Francois Botherel. Maison des coquillages (Plouescat)/Shell house (Plouescat)

pictures published with friendly permission of the
webmaster of the Plouescat heritage website

Plouescat is a community on the north coast of Finistère, Brittany, France. This is where mr François Bothorel has made something special of his house. He has decorated its

interior with shells, that he patiently collects on the local beaches. Walls are decorated, but also many items that keep memories of local heritage alife.

For example, the shelldecorated utensils on the picture above, were used in households to make butter, on the right kind of a centrifuge to separate milk and cream, and on the left a device to transform the cream into the famous breton butter (salted as preferred with salt from te salt cellar in between).

another exposition of utensils, a weighing machine, a wheel from a charriot and a ?

Mr Brotherel also shelldecorated a number of machines that in former days were used on the farm, like the one in the next picture that could cut plants and other supplies to feed horses.

Mr Botherel by appointment will welcome visitors who would like to take a look at his creations. If you happen to be around in Plouescat, just ask the tourist office for further directions.

François Botherel
Pont as Manac'h
29430 Plouescat, Brittany, FR
can be visited on appointment

Monsieur G., Le sanctuaire des lasers/The sanctuary of lasers

pictures from PULPwiki, the Jarvis Cocker website

When the british singer Jarvis Cocker in 1998 was filming in France part of his Channel 4 TV movie Journey into the Outside (broadcasted 1999), he went along the sites of Abbé Fouré, Robert Vasseur, Bodan Litnianski, Raymond Isidore (=Picassiette), Chomo, Ferdinand Cheval (=le Facteur), all well known today.

Mr Cocker also paid attention to Monsieur G., who nowadays is less well known and about whom the internet hardly has any observation.

Monsieur G (1898-1986) is said to have travelled a lot around the world. At some moment he settled himself in the small community of Nesles-la-Gilberde, in the Seine et Marne department of France, south-east of Paris.

There he built his own house, constructing terraces, towers, an interior swimming pool. He decorated the walls and the pallisades of the property with all kind of paintings of subjects he considered important in life, and he also made a room where images were projected and voices of the past could be heard, so as to interfere with sounds and images of the present.

What made him special in the opinion of the locals, was his affinity with lasers. He is quoted to have said: "The laser is unique in the world. Only my house distributes it. Why is this here the sanctuary? There is something that attracts them.'' In mr G's opinion, the Russians were responsible for all incoming lasers, those directed upon his house.

I could not trace any facts about the life of monsieur G before he settled in Nesles. Neither is there agreement on his real name, he is referred to as Gaston Louis, Gaston Gaye and Gaston Gastineau.

I could not find any reference to what happened with the house and the decorations after 1986, the year monsieur G. died.

The french filmmaker and author mr Clovis Prevost in 1977 has made a 28 min movie, entitled Monsieur G dans le sanctuaire des lasers (trailer on INA France, can also be ordered on DVD).

And, by the way, in London, Jarvis Cocker's Journey into the outside nowadays (november 2009) can be seen. It is on screen in the Museum of Everything (on outsider art), that was opened in october 2009.

Monsieur G
le Sanctuaire des lasers
77540 Nesles-la-Gilberde, dep Seine et Marne, FR
actual status unknown

Frank Bruce, Sculpture garden (Feshiebridge)

pictures (july 2008) published with friendly permission of leanne&eddie;
more pics on their photostream on Flickr

On the pictures you can see creations in wood of a scottish self-taught artist, who became a beloved sculptor: mr Frank Bruce (1931-2009).

He was born in a the community of St Combs in Scotland, in a family of fishermen. As a youngster attending school was problematic. He was dyslectic, what was not recognised these days. Thinking in images and forms, rather than in words, he preferred the outside world of nature, like the forms of trees in the forest, above the world of books and scholarly knowdledge.

So after leaving school at his 13th, he did not go for more formal education, but he entered all kind of jobs. like working in a saw mill, or unloading coal boats, jobs that are rather physically burdening.

In the 60ths of the former century with his wife he went to live in the community of Aviemore, where the couple began a bread&breakfast.

Due to an accident, mr Bruce blessed his back, and as kind of a manual therapy he did some sculpturing of wood. That was the beginning of a new creative adventure.

At first he made small wooden objects, but soon he began making sculptures in large formats, using dead trees as his basic material. He was inspired by themes associated with nature, scottish folklore and patriotic feelings.

The rather large sculptures were exposed in the garden around the house in Aviemore.

When the garden became too small for the collection, around 1995 a new exposure site came into being, in concert with the authorities in the community of Banff, on the scottish east coast. That was the Colleonard Sculpture Garden and Gallery on Sandyhill Road in Banff, with some fourteen of mr Bruce's large sculptures. The exposition enjoyed the interest of thousands of visitors, and the garden never was vandalized.

This garden nowadays is closed, because with the help of the Scottish Forestry Commission another location for the sculptures was created. This one, opened november 2007, is located in Feshiebridge, in the Cairngorms National Park, in the interior of Scotland, not far from Aviemore. In these natural surroundings the sculptures are exposed along a trail.

There is an elaborate website with a lot information on mr Bruces life and works, and the sculpture trail.

