Art- as the accent piece.

After only having moved all our belongings in this weekend, I am contemplating decorating of the interior space. The walls and ceiling are freshly painted in the living room, among many other changes throughout the house. The furniture is being arranged and rearranged, but the walls remain bare. We are taking this time to learn to live in our new home. Right now, I am focusing on getting the living room working. My theory is, some order is needed when you are surrounded by confused and unorganized state (of stacks of cardboard boxes filled with your possessions that you just got back from storage after almost a year) you should have one place that is ordered, even it is small space within a space. So we are focusing on one room- the living room. Now you might be wondering why I am not selecting another room like say the bedroom? Well, the bedroom floors aren't quite 100% yet so all the furniture is about a foot from the wall. It is livable at the moment but not ideal and that is an entirely different story.

Here is the before view of this room and the entrance to the house in this short video clip. As I watch this video again and again I keep noticing different things. The accent wall I want to add art to is a bold red wall in the before photos.

Here is 'in progress' shot of the living room's accent wall with its primed walls and a sample of the lavender painted on it. The plastic draping the wall is for protection when they were removing the popcorn ceiling. 

Here is an 'after' shot- showing the very light lavender color and brown toned wood floors. The wall I  will start with is what you see immediately when you enter the home. I want to do an eye catching art piece here, something really large but I not have any really large canvases at the moment and heck they are cumbersome if I want to take it to art class, nor do I have the free space in my garage while it is in progress.  So I am planning to do 2 or 3 24x48 size canvases and hang them all together. I haven't painted anything this large and never had to match it to a room, before so it feels a little daunting.

Today I found inspiration in the photo below, from a blog I read. This photo has a colorful mix of furniture, and motley of style of decorative elements along with the art piece it is a pleasing combination. The silver/ pewter mirror balances the some of the color found in the art piece and creating a harmonious room. My intent is to find a balance similar to this that will compliment our existing stained wood furniture and our existing decorative pieces.  

So besides blog- I find inspiration in this great group of women I paint with every thursday. One of the artists, Ann Golumbuk, I paint with has always painted art work for house. She says this way she gets a chance to enjoy it before it sells. And I absolutely love her work, and her joyful way of living- she is inspiring. She is one of the many people who inspire me. Here is a look at some of her pieces and a link to her website.

I am going to take a photo of her more recent work that isn't found on her website yet- it is really quite fun. She actually took first place in a local art show. Here is her website: http://anngolumbuk.com/


Another artist, I paint with is, Jan Lord. She is this wonderful, kind hearted Canadian who is very talented. Her work that I am currently interested in has these warm and wonderful beiges and with this sketchy images from arrows to fish in them. The sketchy images remind me of drawings found in caves. Here is one of her recent pieces that took 2nd place in the same local art show. http://janlord.net/  Jan is also on pinterist as well. http://pinterest.com/janlord/artsy/

I will keep you posted on the art piece that is created for this wall. I might even do a video on its creation. I just have to let the painting take me where it wants to go.