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Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Sweet Choices Installed


Sweet Choices, Acrylics, 30" x 33", installed


No Skeletons Here
Having waited for weeks for my husband's rennovation project to begin, I planned to hang Sweet Choices in our great room--our living room--not in the kitchen as most folks would think to be a more appropriate place, as soon as he left the house this morning.

As the door slammed behind him,  I got the tape measure, the nails, the hammer, the measuring stick, a pencil and got to work.  The distance between the stretched gallery canvases had been determined by observing it on my observation wall outside my studio door.  While three inches between the panels of No Skeletons Here was good for that multiple unit painting; it was too wide a spread for this one. I cut the spread down to 1 1/2". It was a morning of measuring and measuring again.  How many inches off the floor? How far apart should the nails be? Are they in line and level to the ground and with each other?

View of Cake Shop from the patio doorwall. 
View of Cake Shop from the fireplace in the great room
I am pleased with how Sweet Choices relates to my large, abstract murel, Finding Home, on the adjacent wall.  My spacing left enough room between the two paintings to let them  breathe. The colors relate nicely. I can't wait to see it tonight when the spot lighting over the mural will add the shadows that will give this piece the illusion of depth. The designer in me is very much alive. While working out the math, I thought it was a shame artists can't control how their pieces are displayed in shows. I've always had a complaint when I saw my work squeezed in with others so close that  individuality and power was diminished.  Presentation is everything from the finished surface of a piece, to the framing, to the final installation.




27 comments:

  1. Ik vind het een goed keuze hangt daar heel mooi ik zou er trek van krijgen lieve groetjes Danielle

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    1. Danielle said: think it's a good choice depends very nice there I would pull of getting dear greetings Danielle

      I say: Thanks Danielle. We do have to pay to our intuitions. Subject matter shouldn't be confined to any particular room in the house. The element of surprise livens up a space and draws attention, interest and contemplation.

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  2. I love that living room. The sweats paintings looks lovely and all the paintings in the room sing in harmony like you said. Some people never hang their own work. I do, I think it is great inspiration to remind myself what I can do, but also inspire to do better.

    So take a cup of tea in the living room and get inspired. =)

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    1. That's how I've been looking at the mural ever since I painted it in 1980 something. I never felt like it was resolved, but visitors love it soooooooooo. It will stay as it has been. Harmony doesn't have to exist between the paintings in a room if there is enough space between them and they can breate on their own. Sweet Choices just turned out that way, which I discovered today when I hung it. Thanks Roger.

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  3. Dear Linda, last night I wanted to write a comment but the computer did the whims! Now I see a new post that shows your outstanding ART works installed as they deserve in your fine furniture. It seems to me that the spring time is bringing a new energy and a great desire to
    action! I'm so happy for you and Ellis. Have nice days!

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    1. Thanks Rita. I am feeling energized now that my sinusitus is gone, the Menier's is not a worry and the warm weather is here. That painting was just waiting to be hung as soon as Ellis left the building. He was opposed. I was for. We argued. He went to work. I hung it. It looks as good as I knew it would.

      I've been painting, I just haven't been showing. Production is my goal, plus I'm still working out this lowest salt ever diet and contemplating what plants to plant where in our tiny entrance garden. After a long hibernation, I'm blooming with the trees. tomorrow, plein air in my own backyard to see which medium really has the best outdoor possibilities. I'm suspecting charcoal/pastels, easy to tote, easy clean up with the garden hose.

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  4. The works look fabulous on your walls. You must have a wonderful feeling of satisfaction at having produced such an effect.

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    1. I do Mick. I do wish my walls were bare, though. That would mean I sold them all. But, like winning the lottery, you can't sell your paintings unless you put them up for sale. :- )) When I do, this one will be listed.

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  5. Well, it looks terrific. Those colors could not blend better. It would be fun to see the same shot twice more - each without one painting, so we can see how great they relate together once you hang them both.

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    1. Thanks JJ. The color blend between the two paintings was accidental and not discovered until yesterday when I hung Sweet Choices. Both are hanging. What made you think they weren't? --As I looked at them last night, I was thinking the colors were too
      Close to one another, but there's no taking Sweet Choices down; it took six nails with heads to hang that three unit painting!

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  6. This is absolutely beautiful - you have a designer's eye as well as an artist's eye. I've spent a considerable time catching up on your posts, and your work has been great. I've been kind of "virtually" out of commission and am slowly coming back. What's funny is that periodically I've been visiting a few blogs, and yours would have been at the top of that short list, but I thought you weren't posting because on my blog list at Dan's Canvas, your blog is not showing updates. I thought you hadn't posted since the SAD post and I was beginning to worry about you. Little did I know.. Glad all is well! :)

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    1. Having been a designer all my life and an artist for just four years, I would think my design instincts are still very much in play.

      Christine of Kalie's Best Friend mentioned she wasn't getting postings from me a while back. I checked my settings and everything seemed right, so I figured it was something with her settings; I'll check again. Thanks for pursuing me Dan. I've missed you.

