Living with Art // The Beauty of Summer Color

It is the beginning of the end of summer. One more week, Labor Day weekend, and we officially close the doors behind us and step into our busy fall mode. Before its over, there’s still time to enjoy all that we love about the summer...the natural beauty of the long days and nights, warmth, the sun, the sky, the water, mountains, beach and how it all makes us feel.

Have you noticed how full Facebook and Instagram feeds are with our friends’ pics of their special place, in the morning when the sun comes up, during the day when they're outdoors and again at sunset? Regardless of what your “place" is, the colors and feel of summer resonate with us all. My blog series, Living with Art, started last month with Soft Summer Color. This month it’s about The Beauty of Summer, from natural colors to richer deeper tones.  An insta pic from our RE feed that I took on a July night when the light was picture-perfect at the marina in Sag Harbor

I often receive positive responses to artwork that reflects the season and the lighter way that we feel. People react to the colors of nature, all shades of blue and warm natural tones. I felt fortunate in the past few months to work with clients who chose artworks that “feel like summer”. Artists’ inspiration often comes from what they see and the individual beauty comes from how they interpret it.

Visiting John Duckworth in his South Carolina studio, my friends and I were overwhelmed by the array of his Abstract Landscape collection, and the creative way he presents it.

Each image has a story, a particular creek, a river or coastline, the time of day or the position of the moon. John captured the Super Moon, those rare nights when the moon is at it's largest, last August in Charleston. This striking image captures the light of the moon's reflection against the sky, and is perfectly suited for our friends' Kiawah beach home.

Wanting to bring the beauty of my friends' native Charleston to her NY home, the deep richer colors of the sunset at Church Creek are a stunning compliment to the light-infused blue and gold interiors.

Photographer Shelli Breidenbach also explores the abstract beauty in her natural subjects, her Abstract Seascapes and the Abstract Shell Series are inspired by time spent at her home in Sag Harbor. Abstract Shell No. 6 is one of 6 large-scale images revealing the remarkable details, shapes, curves and colors naturally found in different shells.

Printed large and mounted in acrylic, the graphic image is a great addition to this master bedroom designed by Mara Solow Interiors. The colors and depth in the photo are a beautiful compliment to the subtle color, pattern and texture in the room.

The entry to this Hamptons home lets you know that it’s time to relax, welcoming guests with the warm combination of wood and natural colors of Abstract Shell No. 5 in this large scale 50”x50” image

Photographer Stuart Zaro  finds inspiration close to home. He lives in an idyllic spot on Cobamong Pond, which he photographs all year, through the seasons. This is a favorite summer image, Boat on Cobamong, to me, it is calm and quiet.

Abstract painters interpret the summer very differently. Artist Kerri Rosenthal speaks of her love of the beach and ocean and how it informs the colors in her work. The deceptively simple stripes of color, turquoise and marine blue, concisely tell her story of summer, a modern twist on nautical stripes, the canvases are fresh and fun. Stripe on Stripe No. 2

and in a pair

Kerri's time in the Hamptons a few months ago inspired a series this summer. The soft blues and browns of Sagg Main found a great home, bringing contrasting, but subtle color, to the neutral browns and golds in our clients' comfortable family room.

I love the view from the kitchen, the painting is beautifully framed within the architecture of the doorways

I recently enjoyed meeting artist Claudia Mengel at her Connecticut studio and seeing the breadth of her work. I was struck by the compositions and clean colors, especially the blues in her abstract paintings. Waterfall, 60"x30"

Mengel explained the reasons she paints in blue, “Growing up on the water of Long Island I have always been inspired by the colors of the ocean. With the changes of the seasons and time of day...by how the color blue had such range...it is very nostalgic to me, it's very present in many of my paintings. It can have a peaceful aura or it can have strength and energy. It is a color that I love to have partner with any other colors in my composition. It seems to be the color that always fits.” A recent triptych, The Seine, in Claudia's studio, illustrates this well

Summer, the beach and ocean, sand and surf are what Christine Wexler of Bramasole Photography photographs. She is often out east, on the beaches of Montauk and elsewhere through Long Island. Christine’s photos are not just for surfers, this image and many others have been installed in homes in order bring the beauty and feel of summer inside all year long.

