William R. Bisset, Shell decorated house

this postcard and the next two 
from Facebook (page Scottish Beach Find)

The above pictured shell decorated site, in the 1920s and 1930s a well-visited tourist attraction in the community of Leven, located along the east coast of Scotland, currently doesn't exist anymore.

Life and works 

William R. Bisset (1869-1964), an inhabitant of the community, in the 1920s began decorating his house and the ornaments in his garden with shells. He also installed a small menagerie with some monkeys and other small animals.

In 1927 the site was opened to the public and it was quite a success: every summer in the 1930s some 30.000 people visited it.

Bisset's son James, who continued the work of his father, got the idea to install a shell decorated old Leyland bus in the garden, probably as kind of a diner. (On Flickr there is a picture of the bus with a family in front of it).

After World War II, in the 1950s, the shell house and garden remained a tourist attraction.

The site has been removed

In 1978 James Bisset died. The inheritors wanted to sell the property, but there was no interest in buying a house with a shell garden, so the site was "normalized" and on the premises a bungalow was built.

The house itself, on the corner of Seagate, near the Promenade is still extant, but just with a limited number of decorations.

Here is a picture via streetview

And another one from a website about making walking trips:

picture from the website "The Airdrie Rambler"

So, apart from the few decorations which have been left, a full view of this art environment will be available only on postcards.

And it is still in the memory of older people who in their youth happened to visit the site.

Documentation
Except pictures on Pinterest etc, the internet hasn't links to articles or comparable documentation about this site

Video
* Video by Scottish Mudlarking (June 2020, 14'19", YouTube), mainly about gathering shells at the beach, but starting at 11'25" scenes of currently (2020) still existing shell decorations

first published September 2009, last revised July 2020

William R. Bisset
Shell house
Leven, Scotland, UK
site doesn't exist anymore

Frederick Attrill, Shell decorated house

coloured postcards courtesy of Steve Shalfleet

from the collection on his website about the Isle of Wight

The old postcard pictured above shows a man decorating his house with shells.

Life and works

Frederick Attrill (1839 - 1926 ), a fish seller by profession, made these shell decorations during the last ten years of his life, continuing this project until his death in 1926.

From the 1920s until the 1970s this art environment located in East Cowes on the Isle of Wight on England's south coast, was a popular place to visit. People who wanted to take a look didn't have to pay an entrance fee, but were supposed to buy some postcards with pictures of the site.

Nowadays these postcards are still on sale on the internet.

Here is another one:

Postcards in abundance, but Attrill's creation doesn't exist anymore.

In the early 1990s the decorations have been removed after the house was sold to new owners, who apparently were not happy with tourists intruding the property.

another postcard, 

published on Flickr by lovedaylemon

There is an amusing story related to this art environment. It says that when young Freddy in 1852 collected shells on the beach, his bucket was kicked by another boy. Freddy kicked back, not knowing that the other boy was prince Albert Edward, the son of Queen Victoria, who owned a holiday home -Osborne House- at the Isle of Wight.

When the queen heard about the incident, she praised Freddy because of his aplomb to defend his shells and (as the story goes) rewarded him with some money. The story goes on saying that this incident might be at the origin of Attrill's creative effort.

In memory of this beach incident, in 2009 a stone carving and plaque have been installed on Columbine Road, close to Attrill's place of living.

Frederick Attrill
Shell decorated house
Cambridge Road
East Cowes, Isle of Wight, South East England, UK
site doesn't exist anymore
streetview (of Columbine road, with the plaque)
streetview (of Cambridge Road)

Martti Hömppi, Veistospiha / Sculpture garden

picture by Veli Grano

Above trio of musicians in Finnish is named Trio Pönttöpäät, what means something like Trio of Empty Heads, and as far I understand this sculpture implies a critique on some Finnish politicians.

Life and works

Martti Hömppi (1935-2013) was born in a rural area in Finland and the memory of his youthful experience of the countryside has been an important aspect of his work.

He had various jobs during his active working life, including being a wrestler. After he got retired he began creating sculptures, using a variety of wooden planks and recycling leftover materials.

Other creations have been made by manipulating large wooden tree-stomps with a big chain-saw.

In this way Hömppi created sculptures of all kind of animals and personalities, a number of these with an implicit, sometimes explicit social critique, in general with a humorist approach. His way of working has given him some fame in Finland and earned him the nickname woodshed Picasso.

Hömppi (2003), as in Finnish TV-film

ITE: Itse thetyä elämää

Martti Hömppi passed away February 15, 2013. 

