. . . interrupted the collages

to showcase some art that I've seen recently. The picture above is a detail of the centerpiece of the family room in the HGTV's house give-away. The television was on New Year's Day and I was doing something else but kind of listening to it. The host kept referring to modern art juxtaposed with traditional furnishings. That piqued my interest, so I searched the HGTV site and found these for your review. The house is in the Sonoma area of California. Nice.






Here is the room in its entirety. The painting is "On Being Mortal, Part One" by Anthony May. "Tucked away in a far corner of the home and overlooking the back porch and courtyard, the family room demands attention, not only for the choice of retro furnishings and a formal gas fireplace but for the room’s focal point; it’s an eye-popping piece of modern art Dream Home house planner Jack Thomasson and interior designer Linda Woodrum discovered in San Francisco. “We always knew coming in the front door that the space above the fireplace was the big WOW of the home, so we really had to find the perfect piece of art to bring it all together and make it work,” Linda explains. "

My favorite design magazine is "House Beautiful." This month, one of the homes featured, also in California, showed this bull's-eye by artist Michael Ives; the white sculptures are Jean-Paul van Lith; and the horsehair shaman's hats are from Mali. Not everyone has access to those shaman hats, so you'll just have to improvise if you're going to copy. One feature I love in the magazine is home designers sharing their favorite colors. This month it was pink, not a color I would use anywhere but in Betsy's room. Another feature is "Instant Room" . . . they show you a bunch of furniture and fabrics and walk you through choosing a combination of these by telling you to "start here", then "add one from this category" (accents), then "add two from this category" (upholstery), and boom, you're done. Theoretically.