One look at any of these artworks and you’re there, you step right into your special summer “place”.

Enjoy the rest of the summer, it’s not over yet!!

Living with Art // Summer all year long

Summer is a short season that has a big impact. From Memorial Day to Labor Day, the warm days are filled with fun, vacation, outdoor activities, spending time with friends and family. Especially in the Northeast, we wait a long time to enjoy the longer, sunny days. Soft colors and artwork can bring these warm feelings of the season indoors all year long. These artworks capture summer, from the subject, shells, seascapes, the beach to abstract interpretations of them. Color is a common thread when evoking summer, we associate soft sun-drenched colors with the warmest months. As I’ve written about before, the color blue is everyone’s favorite. There are many reasons, but when it’s soft, it feels like nature, like sky and water.

I stopped in to John Duckworth's Johns Island, SC studio a few months ago with some friends while we were visiting nearby. John artfully captures the colors of the SC coast in his collection of Abstract Landscapes.

Two very different installations of John's work show how the simple natural beauty of the photographic images is all that is needed to create a serene summer-like  space. The images are printed on canvas, giving them a painterly quality.  From a beach cottage on Sullivan's Island, SC with the image Charleston Harbor

to Long Island Creek in a crisp modern NYC apt by JSM Designs

According to color expert Kate Smith, of Sensational Color, "The color of ocean and sky, blue is perceived as a constant in our lives. As the collective color of the spirit, it invokes rest and can cause the body to produce chemicals that are calming".

The texture and layers of encaustic wax in Artist Andrea Bonfils’ Ocean Blue capture the colors in the spectrum, from ocean to sky,

The large-scale color block painting by Kerri Rosenthal also ranges from light to powder to marine blue, creating a beautiful frame over the denim blue velvet bench

A client recently requested the “color of a summer sky” for an iconic Drippy Heart painting from Kerri Rosenthal. Here is Sea of Hearts installed in the traditional entry of her Westchester home. Kerri sent the color sample, on a late winter day with a note that felt hopeful for warmer weather, “the sky on a perfect summer day”!

Artist Rosenthal brings together her love of summer in a number of paintings inspired from her winter trips to the Caribbean or summer days by the CT or Long Island beaches. The colors in her abstracts bring them all together, as in Picking Daisies from the Puzzle Moderne series

Blue and and it's compliment white, in its many variations, is classic summer. The many shades of white are captured in a fun graphic collection of sand, by photographer Barbara Erdmann. Wings is one of a few images in the series that captures it's movement and texture.

Nature shows her color in the range of whites in Shelli Breidenbach’s Abstract Shell series. Shell No. 2 is one of six large-scale graphic images that show the incredible beauty of each shell form.

White can be simple and elegant and in artwork, it can carry a space when done well. This shell collection has brought summer indoors, for many clients, from city and suburb to beach to this striking yacht with an installation of very large-scale photos

Abstract artist Anne Raymond  has created many paintings inspired by the sunny colors of summer and the surroundings of  her Hamptons home. You can feel the warmth of the soft yellow in Radiance Series ll, a 40"x40" oil on canvas

Moving, also by Raymond is suitably accented with turquoise accessories for summer at Nest Inspired Home in Rye, NY

Westchester photographer Stefan Radtke captures the same colors in his "atmospheric landscapes" of the LI Sound. Radtke "creates painting inspired photographs of landscapes, devoid of detail." From the more colorful Moved # 6 

to the quieter Sound Portrait #2 and it's mirrored image, mounted in acrylic. This diptych is 80"x40" overall and creates a strong statement for such subtle work.

I have recently met photographer Kit Kittle and I'm enjoying showing his Bubble Collection to my clients and observing their smiling responses. Kittle takes his machine around the world and captures the reflection in the bubbles, "which is a thousandth of the thickness of human hair". The images reflect the color & light in the bubbles as well as the natural beauty surrounding them. To Kittle, "it is surprising that some things are just this simple". This image, Before the Fall was taken close to home off the LI Sound.

