Too boring to sleep here?

Imagine you cannot find sleep because you are in a room that is so "calm" that your mind finds nothing to concentrate on? This sounds paradox to you? But exactly this would happen to me if had to sleep in this room. The night is dark and you cannot see anything anyway - you might reply - but there is something else to keep in mind. You look at a room normally with daylight or artificial light. So you SEE how a room looks like and this is in your memory already. A boring room is not a room where we find peace and calmness - boring things can even annoy - and gone is the sleep...

The room below is probably "only" a guest room and not the master bedroom but in any way it looks boring I'm afraid to say. Maybe the owner is going to decorate this room a bit further - just a guess.

There is nothing in this room that interests the eye. That's a shame. You don't need much to add a bit of a focus, an object of interest. Without this the room just looks very unkind.

I would have chosen a piece of art painted in bright colours that build some contrast to the wall. In this case it is "Sari 2", a painting and handprint with an interesting pattern, framed in a decent gilded wood frame.

"Sari 2" is an acrylic painting on heavy water colour paper that has been additionally hand printed with some ancient Indian wood blocks from my collection in order to add some beautiful patterns which normally are used on Saris and other textiles.

"Sari 2"

(from the Prints series)

15" x 20", acrylic on paper

©Petra Voegtle

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Even in the tiniest Room there is a Place for a Piece of Art!

Yes - that's my credo! And even the tiniest room will look more sophisticated and well taken care of if you place a piece of art that adds some focus. It should not disappear - it should be a bit more prominent.

That's why I would choose something more colourful and prominent than the original images here. Although it contradicts somehow the natural response that you should use something small in a small room it does not always function. You would be surprised what a difference it can make to ignore the rules sometimes...

(original image source getdecorating.com)

"Sari II"

(from the Patterns series)

20" x 15", acrylic on paper

©Petra Voegtle

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Saris on the Wall - as Paintings

This is a wonderfully airy hallway - space in abundance, no clutter. There is plenty of room for decoration if you want to do this and I have some suggestions.
My brandnew work would look fabulous on these walls, an eyecatcher in colour and some teasing for the viewer because not everything is as it seems...

If you look at the original setting there is too much blank space in my opinion and a focal object is needed. I don't know why the interior designer placed this chaiselongue in this room as its purpose is not quite clear to me - maybe it is only an extension to the garden/terrace area but even then I miss some additional seats.

The two paintings belong to my brandnew series about Patterns. I painted in various red shades on heavy watercolour paper and finally added block printing with ancient Indian handcarved wooden models from my collection. The graphical elements were highlighted with metallic pigments to evoke a more authentic feeling of those heavily embroidered saris Indian women tend to wear for their weddings.

"Sari I"

(from the Patterns series)

20" x 15", acrylic on paper

©Petra Voegtle

The second sari piece was shadow printed with 2 colours, green and gold, which can be seen in the detail photo.

"Sari II"

(from the Patterns series)

20" x 15", acrylic on paper

©Petra Voegtle

If you would like to know more about this series please check my blog Images and Imagination which is all about art...

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Red and Green - a complementary Composition in the Bedroom

Using complementary colours such as red and green in a room is always a bit tricky. If you choose this system, you might want to select a subtle colour and a dominant colour, to prevent the colors from clashing. In this room the red is very dominant - so we need a subtle green to make this really work. It was tried with a green toile used as a window drape but I think it is not enough. It is a bit off balance.

I have this photo on my computer since a long time and I always thought that I like this room somehow although I find the red walls a bit too prominent. But now I found the right solution with this painting, giving a bit more balance to the red walls and matching exactly the window drapes.

In the original photo a piece of wood carving or cast iron was chosen for decoration above the bed but this added quite a dull element to the room and did not change the imbalance in my opinion:

The painting itself belongs to my new series of paper works on heavy watercolour paper. It is called Green Marble - I painted a faux marble pattern as a basic background and added some hand printing with ancient Indian wooden print blocks from my collection in order to create a graphical element to the painting. Golden metallic pigments were added to create additional highlights to the graphical pattern. 

"Green Marble"
(from the Patterns series)
25" x 15", acrylic on paper
©Petra Voegtle

The nice thing with this painting is that you can hang it how you wish, vertically or horizontally...

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