This job is a great example of something we do a lot of - hanging pictures which appear to be at "eye level" but are actually way up high in a stairwell. Our client had a kitchen counter with a staircase hidden behind it, and a great big empty wall over the stairs. Naturally he wanted to fill the empty space with a few big pieces of art, but how do you get such a big piece so high up on the wall without risking life and limb? Well, you call us, and we bring our special adjustable stairwell ladder along with our extendable scaffold board. It still feels a little risky when you look down from the walk board, so we're very careful, and we work in a team for safety. As a matter of fact, the ladders themselves can be fairly dangerous if you don't know how to use them... they can break your fingers if you don't know how to close them the right way. That's why this particular job is best left to the pros. We actually ended up hanging three pieces over the staircase. The last one was a Peter Max piece which added a little punch of pink. The big pieces were painted by noted folk artist William Tolliver. His biography from invaluable.com is interesting: Notable African-American artist William Tolliver was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1951. Though he lacked formal education and grew up impoverished, he went on to teach himself art through books he found in the library and those brought to him by his mother. His mother, who loved to draw, encouraged his painting after she noticed his talent. Using inexpensive oil pastels and watercolor sets, painter William Tolliver recreated his everyday environment growing up in Mississippi. Notice that both images include a pot-bellied wood stove. It reminds me of the way the local Appalachian convenience stores in the mountains near Asheville will still sometimes have a woodstove for the old men to hang out around in winter time, and pick out a tune and retell old jokes. While we were there, our client also had us install this picture in the main bedroom. If you peer through the swoops of color, you might recognize a piece of the downtown Asheville skyline. Big prints like this can be tough to hang by yourself, especially when you're maneuvering around a bed like this. That's another great reason it's helpful to have us around.
If you've got a piece of art that you really love, but you're concerned about safely hanging it, it's probably time to call in the pros. We're in the busy season as everyone buys homes and moves in, but I've popped in to show you this beautiful gallery wall which we recently re-hung after the homeowner had her den painted. (I can't take credit for the layout - we didn't even move the hangers - but she wanted someone to safely handle the larger pieces for her.) I only got one good photo, but look at this blue! It's even better in person - it looks like cloisonne enamel. And before you ask, the brand was Benjamin Moore, but sadly I don't know the name of the color. The homeowner painted all of these pieces herself, so she certainly has an eye for color. It's not often that we see homes with so many saturated tones like this. It takes more skill to pull off, but it's definitely worth it in the end.
I think another reason this brilliant blue works so well is that it's used in a fairly dark room with a very low ceiling. When you have a shadowy room like this, sometimes the best choice is to embrace it and go with a dark, bold tone. If you're having your home repainted and you need someone to safely take down and rehang your collection, please get in touch. We'll be happy to help. English Country style interior decor is coming into vogue again - although really the question is, can such a timeless style ever go out of fashion? We recently helped a client move into his new Asheville home and install a delightful collection that recalled all of the best of the European art techniques... including one very fine piece by a well-known painter from China who works in the classical Western style. But first, a delightful painting of a pair of boats in a far-away harbor. What a wonderful sense of light. We recently bought a boat ourselves, so this made us positively yearn for warm summer days on the local lakes. Speaking of the arrival of Spring, how about a captivating Impressionist bouquet? But wait, there's more! When we turned over the picture to measure the height of the wire, we discovered a hidden portrait on the reverse side of the canvas. Which do you like best? I think I could happily live with either picture - although maybe the portrait is better suited to a more severe style of decor. Our client was downsizing from a much larger home, which is really common for the many retirees who are moving to Asheville. He had too many pictures and needed to get creative about finding spots for them all - but luckily the previous homeowner had installed art lights in the hallways. We were able to arrange lots of pieces in one of the corridors to make a long gallery-style layout that rewarded you for taking the journey to the furthest bedroom. Here's one of the many little gems we installed that day. Really wonderful brushwork and color, and a great view to see whenever you walked out the bedroom door. We hung so many pieces that I can't share them all, and it's so hard to choose which ones to show you. These two were very restful, with perfect color. And I never really appreciated how much a thoughtfully-chosen frame can add to an image. I'll close with the Chinese painter, Shang Ding, who I mentioned earlier. The homeowner had several of his pieces, but this was by far the most charming: a school of young ballerinas watching something that was happening off the canvas and out of our view. What a wonderful sense of mood and expression he captured! This to me is the mark of a great artist... he goes beyond the technical demands to infuse emotion and drama into his work, and gives a true human connection. The painting was really a joy to hang. If you're moving to Asheville (or just downsizing from a bigger home) and you need help curating your collection, please give us a call. We do this all the time, so we've got a knack for it.
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9:00 am to 5:00 pm, M-F 828-649-5242 Owner: Arthur Teel 113 Rector Branch Road Marshall, NC 28753 |