Stuart Simkins Furniture

2003 to 2009. Scotland to Brazil

2009-02-07T21:39:00.014-04:00

I am very fond of this painting, it was painted quickly and has captured fully what I felt at the time, it was based on photographs taken when I first came to Salvador and saw the carved fishing boats sitting on the sand in the shallow water ( painted in oil)
The big move to Brazil meant that I had to sell my house and close my workshop, both some what traumatic and not without problems, but achieved during 2003 as well as getting a permanent VISA for living in Brazil. the workshop was packed and crated and put into a container and sent to London to catch the boat for Salvador( via Africa and Argentina).
I have really only painted in Brazil, having found that Brazil lacks the culture for antique furniture, and now have reset up a workshop in France from where I am now restarting my furniture making and restoration business, so time is split between the two countries and an annual visit to Scotland to see friends

The new workshop that I have roofed and built a covered veranda to the side, the house and the workshop are in St. Puy, the Gers near Toulouse in France.
I have now returned to my beginnings in that I have started to paint and leave the restoration work for my three to six months in Europe

Portraits of my friends, Campbell Mars (oil) and Michael with Zoe (acrylic)

Tinkering with the old masters and trying to learn something of the techniques.
The Van Dyke was painted in acrylics, the Renoir and Leonardo were done with oils, I do not do a lot of drawing before starting a painting, preferring to block the painting in with colour and then modify the image as I progress, the detail, when I do detail, is left till late on. This can be seen in the unfinished Caravaggio on the left and then see the in filled detail in the painting on the right as I have progressed . The Christ figure is a detail that I painted from a Baroque painting of around the 1760's. I much prefer colour to detail and form lines with the colours butting other colours. The Vermeer is the most recent copy and is unfinished, painted in oil.

My garden in Brazil painted in oil( well the bottom of the garden).
A cow seen on my travels to Lençóis, Bahia, painted in oil.
A painting of my travels to Corfu many years back and still leaves very fond memories, also painted in oil.

A study of rocks inspired from the rocks here on the coast of Brazil( in acrylic paint)
A painting from my memories of a visit to Rome some years back( in oil)
A painting based on a photograph that I took in Corfu whilst on holiday there more than ten years ago( in oil)

Two paintings done shortly after my visit to Lençóis, the interior of Bahia(both in oil)

I find that water is a very absorbing theme and keep returning to it in one form or another as well as rock formations.These three are all done in oil paints and are again from my trip to Lençóis.

Two recent paintings that bridge France and Brazil.
First is typical of Manhaus and the second is of Michael's house at day break, the mist rising with the Sun. It was a scene that I saw every day whilst I was there roofing the garage. Both are in oil.

A recent painting of my memories of Scotland, painted in oils.

1990 to 2003. Edinburgh,Scotland

2009-02-07T12:47:00.000-04:00

A change in personal situation opened up a move to Edinburgh in Scotland. Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland and as a traditional out look on life, very much fixed in its banking tradition and aesthetically the city still belongs to the Georgian period (1714 to 1837. Georgian style embraces a century under the reign of three Georges and is often divided into the Palladia, early and late Georgian periods. The style was partly a reaction to baroque which George I loathed. ) when the vast part of the historic new city was built( for the visit of George the Third ). The reigns included many famous people and events,

1714 George I on the throne
1748 Pompeii discovered
1813 Pride and Prejudice written by Jane Austen
1837 Queen Victoria crowned
Robert Adam - architect and designer, influenced by the way the Italians decorated their buildings
George Hepplewhite - furniture maker in the late Georgian period
Thomas Chippendale - cabinet maker renowned during the middle Georgian period

The old city of Edinburgh is virtually one street on a hillside and very typical of the medieval city, narrow with overhanging upper story, with a castle at the top and a palace at the bottom, the remains of the city wall and its gates can still be found as well as many of its early buildings dating from 1500.

This history and the vast quantity of early Georgian and Victorian furniture, that still exists in the city, as well as the close proximity of Glasgow with its Arts and Crafts to Art Nouveau style, including the works of the well known Scottish architect, Charles Rennie Macintosh, have given me a exceptionally good cross section for what became a period of mainly furniture restoration work.