His artistic legacy has been donated to the Union for Rural Culture and the works are safely stored in the ITE museum in Kokkola.

Documentation
* Article on ITE-taide website

first published September 2009, last revised September 2023

Martti Hömppi
Veistospiha/Sculpture garden
37200 Siuro, Pirkanmaa, Western and Central Finland
the works have been transferred from the garden
around his house to the ITE-collection in Kokkola

Francisco Palma Jimenez, Casa de las Conchas / Shell decorated house

pictures courtesy of Lala Ema,
  (from her weblog My Castle In Spain)

Life and works

Francisco Palma Jimenez (1933), who is also known as Paco, was born in Albuñuelas, a small community of some 1100 inhabitants in the Granada area in Spain.

His house, locally known as la Casa de las Conchas (the Shell House) has been decorated with millions of shells Paco himself collected on the Spanish beaches, a project he began in the 1960s and which kept him busy for some forty years.

As can be seen on above picture, Paco also used pumpkins to decorate the house, not just two or three on a tray like most of us would do, but some 5000, all attached to the ceiling.

Then, as pictured above, Palma has also been active in making sculptures and he has collected all kind of machines which in the past were used on farms, some being antiquarian.

Another activity of Palma is making all kinds of rope craft items, like baskets.

All things considered: very creative, very industrious, very admirable....

Currently (2015) in his early eighties, Palma had a very industrious life. To earn his living he worked in agriculture, hiring himself to harvest olives in Spain and tomatoes in France. He is not a rich man in terms of money, but he considers himself to be rich in terms of the satisfaction he has earned from the creative activities in his life.

And, as people who have visited him reported, he is a very friendly person, always ready to open the doors of his house for people who would like to admire what he created.

Documentation/more pictures
* More pictures on the local website adurcal.com

* Article (September 2006) in regional journal Ideal
* Article on SPACES website (added October 2015)

first published September 2009, last revised August 2015

Francisco Palma Jimenez
Casa de las Conchas
8 Calle Moralès
Albuñuelas, Granada, Andalucía, Spain

Franz Gsellmann, Weltmaschine / World Machine

all pictures (Flickr, may 2008) 

courtesy of gernotp

In retrospect, the Atomium, symbol and landmark of the Brussels 1958 World Exposition, can be seen as marking the beginning of an era of unbelievable technological development.

Life and works

For Franz Gsellmann (1910-1981) the image of the Atomium must have been an eye-opener. He was born in the small community of Edelsbach, in the Steiermark-area in Austria, and since 1939 he took care of the family farm. As a young man he may have dreamed about a job of a more technological nature, fascinated as he was by electricity and electrical devices, but he had to succeed his father on the farm.

However, when in 1958 in a journal he saw a picture of the Atomium, without any hesitation he took the train to Brussels to see it in reality. He came back with a model of the Atomium, emptied a room of the farm, situated the model there and started constructing a kinetic art environment around it.

The first eight years he kept secret what he was doing. Even his family did not know about his  constructive activities and they must have wondered about his whereabouts when he was away from home visiting junk yards, second-hand dealers and flee markets to obtain devices he could use in his installation.

,

Gsellmann has been working for more than twenty years on his creation. It ultimately became a 6 m long, 3 m high and 2 m wide construction, with 25 electric motors to make devices turn around, a lot of lamps to illuminate the construction, and whistles that blow at will.

Painted in bright colors, the installation all together presented a happy, cheerful merry-go-round world.

In 1968 Gsellmann for the first time put his machine into operation, but it used so much power that all supply of electricity to the village collapsed, putting all villagers in the dark.

In 1972 the installation got publicity in the local and regional press and from that moment on visitors began to flock.

Gsellmann died in 1981. It has been reported (by the family) that shortly before Gsellmann said he considered his creation as being completed

The site nowadays

Gsellmann's grandson, who also is named Franz and who in the early 1980s was in his 30s, continued to take care of the environment. A number of sponsors contributed to its maintenance and occasional restoration, a website was published and interesting adjacent activities were organized.

So, for example, it's just fascinating to learn that in 2008, when it was celebrated that fifty years earlier Gsellmann began his creation, a music composition by Peter Lackner was executed named Kanon für A, O & Gellman's Weltmaschine (A and O standing for alpha and omega, see picture above)

Festivities galore: in 2010 it was commemorated that Gsellmann was born a 100 years earlier..

The Weltmaschine has become a touristic attraction, visited by some 10.000 people yearly and the number is growing.

