Dark blue Walls and Roses in the Bedroom

I absolutely love this colour concept: dark blue walls, white furniture and a white floor or carpets. A classical composition that makes a room light and floating. Of course I also love the chair that is shown here with its delicate but simple stripe pattern. I even love the pillow with the embroidered flower design, the small side table etc. Everything very harmoniously decorated. Only the art on the wall is an issue I would personally change. The reason - there is just too much sweetness in this room.

Why would it be better to find an alternative for the wall? Because in my opinion too much repetition leads to boredom and disinterest. The images on the wall too show flower motives. Now look at this image and you will find lots of flower motives in the same style. To try something different would be nice - wouldn't it?

Admittedly the alternative painting shows some flower-like motif too but it is modern style and adds more interest to this room.

  "WhiteWall"
(from the Reminiscences series)
acrylic, 26" x 18"
©Petra Voegtle

The painting belongs to the Reminiscenses series, a painting series that was created from my photo documentary about the Olympic Student Village in Munich, torn down a few 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.

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Dark Blue and Cream in the Bedroom

Very nice colours - I thought when I saw this photo for the first time. A room that is completely harmonius, serene and not too dark despite the dark blue wall. But the light accents and carpet add enough brilliance.

I have an alternative for the art on the wall though. I would hang a different piece in order to add a bit more drama and movement without destroying the concept:

The artwork above the bed is the crop of a silk painting, a fine art print on heavy cotton canvas. The original silk painting shows a semi-abstract winter landscape:

 "Frozen"

(from the Magic Landscapes series)
40" x 20", silk
©Petra Voegtle

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GUEST POST: Inmod

Today’s guest post is from Katie, a blogger at Inmod, an online retailer of modern furniture, lighting and décor.

Hi everyone! Taking a note from Petra’s inspired art blog posts, I’ve decided to match up her beautiful artwork with select pieces of furniture that we offer over at Inmod. I don’t know about you, but when I’m thinking of a piece of art, a photograph or drawing for interior spaces, I think of the art drawing in from something within the room, typically a piece of furniture. So, let’s get started!

The first pair we have is the Hayworth Sofa matched with the Ho’okipa silk carving that is 46” x 16”. These two would be a great fit firstly because of the similar colors and secondly because of the texture. The silk carving has interesting texture that coincides with the smooth text of this modern sofa. This sofa is 72” wide, so the carving placed horizontally would look excellent if hung above.

Petra has a wonderful collection of photography that includes many bright blossoms, which I found a perfect match for the Fiore Chair. I chose three of the photos and tiled them above the chair, which would be perfect for a sitting area in a corner of a living room or bedroom. This is a great art/furniture combo for the lover of color.

Finally, I dove into the drawings section of Petra’s collection to find the perfect match for Inmod’s popular Ball Chair. As the Ball Chair is a fun, whimsical piece of furniture, I was in search of a drawing that was equally as fun and full of whimsy. I think I hit the nail on the head by pairing the Ball Chair with Petra’s Vanity drawing, how about you? The oversized drawing measures 58” x 32” – and its character is the perfect accompaniment to the Ball Chair. 

What do you think? What thoughts do you consider when pairing artwork to rooms within your home?

Be sure to check out all of the awesome modern seating available at Inmod and match some pieces of your own choice with Petra’s lovely array of artwork!

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Thank you so much for this lovely post, Katie!!!!

The Rain Dancer adds a little Mysticism to the Bedroom

While one of my paintings is running in the Saatchi competition (oh please please vote for my painting - see link below) I thought why not placing the painting virtually in a room where it might look good. I mounted it into a virtual frame that would give this bedroom a little additional "sparkling".

Normally I am not so very much a friend of four-poster or canopy beds, at least not with only the four posts standing free but in this case it looks elegant and not so invasive as in many other rooms.I found the original art on the wall a bit too cheerless though as it was mounted in a dark frame additionally. The painting I replaced it with adds a little mysticism to this bedroom, a pigeon looking like a rain god with his fluffed up plumage...

(original image source getdecorating.com)

The acrylic painting is called The Rain Dancer and depicts one of my favourite models, Pete, the pigeon patron from our feral pigeon family, while he takes a shower in the rain. If you look closely (click on the image to enlarge) you will see all the droplets in his plumage and the content look in his face. Pigeons love to bathe or to take a shower in the rain.

"The Rain Dancer"
(from the Pigeons series) 
18" x 26" acrylic on cotton
©Petra Voegtle

If you would like to learn more about pigeons, how intelligent and funny these birds are, simply amazing creatures - then please check out my blog/diary Pigeon Tales. I can tell you that you will not be disappointed. There are lots of funny and sweet photos, little videos and stories about their adventures.Additionally you will find a lot of interesting links about birds and pigeons especially.

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 Thank you so much!

Voting Link

you can log in with your facebook account!

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A Charming Bedroom with a Romantic Touch

I love this bedroom which is apparently an old farmhouse makeover. Not imitated but real old wooden beams - unpainted!- give this room a very romantic feel without the typical flowery embellishments and things like that.