Work in store awaiting restoration. I still have a steady supply of this type of work and return to Scotland annually to continue this and other work that dealers in the antique trade have stock piled for me.

Most of my early works in Edinburgh were large pieces of furniture, and indeed up to the point of closing the workshop, to move to Brazil in 2003, the restoration work mainly included tables, chairs, side boards, chest of drawers and the odd piano. I had a steady stream of work from about eight of the antique dealers in Edinburgh and one of the dealers that brought me much smaller pieces, Michael Bennett-Levy, is now the main reason for me returning to Scotland every year.

Restored cabinet and my double portrait of Michael and Zoe, painted in acrylics. The chairs is one of four that I made for Michael to augment his dining room chairs.

More examples of work in progress and awaiting restoration. The automata was re based to take another glass globe and the foliage restored along with 6 Victorian stuffed Humming birds used to replace the missing ones, each of these had some movement connected to them.

A birch lathe used for ornamental turning.

A large candlestick made from Elm for a client in Glasgow, a frame maker, he often brought me strange and interesting projects, such as carving an intricate wooden flame that was then covered in silver gilt and various intricate picture frames, all were new projects but had to look antique.

Another part of conservation and restoration is work on the fabric of buildings, here( its me in the photograph) I was asked to help with the conservation of timber panelling and the restoration of a window at a fortified tower in Scotland, the architect specialised in such work and was zealous in his requirements to keep as much of the original panelling and window structure as I could. The glass was bought in France and is hand made to the same specification as the small fragments of glass that we found in the window. it is possibly better to wear a mask when doing this sort of work, clearly I did not during this work.

cabinet for Cd's made from spalted Beech and having three simple rotating storage units.
Another client, university professor, who wanted every room in the house with a different theme, he had come originally because I was the only person he could find to re create an early English fruit wood tea caddy. It was to be a birthday present for his wife and he wished it to be absolutely real in age ( a true fake), he was so pleased with it, that I continued for many years recreating Gothic style Putin desks and chairs to Japanese picture frames and tables.

New work. Here a coffee table to display the clients collection of silver and wooden objects, made from Cherry wood, Yew and Chestnut.
The Elm dining table was over four metres long and made for an old stable conversion.

A very large and heavy Oak dresser made to have a Georgian flavour for an antique dealers own house.

An Elm dresser made to fit into a narrow corrider and take a clients own collection of china plates.

An old fortified house on the out skirts of Edinburgh needed a few new bathrooms and I designed, built and painted this one along with designing and making the carpet. The client expressed his liking for the paintings of Kandinski.

Work in progress for Diageo on their Archive Building from 1997 to 2002.

Interiors made for the Open Eye Gallery in Edinburgh
A good friend and long time work associate came to me by way of a client, whom in many ways was the epitome of a bad client, he was a garden designer without qualification and his real trade as a film director had, up to the point of us parting company, never taken off ( I believe that he has had better luck in the United States) He had bought a Masda sports car and wanted me to re do all the interior fittings in Rose wood, such as the gear stick and its panel, the dash around the speed o meter and the door handles on the inside of the car. After completing these for him he then asked me to do more mundane jobs in his house and for his newly created garden design job.

Some of the work done for Campbell Mars

The lions head was part of a hand rail carved from Cherry and running the full lenght of the staircase.
This is when I met Campbell Mars, an architect of outstanding in Edinburgh and one that dealt in restoring and new build. Along with the building work he very much liked to create interiors and with this in mind he and I have, over many years completed bold and subtle interiors. One of his newer projects was for the Diageo Group, formally Guinness Distillers the main producers of Scottish Whiskey and other alcohols, where he was approached to build their new Archive Building and in this I was to produce several rooms for the archive material.

Reproduction is sometimes necessary to augment a collection of chairs, especially when it is a lot cheaper to buy an odd number than an even number. here an Australian banker, had bought five chairs and then increased them to twelve ( I had to write a note for the customs to prove that they had been made by myself)

A new table that I made in a Regency style, it was quite large and and constructed with solid Elm and Elm veneers on top of a plywood base. I used the technique of brushing on P.V.A glue to the base wood and the veneers, then letting them dry hard over night. The following day I was able to apply the veneers with hot iron in the same manner as I would with animal glue; the main difference is the increased temperature that is needed to get the glue to soften.

