The birth of Christopher and Jane Wood’s son Max
three-and-a-half years ago changed Christopher’s
life in more ways than the obvious evolution into fatherhood:
it also provided the catalyst for a change in his work
as an artist. Until this point Christopher had been
known for his rich, abstracted landscapes with their
often luminous use of intense colour, but that focus
shifted when he cleared out the studio in the couple’s
home in Dunbar in preparation for Max’s home birth,
and found himself in a clean, white space, twiddling
his thumbs in anticipation.
What happened next was unselfconscious: Christopher
simply picked up what was left there - canvas and hessian,
some paper and acrylic paints - and started to work
on the floor, something he had never done before, creating
an abstracted work with, as he says, “this incredible
energy. The whole thing about becoming a father was
a very real visceral experience; the pieces I did after
Max was born were quite bloody and gutsy, which I think
must have come from that. I suppose I’d been looking
for something else and it led to this.”
The painting Christopher did that first day, aptly entitled
‘Birth’, now hangs in the drawing room of
this handsome Georgian house in Dunbar’s town
centre, alongside the many earlier examples of his work
that line these walls, transforming the space into an
informal gallery.
Move into the hallway and you’ll find more new
pieces on the stairwell, while the first floor studio
is lined with artworks waiting to be hung in Christopher’s
current solo show at the Glasgow Art Club (he was awarded
The Glasgow Art Club Fellowship RSW last year) many
of which are collages using paper, wood, cloth, even
string, all part of Christopher’s textural approach
to the process of redefining sea and sky and land.
In the foreword to the exhibition’s catalogue,
art critic Iain Gale describes these latest works as
having ‘the power to burn deeply and unforgettably
into the psyche’, and they certainly make a visit
to Christopher and Jane’s house an unforgettable
and quite unique experience.
Indeed part of the challenge for Christopher when he
and Jane (who is Head of Corporate Affairs Scotland
for The Boots Company) bought the house in 2000 was
to create a home studio in amongst the bustle of a family
home – the couple have four children: Ally, 21,
and David, 19, from Jane’s first marriage, and
youngsters Max and Amelie, 19 months. “There was
always the temptation to take over the entire first
level,” he admits, but instead he restrained himself
to transforming the former drawing room with its view
towards the sea.
The couple came across the house by chance, having been
viewing a 15-bedroom former nursing home on Dunbar’s
High Street, which they were seriously considering buying
before they walked past the 7 bedroom, B-listed Port
Lodge. “Jane said, ‘If only something like
this came up it would be perfect’,” Christopher
recalls, so they were fairly flabbergasted to discover
that the house was on the market. The interior needed
a huge amount of work as it was buried below layers
of patterned ’70’s wallpapers – even
the ceilings and panelled doors had been papered - and
swirly carpets that made the rooms comparatively small
and gloomy.
The couple weren’t afraid of the challenge though.
“It really was a case of stripping it all back
and showing the features,” says Christopher, who
rolled up his sleeves and got stuck in. “It was
overwhelming at the time, but most of the physical things
about the house were really beautiful.”
The original timber floors were sanded and varnished
as were the doors, while the walls were replastered
and finished in shades of dove grey and stone that offset
the artworks perfectly. Where there is ‘colour’
on the walls, it’s entirely sympathetic –
the dining room is painted a warm pea green, for example.
The kitchen was redesigned recently with beautifully
textured limestone flooring, timber units and granite
worktops, while the Aga takes centre stage, literally,
and as a warming comfort zone for the family. A previous
owner in the ’70’s, who was an architect,
had carried out much of the structural changes to the
house, slapping through the wall between the kitchen
and dining room, and tanking the basement level to create
a comfortable living space with two bedrooms, a bathroom
and sitting room-cum-snug.
He also expanded the first floor bathroom by stealing
some space from the neighbouring bedroom. Today, it’s
the most contemporary room in the house, having been
redesigned by Jane and Christopher following a visit
to the Kandalama Hotel in Sri Lanka, forming a slate-lined
wet room with a giant walk-in shower area enclosed behind
a slab of sandblasted glass. Slices of mirror punctuate
the walls, while the coiled chrome Bisque radiator looks
like a piece of sculpture.
Elsewhere the style is softer and more eclectic. Jane
used to have an apartment in Whittinghame House in East
Lothian, and many of the antiques here were bought for
there, having been sourced from auctions and sales rooms.
The Victorian walnut dining table, from example, came
from an antiques dealer in Perthshire and is paired
with Arts and Crafts chairs, bargains at a tenner each,
which were originally used in Falkirk High Court. The
drawing room combines sofas from John Lewis and Martin
& Frost with ottomans made by Clockhouse Furniture,
while the chandeliers are the only reminders of this
interior’s previous incarnation. The antique rolltop
bureau once belonged to Christopher’s father,
while his sentimental side is reflected in the glass
cabinet alongside the sofa, which he has filled with
a collection of keepsakes and paraphernalia about Dunbar
through the ages.
Otherwise, Christopher’s taste has more modern
leanings than Jane’s. If he had his way –
and planning regulations wouldn’t forbid the idea
on a listed Georgian house – “I’d
do one of those things you see on Grand Designs and
open up the basement completely with big pillars and
a wall of glass opening into the garden,” he says.
As it is, he’s making do with a new doorway leading
off the stairwell between the ground and lower ground
levels, which will provide easy access to the rear garden
– the one thing this house is currently lacking
in.
That’s the next project, once the exhibition is
over and the frantic pace of recent months has calmed.
“I like having modern things in a house like this,”
Christopher reflects. “The beauty of this house
is its simple elegance; there’s nothing over the
top. It’s been bashed around a bit over the years
but I like that; it feels real.”
The Glasgow Art Club Fellowship Exhibition runs until
October 21 at the Glasgow Art Club, contact 0141 248
5210 for details or visit www.christopherwood.co.uk
Scotland on Sunday 'at Home' supplement
pages 16-21
October 8th 2006
Text by Fiona
Reid Photography by Phil Wilkinson.
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