I HEART ART
Lockdown meant we spent time staring at the same four walls wishing they were perhaps bigger, brighter, busier or quieter… I for one wished mine were a little more… interesting. Perhaps a structure to them to lift their flat and lifeless surface, give them strength and character.
Of course I could paint them to give them colour, I could wallpaper them to give them pattern, I could even float some shelves to add texture but what I wanted, have wanted for such a long time was a gallery wall. I had some art, I even had some frames but what I needed was the time to arrange those rectangle boxes into a structure that at any angle would create interest.
Now I know a hallway is not usually the space to hang art in abandon, but this hallway could cope, though narrow, the ceiling is voluminous but sadly unnoticed. By hanging art up to a high point it could accentuate the expanse and draw the eye up.
I had recently created a destination by hanging a mirror, not just any mirror but the Ferm Pond Mirror (a long awaited lockdown purchase). This gave a depth to the space, the mirror added visual length to the hallway and the curvy shape gave an aesthetic interest in much the way a beautiful piece of art would; it made you travel and I LOVE IT!
No, you cannot stand back and view the art as you would should it be placed on a wall in a usual rectangular shaped room but on your journey through the hallway you notice snippets that pause your travel, when moving out of a room you experience another angle and so in reality you get to see your art in a whole new way, you notice things you may not notice should you view it in its entirety.
Gallery walls can be created with any style. Mine however bore my need for structure, I wanted the frames to match though not in size, but in style and colour. I wanted the calm of monochrome and I wanted the commonality to be in the art itself being the female form, in beauty and in fun and even in a little rebellion. In these latter years of life I have come into a comfort in my being, in the femininity of my body, in my strength and knowledge of my mind and yes still at 50 years old a playfulness.
Let me explain my lack of colour. I understand the effect of colour on ones soul, its mood enhancing property can leave you in various states of emotion, from joy to happiness, from sadness to despair. For me though I am drawn to other principals of design; repetition, balance, harmony, scale and proportion. I experience all the colours of the rainbow from the moment I leave my home, in my drive to my place of work, in the shops I frequent, the outdoors that I exercise in so I want the place I return to to be simple and to let the objects within it shine.
So in my art wall I have the repetition in the frames and in the theme I chose, the balance in the structure the scale in its ascending nature, the harmony in its monochromatic tone and the proportion in the placement.
Assembling an art wall is much like a jigsaw, however to be honest Im hopeless at jigsaws, maybe its my in my need to finish what I start quickly, (I was never one to meander), I like a result, an ending that provides me with something beautiful (in my eyes) to enjoy for a long time. But nevertheless a jigsaw it is. I started making sure that equal(ish) distances could be established from one end of the wall to the other, then I worked with what I had, clearly as the scope of the jigsaw grew I needed to add pieces. Starting on a horizontal level I worked my way across using 4 key pieces then I worked my way up. I didn’t measure the white space between each frame – I have a fairly good eye for things like that, so I went with it. I didn’t use any fancy pieces of equipment to measure where the hooks should sit, just a pencil and a hammer. Being in a hallway where you don’t stand back and view it meant it was a little more forgiving.
The location has made my art collection a little challenging to photograph but you will get the idea and you will understand everything I have offered above in the way my photographs show you angles and snippets of prints.
Don’t be afraid, after all at the end of the day its your home and it should be your way and if it doesn’t quite work out as your intended a little bit of filler here and there never hurt anyone!
x
0 comments: