The main lounge where the mural will be is currently a building site. You can see thepaint on the walls underneath the wallpaper that I removed was blood red. Quite like the red theme for this part of the gallery but not as dark as the red in these pictures. Not sure when this was painted, but the wallpaper had been on for at least 30 years. Got to imagine what the mural would look like against a red background, as the red will highlight any reds in the mural. May be a bit too frantic to look at. Current thinking among artists is that everything has to be stark white, but this is a historical building not a warehouse gallery. I find white too cold. When you are in a gallery you want to feel calm and relaxed. I personally like the some of the colours in the National Gallery in London and have spent whole days in there on occasions. Also the picture hangers are less obvious on darker walls than against white. The downstairs gallery will be white as it is darker and slightly subterranean ie, below ground level. It is low ceilinged unlike the lofty space above. See pictures below.

 

 

 

 

The square skylight will become round and a spiral staircase will be used to access it. We'll be able to watch the tall ships go by into Blyth harbour next year from the roof!

 

 When checking round the roof void above the octagonal room and in the loft above the kitchen there were a fair amount of inactive woodworm holes and small pockets of active blighters. So the lads had to go up and spray them. After this unpleasant job one or two reported seeing "entities" flying round the loft and roof void, like "small blobs of flying lights". Perhaps this was the ghosts of the poor worms they had just annihilated rising from their dark holes or it could of been that the chemicals of the woodworm spray had sent them on a spooky trip.

 

Again, as in the kitchen, there are those Vanbrughian arched windows in the octagonal lounge. Must go through those Delaval archival papers properly at Woodhorn to see if there really is any connection to Vanbrugh. At present the pleasant weather is not leading me towards the archival library. It is an interesting task but I now know how detectives must feel when they have to weed through tons of paperwork to find obscure clues.

 



Got the keys for the Tower House in January. Now it is April and the mini castle is a building site. The chandeliers, as shown on the picture below, on the ceiling in the octagonal lounge have been removed. These have been turned upside down so that they will hang the other way but with the glass upper piece still on the top. The plastic candles will be thankfully discarded and replaced with something more dramatic and colourful. The renovated chandelier will be moved to the hallway so that the ceiling  mural will not be obscured by it.

The spot where the chandelier was hanging from is marked by a miserable looking bulb hanging down which has now been put out of its misery and all trace of the wiring and ceiling rose will be obliterated.

Note the wobbly scaffolding used for the mural, a bit like being on top of a mast in a slight breeze. The solution to the neck ache problem of constantly looking up is two beanbags to lie down on at the
  top of the scaffolding so that the only real effort you have to make is to lift your arm to paint.

This scaffolding will be transported from the hallway, where stairs are to be built to replace the scull-cracking spiral staircase that was there. The lounge is octagonal with arched windows that people think signifies that it was designed by Vanbrugh. The kitchen windows, see picture below, are certainly in the same style as windows seen in nearby Seaton Delaval Hall and Castle Howard, both Vanbrugh designs. However, there is no evidence that he did build the Octagon, even the date is vaguely from somewhere between 1720 (which is on a plaque next to the front door) to 1748-50. Delaval Hall appears to have been started in 1720 and built by local workers with the supervision of a Mr Mewburne (quote Martin Green in his Delavals family history). There is a possibility that the same workers could have been employed to build the Harbour Masters House, ie the Octagon, around the time the hall was being built, but not necessarily with Vanbrugh as the architect. It would probably of been easy to copy his style. According to records Vanbrugh was rarely around when

Delaval Hall was being built and the Harbour Masters House was probably not even on his radar.

 

 

We have currently been looking up the Delaval Estate archives at Woodhorn to see if there is any mention of the building of the octagonal harbour masters house, but it is a long trawl and there are so many letters to read in heavy going official script from the time that it would take a week to work your way through most of them. It would make sense if the Delavals, mainly John and Thomas, initiated the building of the house considering it would of been an integral part of the harbour that they went to a great deal of effort to construct. However, John was born in 1728 and Thomas in 1731 which meant the harbour masters house would of been constructed at the earliest in 1748, unless their father Francis Blake Delaval oversaw its construction. The house was built in 2 sections: the Octagon tower and the rectangular house beside it so there were 2 periods of construction.

 

To help with the dating of the Octagonal part we have a bit of original roof timber to be dated. This may of course not be accurate as there is always a chance the roof timbers could of been replaced at some point or even that they were originally part of another structure. The old woodworm holes show the timbers have been treated on at least one occasion for woodworm, as have a lot of other timbers in the house. Some of which we have had to have treated where the woodworm was still active.

 

 

 

 

Welcome to my Blog

I am an artist based in Seaton Sluice, Northumberland. Here are a couple of my paintings to show a small range of the work I do. Some of it reflects where I live and others are based on nature and medieval/historical/mythological themes. But my work will soon take a new path, a rather high one.

After one look at the round ceiling of our nearly newly acquired octagonal minicastle , ie, we're still waiting for the keys, I decided a mural was needed. (Pics to follow once got keys.) So once its fully bought I'm about to embark on a ceiling mural interspersed with the odd bout of renovation of the rest of this wonderfully quirky building. In fact most of the rest of the renovation of the house will require scaffolding. So wish me luck as I don't like heights.  
No experience of doing a ceiling mural before so currently reading up.

Firstly, the guttering and drainage on the castle roof needs sorting. No point in painting a ceiling if the damp can get in. The roof is watertight but the drainpipe is blocked. More like a paddling pool up there surrounded by crennellations and an amazing view of the sea.

If you want to know the ups and downs of doing a ceiling mural follow further blogs.

Some images to follow but will keep my mural design a secret until it is finished.

You can see more of my work on my website www.rose-dimascio.co.uk or follow updates on Facebook.

 These aquilegias were painted in gouache. They seem to multiply in the garden like rabbits but I'm not complaining as I love them.

This is a statue at Delaval Hall near Seaton Sluice prior to renovation. It represents one of the Arts. Not sure which one. Painted in acrylics. You had to look up at them from the floor when I did this but soon you will be able to look them in the eye when a new viewing arrangement is constructed. I do like the rough, surreal look with all the cracks and damage showing from  weathering when the roof of the Hall was a bit lacking. Looking at them from below gives them a more threatening, out of reach aura. I hope the new viewing arrangements and restoration do not detract from this unreachable feeling of mystery.

Incidentally, our mini castle in Seaton Sluice, the Tower House, is allegedly designed by Vanbrugh who designed Delaval Hall, Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard in the 18th Century. There is little evidence of this but it does date from the same period. Continue to the following part of this blog for more on this topic.