Art is a Stepchild of Interior Design

What I love most in this room is the round arch as opening to the next and of course that magnificent swing. I want one too...

But as usual I am not quite content with the original art that was on the wall - not because I think I have the better paintings (of course I do ) but because I think in many examples I have shown art is definitely not a major element of care or to say it more bluntly - art is the last subject the interior designer was thinking about which I bewail.

Sometimes it appears to me that interior design ends at the cushions on the sofa or bed, that the decorator was tired and eager to get the job done. So something has to go on the wall but there is no money nor time left to spend a bit more energy to fulfill the job. And sadly enough more money is often spent on stupid light fixtures or accessoires which are unneccessary and only dust catchers. Less would be really more. I would rather hang a poster on the wall to fill the place and then take time to look for the perfect painting or other wall art piece instead of buying something cheap and meaningless.

My mantra is when you can afford to spend xxx money for a bag or a designer table ware, you could spend the same money on a REAL piece of art.

Of course you also have the other way round - people spending big bucks on a painting that is intended to be an investment but does not fit into the environment at all. This should rather be kept in the security container of a bank than on a wall then...

I need to add though - in order to be fair - that there are many many examples of interior design where you really can see that every single piece was chosen with great care and diligence and a lot of love for the task. Unfortunately I am not so sure whether this is always appreciated by the clients accordingly...

Now in this example below I thought it would be more appropriate to repeat the hues of the rug and the furniture rather than using the original art piece on the wall. The orange of the painting Naranja adds a bit more warmth to a room that is rather cool despite the gas fire place in the wall.

 original image source and with courtesy of 

http://www.livingetc.com

the original image  

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.

"Naranja"
(from the Reminiscences series)

26" x 18", acrylic

©Petra Voegtle

 

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 .