In the workshop my assistant is completing work for 'Pine Country', a large gallery style shop in Edinburgh ( now closed) whilst I am making copies of chairs, two are of William and Mary style and made using Chestnut, the others are constructed with Mahogany ( reforested; as I only ever bought from mills that dealt solely in reforested timber)

The broucher of Pine Country showing the furniture that I and my assistant made, my New Zealand assistant left me to travel to the United States and work on boat interiors, so i conyinued making furniture for this shop until they finally closed in 2001.

The furniture for Pine Country was made with Pine and Tulip wood then a liquid wax was applied and the furniture buffed to a lustre. Orders were taken by phone or by fax and the company sent a van to collect the finished pieces. Generally I was making at least four pieces a week as well as my normal work, so it was a seven day week job for me. Slightly worse when I had assistants because of the need to organise work for them and not lat materials or wood become out of stock.

Clock case repairs are one of the steady and daily jobs, along with chair repairs they keep a constant cash flow for a workshop. The long case clock in the centre is in fact a completely new build from old timber to the requirements of an existing Edinburgh clock movement, I trust that you appreciate the work involved to produce cases like this one.

Here too is a new bracket clock and its bracket, made in Sycamore and then stained, it was made to replace a long case that did not suit the movement( this is my design and not a copy)

There is also work that comes from different sources and therefore makes for a less repetative day.
I have made many rocking horses and repaired a few, carved from pine and then given a gypsum covering, sanded and sealed, then painted, they give many years of good service and enjoyment.
The MDF display units( to be painted) where for a antique shop to display glass wear and ceramics
The kitchen unit was made for a very tall man that liked cooking and wished to have one piece of kitchen furniture for himself; made from Ash and using very strong metal runners for the drawers. The Elm chest was made for a lady artist who wished to keep her drawings tidy.

A large part of restoration includes carving and it can be time consuming so it can be mixed with other carving work so as one part is glued you can work on another, it is best to have a run of work so you do not get out of the swing of using the carving chisels.

Wood turning is similar to carving in that it is best done in numbers so that you keep your eye in trim and your hands nimble. Here are a few of an order of bird supports, made for a taxidermist. made from Cherry wood and Beech they would be stained to suit the bird and then polished. Normally i would try to do all the polishing on the lathe.

1980 to 1990. Northumberland

2009-02-06T18:54:00.000-04:00

Although an immense amount of time was taken up on the construction and renovation of my barn at Shotleyfield, Northumberland, I had to build up the furniture business that I created when first arriving there. In my mind was an image of a more modern William Morris, creating furniture and interiors from natural materials and by hand, within a country setting that would re instate the artist craftsman as a necessary part of town and village life. It is so much more rewarding when the work that you produce is for a family and can be appreciated every day by them and their friends, it is possible to give far more of your self in this art than in the physical props of a theatre show, although the play, the word, is of equal art.
William morris's Red House is in Bexleyheath, very close to Abbeywood, where I lived in London and this style had an influence on me. The mixture of painting and clear wood was a throw back to the Middle ages but I felt that it could be modernised in that all materials are able to be mixed and fused to create a pleasureable object, perhaps my wish is to not have such a fixed idea of style , just let the work create its own style with the mixture of materials and its necessary use.

William Morris'a Red House was designed by Philips Webb and had many of the Pre Raphaelite artist's work inside. William was 25 and his wife 19. After a six week
honeymoon in Paris, Belgium and on the Rhine, they moved into furnished
accommodation in Great Ormond Street and the following year to Aberleigh Lodge near
Bexleyheath to await the building of their new house designed by Morris' friend, the
architect Philip Webb.
It was after the building of the house and the designing of the interior that Morris and his
friends felt experienced enough in the art of interior design to set up in business. So in
1861 the firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. was established and it quickly grew
and prospered as the public came to appreciate the new and innovative designs being
produced. The company was simply known as `The Firm' to many of Morris' friends and
customers. The Firm was dissolved in 1875 and the business renamed Morris &
Company.

