curated collection Archives - The Curated House

The Art of Grouping: Working With Smalls

If you’ve been tracking with me for awhile, you will have noticed two things: ONE, I love original art and I work with it as much as I can when designing interiors. TWO, I love working with one Toronto gallery in particular: Art Interiors.

I’ve worked with owners Lisa Diamond Katz and Shira Wood for years now, curating and adding pieces to my clients’ collections from Art Interiors‘ beautifully edited gallery. With a vision for creating a gallery that invites people to break down the typical boundaries to buying original art, Lisa and Shira continue to offer affordable pieces in a warm and engaging environment that takes the edge off of what you might expect from an art buying experience. No pretense. Lots of warmth, humour, beauty and creativity. And pieces starting at $50.

I recently stopped in to collaborate with the lovely and sophisticated Shira to show you how you can create larger, anchoring groupings with “smalls.”

Painting seen behind Shira is by Madeleine Lamont

For our first grouping, Shira and I chose this beautiful figurative 16″ x 16″ piece by Elizabeth Lennie entitled “Beach Life” as our starting point. I love this Canadian artist’s work as she captures scenes that were foundational to some of my favourite childhood memories of growing up in Canada and enjoying the outdoors.

Next, we chose 2 complimentary pieces. The first, entitled “Sonic Boom” by Aaron Jones, is a 12″ x 18″ mixed media piece that connects to the treed landscape on the horizon of Lennie’s beach scene as well as the blush coloured palette of the sand. The second – a much more contemporary 8″ x 8″ piece by Dionne Simpson – draws upon the colour palette while lending a decidedly modern edge to the grouping.

This grouping would work very well on its own, but we wanted to show you how you could build your collection over time. The next piece to catch my eye was this whimsical and quirky piece entitled “Ram” by Amy Thompson.

I love the vintage charm of the artist’s chosen canvas – an old library card.

We also selected two contemporary abstract smalls by Emilie Rondeau – “Champs Fleuri” and “Celeste.” Both only 6″ x 6″, it is the bold and dynamic colour palette of these two pieces that adds a definite joie de vivre to our grouping. I also love the way the chartreuse green of the grass in “Ram” is echoed in the Rondeau pieces along with the shades of blush that pull from our first three pieces in this collection.

Again, I would be quite happy to call this grouping complete, but for the sake showing how a grouping can be curated over time, we selected one last piece to show you. This 8″ x 10″ is actually a part of a triptych entitled “Round Lake Series” by Rojia Dadashzadeh, and I think it does a lovely job of balancing the abstract elements with the more literal in our collection. Again, it also connects with the blush colour palette along with the two black frames and the dark horizon of the beach scene.

Overall this grouping gives the eye much to consider with a gentle wander while offering many points of harmony to make sense of the collection being grouped together.

Curating your own groupings of smalls should be a creative adventure! Start with what you love. Look for connections between the pieces that draw you in. Often you’ll find that there are commonalities in colour palette, texture, subject matter, line and form or just mood. Pulling unexpected pieces together that speak to you can create the kind of interesting and engaging grouping that uniquely reflects your personality in your space.

I would strongly encourage you to pop into Art Interiors soon to see what inspires you! The ladies are the loveliest and always ready to help you discover your own tastes in art. The art they have curated is as varied as the audience for which it is intended. There truly is something there for every taste and budget. Can’t wait to hear about your fabulous finds!

The Art of Inspiration: Photographer + Filmmaker Brooks Reynolds | Indie Musician Alexander Fairchild

Art begets art. Creativity begets creativity. Inspiration begets inspiration. This is what I truly believe, and this is why I explore, experiment with and express my own creativity through various mediums, always attempting to break down the cardboard boxes that quietly and insidiously attempt to contain the ideas and keep them small. It is also why I am always interested in connecting with creative artists of all mediums. There is no better source of inspiration than someone who is inspired themselves.

Brooks Reynolds is an inspired and truly inspiring photographer and burgeoning filmmaker. I’ve had the privilege of working with him on past projects, and I thought I would share a bit of his work with you in the hopes that he inspires you, too.

As you can see, Brooks’ work has a very distinctive look to it no matter the project. I can’t wait for him to do another run of prints so that I can purchase a print of the first image you see above (the one of the girl in the red dress holding the Polaroid camera). The saturation of colour and vintage warmth have me charmed, and I think this print will make the perfect starting point for a new grouping of art here in our home.

A photographer who bridges fine art and commercial work with artistic integrity and authenticity, Brooks has recently moved beyond stills into filmmaking, most notably by creating beautifully organic and visually inspired music videos. Given that I love indie music – and that this musical artist happens to be a friend of mine – I couldn’t resist sharing this video with you.

Alexander Fairchild is something of a creative genius, playing all of the instruments (and of course singing all of the vocal tracks) featured on his prolific and ever-expanding catalogue of records. If like me you are charmed by witty, thoughtful lyrics…if you love a more stripped-back and organic, folk-inspired aesthetic with a decidedly modern edge…and if you have a penchant for love songs that paint delightfully unexpected pictures on the canvas of your imagination…then this is the artist for you.

They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder, so I can only conclude that temporarily unavailable albums must make an artist’s new release all the more highly anticipated. No doubt that will be the case here. Alexander Fairchild Volumes 1, 2 and 3 have been temporarily pulled from iTunes in preparation for an exciting release coming soon. I’ll definitely keep you posted on dates and details. In the meantime, you can get your fix by keeping this video on repeat.

Off to snuggle up with my guys and have another listen. Hope this leaves you inspired for a weekend filled with creativity!

xo
s.