Glasgow School of Art

It was sad to see last week Glasgow School of Art caught fire from an accidental spark that soon rose up from the basement to the roof destroying the famous library and the hen run, a beautiful glass lined corridor that connected the two wings. Luckily no one was harmed during this incident and the fire service brilliantly brought the fire under control managing to save a huge part of the building as well as many of the unique interiors and contents.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s uniquely designed building was and is so loved by traditional and modern artists. As an artist himself the studios to work in are ideal for artists full of space and light with many of the connecting areas like the corridors and staircases would be the opposite dark wood and narrow spaces. A combination of light and dark one to work in the other to rest your eyes and take a break or even hide. It’s the unusualness of being able to make art in such an old building and its a testament that it continues to be used as a working art school rather than a museum.

So the good news is the building isn’t lost and very one is rallying together to get the restoration under way and do everything they can to help the students, some of whom have lost their work as well as the sadness of their degree show a moment they’ve been working towards for 4 years.

If you can help out they are starting a fund raiser to help.

Here’s a picture from the library, during the degree show it would be opened up to the public where you can read the student’s dissertations in this great setting.

All through the building you can find lots of small details that Rennie Mackintosh added. Studios with swinging doors so its easy to go in and out of them if you have your hands full, to painting the doors black so they don’t get too dirty from hands covered in paint and easy to repaint as well to the small decorative flourishes like the numbers and lead detailing with clear glass.

The corridors that join the studios, I think this area was damaged, its full of casts which are rarely used. On one side are small hideaways ideal for a bit of space if you want some quiet time or enough to share.

The staircases are set with cement with hardly any hard edges to it, smoothed over by the constant hands of art students over the years. There’s a few different tile insets adding flash of subtle colour and pattern.

As you can see the studio walls are well used, CRM’s clocks are dotted about.

Some of the sinks to clean brushes and palettes etc, more signs that it’s a living building that’s constantly in use.

I thought you might like to see maybe a different perspective on the Art School. I really appreciate the small details as well as the beauty of the building as a masterpiece.

I tried my best to using words in the present and not the past as the art school will be back!