I also like the original painting on the wall which may have been someone else's heirloom and adds the same feeling as the aged beams overhead. Hanging it without frame perfectly fits into the setting in this room, keeping everything as simple as possible. It looks as if you could find exactly the same landscape outside of the window.

In order to add some more cheery feeling to this room I would suggest an alternative to the original painting such as this one, an acrylic work from the Reminiscences series. The series portrays the aged leftovers of planted walls and windows of the old Olympic student village in Munich short before they were demolished.

 original image source and with courtesy of 

http://www.livingetc.com

Below is the photo with the original painting:

This acrylic painting is called Blue Door and was painted on cotton.

"Blue Door"
(from the Reminiscences series)

26" x 18", acrylic

©Petra Voegtle

If you like to know more about the series and its paintings including other room examples  check this link.

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Frozen - Winter has arrived

Since a few days the temperatures have gone down considerably and winter has shown up in front of our doors. There is a bit snow lying outside and all my plants that were still on the balcony had to come inside. Now everything outside is empty again and I really hate it. The leaves from the trees are long gone and daylight is scarce. Honestly I really don't like this time of the year. I am a sun person.

And right fitting into this mood and season is this silk painting, Frozen, a semi-surreal landscape reflecting the loneliness and stand-still of everything. But there is always hope - isn't it? Hope for an early spring when the cycle of life starts again...

 "Frozen"

(from the Magic Landscapes series)
40" x 20", silk
©Petra Voegtle

The painting has been painted on Pongé silk and stitched after the painting in order to add texture. The painting is covered by additional fabric on the reverse side for protection and stability. It can be hung with or without additional frame. Adding a sophisticated frame though can make a significant difference as you can see in this virtual example.

Here you can see some room examples.

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A Challenging Idea - Silk Painting in a Wrought Iron Frame

From time to time I love to play with crazy ideas and as usual doing this on the computer wouldn't hurt - right?

Now look at this wonderful entry hall with a staircase and a wrought iron railing. Did I tell you that I love all sorts of wrought iron objects, especially beds, chairs, iron cast stands for tables etc.? Wrought iron doors and portals can be noble pieces of craftmanship and are always worth to look at in detail.

In this entry hall the wrought iron railing turns the staircase into something delicate and filigree and the effect is beautiful. So I thought about how the empty wall could be adorned additionally without destroying the overall impression of this hall. My choice would have been this 3 panel silk painting Ayutthaya from the Magic Landscapes series.

You can see from the original image that the wall looks a bit empty and really could need some additional artwork.

Now my idea was to virtually mount the 3 silk panels on a "board" and frame this in a wrought iron frame that would complement not only the railing but also the table. This could be realized indeed.
Iron and silk are materials which could not be more different but wrought iron can be crafted in a manner that its ornaments can become filigree elements like in lace. So I found the idea quite attractive and challenging...

"Ayutthaya"

(from the Magic Landscapes Series)

40" x 39", silk triptych

©Petra Voegtle

I have to admit something - the idea was actually not completely new - I used the idea with the wrought iron frame on other rooms as complement for existing interior before. Here are the links: link, where you also can read more about the painting itself and where the inspiration came from and here is another link.

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Night Blue continued - another Alternative

As an addition to my previous post about an unspectacular bedroom and its possiblities I forgot to show you another alternative with a different painting. And this is my suggestion:

And this is what this painting is about:

Did you know that ferns belong to the oldest plants on this planet and that they once became real trees and finally ended up in petrified trees? A fascinating theme and I am totally enthralled by fossils. It is somehow extremely exciting when you split a piece of rock into two pieces and then find an amazing piece of petrified animal such as an ammonite or a plant. But I am digressing...

This painting is more than just an hommage to the wonderful ferns that once lived on this planet it is also meant to symbolize the primordial soup of this universe. The background shows a kind of marbling effect that is not only represented by stones but if you look at pictures from the Hubble telescope you will see similar patterns in the star clouds of foreign galaxies. This painting is also a view into earth's history.

 "Triassic Prints II"

(from the Minerals and Fossils series)
40" x 13", silk
©Petra Voegtle
(BoxHeart Gallery, Pittsburgh)

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Matching Colours again...

I must admit that I really have fun with matching colours. The challenge is to find objects in rooms which repeat or complement a certain colour. As I can do this only virtually I never can be sure whether you see the same as I do colourwise, depending on the value settings of your monitor. Never mind...

The painting shown here belongs to the series Reminiscenes - I have written about it here . The fun part is that these paintings are very colourful and fit into many interiors, be it modern, classic, romantic or any other style. I find they can really brighten up the day and change a bad mood to the better. The important point is to mount them in a complementing frame (which I have done here virtually again) and then place them into the right context:

 original image source and with courtesy of 

http://www.livingetc.com

"Amarillo"
(from the Reminiscences series)

26" x 18", acrylic

©Petra Voegtle

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Guilin - a Landscape for ROOMS, big ROOMS

I have brought this up a couple of times in order to show you the various possibilities to place a painting such as this one and how it could transform a room into a breathtaking place as it is shown in the example below. Sometimes it takes so little for this metamorphosis. The original art on the wall looked very nice but do you think it made you feel excitement?

