RHYS BOWEN: I've been spending a lot of time sitting in my living room lately as John recovers from pneumonia in his recliner. This has given me time to look around and realize the importance of the art on my walls. We have art on the walls of every room in our house. In fact sometimes we are on vacation and we see a lovely piece of art work and want to buy it. But then we look at each other. Where would we put it? No walls left. John has even suggested getting a bigger house to allow for more art work.
But I do enjoy the art we already own. The major piece in our living room is a simple sketch. Can you guess who it is by?
Apart from that we have a lot of Chinese plates I'm not very fond of. But they came from John's grandfather when he was the British district officer in Malaysia. I'm sure they are valuable too, but I don't really care. I like art that means something to me: my favorite piece is this:
I was in Cornwall with my daughter and son-in-law and we visited an art gallery. We each decided which work we liked best and Tom and I agreed on one of St. Michael's Mount. Behind my back Tom had it shipped back to me for Christmas... best Christmas gift ever! I sit on my sofa and stare at it and sigh.
Also in the living room we have a print of Sutton Place, which was where his grandmother grew up. When we took our daughter Anne to visit she asked "And why did we give this up?" Good question.
But most of the other art on our walls is only of sentimental value. It reminds me of places we have loved. So I suppose that art has to mean something to me personally, to take me somewhere and provide beauty. I have no abstract art at all. I certainly wouldn't want anything too unsettling or unharmonious on my walls. We also have a lot of family photos in hallways and in my office are framed Edgar certificates and other awards. And there is my award shelf, halfway down the stairs, which gives me encouragement when I most need it.
So how about you? Is art important to you? Do you have a particular piece you love?
We have family photos in the hallway; mostly our walls hold things that we enjoy looking at, including sketches done by our grandchildren, sentimental things that make our hearts smile . . . .
ReplyDeleteWe have family photos too, Joan.
DeleteWe have several Charles Peterson ghost prints. We first saw some decorating the walls of our local Culver’s restaurant and started purchasing some of our own. We also have some Norman Rockwells. My favorite piece is of hummingbirds my sister painted for me using a cupboard door rather than a canvas. I am still deciding on the perfect spot to hang it in my new home.
ReplyDeleteI love Norman Rockwell's art. He was a great and brilliant artist, but his works really told an entire story. A novel in one picture really. I assume you have prints. I can't imagine what his originals are worth today.
DeleteArt created by family is the best!
DeleteMy stepmother 's first husband was a graphic artist and they collected art together. When he died quite young and she married my father, who was a widower, they combined households and art in a new home. She and my father continued to collect art.
ReplyDeleteWhen they moved to a Florida condo and closed up their big house in Connecticut, all the children and grandchildren got pieces of art.
In the meantime, Irwin and I were also collecting art. Our walls are full of lovely pieces of artwork, many by local artists or pieces purchased while traveling. However, most prominently displayed are pieces done by one of my best college friends, an award winning artist and singer, just a couple years after our graduation.
Our family room walls and tables in our bedroom level are covered in family photos.
I wish I could see your walls, Judy
DeleteI would love to have you be a guest in my home, Rhys!
DeleteI have two pieces of art that were created from a photograph of a sunrise. I also love my award/trophy shelf, my Godzilla paperweight, and my little pink boxing gloves that signifies I'm a breast cancer survivor.
ReplyDeleteDo you have the boxing gloves in a glass case, Dru?
DeleteThose are lovely pieces, Rhys. All the art on my walls is meaningful to me. The most famous is a painting from 1898 that was my grandfather's. It's of a sailboat on a lake and is by Richard Gruelle, one of the five Hoosier Group artists. I also have an oil of my town's downtown falls in winter by a local artist, a black and white bird by a Canadian Inuit artist, a small painting of the porch of a Santa Fe adobe, and more.
ReplyDeleteI also have two framed pieces of art created by my sons before they were teenagers. Love them both!
DeleteThese sound wonderful!
DeleteMy favourite is a beautiful country landscape which had been painted for my father by one of his talented friends . When my father died, his wife offered it to me because it looks like a bit where I live.
