Autumn Colours

Sometimes a painting perfectly encapsulates the mood and palette of a time and place. Skyscape #1 by Mike Smalley is a moment in late November in Ontario. It’s a beautiful palette - warm and cool, delicate and intense. This living room is put together with natural materials and a largely neutral colour scheme. It’s simple but classic and a room one won’t tire of.

As well as Skyline #1, this photograph, November, by Dieter Hessel is another atmospheric image very at home in this room. Materials are repeated - the pale wood of the floor, lamp and coffee table and the leather of sofa, chair and pouf. Accessories should be classic in design and have some visual heft like this glass vase from Design Within Reach. The main wall colour is a warm neutral Heartsmere by Benjamin Moore.
Accent walls painted with Ebony Slate or Prairie Lily, both by Benjamin Moore, would be graphic but not overpowering. A modern, hanging fireplace would be the ultimate finishing touch.

Roman Holiday - Neutrals & Terracotta

Spring is taking, as usual, a series of halting back and forth steps toward good weather. We’re all longing for the outside life and Rome epitomizes that life. Romans live their lives outside. It is a city of warm stone and beautiful weather. Pantheon Piazza by Dieter Hessel is a beautiful image of a beautiful corner of Rome built around this iconic building that is 2000 years old. The second photograph, Stone Tracks, also by Dieter Hessel is a strong stone abstract that compliments the almost delicate image of the Pantheon.

The city’s colours are a wonderful palette for a living room. The colours in the photographs are a good place to start- pale clay, deep terra-cotta, the warm white of pale stone, grey-brown and charcoal. These are all colours of natural materials and all are very comfortable and classic. Terrazzo tile, a wool area rug, a warm white sofa and walnut sideboard and coffee table are the room’s basic elements. An accent wall painted in a soft but vivid terra-cotta, a floor lamp with a pale wood shade and colourful side chairs with character give the room punch. Accessories should be simple but beautiful like this Paté de Verre Bowl by Toronto artist Shay Salehi.

This living room is one that will endure. Natural materials and colours and clean and uncluttered elements make a warm and relaxing environment - a holiday retreat.

Hot Pink & Sky Blue 2021

It’s been almost a year of a world where things almost couldn’t be worse. We’ve all had our fill of the sombre and serious. In 2021 let’s put colour and fun back into the world in general and our homes in particular.

The pairing of pink and blue has challenges but this painting by Mike Smalley, Untitled #20-32, is an excellent place to start. The painting uses hot pink and sky blue with dazzling clarity and the scene is washed with the light of a bright summer afternoon. The sky is that perfect blue. Colours are all fresh and vibrant and blacks are real black. A large photograph such as Dieter Hessel’s Sugar Beach in Snow would look wonderful on another wall perhaps over the media unit.

A room built around this painting works well if the walls, floor and largest pieces of furniture are white or pale grey. The floor could be painted white or if wood, stained pale grey. A graphic wallpaper like the oversized dot pattern shown adds visual interest but doesn’t detract from the art work. Have fun with chairs. Choose vibrant colours and unexpected shapes that echo shapes in the painting. Be playful in choosing lamps and accessories and an unusual area carpet is a joy forever.

The Graphic (and Fun) Kitchen

A kitchen should be fun. It should be full of colour, graphic art and light. It needs to be a comfortable place to cook and entertain. It’s the room that suits bright and zany prints and posters. A very large print of Spatula City by Matt Daley is perfect. It would look great against a tomato red accent wall and still very strong on a white wall. Three photographic prints by Dieter Hessel which could be grouped in various ways - Chilies, Lemons in a View Camera and Garlic - are equally vibrant and graphic. The main walls and floor can be white or very pale. Patterns should be simple and linear. Furniture, carpet (indoor/outdoor) and lighting can be colourful and inexpensive.

Yellow and Grey and Art to Wake Up To

Yellow and grey are always a quietly elegant combination. This room is designed around a watercolour #17-109 by Mike Smalley. It’s the kind of painting that you love to look at while drinking your coffee in the morning especially in midwinter. It’s sunshine, Brazilian jazz and blue sky. The work is sophisticated and luminous and requires a setting that allows it to shine. Dieter Hessel’s photograph Naples Pier is a perfect foil.

These colours, finishes and furniture really suit a studio apartment where space is at a premium and too much colour and pattern would take up a lot of visual space. Warm white, grey and black are the base colours with accent colours taken from the watercolour. The furniture is light and modern with clean lines. Patterns are graphic but quiet and colour is used with a light touch . An accent wall hung with a subtly patterned wallpaper adds visual interest.