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  7. True for me too....like Dan wrote, your blog on my sidebar is "stuck" on last month! I wonder why that is?
    Well, I love how your paintings look on the walls---just perfect! It was worth all the trouble that you took to get it just right.

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    1. I'll look into this in my settings. It seems though that some followers are getting updates and others aren't. That's pretty weird.

      I had to hang Sweet Choices in the great room. I think paintings of any subject can go wherever the owner desires. My partner, however, thinks foods, fruits, ducks and dead rabbits should go in the kitchen, while flowers and cityscapes go into the dining room. Pastoral landscapes and figurative works are good for the living room. So I waited for him to get out of the house to avoid the argument and give me enough time to hang the three panels as I saw them in my minds eye. He loved them when he came home--as I knew he would. I like things "out of the box."

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  8. I am here and follow you, but I cannot express myself as I would like to - so I keep quiet. My best!

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    1. It's good to see you Marias. The last I visited, you were having difficulties with your blog. I've missed your outstanding photographs. As far as language barriers, I'm using Google translation. It's under the 'more' tab up top of the opening page. I like it because it doesn't limit the number of characters--being a word gal who favors dash, dash instead of semi-colons.

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  9. Linda!
    A very sweet choice for "Sweet Choices!"
    Love the two works together! Great eye!
    Love the two large abstracts also!
    Wonderful post!
    Michael

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    1. They did work out together--maybe too well. I don't really like a lot of matchy, matchy things going on. But I haven't given up painting, so you never know how long a painting will stay in its place around my house. The six nails just committed me to making more unit paintings. Thanks Michael. Your comments are always encouraging.

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  10. Well I am super duper impressed with how these three sweet paintings look on your wall, Linda! They compliment the room and the space beautifully and balance the large abstraction with the result a perfection of visual delight! Your space looks so gorgeous, so inviting and so stimulating!

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    1. Thanks Susan. I do like to see how my work would hang in a living space. Stored in the studio in piles leaning against concrete walls, it seems like so much junk--given my usual doubts that its not good enough. Hung on a finished wall in a furnished room, I know I'm underestimating myself. The paintings come to life.

      The abstraction was the biggest pain. It took months to get to the 'that's it' point. It took the carpet cleaning squad to come out to get the Cadmium red light oil paint out of the carpet. It took getting angry and splashing latex overall till I saw I had something. I painted that overly ambitious piece forty years ago. The people who bought out house wanted to buy the painting. They didn't want to pay my price: $3000. Cheap, I thought. Today? $20,000. It's 12'0 X 7'0

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  11. The paintings look totally fantastic, Linda. They are quite big too. I still havent gone beyond 10" x 14" yet.

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    1. Thanks John. I was pleased myself. it's one thing to see them leaning against the wall in the studio and quite another to seen them hanging in the great room. Ellis couldn't believe how much he liked them when all this time we've been arguing that they do belong there they don't belong there. Then he made the mistake of leaving the house. While I am not one to move the furniture around, I am one to redo what art is hanging on the walls and where it's hanging.

      The panels are only 30" x 10" --or 300 square inches--a little over twice as big as the size of Brass Jug. Times three though and add the spacing and the painting is 30" x 33". I like size. I don't have to finish a painting a day. I take as long as it takes me to be satisfied with it. I am also not one to start something, get so far and then stop entirely if I'm stymied. I will put it aside while I take a break with charcoal or oils, but I never put it out of sight. I observe it as I go about other business and the next move eventually pops to mind. With painting, you're growing everyday. What seemed finished one day, isn't the next. Our sensibilities are always being refined. There is a point however to let a painting go. Done as best you could. Move on.

      Sweet Choices got looser as I painted. The middle panel is tight; it was the first panel painted. The other two were done weeks after the first--after I had done three sketch paintings of pastries. They are a lot looser and freer. I'll explore this subject again.

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  12. Wow! You've picked the nicest spot for Sweet choices. Now, you'll just have to compete with your painting when the time comes for dessert! :)
    Seriously Linda, it's a great room with the abstracts also. Great ambiance!

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    1. Thanks Helen, I thought about it for quite some time and my opionion never wavered. It is fine to hang food pictures in the living room, a public room--not fine in private rooms.

      In interior design, my goal is tranquility, a feeling of ease in this world of ours so full of stress. A feeling of space does it--even if the space is limited. Minimizing clutter is key. Furnishings kept neutral. Color brought in with wall color, paintings, toss pillows and area rugs. That's my formula.

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  13. The paintings are so beautiful, Linda....I love to see abstracts lately... I love the colors in yours and it goes so..so well with your sweet choices!

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    1. Thanks Hilda. Purely by accident. Now, I'm thinking perhaps they go to well together. I don't like too much matchy,matchy going on.

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  14. Oh yes I love these separated panels ! Absolutely lovely !

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