing some of your favorites. Bonnie

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  5. Hi Sunday,
    Never throw away that collection till you have blogged about it. Then it will remain in your archives forever (or at least until we have to transfer our treasures to some new device). And, your readers will have the pleasure of enjoying your collection for the first time.
    Have a great day,
    b

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  6. And I'm sure going through your collection has provided much future content for posts! I know that happens when I go through my boxes. I love the pieces you feature here and especially the portrait of the Bronte sisters. I'm curious how you will end up organizing them. I also need to file or display many treasures. I love collecting postcards of favorite pieces from museums I visit, and just came across "el abrazo" by Picasso from the Museu Picasso de Barcelona. I am thinking of framing it and putting on the wall in the front room. what fun!

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  7. Isn't it wonderful to find treasures that you have forgotten about? I, too, feel overwhelmed by everything that I have collected over the years. I especially LOVE "At the Ballet" by Duncan Grant and the silhouettes.
    xoxo, B

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  8. I am sooooo bad at organizing. I found a box of things from our trip to Paris in 2006 and just put the box back in the closet because I dreaded sorting through it. Thanks for reminding me that going through old bits and bobs can be an enjoyable experience. You have such a fun Bloomsbury collection.

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  9. These are wonderful, Sunday. Eye candy for sure, and a nice little reminder that I should do some cleaning up myself. Thanks for the inspirational post.

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  10. Love the eye candy! Especially the silhouettes. Thanks for sharing! :)

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  11. Beautiful memories.

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  12. I'm about to go through the same process, albeit forced, since my study will be painted a soft white (currently it is a golden brown) this week. After reading your post, I am actually looking forward to it. Thanks, Sunday!

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