Simple styled hand made kitchen units that I made from local grown timber. The inset is a waste bin.

With my need to constantly earn a living and support an interior design shop that sadly lacked any profit, I resorted more to making hand-made kitchen units, they simply gave back the profit that I needed to do the work on my barn conversion.

Staircase made from mahogany and panelled with pine.
This did not stop me from trying to give all my work an individual quality that could be recognised as my own.

This was a challenge, the origional conservatory was in a very bad condition but the front wall was recoverable, so I re made, in Cedar, the entire conservatorty except for the front glazed wall. This also included making all the metal fittings and making patterns for the curved glazing bars which were then cast in iron.

Changes in direction

2009-02-06T15:46:00.000-04:00

Ariel view of the barns that I bought at Shotleyfield, Shotleybridge, the border of Northumberland and County Durham. I bought these barns in 1984, they had been used as a milking parlour and for pigs, there was a large rickety hay barn to the rear, a stream that ran under and to the rear of the property. No tap water and no easily accessable electricity. I had moved to Tyne and Wear at the end of 1980, living in a rented farm house at Westerhope, Newcastle upon Tyne, from where I started my furniture business and also comuted every weekend to construct this house and workshop. A task that took me 6 years and many cut and frozen fingers, not least of this was the loss of a finger and thumb in 1986.

Having spent the most part of the 1970's in London, concentrating very much on theatre work, I became some what impatient to be free of the slog that this work can entail. It is very demanding and without much to leave behind for posterity. I found by the end of the 1970's, the theatres in general had started to get into financial difficulties, part due to tax modifications and the lack of sponsorship for the arts. Instead of parts of shows getting the cut, whole shows were cut as routine and with this the launch of musicals and shows in the provinces, became normal practice. It was cheaper to get a theatre like Newcastle or Manchester to produce the show, with in-house-staff, then to move the complete show to the West End of London, thus putting London producers under strain to cut costs. This they did and the large scenery makers, like Terry Murphy, took in new staff to cope with the new challenge and leaving the independent painter and prop maker to fend for himself. I decided that I would like to get back to roots and start a fresh with a hand made furniture making business, for this I decided to move to Northumberland and be somewhere that was attractive, had large areas of forest and where I had many friends.

The barns as I bought them and first saw them in 1984, the photographs are a few that I took on the second visit to the barn in order to due drawings for planning permission. I had decided to do some rapid designs in order to know whether I could get planning permission, not wanting to buy the barns and then find that I could not convert them to domestic use.
The move to Northumberland was not such a dramatic idea, after college I had wanted to move to Norfolk and buy an old mill to have a workshop that was self sufficient, having wood in the blood, as it were, and wood as part of my Chinese sign, it was only natural to think of always making things in this wonderful material. My great grand father, grand father and two uncles, where cabinet makers and my father was an architect, thus giving me a certain DNA pull towards the making and selling of furniture and its social function.
The first work that I was able to pick up, largely consisted of building projects that needed staircases and windows, then moving to kitchen and bathroom units, followed by roofing and conservatories, all prompted by the building work that I was having to undertake for my own house. It was like a show house, open to the public even when I was not there. When, in the spring of 1986, I had managed to create a living area and water-tight roofing for the new house, I moved there and used part of the house as a workshop; much later I developed this half as the remaining bedrooms, studio, sitting room and dining room with a second staircase and then constructed a new workshop to the side.
Now when I say that 'I constructed', I do mean that I did all this work single handed whilst continuing to run a small furniture business and support a small interior decorating shop in the near by Hexham.
A sharp learning curve was the use of rough stone and classic cement mixes. I had to learn how to handle stone and cut it. Re roofing the barn with old Westmoreland slate was another useful trade ( all the slate that I bought was of various thickness and sizes, needing to be re cut, measured and re holed. So all the slates had to be laid out in order to calculate what quantities of different sizes I had, then they needed to be calculated for coverage and the final sizing could allow me to position all the roof battens), along side gardening, septic tanks,filtration systems, river management, central heating and car maintenance.