The sun, warmth and colors of the summer season inspires artists, they want to capture it in their respective medium. Their artwork enables us to bring the soothing enveloping warm feelings of the season indoors…why not enjoy summer all year long?

But first, enjoy it now!

House Tour // Spring into Summer Entertaining

The good weather brings many activities, places to go, people to see, activities that the long winter and spring didn't allow. A rite of spring into summer are house tours, a fun way to fundraise, by bringing community together, coordinating efforts of designers, friends and local businesses. I was thrilled when interior designers Danielle Palmadessa-Lynch and Phyllis Freed asked if I would get involved with the home they were creating for the Upper Saddle River House Tour on June 5th.

The homeowners of this particular house graciously loaned their sprawling home for the kitchen tour. Since the home was fairly empty, Danielle and Phyllis decided that the main floor, leading towards the kitchen should be furnished, staged and accessorized as well, making the walk to the kitchen a tour of its own.The entry, was not finished as we were installing on Monday, but Architectural Garden, an encaustic wax and oil by Andrea Bonfils compliments the plan, lots of turquoise and summer color.Friends and colleagues, the two women have way too much fun to call this just business. With separate design businesses, DRP Interiors and Freed & Company, in Bergen County, after this successful collaboration, the two are now planning joint business and projects together.

The dining room was updated with new lighting and rug. While waiting for the rest of the accessories, we placed Xanda McCagg’s abstract painting, Tete a Tete, above the buffet, a focal point both in the room and as you enter the house.

The designers have a similar creative aesthetic, comfortably bouncing furnishing ideas off each other and laughing how after weeks together, "they are finishing each others sentences". I listened to them talk back and forth planning and plotting as I joined them for part of the installation. This vignette tells their color story. The color, texture and depth of Beyond Blue Diptych, another encaustic painting by Andrea Bonfils feels right at home.

Timeless, the classic black and white abstract by Kerri Rosenthal, compliments the detail on the sofa arm and grounds the large colorful room.

The women sent me images, colors and fabrics as they conceptualized the house. The plan was to make the house ready for summer entertaining, indoors and out. They asked us to provide artwork from Romanoff Elements artists to work with their fun colorful palette, turquoise, pink, lime green.

A framed pair of mono prints, Flare Series, by Anne Raymond provides color along the long wall of windows and brings the eye around the room. The designers created several seating areas and tied it together with color, creating a warm and inviting space.

Spending time with them as they moved quickly and filled the house and backyard with furnishings this week felt like being on a TV set. Actually, there was a film crew there with Backyard Living, an outdoor furnishing company that provided plenty of deck and poolside furnishings to accommodate a pretty big outdoor party. They filmed the installation, indoors and out.

The sunny breakfast nook overlooks the pool and entertaining area. The black and white horse photographs by Barbara Erdmann, Fringe and Attachment, compliment the zebra print dining chairs, without distracting from the colorful table settings and outdoor view.

   The kitchen counters are set and ready…

There are 9 kitchens on the tour, this was the only house that was fully staged. The community is raising money to go towards a new ambulance for the USREMS. Danielle and Phyllis are selling most of the furnishings in the home, which was provided by many local businesses. A portion of all sales of furnishings and art will be donated to help purchase the much needed ambulance.

There are a number of organizations in the community that have joined efforts, time and resources to make the house and kitchen tour possible. It was a fun project to work on and collaborate with the designers. How nice that the good weather has brought us all out of our homes for different community activities.

It’s always great to see how artwork can compliment and enhance different spaces. Thanks for taking the virtual tour and browsing the photos!

Choose Color // In Art & Interiors

Color theory and studies provide a myriad of reasons why and how individuals respond differently to color. Color response is sensory, it’s literally the first thing we respond to, it can affect our moods, cause physiological reactions, and affect our decision-making. Artist Kerri Rosenthal has clearly made the decision to Choose Color! She wants her art to make people happy, and her use of color does just that. "I love that my paintings bring color into my client's homes - Although at times I paint in soft tonal hues, for the most part, my comfort zone is painting in color, and what I think it does to the homes they end up in- is take clients out of their comfort zone allowing them to bring bright happy colors into their home, they might normally not gravitate to".

