Description Stairwell in the Casa Batll, Barcelona, Spain.Casa Batll is a building restored by Antoni Gaud and Josep Maria Jujol, built in the year 1877 and remodelled in the years 19041906; located at 43, Passeig de Grcia, Eixample district, Barcelona, Spain. Gaud's assistants Domnec Sugraes i Gras , Josep Canaleta y Joan Rubi also contributed to the renovation project. The local name for the building is Casa dels ossos (House of Bones), and indeed it does have a visceral, skeletal organic quality. It was originally designed for a middle-class family and situated in a prosperous district of Barcelona.The building looks very remarkable like everything Gaud designed, only identifiable as Modernisme or Art Nouveau in the broadest sense. The ground floor, in particular, is rather astonishing with tracery, irregular oval windows and flowing sculpted stone work.It seems that the goal of the designer was to avoid straight lines completely. Much of the faade is decorated with a mosaic made of broken ceramic tiles (trencads) that starts in shades of golden orange moving into greenish blues. The roof is arched and was likened to the back of a dragon or dinosaur. A common theory about the building is that the rounded feature to the left of centre, terminating at the top in a turret and cross, represents the sword of Saint George (patron saint of Catalonia, Gaudi's home), which has been plunged into the back of the dragon.
John Gaffen, London Member Since June 2010 Artist Statement I am a professional photographer living in South East London. I am a member of a Tea Leaf Arts, a co-operative, artist led, gallery in Brockley, Lewisham. Subjects that interest me the most, include modern and classical architecture, nature, rural life, landscapes and seascapes. My art practice centres around nature and the passing of the seasons. I have been involved in a long-term project to record a photographic essay of Beckenham Place park, with an emphasis on different weather and light conditions encountered through the cycle of the seasons.
More recently I have become interested in using my photographs to create abstract works, based on surface textures and patterns of man-made objects and architectural details.