It took some time for me to get the final stage under way, this was for the workshop and garage, because of the need to earn money to pay for the project as well as the normal fuel bills and tax return. I had origionally hoped to create a William morris type of interior, making all the windows and doors from hard wood, including all the upstairs wall panels and door locks. I finally accepted that I could not do all this within a reasonable budget or time scale and resulted to plastered walls ( myself doing every bit including the ceilings) and stained softwood windows with metal catches. The floors, doors, furniture, staircase, kitchen units, internal cills and all the floors where made from local Elm. Outside the barn I put old flag stones that I had collected over the 6 years along with old stone troughs and dry stone walling ( planted out with stone leeks and wall flowers)

The chairs that are in front of the stone arches, which I had to re create by cutting large sand stones, in these photographs ( 20 of them) where made for a client but the other furniture I made for my own use.

The flooring and staircase took quite some time to create mainly because of the time needed to plane all of the rough timber. I always had my timber cut to sizes that I stipulated, most times I would see the tree standing and buy it there and then from the farmer and have the tree cut down, cut to length and loaded on to a trailer, whilst I was there. I then would have a local sawyer cut the planks and these where transported to another local craftsman for drying in his kiln. The whole process takes 6 months to achieve good working timber, this was the same process that I adopted for all my work. Creating furniture and specialist carpentry from local grown timber. A very satisfying experience and my clients always appreciated that their work was made from local timber and local craftsmen.

Revisiting, reassessing and restarting.

2009-02-05T15:11:00.000-04:00

Having lived and worked in Britain for the first 52 years of my life I am now living in Brazil; moving here on the 24th October,2003.
I was born in Birmingham and studied there until moving to Exeter, Devon, England, in 1968; at Exeter College of Art( now university status) I studied graphic design and book illustration. Collecting my degree in 1970 and also becoming a member of L.S.I.A.D, the society of industrial artists and designers. After a very brief time as a designer in the Devon Educational Resources Centre, set up to supply schools with well designed educational support, I left to take up full time employment at the Northcott theatre.
At this time my ex wife was approached by the Northcott Theatre, Exeter to produce all their display and advertising media, as well as their programmes and brochures. My constant nightly vigil in the theatre, in order to collect her, eventually paid dividends. One night, whilst chatting to the assistant designer, I was asked if I could paint the scenery for a Passion Play which was to be produced that month. The London painter who had been expected to do the work could not manage the time and the theatre needed some one immediately. This work led to a string of painting jobs and the eventual offer of permanent work as their Property Supervisor; managing the running and finance of the department and having one assistant under my direction.

A programme with the cast list that have now become well known names, sadly with a few having died in recent years. The photos under the title of The Tempest, show me working on the production, making masks. I also had the job of making false breasts for Ariel, the designer, Hayden Griffen, being rather over zealous in wanting them as life like as possible. With this type of rep theatre you are subject to three weeks for each production, often having the added stress of overlapping productions, childrens theatre productions and touring shows. On top of this would be the never ending problem of lack of cash, so invention and negotiation was always at hand. One production of Edward Bond's depicting the life of Shakespeare, starring Sir John Guilgood, had me touring the Moors to get heather to produce a life like garden hedge that needed to grow during the performance and be cropped by the gardner.