I have written about Kerri's artwork before, but seeing how the paintings look in various interiors, is about how the colors in art can contribute to a different and personal feel.  "All of these homes embrace color, some more dramatically than others but there is a definite underlying common denominator… Happy Art = Happy Home…"

As Kerri says, her work is not all about brights, many of her works  are quiet, more subtle. These paintings tend to have a lot of layers and depth. This is one of a series of abstract landscapes, more Impressionist in feel. As color consultant Kate Smith says about creating a calm environment, “Being surrounded by a peaceful, calming color…could certainly make you feel that life is more under control and you are a little more serene". As in this bedroom

or this tonal abstract that beautifully blends and compliments the sofa

Kerri is influenced by various artists and periods, from the Impressionist type landscapes to the Pop Art-like Hearts and Flower Bomb Series. The Drippy Heart Series is pop-inspired, she uses flat planes of solid energetic color, in a large scale interpretation of an everyday object. Kerri creates a painting from this icon of love, with “drippy’s” spilling out of the giant heart, that make you smile. Sunny yellowor sky blue, the bold paintings look beautiful in these sophisticated interiors.

Bright color, bold images lighten the mood, Kerri’s encourages people to have some fun in their rooms. I like this from Sensational Color,  Smith's color advisory service , “Bright colors are the calling card of a joyful space”.

Sensational Color advises its readers and clients to “create a mood that highlights your personality by using color…to build a fun and whimsical mood…Indulge in your inner Peter Pan or Alice in Wonderland…create a playful room—the kind you’ll love to live in". Be playful as Kerri's client did with her bold mix of unexpected color and pattern.

Or rely on art to brighten a neutral space with color. Many choose to decorate their homes in quieter colors. This provides a great backdrop to accent a color you love in the art you select. The art becomes a focal point.

It takes confidence to follow your instincts, decorate and buy art that’s filled with colors you love. Kerri has encouraged others to do that. It's been fun to watch clients respond to her work, usually with a smile!!

Aly Drew and Bets Miller, owners of Nest Inspired Home have been selling Kerri’s artwork in their chic home decor and gift shop. This is the second spring that they have a window filled with Tulips Pure, a limited edition of mini 12" square paintings

The tulips are fun with a dozen…or just one!

The Rye, NY store is filled with a variety of paintings, all artfully arranged in vignettes among their merchandise.

Customers can easily create joyful spaces in their homes with art, furnishings and accessories from Nest.

Color can create the mood you want in your home. The color in art can be a big part of that, by either being the main focus in a neutral room, as part of an overall color scheme or it can be part of the mix in a more exuberant and colorful space. Kerri Rosenthal chooses to create joyful artworks with her fun mix of color that can work to create any one of these moods.

Choose Color… and enjoy it!

Celebrate Mothers! // Flowers are Blooming

Mother’s Day was initially called the “Second Sunday of May” in 1908. One woman decided that mothers should be celebrated and “honored for the sacrifices they made for their children”.  Anna Jarvis spent several years campaigning for this, and in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson made it official.  

Anna gained early financial support for her idea from retailer John Wanamaker and the first official celebration was at Wanamaker’s Dept. Store in Philadelphia. He cleverly saw the potential. According to a recent Forbes article, 19 billion dollars will be spent this year, but at the top of the list (after cards) are flowers, 85% of women will receive them!

Violet Fuchsia, by Deborah Falls

Exactly a century later, Mother’s Day is now celebrated throughout the world. Since it is spring, the day is synonymous with flowers. For me, that relates to the varied and individual ways that artists interpret the natural beauty of flowers, their shapes and colors.

I recently met Vermont based artist Deborah Falls. Deborah has created a process using dyes to paint on silk, “to capture and portray the sense of beauty and wonder” that she experiences in her garden.

The Emerging Bee Balm

Nancy Woodward has developed another individualized approach to capturing what she sees in nature. She combines traditional photography methods to create an image and then uses the digital darkroom to “alter the color palettes and bring new realms in to view."