Red & Blue (Movie Buffs)

I think red and blue is a difficult pairing to work with because of all the associations connected with it such as flags and sports teams! The combination is already so weighted with meaning. However, if you start with a movie poster like Mon Oncle by Matt Daley you make it your own. I’ve added a great photograph, At the ATM, by Steven Evans and a punchy collage, Untitled 16-121A by Mike Smalley creating a dynamic group that won’t remind anyone of a flag, I love a sofa to match the colour of the wall behind it. It creates a movie theatre vibe. The other walls in the room would look great painted a pale, warm gray such as Benjamin Moore Athena #858.

Almost Black

It’s dizzying how many wonderful interiors are inspired by great art. Andrew Cripps’ painting Placing the Tiles in the Proper Order and Mike Smalley’s Untitled collage look fabulous on a black or almost black wall. Almost black can be powerful as an accent wall but needs strong and graphic artwork to be successful.

Blues & Neutrals.

Andre Cripps’ painting New Forest is a large, abstract and fabulous cityscape that would look very comfortable in a modern space with large windows and lots of light. It would be ideal if spaces are designed around art. We buy art we love and that’s an excellent starting point for interior design.

The painting is mainly blue, black and white. Pale wood floors , off-white walls and a deep blue accent wall to pop the painting would be ideal. Mike Smalley’s two Untitled watercolours would be very effective elsewhere in the room.

Furniture should have clean but interesting lines. The colour of lamps chairs and accessories can provide pops of colour but sparingly - less is more. I think an ideal environment would be a downtown high-rise with wide-ranging views of the city. Perfect.

The Beach Palette

Mike Smalley has a really beautiful group of four Untitled oil and graphite on linen paintings. They need to be seen in the gallery to appreciate the texture of the linen and the perfection of the combination of colours. The deeper colours and graphite drawing add drama and contrast. They evoke all the beautiful beaches everyone loves and inspire a serene palette for a living or bedroom. A wonderful black and white photograph like Decaying house in the meadow near Waterman’s Head by Steven Evans works really well with the paintings. Less is more in a room like this and there is no reason to compete with the art with complex prints or strong colour. A room like this is a place to get away from noise of every kind.

Electric Combination - Orange and Blue

Orange and, in this case, electric blue is a combination that is youthful and sporty. It’s active - the colours vibrate. It’s another duo that needs to be balanced with neutrals - white, black and gray. Neutrals should dominate in the room and the colour provided mainly by art and accessories.

Samara Shuter’s Music That Henry Made, is an exciting work that encapsulates the character of the
orange/blue combination. It’s active and electric, graphic and youthful. It would work very well with Mike Smalley’s dynamic orange abstract and Dieter Hessel’s photograph Giant Wheel.

The Colour Wheel

Travelogue by Matthew Giffin uses all the colours of the colour wheel - primary and secondary- and the effect is playful, dynamic and sophisticated. All the colours are used in perfect proportion. Such a strong work is balanced by two wonderful photographs by Dieter Hessel. One is Zipper which is echoes some of the motifs and colours in Travelogue and the other is Flatiron which refers back to the abstract cityscapes the painting.

This is not a colour palette for the faint of heart. The other elements in the room need to defer to the artwork. Major furniture pieces and carpets should be quieter in colour. Decorative elements can be more vivid but graphic in shape and unfussy. White walls are the best backdrop. Glass and lighting designs by Ettore Sottsass look really at home with everything else.

The Joyful Duo - Yellow and Pink

The combination of yellow and pink has always been a favourite of mine. It’s playful, sophisticated and graphic.
It’s expressive of joy and exuberance but can be edgy. It’s a favourite of fashion designers but not inherently feminine. These colours work especially well with white and black in interiors both modern and traditional.
You don’t need a lot of this combination to make a room exciting and art is a wonderful way to bring it into
your space.

Mike Smalley has created a stunning pastel which would be dazzling in any room. It is a beautiful abstract about colour and texture and has the luminosity that the pure pigment of pastels can achieve. This work would partner beautifully with two photographs by Dieter Hessel. Lemons in a View Camera (yellow, black and white) and Sugar Beach in Fog (pink, pale sand and dark gray). These wonderful photographs, one soft and one graphic, are perfect foils for the pastel and would bring any room to life.