Design du Monde

I will be sending many of you emails in the coming days to announce the change of venue.

Design du Monde

I feel it is time to change my blog name. This one does not go with my focus on design.

Please visit me at DesignduMonde.blogspot.com for the ongoing dialogue on the World of Design and designing the World from my Virginia  home.

Friday finds

HERE

It is no secret that I have a passion for collecting art. I love art of all kinds and I am looking to round out a staircase gallery wall and add a little zing to my traditional living room.

I just love the piece above and I almost bought it but I had committed to the one below and I've been getting a little crazy in the budget department. It is painted on glass--so cool.

my new painting

I just bought this one for a small space in my living room.

Check out these faves of mine from Etsy.

Elvia Perrin has lovely minimalist etchings and intaglio prints. Some are in the $25-$40 range so there is no excuse not to own original art.

Her work is high on my list of must-haves that I am staggering into a collection.

T Kafka

Tracey Kafka has quite a few abstracts in her Etsy shop that I would not mind owning, especially the one above. The whole shop is worth a look. Go check it out.

I also like Sarah Molyneaux's shop Oatmeal Arts for very afforable, original abstract art.

Happy Friday! I am off to the 6x6x6 art opening in Fredericksburg at Liberty Town Arts where I have three paintings in the show.

Etsy

I have started painting again and I am selling some of my work in my Etsy store.

It has taken a bit of work to "knock the rust off" my skills but I think I'm there.

I am also stocking a fabulous collection of antique architectural print that are matted and ready to frame. There are only two at the moment but I have 40 or 50 that will gradually be making their way on.

Click on the mini store at your left or HERE.

I have kept things very affordable because I want everyone to incorporate original art in their lives.

Check it out and use the coupon code BLOGREADER to get an extra 10% off.

photos and art for the boudoir

My room

I really feel that what you hang on the walls in your bedroom is extraordinarily personal. All art choices are personal but your private retreat is just that, private.

My bedroom vanity

 

 

My personal preference around my home is to keep most family photos in less public rooms. Upstairs hallways and bedrooms are my main spots for baby and wedding photos.

My favorite baby pictures adorn the walls as do a few choice wedding portraits and the odd sassy photo of a kid. I now have two pieces that have waited years to find their place in my house.

"Baby Art"

 The photo above is a "scribble" made by my, now 16 year-old, son when he was 18 months old. I instantly recognized the pictorial quality and snatched it from him with the best of intentions for framing it. It works perfectly near the baby pictures.

Also, apropos is the antique Chinese baby's tiger headdress, framed in the shadowbox in the photo above. It is  meant to repel disease, evil spirits, and general mayhem from the tiny and vulnerable members of one's family. I really like it. It faces the door so those bugaboos stay away.

What sort of art adorns your bedroom?

Local art

Happy Day by Kerry Steele

I can't get enough art these days. I've been a regular on eBay and Etsy to round out my collection and even browsed locally.

Ana Rendich

Fredericksburg, Virginia has several galleries worth seeing including Art First.

Currently, they are featuring an All Member's Exhibition that opens tonight.

Ruth Ann Loving

The galleries in historic old town Fredericksburg all work together to promote local artists. That alone is worth supporting. I have yet to attend an opening but its on my busy list.

Shirley Whelan

I saved this painting by Shirley Whelan for last to give you a little food for thought. The style reminds me of the iconic American painter Edward Hopper. Not so much in the subject matter, but rather the technique and general feel. 

My question is: Does that make it better art? What do you think?

Edward Hopper, House by the Railroad, 1925

what i know and love about art #1

My Meme (grandma~French)

Art came to me as soon as milk. I lived with my Meme (grandmother) and she taught,made, and lived her art. I first remember a painting affecting me at approximately age three. I was hanging out in a class that she was teaching and  thumbing through an art history tome.  I fell in love with ...

 Botticelli.

For those of you who think I'm making this up, my parents have told me that I was oddly calm as a youngster. 

So it goes that I asked many questions about the motifs in "The Birth of Venus" . I wondered why men were blowing at her--they were the wind. And "why are ladies in flowered dresses giving her clothes? Is she cold from the wind? No, they are les Printemps, (the Spring)  and they are clothing her in the beauty of nature because she is naked.

Why is she naked?

Well, let's just say it was onto something else at that point. The Catholic quiet kicked in and it was bedtime!!

That is the small part of the story. In 1984, when I was 16, I spent a second summer in Europe, this time with Fairfax County schools. I had the choice of England + another country. I chose Italy because it was the smallest group, only 9 of us.

It is insufficient to tell that upon elevator doors at the Ufizzi in Florence I became weak kneed.

There it was. 
So much bigger than I ever imagined!!!

I hid tears from my classmates.
How had I missed in my studies the real scale of it?

