Art enriches our lives...there is no doubt about it!

I can't tell you how much I adore artwork and what it does for a space! I went art shopping this week with my client. He purchased these beautiful pieces for his office that Kimberlee Jaynes Interior Designs Inc. is designing. We tried them out in the space. They make all the difference!  My cleint said "I smile as soon as I walk in my office."  Now that's a good way to start the work day!

There is no doubt that art enriches our lives and makes an impact on our environment. The top piece is by Milton Wilson from Rod Pulliam Gallery and the pieces featured below the Milton Wilson  are by artist Jaq Chartier from Elizabeth Leach Gallery.

Now that we have chosen the art I can start the rest of the design process...choosing upholstery, drapery fabrics and wall colors etc. I like to start with art and then everything else falls into place. 

 Milton Wilson 86 x 67 oil on canvas

Milton Wilson Birthplace: Portland, OR Born: 1923 Died: 2004

Milton Wilson 1923 - 2004 "The athletic, boundary-pushing dynamism of abstract expressionism was perfectly suited  to Mr. Wilson's protean talent, and for a time he was considered one of the region's best painters, landing a solo show at the Portland Art Museum in 1973 and taking part in a famous 1974 exhibit, 'Art of the Pacific Northwest' at the Smithsonian Institution.Still, Mr. Wilson never stopped painting. Last year, his Portland dealer, the Pulliam Deffenbaugh Gallery, exhibited more than two dozen works from his art of the past 30 years. The show's movement, color and painterly virtuosity was a fitting testament to Mr. Wilson's restless talent and will to create." D. K. Row, The Oregonian, June 10, 2004   Milton Wilson's painting career has spanned five decades. His masterful grasp of abstract expressionism has earned him a place in the permanent collections of the Oakland Museum of Art, the Portland Art Museum, Reed College, University of Oregon, Yale University, and numerous corporate and private collections  Jaq Chartier Stain Lines (Browns), 2008 acrylic, stains, and spray paint on wood panel 24" (h) x 30" (w)

Photo from the artists studio

A few words from the artist Jaq Chartier:

"Each of my paintings begins as an actual "test" to explore some aspect of my materials – deeply  saturated inks, stains and dyes which migrate and seep through creamy white paint films and  layers of acrylic resin. Whereas traditional artist paints are formulated to be stable and controllable,  stains are capricious and easily affected by a number of factors. Even after years of study,  I'm still intrigued by the hidden chemistries of these materials. Inspired in part by scientific images of gel electrophoresis, the paintings feature intimate views  of materials and document how they react to each other, to light, and to the passage of time.  Some of the more complex paintings serve as reference guides in the studio, with many small  notations written directly on the surface to help me sort out the actual data contained there.  These notes are one of the physical forms that I use to display parallels between scientific and  artistic exploration. These paintings can be viewed as frozen moments in time when something occurred and was  captured in the acrylic film, like a bug in amber. They're also slow-motion performances,  gradually changing as the materials continue to interact on a microscopic level. Halos of  effusive color emerge where one component in a stain drifts away from it's moorings,  creating edges that hover. It's a type of color that suggests something outside of our ordinary,  everyday world. Beautiful, but also sort of bizarre – inflamed, infectious-looking, suggestive  of energies that we can't see." Jaq Chartier42 Reds,  2010acrylic, stains, and spray paint on wood panel 28" (h) x 36" (w) "Like most painters, I was educated to use archival materials and "proper" painting techniques,  and this practice was the original motivation behind my "sun test" series as a way of sorting  out fugitive materials from those that are light-fast. But instead of discarding such materials,  I've found myself attracted to them, drawn by the additionallayer of complexity that such  changes suggest, and by the very notion of impermanence. Whether the painting is large or small, you're meant to get up close. The lush matte surface  and blurry, out-of-focusquality bring further attention to the effort of looking. Repetition is  employed to compare & contrast, and to providesituations where unexpected mutations  might occur. The shape of a circle may gradually evolve into another form, or a line drift further  out than expected. I intentionally try to keep evidence of my own hand in the background  for the most part, preferring it look as if they were made the way that nature makes things."