Article 1: How to match your Art with your Interiors in 3 steps

Buy Art that you absolutely LOVE. When I was a little girl, my Dad would take me to museums and I grew up thinking of art as something beautiful and timeless.

So, when I think of buying or creating art I always ask myself will I still love this piece in 5 years, 10 years or longer? Is it timeless? Can I pass it down to future generations? And only then do I make a purchase decision.

Choosing the right Art for a space is like choosing the right shoes for a dress. It can make or break the look.

I was Design Director of a Real estate company for more than 10 years. I oversaw the design direction for various residential, hotel and commercial developments. My experience gives me a unique insight into creating the right look and vibe to a space by using the right elements like art.

As an artist I feel I can help people simplify the process of achieving a cohesive look to their interior space by sharing some simple tips.

Thinking about transforming your space with art is easy when using my ICS System:

Identify, Choose, Synchronize.

1. IDENTIFYyour location and mood. Where would I like to hang this painting? E.g Living room, bedroom, restaurant, hotel or office? Understanding this clearly makes it easier to narrow down the mood of the artworks to choose from.

For the home most people want to create a sophisticated, positive, serene, and elegant vibe. You do not want to be surrounded by art that feels angry, jarring or aggressive as it takes away from creating a peaceful mood you are trying to achieve at home. So softer colors, typically nature based themes, or soft abstracts do well in home settings.

Commercial and hotel spaces are are transitory in nature and so designers can choose strong, bold pieces of art that make a statement. As these can be experienced and enjoyed but not necessarily be lived in e.g. your sneakers versus your formal shoes.

2. CHOOSE the mood or vibe you want? Sophisticated and Polished? Serene and harmonius? Glamourous? Cheerful? Warm? Happy?

Using cool tones like grey, blue, violets, whites can make a place feel fresher and create a cool factor while using warm colors like yellow, orange, red can make a space cozier and more initimate.

Gaining a better understanding about some of the main color schemes will help a lot in narrowing down the best options for your space.

I’ve only chosen 3 out of the 7 color scheme styles in my blog so you have a reference to what I mean when I use the words monochromatic, analogous, or complementary.

Monchromatic: A Polished and Sophisticated vibe can be primarily achieved by using Monochromatic art works. Monochromatic color schemes use a single color with varying shades and tints to produce a consistent look and feel. Picasso’s Blue Series & Guernica, and my painting Cuts like a Knife are some examples of this style.

Reference Painting: Cuts like a knife

Analogous: A harmonius and serene vibe can be created by using analogous color schemes. These are formed by pairing one main color with the two colors directly next to it on the color wheel. Basically, when a painting appears serene, peaceful or harmonius – you are looking at an analogus color scheme E.g Famous painters that used it incredibly well were the great masters like Vincent Van Gogh (Irises in a vase, Olive trees), Monet (water lilly pond)

My painting Serenity is an example.

Painting Reference: Serenity

Painting Reference: Illuminate

Complementary: Statement creating art works are usually bold and use complementary color schemes. Paintings that are bold and bright and feel like they pop out normally fall under this category. Spaces that need that extra Oomph and Wow factor normally use this color scheme. A complementary color scheme is based on the use of two colors directly across from each other on the color wheel and relevant tints of those colors.. E.g Vincent Van Gogh (Self portrait), Picasso’s (Woman in striped armchair), Kandinsky (sea battle), Edward Munch (the scream), Monet’s (water lillies).

E.g My painting Bloom

Painting Reference Bloom

3. SYNCHRONIZE – the final piece of the puzzle!

Am I following the 60-30-10 rule that interior designers use? To do this and to get a final pulled together look evaluate your space and color scheme and evaluate whether

a. 60% of the space has one main color (e.g. wall/wallpaper/curtains/largest surface)

b. 30% of your space should be your second color (e.g. rugs, sofas, art) and

c. the last 10% for your accents ( pillows, vases, art, lamps, accessories)

Depending on how large a space you are devoting to your painting in relationship to your space - you need to know what category your painting falls under. In my experience, unless you have very large walls – most people have paintings that will be part of the 10% accent category.

In conclusion, choose your ART by:

1. Identifying the mood (polished, harmonius, glamourous) you want to set in a space

2. Choose the color schemes (mono, analog, complementary) based on the mood and

3. Synchronize with the 60/30/10 rule

As a bonus, I always try to add colors to my space by using pillows, throws, vases, flowers etc from the colors I see in the paintings – to create a cohesive an elegant look.

Monochromatic Elegant Look

Analogous Color Scheme

Complementary Color Scheme