In my quest for reasonable redesign, I have lucked out finding great paintings. I’ve picked up gems at trunk shows, antique stores, consignment shops and art fairs. My parents had a friend who took up painting late in life and did two beautiful portraits of my girls. A few of my friends paint and have given me a painting or two over the years. It may not be everyone’s style because it can get eclectic pretty quickly. But I love the history that goes along with each one.
My college roommate kicked off my collection with her donation of the cow/love painting for graduation. Her “Happy Birthday” painting for my 25th quickly followed, as well as “Blue Skyscrapers”. 30 years later, I still have them hanging.
My friend Ron Chavers painted this floral arrangement. I fell in love with it when we were having dinner in his Manhattan Beach home. He handed it to me on the way out the door. Ron has the matching painting in his Cosmetix West lobby in California. Absolutely love it.
S. Randle painted these Venice Palms that I picked up at an Abbot Kinney art fair.
When we moved to Charlotte, I found these two lemon paintings by Christina Dowdy at a trunk show. I hang them in our bar so everybody can see them.
This painting of a man feeding the pigeons by Joseph Barber is so sweet. I have it on a small wooden stand in my living room. Discovered it at an antique store in Charlotte.
Charlotte Forest painted the yellow abstract (above) and this crazy red person. Very different, but both fun!
Beth Keim (Lucy and Company) painted this to match a bedspread when she was helping us redecorate our guest room.
Apples #1 and #2 by Beth Rundquist
I saw these two small paintings at a friend’s trunk show and grabbed them before anyone else could!
My parent’s dear friend, Bill Muysken, painted these two portraits of my girls. He took up painting after he retired and fell in love with it. Bill managed to capture both of their personalities perfectly.
Mike Bryce is a Rhode Island artist and paints landscapes that I cannot stop buying….. The two above are tiny, only 5.5″ square.
Another Mike Bryce in my office.
William Padien
I did a blog post (see here) on Bill Padien this June. He captures Block Island beautifully in his paintings.
Consignment shop find
I like the casual look of an unframed painting, so I usually don’t frame any of mine. If they come framed, great! If not, it can really save a lot of money to leave them alone. For some reason, all of this works well in our home. A chaos of color, but I love it!
the wry home