Branch Sprites on Coral and Gathering,

Artist Christine Triebert uses an unusual technique in her Cameraless Series. I have admired her work at the Architectural Digest Home Show for several years and we recently spoke about her botanical images, photographs made without a camera. These minimal black and white Shadowgraphs are created by capturing the shadows of the objects on paper negatives in the darkroom.

a grouping exhibited (and my poor photograph) at the AD Show

Painter Kerri Rosenthal, with her spirited approach to color, is recognized for her pop-art  inspired Flower Bomb Series, filled with fun colors and combinations. As I wrote in a previous post, Kerri’s work comes from deep within, she has an innate sense of color and appeals to her clients’ desire for work that makes them smile.

Spring in My Step, from the Flower Bomb Series

A group of Tulips Pure, 12" square paintings, just completed for an installation at Nest Inspired Home in Rye, NY

Sunflowers don’t bloom in the Northeast until summer, but are now available in markets most of the year. Regardless of the time of year, it always feels warm when you bring in these happy flowers, with their bright yellow petals contrasted against the dark center and green leaf. Michael E. Anderson, uses traditional large format photography techiniques to capture the flower’s detailed form in black and white. Even without color, the image expresses the flower’s form and beauty, making a statement as a single flower,

or as a pair, even more striking when hung sideways

Wendy Shalen is an artist who works in many mediums and adds to her watercolor series, “Working Women” each summer. The colorful paintings capture the “hard-working women gardeners in Martha’s Vineyard who each summer plant, harvest and collect spectacular flowers which they use to create gorgeous bouquets.” Wendy’s expressive work captures these women, their work ethic and the beauty of the flowers.

Vineyard Flower Girls and Vineyard Flower Girl lll

Anne Raymond is another artist influenced by nature, who expresses herself in abstraction. The Flare Series, is a group of paintings on paper with vibrant color and composition. These prints, or monotypes, are one of a kind. When I first saw these, I loved the bold combination of fuchsia, orange & red softened with a bit of white...a strong composition, with a feminine feel.

These two paintings from the Flare Series look great placed in the just opened chic design studio, Get A Room, in Armonk, NY. Interior designer Laura Michaels, created the white shop to be a background for the colorful art and beautiful mix of home accessories and furnishings.

Anna Jarvis initially, “conceived of Mother’s Day as a day of personal celebration between mothers and families. Her version of the day involved wearing a white carnation as a badge.”  I think she chose early spring as it is a beautiful time of year, flowers are blooming and life begins anew.

I hope you enjoy Mother’s Day!

Valentine's Day // Celebrate with heART!

February 14th celebrates love and connectedness. Like most holidays, Valentine's Day  has become an opportunity to market and sell products, but it’s hard to ignore the day and the ads, when the sentiment it’s promoting is love and friendship.  In the visual realm, the holiday is about color; reds, pinks and fuchsias, and about shape; hearts, hearts and more hearts!

The spectrum of color symbolizes all that’s synonomous with Valentine’s Day. Red is about passion, love, desire and also energy, strength and power. Red is interesting, people love it…or they don’t. There are artists recognized for their strong use of color, particularly red. Abstract Expressionist Barnett Newman, known as a color field painter for his canvases of pure flat color that expressed his philosophies (not for this post), had numerous solid red paintings.  Vir Heroicus Sublimis, 1950-51, from his Zip Series, is in MOMA's permanent collection.

Also minimal, this photograph by Elisa Keogh captures the colors of a vibrant sunset, red contrasted with warm golds, from her Horizon series.

Anne Raymond's artwork has a strong focus on color. Clients and I  often gravitate towards her blue canvases, but for red-lovers, her paintings are very appealing. Cadmium pairs the color of the red dye itself with natural greens and golds for a strong but warm result.

Painter Xanda McCagg uses layers of color, texture and line in her work. Struck, covers this range of colors in a small canvas, 10.5"x8.5"

Shelli Breidenbach is known for her equestrian photography, which is featured in Ralph Lauren stores throughout the world. One of her series Red, is bold, she silhouettes the horses against strong colorful backgrounds to create a graphic image.