Situation in 2022

In November 2022 Tiramisu Bootfighter, who made a trip through Eastern Europe with his Galerie Ambulante, visited the site.

The photo he made, shows that Gsellmann's kinetic creation currently is still in good condition.

Documentation
* Official website
* Article (2012) on SPACES website 

* Facebook

Video
* The Weltmaschine in action on a video by Christian Eich (YouTube, 7'50", June 2014)

first published August 2009, last revised November 2022

Franz Gsellmann
Weltmaschine
Kaag 12
8332 Edelsbach, Steiermark, Austria
can be visited daily, 10-17, except Tuesdays

André Gourlet, Jardin de sculptures / Sculpture garden

this picture and the next one (july 2009) 

courtesy of Francois (Petit Patrimoine website)

Here we have Don Quichotte and Sancho Panzo en route in Brittany, France.

Life and works

This scene was created by André Gourlet (1927-2021), who at age 22 created his first wooden sculpture.

In the course of the years the garden of his house in the community of Riec-sur-Belon, not far from Pont Aven in Brittany, France, got a varied collection in which several man-sized sculptures in particular attracted the attention of passers-by.

Gourlet, like his father, was a carpenter from childhood on. During his professional life he also has done a lot of woodworking, for example by decorating wooden furniture.

In his workshop Gourlet had a large collection of smaller sculptures of religious and Breton characters, and then some larger wooden creations also decorated other parts of the interior, as can be seen in the video referred to in the documentation.

Asmodee
picture courtesy of Sophie Lepetit from her weblog

The garden got a varied collection of impressive sculptures, some in the form of small ensembles. 

Besides Don Quichotte and Sancho Panzo there was a duo of Breton farmers, a big dragon, a tree with all kinds of animals on the branches and a sculpture of the biblical personality Asmodee.

At age 93 in March 2021 André Gourlet, who had become a respected citizen in his community, passed away,

Documentation

* article by Jo Farb Hernandez on website SPACES

* weblog of Sophie Lepetit: November 2011 article and pictures, details of the sculptures (2012), a new sculpture (2012), a series of pictures of the site as it was in 2017
* album with over forty pictures of the sculpture garden by Pascal Thibault on Flickr (members only)

first published September 2009, last revised April 2021

André Gourlet

Jardin de sculptures
19 rue Mélanie Rouat

29340 Riec-sur-Belon, dept Finistère, region Brittany, France
visitors are welcome 

streetview (2018)

Bernard Roux, La Maison du macon / The mason's house

pictures (2007) courtesy of Quercus49 

from website Petit-Patrimoine

We find ourselves in troglodyte country. Troglodytes are underground dwellings dugged out and lived in by man. The Saumur area in France boasts the largest concentration of these dwellings in Europe.

Located in that area, the community of Doué la Fontaine also has its number of troglodytes. There even is an art environment that is realised in a garden at the exterior of a troglodyte, a creation by Bernard Roux.

Life and works

Bernard Roux (1930-2023) was born in Angers. He lived for some time in Saumur and when he got married in the early 1950s, the couple settled in Doué la Fontaine, a community not far from the Loire river in the Saumur area.

He had various jobs, such as butcher, carpenter and mason, and currently he is retired.

From 1957 on Roux has been active in transforming the garden of his house into an art environment, decorating the walls with frescoes and mosaics and making assemblages of dolls and dwarfs.

The frescoes and mosaics on the wall depict characteristic houses, churches and castles from various regions in France. 

There are representations of people too, some of them inspired on Walt Disney characters.

In his late 1980s Roux would still welcome tourists who visit Doué la Fontaine if they like to look around in the garden. 

When in the early 2020s he was in his early 90s his daughter and his grandson would take care of the maintenance of the site. 

Bernard Roux died end March, 2023.

Documentation
* Weblog of Sophie Lepetit August 20, 2011, with a series of pictures 
* Article (August 2012) in weblog Animula Vagula
* A report by Jessica Straus, editor of the weblog Quirk, about her visit to troglodyte country and Roux's site in the spring of 2017

* Website Habitants-Paysagistes (Lille Art Museum), with photos by Francis David

* Article about the site by Sonia Terhzaz on her website Cartographie des Rocamberlus (environments d'art singulier), reporting the visit she paid in April 2022

Video

* Video (October 2022) by NEO, as published on their website; on Roux's Facebook-page it got some 12.000 likes.

first published February 2009, last revised October 2023

 
Bernard Roux

La maison du maçon

455 Rue des Perrières

49700 Doué la Fontaine, France
no more visits