Sadly, in september 2009 mr Bruce passed away.

A Frank Bruce Sculpture Trust has been formed to take care of the sculptures and there is a group of friends of the Feshiebridge sculpture garden, that is active in promoting the construction of a visitor centre (also meant to house the smaller sculptures).

Overviewing this story, what impresses me very much is the positive way the public and the authorities reacted to mr Bruce's creations. It surely may have to do with the expressiveness and the idiom of the sculptures, but maybe another factor could be that mr Bruce never would associate himself with the official world of art and always had in mind that his work should be available to the general public.

Frank Bruce
Sculpture Trail
Feshiebridge, Cairngorms National Park, Scotland, UK

Monsieur Clement, Maison Coquillages/Shell house (Siouville)

pictures published with friendly permission of the author of weblog Serge Passions

Siouville-Hague is a small community on the Normandic coast in France. It boasts a very wide, sandy beach and in the 70s of the former century french celebrities would stay there for a holiday. The beach is still there, but the fame of celebrities nowadays is enjoyed elsewhere.

From an outsider environments point of view Siouville has kept its fame, because of a shell environment (decorated house and sculptured garden) that is situated there.

The decoration of the house and the creation of the statues in the garden, is the work of M. Clément. I could not trace any more information and just came along pictures.

More of them can be seen on the Art Insolite website and on the weblog les inspires du bord des routes

Monsieur Clément
Maison des coquillages
Siouville, Normandie, FR

Ilmari Salminen, Finland Militäru Museum/Finland Military Museum

picture courtesy Esa Salldén, Radiomuseu, Finland

Mr Ilmari Salminen (1929-2007) was born in Helsinki, Finland. During world war II he had to move to the countryside, where he went to live on the farm of an uncle in the community of Petäjävesi.

He had there a small, red painted cabin with some rooms, that he transformed into a decorated environment. He completely covered the walls with all kinds of collages, combining photographies of famous people with his own decorations, making illustrated inkjetprints of poems, etc. This kind of creative activity earned him the nickname "the Andy Warhol of the woods".

picture thanks to Gabi Schaffner, photographer,
take a look at her website (Finnish ITE art is under expo's 2007)

But mr Salminen's creative mind also focussed upon transforming his cabin into kind of an outpost in the international and interplanetary communication. He constructed and decorated radio's (like the one in the picture on top), he made cell phones and devices to make it possible to have contact not only with world leaders, but also with other realms in the galaxy by means of his own UFO station.

Mr Salminen made his own banknotes and constructed military equipment, like guns.

He liked to see this environment as kind of a museum, and was happy to show visitors around, playing the accordeon. I am not sure what name he gave to the museum, because I get the impression he used a number of names, one of them being Finland Militäru Museum.

His work was represented in the 2005 exposition "In another world" in the Kiasma Museum in Helsinki.

Mr Salminen died in 2007 (His uncle had passed away in 1986).

Nowadays (2009) the house is still there. But it is closed for the public. After some repair work has been done, it occasionaly will be open to be visited.

Ilmari Salminen
Finland Militäru Museum
Petäjävesi, Finland

Kevin French, Shell cottage

picture website tripadvisor

Ireland so far has not been represented in this weblog, but here is the country's first topic: a cottage decorated with shells in the community of Cullenstown, Co Wexford, in the south-eastern coastal area of the country, facing the Irish Sea.

I could not find any documentation about mr Kevin French, who decorated the house, other than that he lived in this cottage, collected the shells on the local beaches and has passed away. I also came along a note saying that the Irish Heritage Council gave a grant to this cottage (but so far I could not find details, like when and for what kind of preservation).

The cottage nowadays is exploited as a holiday home. The next two pictures are from one of the many websites that advertise the house for this purposes. Here is one; it also has some pics of the interior.

On this picture you can see there is a lighthouse represented on one of the walls. This is Tuskar Lighthouse, on Tuskar Rock, off the Irish south-eastern coast.

This part of the coast around 1200 has been raided by the Normans, who builded a stronghold over here near the community of Bannow. Here is a link to a 1.43 min video on Youtube of interesting places in the Bannow and Cullenstown area, that also has some pics of the shell cottage.

Kevin French
Shell Cottage
Cullenstown, Co Wexford, Ireland

update Chomo

picture from Zon'art nr 9

I rewrote my post on Chomo of december 11, 2008, because I wanted to add that I am not sure if this artist should be included in a weblog that mainly deals with outsider artists.

Of course, mr Chomo retreated from society and preferred to stay far away from the regular world of art, and he also made structures to redefine his place of living, but in general his very varied artistic production does not have an outsider connotation and, depending upon the way one looks, could be seen as belonging to the realm of regular french art.

The view that mr Chomo should not be associated with the curiosities of the roadsides (curiosités des bords des routes {= outsider environments}) is brought to the fore by the french writer and art critic mr Laurent Danchin, in his introduction to the Exposition in honor of mr Chomo in the Halles Saint Pierre in Paris.

I have noted that my post on Chomo gets much attention from readers outside France, so as a friendly service to them, and also for my own amusement, I made an english translation of mr Danchin's text, that can be found here (published with permission of the Halles).