art Archives - Page 11 of 14 - The Curated House

Art Interiors | Festival of the Smalls

Each year, my favourite Toronto art gallery hosts a delightful event intended to make original art truly accessible. Art Interiors‘ trailblazing event – The Festival of the Smalls – has been making original art affordable to all of us for 19 years now. The owners of the Forest Hill Village gallery – Lisa Diamond Katz and Shira Wood – carefully curate a delightfully eclectic mix of small canvases each year. Ranging from $55 to $250, the diverse works on offer are perfectly priced for your Christmas shopping list!

Paintings by Erin Vincent and Elizabeth Lennie

As you may remember from previous posts like this one, I am a big fan of curating interesting groupings of smalls. While large canvases can be a powerful way to bring soul to your space, groupings of smalls offer a dynamic and inspired approach to creating interest and anchoring a wall. Done well, a grouping of smalls can even script something of a story in the way each of the pieces speak to one another.

Today for Make Something Monday, I thought I would share some of the Art Interiors artists I love and offer you a peak at their contributions to this year’s Festival of the Smalls. Up first, Elizabeth Lennie, an inspired Canadian artist who captures the visceral and emotional connection with two favourite Canadian past times – swimming and hockey.

Up next is Elzbieta Krawecka, whose large landscape paintings are spectacular and can truly anchor a space. {Take a look back here at my use of one of Elzbieta’s large canveses in a client’s beautiful traditional master ensuite.} Elzbieta’s masterful painting is both classic and refined, well worthy of being collected and engaged with daily. Her smalls are the perfect way to add her spectacular work to your collection! Here are a few of my favourites this year. If someone could just buy me the first one for Christmas {please + thanks} I’d be ever so delighted!

Emily Bickell has become well known for her remarkably realistic water surface studies. Often just close-up studies of the play of light and movement on the water, they communicate a serenity and quietude that can only come from spending time on the blue, surrounded by nature. I am particularly fond of the last two as they transport me to the lakes of Northern Ontario, a place of great serenity, relaxation and beauty for me.

If I had to sum up Kelly Grace’s work in one word, for me it would be nostalgia. As a child, I spent countless hours with our family’s Viewmaster, clicking through slides of beautiful scenes. I can still hear the hard plastic “click” the lever would make as I scrolled through the images. Kelly Grace’s series of paintings {see two below} instantly transport me back to my living room’s hardwood floor where I would lay on my belly or my back, totally enrapt by the images hidden inside this deceptively simple gadget.

The pieces I’ve shared today are just a small sampling of the small works available during Art Interiors‘ Festival of The Smalls, on until December 24th. If you are in search of something inspired, personal and entirely unique for a loved one on your list, you simply must pay a visit to the lovely ladies at the gallery for help with finding that perfect piece of original art. It’s the kind of gift that is guaranteed to surprise + delight.

Happy {Make Something} Monday!

By Sarah Walker The Curated House|November 12th, 2012|0 Comments

Make Something Mondays | Geninne’s Studio

I love process. I’m such a believer in the importance of it. I’m probably sounding like a broken record to some of you, but I think my motto bears repeating. “Beautiful process, beautiful product.” Life can be messy {life is ALWAYS messy?} but beauty and meaning are always waiting to be discovered around countless corners, not just in the obvious places of our defining moments of achievement.

This love of process is in part why I believe in the psychology of environment. Our spaces can either contribute to or hinder our process of working, living, connecting, creating, relaxing, dreaming and resting. What defines a “sacred space” for each of us will be different, but I think it’s always fascinating to peek inside that space and understand how it has become the canvas upon which each person paints their life. This can be especially interesting when artists are involved, and today I’m delighted to share with you the working and living space of artist Geninne.

The first thing I notice is the natural light bathing the space with golden warmth and possibility.

Perhaps this gorgeous daily flood of amber is just one of Geninne’s muses, drawing her imagination outside and into nature where the characters she creates are quietly nesting in the trees, waiting to be discovered?

I just love seeing the diversity of mediums that Geninne explores in her studio. From delicate paintings on paper and rocks to lino-cuts and paintings on vintage postcards, Geninne is an artist who embraces the art of exploration.

What is your space inspiring in you today? Perhaps you need a change of environment to see your creative, working and living adventures differently? Is it time to rearrange the furniture, change up some art groupings, refresh a room with a new coat of paint or even just wash some windows to let the light pour in unfettered? Whatever it is that inspires you, go find it and find a way to surround yourself with it every day. I promise, your process and your product will become more beautiful as a result. Thank you for offering us such inspiration, Geninne!

xo
s.

P.S. GENINNE IS COMING TO TORONTO FOR A WORKSHOP!! If you love lino-printing and wish you could learn from Geninne in some way, you’re in luck! Bookhou At Home is hosting a workshop with Geninne in Toronto on December 2nd in support of her new book, Making An Impression. She’ll be teaching those in attendance how to make your own hand-carved lino-cut stamps. Sounds rather delightful to me! See you there?

By Sarah Walker The Curated House|October 29th, 2012|2 Comments

Converting your iPhone into a Polaroid Camera

Oh. My. Goodness. I am excited, friends. Remember my recent post about the beautiful book Instant Love by Jen Altman and Amanda Gilligan? Well I’ve been searching for an old Polaroid SX70 camera ever since. I haven’t found one yet {mark my words, I will!}, but in the meantime, I’ve found Part 2 of my soon-to-be Polaroid Adventures.

With the boom of neverending iPhone camera apps, beautiful photos in digital form abound. Just follow a few interesting people on Instagram and you’ll know what I mean. But what to do with them from there? Are they destined to remain trapped on your iPhone forever, never living up to their full potential to be appreciated?

Heaven’s, no. Enter the utterly ingenious team from Impossible. Starting with a small team of the top 10 former Polaroid employees, they set out to save Polaroid film from extinction in 2008. They succeeded and are now producing the original film {as well as innovative new films} for Polaroid cameras in the original factory in Enschede, Netherlands.

Not content to stop with that massive win, they continued to innovate. And what they’ve created gets me really, really excited. OK, drum roll is long enough. Here it is.

Yes, that’s right friends. This amazing device takes your favourite iPhone photos and coverts them into warm and vintage-looking Polaroid prints. Digital to Analog in seconds. Before your very eyes. Check out this video {just in case you don’t believe me!}:

I know. It’s instantly on all of your wish lists. Me too. But we have to wait until 2013 to get it in our hot little hands. So until then, keep snapping up inspirational photos on those iPhones, friends. All the more material to work with when the Impossible Instant Lab is finally ready to come out and play.

xo
s.

By Sarah Walker The Curated House|October 10th, 2012|0 Comments