One of the earliest of my theatre work, a production of Measure for Measure that included several large heads which where worn by the actors. Made of expanded polysterene with resin.
This work lasted for two years and led to me acquiring contacts in London, these contacts ( for the Royal Court theatre, National Theatre, English National Opera and the Royal Ballet) and a friendship with another scene painter, made me decide to quit full time employment and seek a life as a self employed scene painter, property and special effects maker in London.
Billy Whitelaw and Dame Peggy Ashcroft with Peter Hall, both performances of Samuel Beckets, where with my set and props(burning umbrella) and they were later used for the BBC TV production. The set was made of wood and then covered and textured with plasterers scrim. The umbrella was subjected to many instant changes as Sam Becket and Peter hall strove to get the shows timed to perfection. It often meant having several umbrellas ready that would smoulder at different rates, they both wanted smoke without fire but at a remarkably fast time, also it was to burn and leave only the frame visible. Both Billy and Dame Peggy wore dresses which left their arms and shoulders bare, thus having the problem of any burning embers falling onto the bare skin !!!
With the work and challenges that existed during the 1970's in London for the 8 years that I lived there, I acquired a wealth of knowledge and contacts,as well as it being an inspiring time, it often was physically exausting and consuming of fresh mental ideas, always needing to be one step ahead and able to come up with solutions at the drop of a hat.
I am more than a little short of photographs for the time I was in London and indeed subsequent years, for a bad quirk of fate I have lost a huge stock of photographs and those that did get put onto hard disc during my time in Edinburgh, have also been lost when I put my note-book in for repairs( during 2001). The computer got sent back to the manufacturers who told me they would only supply me with a new. The problem then arose that they would not return the hard disc or make a copy. Masses of my accounts had not been backed up and a large portfolio of work photographs also sadly got trashed.
During my time in London I also worked on shop interior design and special commissions for clients, one of these was for Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan in Abu dhabi in 1976. I was approached by his London based firm called Tridex, to produce designs for various parts of a new Majlis ( a meeting place, for ambassadors and other notaries that wish to meet the Sultan) with the general instruction that he liked French designs. So I produced many designs for cast iron balustrades and handrails and lighting , all in a French colonial or art nouveau style. Also I produced working drawings for the construction of a roof and its integral chandelier, this was to have water cascading down it and into a pool at on the ground floor. Designed to be built in pre formed panels of timber and fibre glass that would have been bolted together with veins of gilded wood, the idea was to create an impression much like the interior of a cathedral but with an Islamic feel, as each of the panels were kite shaped, they formed into star patterns and left a star shaped cascade in the centre( the chandelier). Sadly I have no drawings now or any photos. The same was true for a Bank client in Beirut, where I designed a colourful, semi transparent division for the bank. It was to mask the main area of the bank from the staircase, fully designed and with all the costings made and accepted, I lost the project to an invasion and bombing of Beirut by the Israeli air force.
Two contacts that brought very different results for my work where from the same person, Andrew Saunders( I met Andrew when he was Jocelyn Herbet's assistant on many plays, including the work of Sam Becket, also he was her assistant on the Ned Kelly film, starring Mick Jagger, 'Rolling Stones')
I worked with Andrew on the Pink Floyds American Tour, producing large inflatables that where then flown above the stadium and picked out with flood lights, one of the pigs was fitted with a false vagina and carried small inflated pigs inside her, these were released by pull cord on the ground.
This is a photo of the German version that the group had made but ours was similar, I think much better !!! and also included two children and a TV set. The other far more pleasing work, which continued for several years, was with a couple who had set up a French stove restoration company, at Little Venice in London. Rose Grey and David Maclwain had started this as a side line to them selling crepes to the French in France. They came across so many beautiful stoves, going for nothing, that they decided to buy them, collect them and restore them. Mainly of cast iron but some in ceramic tiles, they had ben produced through out France during the 1800's. David had set up his own company in his house, the basement was the restoration workshop, the ground floor was the office and showroom. The stoves where really works of art, they had such variety and the castings were of a fine quality. Most stoves had ieces missing or broken, no grates or lacking in parts for the door mica( not glass ), it was this that brought us together, I made up the patterns for the missing pieces and they would be then cast at the foundry. I however did produce the designs and patterns for a full size stove and this stove is still in production by a company called Hunter Stoves( they bought David's company.
The whole of this stove was my work, I also did many other stove patterns but have no photographs of this work, it was very similar in spirit to the work that I produced for the Sultan of Abu Dhabi. The patterns were made in Pine and resin and I had to calculate the different amounts of shrinkage so that the whole of the components would fit without any extra engineering or adjustment by grinding, this also meant trying to get a surface that would require very little finishing after the casting was made. A lot of this I had to learn from the foundry ( the original foundry we used was the art foundry that had produced most of Henry Moore's work.