I have a different idea - a landscape as below would make you gasp. A painting that emanates pure magic because the subject is magical. And this is what art is living from otherwise it is only a piece of decoration. So chose wisely!

In a large hallway such as this you need something that blows you out of your socks. There is so much space that can be used without stuffing it. This is my suggestion:

To see that breathtaking landscape with your own eyes will never let you forget about it. Photos are not sufficient to catch the special light, the atmosphere of this beauty. You can look at some of the photos I have taken here but I wished I could go back with the camera and the easel and do what so many artists have done before me. So many motifs I would like to share...

The painting consists of 5 panels which are painted on silk and even could be continued into a 360° view. Imagine a room with an endless landscape! It takes you into a 3d-view when you are in front of it and opens the space even more into nearly endless distance...

"Monuments of Guilin"
(from the Magic Landscapes series) 
Polyptych, 40" x 65", silk
©Petra Voegtle

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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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OFF-TOPIC: Climate Change - nothing is static

These days subject #1 is Climate Change. But the explanations of science and rainbow press are equally ridiculous. As if mankind could influence any global changes - ha.
Changes on this planet occur continuously - it is necessary for the universal balance, to keep the planet living. Nothing on earth is static. Climate changes are a necessary element of these changes.

While man certainly has an influence on his nearer environment, pollution of air, land and sea, on the animals and their wellbeing, on plants etc. and while this certainly has an impact on micro climates of cities and adjacent country he has no influence on global climate changes. I do not want to go into details though. It is a matter of common sense.

The melting of the ice caps in the artic region will have some major impact on the whole planet but can we do anything about it? I don't think so. The outcry about this is as ridiculous as about many other issues. This has occured several times in the history of our earth, long before man started to change his environment.

Has anyone ever thought about this being necessary and that if we try to intervene in nature's laws and actions - which we btw mostly still do not understand - we might end up in a chaos? Plants and animals and even man will disappear eventually from certain areas but there will be new ones, new land, new species - continuously. Evolution will never stop.This can be painful but we cannot and should not intervene. What sense does it make to save certain species artificially when the habitat has been lost? Shall we keep animals in zoos only after we have "civilized" all wild land, plastered it with cities? This cannot be the meaning of life and I definitely don't want to live in a world such as that.

We should enjoy the beauties of this world, protect it from greed and overpopulation which is the real scourge of humanity as long as we are here. The secrets of mother nature will never be revealed - we can only comprehend little bits and pieces but never the whole.

This is the reason why I am creating art, beautiful objects which only show a fraction of what exists.This silk scroll has been inspired by the fantastic landscapes you can still find in arctic regions where the ice is carved by mother nature...

"Iceworld"
79" x 25", silk scroll

©Petra Voegtle

If you would like to know more about the "making of" of this silk scroll, please check this link.

And if you would like to see the impact of this scroll on the wall, here are some examples:

interior1, interior2, interior3

This wallhanging was juried into the members show of the Woman Made Gallery in Chicago in 2006.

Follwoing image is and example how this very large scroll could look in a frame:

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Celts - a Silk Painting of a Magical Place

There are thousands of magical places on this world and only very few I have seen myself. Stonehenge was one of them at a time - some decades ago - where tourism did not overflow the whole area yet and where they did not request yet astronomical entry fees and where the stones were not fenced from any touch yet. But times change...

Stonehenge has always been a fascinating motif for painters and poets and will remain so as long as it exists. I could not withdraw from its spell myself and so this painting on silk Celts became part of the Magic Symbols series. If you would like to know more about the painting please read here.

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

(sold)

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Please check the following links if you would like to see the impact in a room with a painting such as this:  interior1, interior2, interior3, interior4

Cool it down with a Painting

This acrylic painting Aquamarine is certainly not meant for collectors of crystals and minerals only but for anyone who feels seduced by the translucency of these natural beauties.

"Aquamarine derives it name from the Latin term for seawater - and one look at this elegant gem's blue hues easily explains why.

According to legend, aquamarine was the treasure of mermaids and had the power to keep sailors safe at sea. It was also thought to possess a number of other mystical properties, including the ability to help couples smooth out their differences; protect against the wiles of the devil; cure headaches, insomnia and other ailments; quicken the intellect; and attract new friends. It is the symbol for youth, hope, health and fidelity.

It is also the birthstone for March and the recommended gem for couples celebrating their 19th wedding anniversary." (from Gallery Mona Lisa)

The painting tries to reflect the translucency of this marvellous crystal and also the various hues an aquamarine can show due to light and various reflections.

"Aquamarine"

(from the "Minerals" series)

40" x 13", acrylic on cotton

©Petra Voegtle

  

  

  

  

 

You would like to see how this painting appears in a room? Please check these links:

interior1, interior2, interior3

If you would like to know more about the "making of" this painting please read here

And here are some photos of the real crystal:

 image source realgems.org

 image source http://www.irocks.com/

image source realgems.org

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