ReplyDeleteLandscapes are my favorites!
DeleteI like your art, Rhys! We also have some antique Chinese cloisonne plates and vases and a couple of modern reproduction lamps. I do like them, partly because they remind me of my mother-in-law, who collected antique cloisonne. Our biggest piece of art is a large painting in the dining room area in our farm house. I too am uncomfortable with abstract art but this is an unusual painting in that it's realistic but almost abstract, as it's a large, cropped, extreme close-up of the roof of the school sugarhouse in which we spent hours over many maple sugaring seasons. To those who know the building, the smokestack and huge roof vents issuing clouds of steam are instantly recognizable, and to those who don't, the blues and charcoals and browns of the old steel roof and bare maple trunks make an interesting pattern of color and lines. It was painted by the school art teacher and at the time I bought it, we had no business spending money on art. However it's been the heart of our home for decades. On another wall we have a painting that was also collected by my mother-in-law, who haunted junk shops and recognized it. (Long before I met her, her girls were promised her jewelry; my husband this painting.) It is by the Americana artist Eric Sloane, and is an autumn scene of a farmer leaving his barn lugging full milk pails. How did she know so long ago that her son would marry a girl with a dream of becoming a milkmaid? We also have a couple of smaller oils, also inherited, this time from my family: one from the 1830s of two boys fishing in a Southern river, very Hudson River School in feeling, and a modern but old fashioned one of sheep on a farm in my hometown. Anyone notice a rural theme? None of our art is worth much but it means a lot to me. (Selden)
ReplyDeleteThe sugar house? I didn’t know there were such things. But it evokes memories which is important
DeleteMy favorite piece of art is a painting from my family home that features a house by a body of water with a woman sitting on a bench looking out over the water. I always loved looking at it as a child so when both parents died I claimed it. Worth nothing but very comforting!
ReplyDeleteWorth a lot to you!
DeleteMorning Paula Here ~ eclectic ~ that describes not only my wall artwork but, well, Me. I have two musical staffs, paintings by traveling artists of Greece. They may be my favs because they are colors of the ocean, the white buildings, the flowers and trees of such tranquil places. I can imagine myself in them hiding from life for just a few minutes. I have a couple I drew and paintings of flowers and musical instruments. Oh, and paintings of butterflies. Nothing is worth more than a few $. I need more walls, too.
ReplyDeleteI’d love paintings of Greece!
DeleteMy walls are full of my mother's art. At one point she was into painting american indians and that theme carries in my living room with indian dolls and pottery. The rest is scenery from where we lived and some copy painting from postcards and famous artists. That talent carried over to some in my family but I can't do it. Norma
ReplyDeleteInteresting. We have Native American art and pottery at our Arizona home
DeleteLove your art tour, Rhys! You've also given us a lesson on the art of a long marriage--compromise when your spouse finds something meaningful, even if it's not your favorite:). We have art from many local artists in both CT and Florida. Nothing is very valuable, but they're all pieces we love. My favorite is a large steamship painted by a dear friend's brother.
ReplyDeleteVery wise, Roberta. Of course things that remind John of his family home have to go up. Unfortunately there was a big painting of a moonlight waterfall in my family home but at the time I couldn’t afford to have it shipped to the US. And it was probably too big for an ordinary room!
DeleteYes, art is very important to my husband and me as well. And I always want it to be personally meaningful. It was a bit of a challenge when we downsized -- some pieces we were fond of just haven't found a home on the walls of our new place, and some spaces are currently open as we await running into just the right thing to fill them. I have not, as of yet, gotten rid of any of the art that's not hanging as I just haven't felt emotionally ready to do so.
ReplyDeleteI do like somewhat abstract art, though. One of our favorite pieces is now hanging in our dining room. It clearly evokes a hummingbird in flight, though when you look closely it is almost not at all representational. I also have two favorite (mildly abstract) pieces that I purchased at the local Art Guild's annual sales over the years. But most of the rest of our art is not abstract. For example, we have a numbered print of a lonely wolf above a canyon from an artist from Steamboat Springs in pride of place in our living room, and two framed art photos from New Orleans.
