Art in the House

Our local Main Street Program sponsors an event in the spring called Art Stroll.  This event invites artist to display their work in Main Street businesses while listening to a variety of music and sipping something cold and refreshing.  This event is an opportunity to discover artist both new and old and perhaps purchase a new piece to display in home or office. 

This is an example of an oil painting I purchased last year from a local artist, Gail Ford.  She does wonderful animal portraits and contemporary pieces as well.    I am too embarassed to tell you how much I paid for such a fine piece of work.  This work reminded me of the same views I had of my grandfather's horses as a child.  It is right at home with the metal lamp, dog pills, dog treats and family photos.  Many clients ask how and where should art be hung.  Art can be displayed almost anywhere.

This art hangs in my black and white bathroom.  The upper piece of photography was done by my daughter at a very young age.  She used our labrador as her subject.  The lower photograph is a piece from the 1940's and depicts a two foot snow on my grandparent's Mississippi farm.  The piece was professionally done as two foot snow falls were not common on a Mississippi farm in the 1940's and I venture to guess not now.

This is another area of the black and white bathroom.  The piece to the left is a pen and ink done my daughter.  It is a piece depicting an apartment buliding in the city.  Each window has a view of the activity in that apartment.  The small piece on top of the bookcase is a piece done by Jonesboro, AR artist Sara Howell.

Both of these are small pieces by Sara Howell.  One sits in my office bookcase and the angel resides in the living room on an antique bamboo bookcase.  Both were bought at a street fair in Jonesboro. 

This vingette contains a variety of original art by women I know.  There is another Sarah Howell in the bottom left hand corner.  There is a watercolor by my friend and artist in the right hand corner.  She photographed the hydrangeas in my yard to do this piece.  The others were done at different times by women I know.  The large piece is titled "The Raining Queen".

Here are two French art prints.  Antique French art prints are very colorful.  Both of these are so prissy.  I smile everytime I look at these.  They were not expensive.

This poster is a souvenir of a road trip I took my daughter on during her freshman year in college.

These two works hang on either side of a secretary in my dining room.  The one on the right is a watercolor of a photograph I took in Venice, Italy.  My friend, Pat Case, surprised me with this as a birthday gift.  How she obtained that photo is still a wonder.  On the left is an acrylic done by Otis of Little Rock, AR.  The title is "Baptism".  My husband purchased this one at a Duck's Unlimited event.  Works by Otis  have become quite collectible now.  I am lucky to have this piece.  I love the color and the theme.

This is a mother's day card given to my husband's grandmother by his favorite aunt.  It is a beauty as many post cards from the turn of the century are.  It is one of a series of seasonal cards I have had framed to put out when appropriate.

This vingette is packed with emotion.  At the top a Walter Anderson print given to me by a dear friend.  The parrots were done by Maggie Crocket of Red Barn fame.  In the small frames, a note from a dear housekeeper, in her beautiful hand, when I was having a particularly bleek go of it.  She has gone on to a better life but the note means the world to me.  The larger note was written to me by my daughter when away at college.  She sent a tape with it and it is  cleverly made up of different song titles.

The point in all this is that art can be many things.  Find what you love or frame those things you already love.  It takes many years to accumulate a collection of art.  Take it slowly.  A good place to start is a local art event.  The Art Stroll in Paragould, AR  takes place Thursday, May 6, 2010.  You will have the opportunity where you live or where you travel to pick up all kinds of art.  If you purchase what you love it will work in your environment and make you smile everytime you see it.  Every picture has a story.

There is more art in the house which I am saving for a future blog.