Ready in time

In time for mother-in-laws birthday.

These two alcoves off the porch outside the front door of the beach house (a sliver of which can be seen on the right) are the result of what to do with space that was created by structural needs. The architect proposed storage cupboards, and we thought that was likely to end up full of things that never got used. S proposed the two niche idea, originally fancying a water feature or a piece of sculptural interest. The former was impractical, and the latter was over budget.

Mother-in-law suggested tiling them, and eternally creative S was captivated by the thought of a Hundertwasser effect. We found a tile manufacturer who put us in touch with a potter, who had worked with Hundertwasser here in New Zealand during the years the great artist stayed here.

Sadly, although Hundertwasser designed a number of buildings and proposed the use of tiling as he had done in Vienna, everyone in New Zealand said (in effect) lovely but not right for our project. Except for the public lavatories in Kawakawa, a small town in Northland. One of Hundertwasser's last public buildings, this is now a tourist attraction, as well as being extremely efficient as lavatories.

Chris, the potter/tiler, discussed with S what she wanted and he then created this as he tiled. The last tile was glued in place on Sunday, and the grouting was done yesterday. Today I polished off the excess glue and grout and dust. This evening, after a birthday dinner with S, her mother (92 years old today), and brothers, I took this picture.

My photo is far from perfect; I had to use the flash, and so got flashback. The angle I used means that if the alcoves are shown as vertical (which they are), the door (and the back corner of the porch) are at a most odd angle. I opted for making the door vertical, which is only a very slight adjustment from how the picture was out of the camera.

This afternoon we helped mother-in-law come across to see it. She was very delighted by it, as would be expected for someone so involved with colour. She has just returned to painting in oils.