Maybe rotate the collection? It’s what museums do!
DeleteYes, art is important to me. I have mostly landscapes on the walls, some from my mother's collection that are sentimentally important to me. I like a painting that invites me into its picture and, thus, beyond its frame.
ReplyDeleteCount me in the group where anything on my walls must be meaningful and valuable to me. The plates mounted in the kitchen are a simple Blue Willow pattern, for example, but they were one of the few things recovered when my mom's childhood home burnt when she was teenager. They've been handed down through 200 years of generations to me. The living room has two especially wonderful artworks by my two youngest nephews--done when they were in 1st and 2nd grades. And above the sofa are Vermeer prints, brought to me by a friend from her visit to the Netherlands. The largest print is actually a detail from a larger painting done of a street scene--not the more familiar female figures. My bedroom has a single painting done by an artist in New Orleans.
ReplyDeleteI love the story of your plates! How great they were saved
DeleteOoo I love your San Michel and the stealth Gaugin! And I love the special stories behind them even more. But you don’t have to hold back on buying new art for lack of wall space—you can rotate them in and out with the seasons like they do in Japan! My husband and I have lots more Japanese prints and scrolls than we have walls, including an ink painting which we just brought out in honor of the birth of our first grandchild. It’s a delightful ink painting of a grinning horse that happens to have been painted by a renowned artist, but we love it because it was given to my husband by his uncle, who was also born in the Year of the Horse. My husband and his father are both Horses, as are our middle son and his new baby daughter, who we all called LFH (for Little Fire Horse) before she arrived mid-January and exchanged it for her real name!
ReplyDeletePaula here ~ Jonelle, I love the idea of rotating the art. Hadn’t even occurred to me. I didn’t purchase 2 very memorable paintings because of no place to hang them. i’ve never forgotten them and would love to pull them out of wherever I’d have stored them and hang them in my living room - right now. Thanks for the tip.
DeleteCongratulations on the new baby - my new (and first) grandson is two and a half weeks old!
DeleteWelcome the new grandchild! Will she be fiery?
DeleteHi Jonelle! How nice to see you here. How great that you have a granddaughter and that you put up a painting in her honor!
DeleteYour art is so lovely and elegant, Rhys! Just like you. And our house is full of it--a whole range from posters I love to "important" paintings from my art collector parents. I still look at everything each time I turn a corner--when the light changes, it's always different. Thank you for this peaceful art morning!
ReplyDeleteThat’s just it! Evoking a feeling every time we pass!
DeleteRhys, I love your Gaugin! Your art is beautiful. Hope your hubby gets better soon.
ReplyDeleteI love art and yes I have a lot in my home and not enough walls. I loved art history in college and should have majored in it but instead was an education major.
I buy prominent local artists works. But I have a few exceptions. One of my favorite's is a piece I bought from a French artist named Isabel Merlet when we visited her hometown of Moustiers-Sante-Marie in the South of France. Her work is lovely and vibrant.
My grandfather befriended a starving artist during the Depression and the artist gave him two paintings. One is now worth upwards of $20,000 now (but owned by a relative) and the other I have is much smaller and not as valuable but I love it.
My other "favorite artist" is my mother. She was really an accomplished artist and I love her paintings plus it reminds me of her everytime I see them. I have grandkids' works too and they are extremely "valuable" or priceless as they say!!
A piece by your mother! I’d love that
DeleteFrom above - my story of my grandfather reminds me of a similar story. An American couple living in Mexico befriended a young unknown couple when they were starving artists. In exchange for rent, Diego Rivera and his wife Frieda Kahlo gave the couple their art which is now worth hundreds of millions of dollars. I love both of their works and have copies of Rivera's work - wish I had the originals.
