No
prizes for guessing which house is the one twelfth version of 'Gelligarn',
the home of the Gibson-Watt family in Landridnod Wells, Wales.
However,
if it wasn't standing on a desk with a potted plant beside it, we reckon
you might have trouble distinguishing the photo of the dolls' house
from the real thing. Unless, that is, you get twelve foot high geraniums
growing in Wales!
In
fact it was the problem of an over-sized husband that originally inspired
Marcia Gibson-Watt, a well-known artist, to design her own home. Robin
is six feet eight inches tall, and despite much house-hunting, the couple
could not find accommodation with lofty enough doorways. So they decided
to build their own home in Llandrindod Wells, Powys, their favourite
spot in the Welsh countryside.
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When
it was completed Marcia always thought it would scale down to a lovely
dolls' house for her daughter Phoebe, and in 1984 she set about finding
the right person to build it. She was recommended to Jaques Barraclough,
from Hereford, who specialises in working from original house plans.
He
was very enthusiastic about the idea, and whilst they were discussing
the project, Marcia had a brainwave...why not do miniature copies of
her paintings? Jaques arranged for picture lights to be sent from America,
so that the scenes could be shown to their best advantage, and Marcia
began to expand her successful repertoire into the miniature's world.
Her
paintings are characterised by an impressionistic approach, depicting
scenes from all over the world, and are perfect for miniature reproductions.
The full sized ones are so popular, that they usually get snapped up
at her exhibitions; so another bonus to the idea of a mini-gallery was
that Phoebe could enjoy her mum's pictures, even when the bigger version
had been sold.
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The
Gelligarn project flourished, and the family worked together in making
their replica as authentic as possible. They hunted far and wide for
the furnishings. Some were bought, and other pieces commissioned, like
the dining room table and chairs by Timothy Warner. Unable to find a
small enough paisley fabric for the upholstery, Tim's wife Michaela
resorted to tackling the task by hand painting hundreds of the minute
motifs on herself. And with six chairs to decorate, she estimates that
was well over 2,000 individual paisley designs.
As
well as producing her artist's collection for the dolls' house, Marcia
reproduced the mural of a scene over Florence for the kitchen; and in
true miniaturist style, she has faithfully completed the mini- version,
whilst the full sized one is still unfinished. The Aga stove, fridge,
and microwave were all made by Jaques.
The
television lights up, - it came from America - and the dolls were picked
up at The Dolls House Shop in Covent Garden, because they reminded Marcia
so much of herself and her husband. She has plans for mini-versions
of her four children too, but the problem is that they keep growing,
and changing their appearance.
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The
name 'Gelligarn' means 'grove of trees on a little round hill', and
to give the dolls' house a perfect setting, Marcia asked David West
to build a piece of furniture for it to sit on, which reflected its
rugged surroundings. The result is a magnificently carved ash desk,
with a relief design of the local landscape, complete with sheep, fields,
clouds and of course, the grove of trees on a little round hill.
The
family are so delighted with Gelligarn II that they have filmed a video
version of it, highlighting the paintings and comparing the twelfth
scale rooms to the real thing. And Phoebe [then 11, now 21] is obviously
a budding miniatures enthusiast. After winning a prize for making a
ceramic pot at school, she is now engrossed in duplicating it in Fimo
for the dolls' house.
So
what are Marcia's plans for the future? As we know, no miniaturist ever
stops at completing one project, even if it's just going on to dream
about the next one. Marcia is no exception. She would love to set up
her own gallery, in twelfth scale naturally. She rather fancies copying
the Orangery at Petworth to display her miniature paintings.
Of
course, these are all ideas at the moment, but at least it would be
much simpler for Marcia to send her exhibitions round the country.
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