The Elegance of an Entry Hall...

Now look closely at the picture below and see what is wrong?
This is truly a wonderful and very elegant entry hall. I love the colour scheme here, the light and airiness of this entrance, the filigree door, everything composed with great care besides the mirror above the table. How could this have been overlooked that a mirror was placed into the alcove that does not fit at all? In my opinion this does not look good. No doubt that mirror is beautiful and would have looked wonderful on the side table but not in the alcove.

   original image source from http://www.getdecorating.com

I had a different idea for decoration: a delicate and realistic painting in a nicely carved frame, matching colour and style of the side table: Contemplation on a Predator from the Pigeon series.

To make this part of the wall even more interesting and in order to give it a bit of a mysterious (you know I like mystery) touch I would even place a beautiful skull on the table, something similar to the painted one. "Ebony and ivory" would make a perfect match. I am sure any guest would be intrigued...

"Contemplation on a Predator"
(from the Pigeons series) 
18" x 26" (without frame) acrylic
©Petra Voegtle

The painting itself is acrylic on cotton. You can read more about it here if you like. Inspiration comes from the feral pigeon family that lives on my balcony and whose lives I am documenting in another blog since nearly 3 years now. Read the Pigeon Tales with lots of stories and photos.

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A Touch of Colour in the Bedroom...

I like this little bedroom with its stylish graphic decor although I am missing colour a bit here. So I thought I would add just a bit of an eyecatcher with a modern painting rather than leaving that net over the bed. I love mosquito nets as an element of romantic decor but in this case I would prefer a bit more colour.

with courtesy of livingtec.com

original image source http://www.livingetc.com

The acrylic painting belongs to the Reminiscences series, a painting series, that was created from my photo documentary about the Olympic Student Village in Munich, that has been torn down 2 years ago in order to be re-constructed.

In order to create a kind of memorial for the beautiful and often funnily painted walls which are now all lost I took hundreds of photos from the village. But this was not enough for me - I also decided to create a painting series from the most impressive and beautiful parts i.e. walls, doors and windows. The peeling paints and especially the marks all the vines left on the plaster created wonderful patterns and structures. There is an extra photo series only about these wall motifs which you will find here.

More about the painting itself and the whole series you can find under this link .

"Naranja"
(from the Reminiscences series)

26" x 18", acrylic

©Petra Voegtle

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Views, Views, Views - Dining with all Senses...

Rooms with a breathtaking view do not need much decoration but how about enhancing breathtaking views with another impressive view on a painting? Again I replaced the original art virtually with a silk painting that would perfectly match the colours in this room...

   original image source from http://www.getdecorating.com

This silk painting has been inspired by the breathtaking landscapes on the Hawaiian Islands, especially the Haleakala National Park. You can read more about it here if you like.

"Haleakala"
(from the Magic Landscapes Series)
silk, 21" x 40"
©Petra Voegtle

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Here and here are more room examples for this painting.

A Dining Room with Magic

I like this dining room. I like the materials of the accessories and I like the colours. I like the simplicity of this room. There is no schnickschnack, no redundant decoration. This room is perfect to have a nice dinner with your husband/wife and your best friends.
What I missed though in the original composition is a little extra for the visual senses, a tiny touch of exotic, a reminiscence perhaps of travelling to foreign countries, memories...

I would always try to give a room a very small but special attraction, just in order to tease the senses and so I would replace the original painting by this one, Maya, a silk painting that talks of ancient cultures, of secrets that may never be fully unsealed.

In my opinion it is a mistake to hang a painting or any other object d'art in a room with the same subject i.e. I would never hang an image about food in a dining room - honestly that is quite boring. It would be equally boring to hang a nude in the bedroom. Where is the fun then? And what do YOU think about this?

    original image source from http://www.getdecorating.com

You can find more detail photos in my last post if you like and read a bit about the Maya and their culture.

"Maya"
(from the Magic Symbols Series)
40" x 13", silk
©Petra Voegtle

As usual the silk painting has been gallery wrapped (stapled on the back not on the sides) and can be hung immediately with or without additional frame.

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Maya and the Tree of Life - a recurring Symbol in all Cultures

Ancient Maya believed in recurring cycles of creation and destruction. They had a very precise view of how earth and heaven was built up in layers and where trees were supposed to support the sky. The painting is showing Pacal Votan* descending the tree of life.

"Known as a magician of time, he understood mathematics, or numbers, as a type of language that transcends the subjectivity of human verbal experience. His sentiment "All is number. *God is a number. God is in All." is an intriguing way to catalogue the Maya's message that we are intimately linked with and informed by the Galaxy. All of life is ordered by the same basic, re-occurring patterns." (from www.13moon.com)

"Mayan science was not separate from their religion, for they embraced the microcosm of the atom and the macrocosm of the infinite. Their universal philosophy teaches us that "the human body belongs to the earth, and the human spirit to the Universe." The Maya understood human existence as "nothing less than a faithful reflection of cosmic energy." As manifestations of cosmic consciousness, the Maya regarded all things and beings that exist on Earth as products of the projection of energy in the form of vibration. Their world view is a paradigm based on wave harmonics and resonant fields. The Mayan sages were aware of the sensory and extrasensory characteristics of trees and plants, and, understanding that the tree is the best regenerator of the air we breath, revered the tree." (from www.13moon.com)

For the Maya the tree of life represented the world center, it constituted a symbolic vertical line uniting the three realms of underworld, earth and heaven. The Mayan considered the Milky Way itself as the world tree especially at the time when Sagittarius was well over the horizon and the Milky Way rose up from the horizon and climbed overhead into the North. The star clouds that form the Milky Way were seen as the tree of life where all life came from.

"Maya"
(from the Magic Symbols Series)
40" x 13", silk
©Petra Voegtle

Btw - the hieroglyphs have no meaning - in order not to touch any copyright laws I simply took the single known hieroglyphs, re-painted them and combined them deliberately...

*Pacal Votan was the sage-king of the Maya. He lived from 603 - 683 AD

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