I had a rush of so many feelings at that moment.

This is still a special image to me, for its many revelations. I think that so many people want to match their art with their decor and they should match it to their feelings both good and bad.
A search for art is as search for self and should feel like one, however uncomfortable.

A fascinating old friend and her unique home

 I was returning to Central Virginia after bundling off the older kids to their grandparents and a vacation in Maine and on a whim I decided to exit the highway and take a spin through my grandparents old neighborhood. I lived there with my parents, grandparents and uncle in their larger house until I was two. When I was fifteen they moved into a smaller house across the street, more about that later.

To my surprise as was driving by their house on the verge of tears, I spotted their long time neighbor and friend, Miss Vivian, as she was known to me. I called out to her and she invited me in and we chatted about art and my family, who she misses.

She is a fascinating woman that I have known most of my life and an artist, now at the prestigious Torpedo Factory. Her style is impeccable  and her taste exquisite. She's had grasscloth wallpaper in her entire house since the '70s.

The finest Oriental carpets with a Noguchi table

a white slipcovered sofa and two brown Wassily chairs. She is not a trendy person...

she has had them forever. This is all paired with fine Asian antiques and a stunning, floor to ceiling art collection. All contained in a surprisingly modest home.

Which leads me to the second subject of this post. She lives in a Lustron home, like my grandparents did.

About 2,680 of these porcelain-steel  homes were produced in America between 1949 and 1950 by the Lustron Corporation in Columbus, Ohio.They cost about $10,000 - not including the lot.  The homes were shipped on a flatbed and required 350 man hours to assemble. Most were built on a concrete base. The porcelain coated exterior panels came in four colors: 'Maize Yellow', 'Dove gray' 'Surf Blue' and 'Desert Tan'.

As you can see from the floorplan, They are not the McMansions of today. 

All interior panels were of the porcelain steel which meant a commitment when it came to hanging pictures!

My grandparents only replaced the counters in the kitchen and removed the upper cabinets that separated the kitchen from the dining area. Miss Vivian has painted hers in vertical gray, ivory and beige stripes.

This is the Lustron living room. It speaks to a different generation's idea of comfortable living.

My grandparents put a mirror in the alcove behind the sofa, Miss Vivian has closed hers off and covered every inch with art.

Read more about this unique and disappearing bit of American architecture HERE.

Thumbs up OR down?

Whaddya think?

This is the new painting above my mantel in the family room.

It replaced this painting of a little girl done my my grandmother and hated by my husband and children.

I was after the mood of this painting (below), not the room. Can't remember the photo credit, so if you know help me out.

 Again, what do you think?

art obsession-help me choose

Celebration by Linda Monfort

I have become slightly obsessed with buying original art. I confess. It is like my dirty, little secret in this house. I steal moment to check eBay auctions and browse Etsy, never daring to let my family know how much I desire this art.

The painting above is by Linda Monfort. I bought it about a month ago and I adore it. It is even more captivating in person. It was originally intended to be in my 2 year-old's room which will be chic enough without it because I want to look at this painting all the time.

Next, I purchased this antique French impressionist painting on eBay. It is petite and darling but in need of a frame.

I have a few others that I am watching on eBay on pins and needles

Here are a few that I covet on Etsy.

This may look like a glorified smear to some but it truly moves me ( it makes me want to scream ! I'd cheat on my husband with that man's palette knife! Maybe not literally.) as does other work by Greg Hargreaves  but it is out of budget for the moment.

Art is as difficult to explain the reasons for loving, as it is to explain  why we love particular people.

by Linda Donohue

This ocean abstract by Linda Donohue gives me a warm, fuzzy kind of memory of my childhood. Its part of the reason art is so personal.

So here is my choice...

this John Michael painting...

it a good stab in the heart.

or this, groovy on all the right ways painting.

All of this for the stupid builder hole over the fireplace...

 I am adding a picture of the room empty because I firmly believe that exceptional art stands alone and never needs to "fit into the color scheme" of the overall decor. Art trumps decor on some occasions. If it is big, bold and good enough it can be hung anywhere.

Which is your favorite? One shown here? Tell me about your favorite work of art.

finding inspiration anywhere

I am often driven to a new idea or inspired by an image or things I see out and about. By that I mean, that the visual bookmark in my mind is jogged when I see things I like and I am reminded that I wanted to find the perfect fabric for my dining room chairs, for instance.

I often find inspiration in colors of fabrics...

and design motifs.

  and their shapes in general.

Patterns in nature inspire my love of symmetry.

Texture is one thing that I don't always use as a jumping off point in an over all design although,

I can't help but notice it.

 Art is a huge source of inspiration for me.

The color, texture and shapes all get my creative mind going.

Where do you find inspiration?