ReplyDeleteThis is slightly different, but because I have moved frequently I find that my body art is my favorite because it is always with me and has deep significance. All tattoos are on my upper back. The first was when I was 49 and going through a difficult time. A young friend of mine insisted her gift to me was a tattoo of my choosing. I chose a colorful butterfly on my upper left back to symbolize transition and new beginnings. Well, if you have a tattoo, you know how addictive those little suckers are, so when I turned 50 I got a humming bird and hibiscus on my upper right back to remind me of the beauty and simplicity all around me. I got the last one when I was 51. It is a colorful angel who covers the area between my other two tattoos. She symbolizes that my angels have my back at all times. Those tattoos are my favorite art. -- Victoria
ReplyDeleteBut how do you view your back?
DeleteMirror. Plus, it is fascinating to see how doctors and nurses react when they see the tattoos. My back is a mass of scars and the tattoos serve an additional purpose of drawing attention away from the scars. -- Victoria
DeleteRhys, I love these teapots from the mystery conferences! My first memory of Art was fingerpainting at the after school daycare when I was about four or five years old.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up, my house had art on the walls. They were my Dad's artwork. He also painted on leather and framed his art. He crafted a coffee table. He also crafted a Clock by hand. After his father in law (my maternal grandfather) died, we got some of his paintings. My grandfather painted landscapes.
And I have a portrait that was painted by my grandfather's older sister. The painting evoked feelings of Monet paintings because it was very similar in style.
How lovely yo have so much family art in your home!
DeleteYears ago, when my grandparents downsized, I saved two watercolors from the attic. My grandmother's sisters painted them during their teen years in the 1910s. I have kept them in the original frames, which takes up wall space but I think the frames are part of the story. There is also my serious spoon collection, now held in large two glass fronted spoon rakes on my wall in the dining room. I have a large print that was my mothers and a couple of small paintings I found at guild rummage sales or bazaars. I have decorative plates and framed family portraits in boxes but getting things hung has not been a priority when I moved into this house. Maybe I'll take it on now that I'm retired. Some day....
ReplyDeleteEverything that graces our walls have personal meaning to us and reflects who we are as individuals and as a couple. We have one original watercolor that we bought in Rockport when we were newly married and only had a vacuum cleaner and refrigerator to our name. That painting is very special to us along with the late artist who painted it. In a town full of art galleries that highlighted mainly seascapes finding this mountainside painting which reminded us of "Ruthie's Run" ski trail in Aspen, Colorado pulled us in like a magnet. It was meant to come home with us. I love still- life paintings so one of our kitchen walls has a still-life done in sepia-tone stone tiles which I never tire looking at daily even a decade later. We also have many rabbit sketches that are prints of originals done in the mid 1400's and early 1500's. The most well known one is called "Young Hare" by Albrecht Durer who was an artist from the 1500's. A print of Durer's "Young Hare" is hanging on one of our walls and is also decoupaged on an Annie Modica serving tray and children's stool. We even framed a Hannah Dale's "Hare-Brained" rabbit greeting card (Wrendale Designs) which hangs on my office wall. None of these items will ever end up at a Sotheby's auction...LOL...but they are" priceless" to us. (My late father's nickname for me from the age of two was Bunny...a tradition that my husband carries on.. so the rabbit theme running through our household is deeply personal.) One corner of our mud room we have devoted to our last two late family members, our cats Bo and HRH Leonora. A small bench with overstuffed pillows, reading lamp and overhead coatrack along with Bo and Le's photo and an Eric and Eloise wall mount called Eloise the Fox makes that area feel warm and inviting...just like our kitties always made us feel. Plus Eloise the Fox puts a spin on the whimsical as well as funny personalties our little family members always had...If you look up Eloise the Fox you will find that she is wearing a pair of eyeglasses with an eyewear chain. :-) Clearly we enjoy the "woodland theme" in our household. A.A. Milne's "You are stronger than you think" quote from Winnie the Pooh engraved in steel hangs on our dining room wall along with a small rock with the words "You Got This" that came from "Grace Trail" sits on a buffet table. (The history behind "Grace Trail" and its path of healing is very interesting.) Someone left this small rock on our front stairs five years ago when we were going through some very stressful circumstances medically and to this day we don't know who the thoughtful and kind stranger was who left it on our doorstep. We are, however, indebted to and grateful for their kindness and caring. That small rock will always remain on display. A.A. Milne's quote and the Grace Trail rock serves as a reminder that healing, prayer, determination and a group of supportive "warriors" can help one find courage as well as get over many hurdles in life. Lastly, my husband Rudi's photography is everywhere usually in sepia form which is my favorite photo color. They depict the alpha and omega of our nearly 50 years together. Photos of Rockport where we went on a first date represent the alpha and the fishing trawler sitting in Plymouth Harbor's fog as well as a street lantern is the omega. Two seaports tying the everything in-between of nearly a half century of who we are as a couple. It's clear by what everyone has shared on this day's blog all of our art choices reflect exactly who we are as individuals and our relationships with others and life in general.