Pink, at the opposite end of the red spectrum is a softer color that also symbolizes love and romance, and in addition, caring and tenderness. Andrea Bonfils uses pinks with reds in her mixed media reference to Mark Rothko, Rothko Pink Window

The heart shape has been the symbol of love and emotion since the Middle Ages. The first recorded drawing of a heart was documented in 1250 and ever since, hearts have been and remain popular with artists and collectors. From subtle and abstract, Red February ll, in a series by  Raymond,

to fun and bold.  “Drippy Heart”, from Kerri Rosenthal, one of many in her successful heart series.

A peek at how one of Rosenthal's graphic hearts looks in a beautifully styled entry by her design firm, D2 Interieurs

Actress Drew Barrymore recently published a photography book devoted to her heart collection. "I have always loved hearts…the way that a continuous line accomplishes the most extraordinary thing--it conveys love." Her book Find It In Everything, contains the photos of heart-shaped objects and patterns she has come across in everyday life and photographed over the past ten years, from a bowl of cut tomatoes

to a random paper on the street

Contemporary artist, Jim Dine, is renowned for his heart-filled artwork, prints, paintings and sculptures. He combines the influence of Pop Art, with everyday objects and hearts. For Dine, the hearts function as a "sign that one can care, that there is a constant presence of feeling."  From a colorful print, Four Hearts, 1969

to the 12' Two Big Black Hearts, 1985

Valentine's Day is about feelings, and the day is drenched in warm colors; from pinks to strong reds, and visions of hearts everywhere to convey the feelings. I will overlook the ads and the commercial aspect of the holiday…because I like that it’s a day that speaks to the sentiments of friendship and love and connectedness.

And, I'll enjoy the chocolates that seem to be everywhere…Happy Valentine's Day!

Holiday Wishes // Black & Whites with a Golden Touch

The recent snowy days inspired this black, white and neutral palette. Looking outdoors, whether at the contrast between the fresh snow, and the bare trees or the city streets and lights, this feels like winter. The artworks on our holiday card are without color, whether oil painting, mixed media or photography, they are soft shades of white or the high contrast of classic black and white, touched with golden snowflakes! Anne Raymond's paintings are usually filled with strong color. Never Late has color, but in a very subtle way. Raymond captures the various whites of winter, complimented by warm and natural colors of nature.

A quiet painting is a departure for Xanda McCagg as well. Her canvases which use line and form as an abstract expression of larger experiences are usually strong and vibrant. In Touched, the subtle monochromatic shades of grays, whites and tans, with graphite lines, are just as layered as her more colorful work.

In Lightness, Andrea Bonfils layers encaustic wax to add more depth to her gestural underwater photograph, creating a floating and ethereal effect when contrasted against the dark ground.

A client hung a triptych of Bonfils underwater series to beautifully compliment a white living room by Heiberg Cummings Design.

In Africa, Stuart Zaro captured the natural graphic beauty of these zebras. Zaro’s intertwined Zebras No.2 , from his Game Blue Collection, are a reminder of the gentle and stunning beauty of nature.

The simplicity of black and white makes a statement. Kerri Rosenthal, a painter recognized for her bold and creative use of color, also does a strong collection of black and white works.

The contrast of the opposite colors provides an appealing tension, whether it’s in a photograph, painting, a room or fabric. Take a look through my Pinterest board for more black and white inspiration.

Surfer Girl, an iconic image from Bramasole Photography, by Christine Wexler captures the beach and summer at its best. On these wintry days, I love looking at Wexler’s beach photos - they capture carefree, warm summer daysHoliday calls for some sparkle and shine! The Swarovski Snowflake, the huge twinkling crystal above Fifth Avenue and 57th St. is a sparkling ornament with a purpose, “It’s a special symbol for the world's most vulnerable children. It hangs as a reminder of UNICEF’s commitment to reach a day when zero children die from preventable causes.”

Wishing you a very happy holiday and peace and good health in the New Year!