Normansfield Theatre in Teddington

Normansfield Theatre in Teddington

'My favourite building is the amazing Normansfield Theatre in Teddington that John Langdon Down (1828-1896) built to provide positive and stimulating education for learning disabled people (Down syndrome is named after him). At a time when most disabled people would have been shut away in horrific asylums, Down adapted his own house as a residential home, and built a beautiful theatre for creative rehabilitation. It's one of the few surviving private theatres from the period, with original painted scenery and other ornate fixtures, recently remodelled. For me, it's also a reminder of how the wealthy often used their money for good causes, which feels less common now. Jos Boys, guest curator and co-director of The DisOrdinary Architecture Project'

My source: The pick of London Open House. House&Home, FTWeekend. 6/7 September 2025. p.8.

Image: Langdon Down Centre

Previously: 'learning disability' : 'theatre' : 'architecture'

Hybrid therapy (Early) c/o Fernández-Navarro, Camarós, and Garate

... Family and Art Therapy?

 

Abstract

"This paper presents rock art as a collective action in which different strata of society took part, including children and subadults. Until recent decades archaeology of childhood has not been in the main focus of the archaeological research, much less the participation of those children in the artistic activity. The present study approaches the palaeodemography of artists in the decorated caves through the paleolithic rock art itself. The approximate age of these individuals has been calculated through the biometric analysis of hand stencils in the caves of Fuente del Salín, Castillo, La Garma, Maltravieso and Fuente del Trucho, using 3D photogrammetric models as reference. The results have been compared with a modern reference population in order to assign the Palaeolithic hands to certain age groups. It has been demonstrated the presence of hand stencil motifs belongs to infants, children and juveniles, revealing this stratum's importance in the artistic activity."

 

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	[Fig. 4. ] Study measurement system and current sample measurement 1. Hand Length; 2. Hand Width; 3. Thumb Length; 4. Thumb Width; 5. Index finger Length; 6. Index finger Width; 7. Middle finger Length; 8. Miggle finger; 9. Ring finger Length; 10. Ring finger Width; 11. Little finger Length; 12. Little finger.
"Children may have had a hand in a quarter of prehistoric art"

Fernández-Navarro, V., Camarós, E., & Garate, D. (2022). Visualizing childhood in Upper Palaeolithic societies: Experimental and archaeological approach to artists’ age estimation through cave art hand stencils. Journal of Archaeological Science, 140, 105574. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2022.105574

My source:

Badcock, James. "Children may have had a hand in a quarter of prehistoric art". The Daily Telegraph. 12 March 2022, p.15.

Lucian identity ii

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Lucian Freud, Interior with Hand Mirror (Self-Portrait), 1967. Oil on canvas. 25.5 x 17.8 cm. Private collection. © The Lucian Freud Archive / Bridgeman Images.	Painting as Process process as painting

See also:

Post: Lucian identity i

Lucian Freud Archive
http://lucianfreud.com/index.html

Royal Academy Lucian Freud: The Self-portraits
https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/lucian-freud-self-portraits

My source:
Campbell-Johnston, R. The secrets that still lie in the paint-strewn lair of Lucian Freud, The Times, Saturday Review, October 19 2019, pp.4-5.

Lucian identity i

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Lucian Freud, Self Portrait, c.1956 (oil on canvas)	Painting Process
peer (painting)	peer supervision

"... [Lucian Freud's] most precious works are perhaps his unfinished portraits. ... The two painters [Francis Bacon] often used each other as models preferring to depict each other’s psychological states rather than physical. ...

Then there is the unfinished self-portrait from around 1956. (Image #4 in the slideshow) These paintings should be looked at as precious gifts that offer an unprecedented access to Freud’s very personal process. Notice how his loose pencil marks, more like broad guidelines for the final portrait gain volume and become imbued with emotion at the hand of the master. You can see that Freud started each portrait with the most expressive feature of the human face – the eyes, and moved radially outwards from there."

 With my emphasis and image source:
 http://www.galleryintell.com/lucian-freud-portraits-kunsthistorisches-museum/

See also:

Lucian Freud Archive
http://lucianfreud.com/index.html

Royal Academy Lucian Freud: The Self-portraits
https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/lucian-freud-self-portraits


My source:
Campbell-Johnston, R. The secrets that still lie in the paint-strewn lair of Lucian Freud, The Times, Saturday Review, October 19 2019, pp.4-5.

"Broach Schizophrene" by Bryan Charnley

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Broach Schizophrene by Bryan Charnley

Bryan Charnley (1949 – 1991)
https://www.bryancharnley.info/

Broach Schizophrene: Oil on Canvas, 1983. In the collection of the Bethlem Museum of the Mind
https://www.bryancharnley.info/bondage-heads/_0010_broach-schizophrene/

- on Bethlem Museum of the Mind Blog
https://museumofthemind.org.uk/blog/in-the-frame-bryan-charnley-and-the-art-of-schizophrenia

Previous post:
Book: The Heartland - Finding and Losing Schizophrenia
https://hodges-model.blogspot.com/2019/06/book-heartland-finding-and-losing.html

My source:
Cathy Rentzenbrink, A battleground inside your head, The Times, Saturday Review. 25 May 2019, p.15.

Book: "Poems from the Edge of Extinction"

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group - population

	"One language is falling silent every two weeks. Half of the 7,000 languages spoken in the world today will be lost by the end of this century".
Poems from the Edge of Extinction

Chris McCabe

My source:
Crawford, M. (2019) Poetry, Books, FT Weekend Life&Arts, 21-22 Sepember, p.11.

One Hundred and Eleven [vertebrae]

individual - self

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	One Hundred and Eleven 111 [vertebrae]
	111 on the FRINGE 111 on the FRINGE

111 + Self-Care = Sustainable Health Care System ?

Spring Night and Willow, 1917/after 1920 Astrup

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humanistic ---------------------------------------  mechanistic
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Spring Night and Willow, 1917/after 1920 Astrup

Painting Norway: Dulwich Picture Gallery.

My source and image:
Campbell-Johnson, C. (2016). He's Nordic - but nice, The Times, February 5th, p.12.

States of Being - Ai Weiwei

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Ai Weiwei Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn, 1995
	Ai Weiwei Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn, 1995

This exhibition is well worth a visit.

Acknowledgement i: Ai Weiwei having his passport returned.
Acknowledgement ii: For a would-be traveller to Halkidiki to possibly experience an Earth tremor, the exhibits about the Sichuan earthquake are thought provoking and sobering.
Acknowledgement iii: There is another photograph of course: it lies all within and without the model. It is spiritual, suspended, a journey, kinetic and potential all at once.

Photographs Ai Weiwei
c/o http://www.electronicbeats.net/hans-ulrich-obrist-visits-ai-weiwei/