ReplyDeleteIn 2024, we took our first cruise. Onboard the ship, my husband was fascinated by the art gallery and the bidding process. He took me to see some of the pieces, asking my opinion and likes/dislikes. He ended up buying four pieces and having them shipped to our house! So we now have actual numbered pieces of “real” art. Beyond those, we have one wall of signed Playbill posters that used to be sold in the lobby, pre-Covid, after the performance to raise money for Actors Equity Fights AIDS. They are all shows we saw in person (road shows and one on Broadway), signed by the cast we saw. Those are sentimental favorites. The rest of the house has a variety of different types of art, as described by so many of you as pieces that are important to us, but not necessarily expensive. — Pat S
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your art with us, Rhys. I can see why you love that picture of St. Michael's Mount. I started buying paintings and prints in my early twenties. I barely had any money, so they were works by complete unknowns--but I liked them! My husband and I have kept collecting art throughout our marriage. I also have framed posters from art exhibitions that I saw and loved in my twenties, prints from San Juan, PR, where I grew up, and art that belonged to my parents and has happy memories for me.
ReplyDeleteWe have various pieces of ‘art’ on the walls, most of which are of non-other-than sentimental value – kid’s art pieces, kid’s photography, a framed tea towel. Sadly most are faded by the sunlight of time. There is a Robert Bateman that we bought when we could not afford it as an “investment”, but we did like the picture. Probably worth the same thing now.
ReplyDeleteThere is an old oil painting – ugliest painting in the world – dark, dreary – but it turns out to be the property where my great Aunt and Uncle were billeted when he ‘needed recovery’ during the war (shell shock in the top brass). It turns out on looking up the artist that this property still exists as in the artwork – needs more research sometime…
I also have a sheep in the snow picture – nostalgia!
The piece that is the family favourite is a copy of September Morn – a first calendar girl. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_Morn I loved it when I saw it in an art gallery in 1969, and somehow my parents found out and bought it - $40.00 framed. The kids all have their name on the inheritance. It was a scandal at the time it was painted, and yet so relaxing.
Once when we were young and foolish and poor, I had a friend who was quite literally a starving artist. She wanted to buy a goat from us, and offered to paint me - nude, as an exchange. We needed food more than art, so I had to an - 'on-tick' deal for the goat in exchange and not the art. Her artwork was something between nudes and Andy Warhol.
ReplyDeleteI often wonder what it would have been like, and would I have liked it then or now...
Loved seeing your favorite art, Rhys, and hearing the stories behind them. The Gaugin! What a wonderful find.
ReplyDeleteJohn wanting a bigger house for more walls made me chuckle. We have so much inherited art, most of it lovely but not especially valuable, that when I was designing our house I rejected the architect's first interpretation. It was for an open floor plan that incorporated most of my ideas, but the lack of interior walls was a no-go. So glad we did not go that route for other reasons, too.
Steve's parents collected art on their travels, and we have done the same. Some of my personal favorites are the two tiny dot paintings by Aboriginal artists I bought in Sydney, a ceramic rendition of the Peruvian cross and two ceramic bulls from the Urubumba Valley, a charming little statue carved in ebony from Tanzania, soapstone carved and incised plates from Kenya, an icon of St. Barbara from the monasteries in Kalabaka in Greece. Next to my desk hangs a batik my mother-in-law bought in Indonesia, and in a china cabinet are the many soapstone carvings Steve's dad bought in the Yukon and Arctic in the 1960s.
Another tradition I have upheld from my in-laws, buying art from artist friends. Mostly miniatures or other small works, except for one friend, from whom I have bought several larger pieces. I also continued the tradition of collecting Charley Harper pieces, mostly prints. Charley was a very dear family friend, which makes them more precious to us.
I wish I had more wall space. Favorite pieces include one my best friend did for us custom about Casa Loma in Toronto. I have a few more pieces by her. I also have a print of the Caleta de San Juan I bought when I was there in 1995.
ReplyDeleteRhys, I enlarged your tea cups and viola! What a clever idea.
ReplyDeleteFavorite piece of art:: a 30”x40” photo of a newly hatched baby leather back turtle making its way across the sand to the ocean at sunrise. Elisabeth
ReplyDeleteI ran out of walls too. I've a couple of paintings Mom did. I've some numbered prints. Some originals. Posters I liked from art museum exhibits. A Blue Dog Absolut ad from a magazine I framed. Love that Blue Dog! I haven't hung up near as many family photos as I did in our Houston home. I don't have that long staircase anymore.
ReplyDeleteI love art on my walls and some on small easels. What I love most is the art that brings a memory of buying it. Oh, and the art that is framed, I gladly spend money to have it framed by those who know what they're doing. Although, it is nice when you can buy a piece that's already well-framed. I also love local artists and their works. For example, in the local artist ones, I think my favorite is the original work of an artist I bought in a candle-making shop (with art for sale on the walls) when I was with Kevin and his girlfriend in Bowling Green, KY. We'd go visit that shop a lot together. Anyway, the art I bought was a rather large canvas piece of a pear. Oh, what that artist could do with a pear and its surroundings. It is a textured piece, too, reminding me of my great love Van Gogh. I also have art by an artist from my hometown. I have some wonderful woodcutting pieces (prints are carved and inked by hand – printed with an old fashioned hand cranked press) from him, favorite being a view of my hometown, but I also love several prints featuring goats that I've bought. I'm a fan of whimsical art, too. Then there are the art prints I bought in D.C. at the National Gallery of Art when a particular artist's work was on exhibit. I have a Diego Rivera, Picasso, Romare Bearden, Frederic Remington (gifted that one to my daughter), and Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre. I bought my son "Night Cafe with Pool Table" by Vincent van Gogh and me "The Yellow Books (Parisian Novels)" also by Van Gogh. These National Gallery pieces are all prints, but I had them framed beautifully to match the beauty of the works. I have a large print of The Canterbury Tales (an obsession of mine) that I had the company where I bought it online frame, and I was really pleased with the result. In Kevin's room, which he would have taken with him someday, along with the Van Gogh pool painting, is a very large framed print by Gustave Dore depicting Don Quixote in his study, overwhelmed by chivalric tales, illustrating Cervantes' opening chapter where the protagonist's obsession with knightly romance leads him to madness, blurring reality and fantasy as he prepares for adventures, a classic scene captured (the characters surround him as he's sitting in his study, let loose by his imagination). I have a favorite Key West painting, but not of Key West, by a local Key West artist of a woman reading a book. And, I love my WPA Reading Reproduction Poster (the government program Works Progress Administration commissioned a series of reading posters between the late 1930s and early 1940s) that is the "October A Good Time to Read." OK, I'm going to stop, although there are some pictures from my artistic sister and my grandmother's sister that are special, too.
ReplyDeleteOh, I love this. I grew up with artists so I can imagine a home without it. Every summer, I took the Hooligans to the museums in Phoenix and their assignment was always to pick their favorite piece of art and then explain why. Loved those days.
ReplyDeleteI grew up with original art on the walls so I have gravitated that direction. I know or knew most of the artists that have done the pieces I own. The one exception is a lovely piece I purchased in London at Liberty in the oriental department. It is a Japanese woodcut of a cat wearing a kimono on a kimono. I love it and happen to adore cats. The first major piece I got was by a dear friend in NYC that I went to Parson's with. It is a large nude that he painted at The Art Student's League. That was in 1962, ancient history.
ReplyDelete