ARTmonday: Adorable Plant Watercolors by Lindsay Gardner

Since we’re all crazy for cacti these days, I’ll share artist Lindsay Gardner‘s plant artwork. I stumbled across them a couple of months ago and thought they were so cute that I purchased one. I had her send it directly to Florida (I  like to have a little present awaiting each time I arrive). It’s just as lovely in person; more so, since you can see the varying colorations of the watercolors. It’s taped up to the wall in its plastic sheath at the moment, but I hope to bring it to the framer today.

Lindsay Gardner works primarily in watercolor because, she says, “It requires a delicate balance of control and spontaneity, often producing unexpected colors and forms what are both precise and imperfect.”  Her work is inspired by colors and shapes she finds in nature (and actual nature in this case)  and architecture, geometric patterns, woven and knitted textiles, eating and cooking, seasons and how they impact our customs and traditions, and family history.

Gardner grew up in West Michigan, attended Middlebury College where she studied art and literature, and now lives in Oakland, California. These are a few of her plant watercolors that depict cacti and succulents in colorful planters and those on-trend geo terrariums.

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Cactus Planters

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Succulent No. 2

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Clay Planters

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Rare Specimen

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Terrarium No. 2

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The Collector’s Table

Lindsay Gardner Succulents In StyleCarrot's Condo

Three Plants taped to my wall. 

Images courtesy of Lindsay Gardner

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ARTmonday: Artwork for TroyBoston Model Apt #1409

I love when I have the opportunity in my work to showcase local Boston artists and makers. For the last couple of months I’ve been working on a interior decor scheme for a model apartment at Troy Boston, a brand new, upscale, “green” rental building in SoWa. It’s a little outside my usual scope of projects and it’s been fun. You may have seen the initial post I did about it, when I was determining the color scheme for the apartment—Impressions: Creating a Color Palette of Charcoal + Dusty Rose. The final palette is indeed based on this post, with plenty of textural elements, including velvet, sheepskin, cork, plywood, and copper.

The best part has been curating the artwork. The art collection is the distinctive feature of the overall design and I hope people will view it as an exhibition rather than mere decoration. The pieces, which include paintings, photographs, sculpture, and mixed media pieces, are all done by New England-based female artists. Some of these Boston artists are  talented friends (Lee Essex Doyle, Tess Atkinson, Grace Hopkins),  others are young artists whose pieces I’ve purchased over the years at the SMFA Art Sale (Laura Beth Reese, Eugenie Lewalski Berg), others are artists I’ve become familiar with through blogging (Cig Harvey, Alicia Savage, Anastasia Cazabon, Anna Kasabian, Rachel Cossar, Winky Lewis, Jenny Prinn), and others are Boston artists who are new to me  (Heather McGrath, Linda Cordner).

I knew from the start that I wanted to include a statement artwork of a partially obscured woman; a moody fashion-y photograph of an elusive woman. I was able to get a few, though no oversize pieces due to the prohibitive cost of printing. Nevertheless I think the collection will hold together well. At the end of this post, you can see my current hanging scheme for the main wall, and for over the bed. I also plan to print a few of my own Instagram photos to pin or (washi) tape up.

Here I present to you the Troy Boston Model Apt #1409 art collection featuring over a dozen Boston area artists.  I hope you love it and will learn more about these talented women, all of whom have generously lent me their artwork.

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Alicia Savage
 self-portrait  •  Panopticon Gallery
Fort Point, Boston, MA

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Laura Beth Reese  •  self-portrait from Nude series
Boston, MA

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Cig Harvey, MidCoast Maine
The Goldfinch  •  Robert Klein Gallery

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Anastasia Cazabon  •  From the Secret World series
Boston, MA

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Grace Hopkins  •  CA01
Color photograph on canvas
Truro, Cape Cod, MA

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Grace Hopkins  •  Nassau06
Color photograph on canvas
Truro, Cape Cod, MA

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Grace Hopkins  •  LA45
Color photograph on canvas
Truro, Cape Cod, MA

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Rachel Cossar  •  Tights
Instagram photograph backstage
Ballerina, Boston Ballet  •  Boston, MA

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Lee Essex Doyle, Boston, MA
Prada I Orange  •  Childs Gallery  •   Watercolor and ink

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Winky Lewis, Portland, ME
Black and white photo of the artist’s daughter

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Eugenie Lewalski Berg  •   Six Couples
Cast concrete relief with graphite and oil pastel
Boston, MA

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Linda Cordner  •  Bayside Sky  •  encaustic
Linda Cordner created this large encaustic for the apartment after seeing my color palette inspiration post.
SoWa, Boston, MA

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Tess Atkinson  •  Vista Series
Color photograph face-mounted on plexiglass
Boston, MA

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Heather McGrath  •  Sunset in Iceland
Color photograph printed on sheet metal
SoWa, Boston, MA

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Anna Kasabian, North Shore, MA
Tide Pool III   •  stoneware
This many not be the exact piece that will hang. Anna Kasabian is lending me three pieces, which I will see when she drops them off next week.

jenny prinn

Jenny Prinn, Maine
Little Footsteps I  •  Oil on canvas
This is not the exact canvas I’ll be hanging. Jenny Prinn has graciously offered to paint an original work for the project.

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Main art wall
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Art over the bed
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ARTmonday: Cig Harvey’s Gardening at Night

Maine-based photographer Cig Harvey‘s new book Gardening at Night is both a visual and literary treat. The poetic prose that weaves through the book accompanying her dreamlike photographs is as magical as the images themselves.

A former photography teacher and city dweller, and current mother and Midcoast Mainer, Cig Harvey is represented in Boston by the Robert Klein Gallery on Newbury Street, where the Gardening at Night exhibition is on display through June 13.

I blogged about Cig Harvey’s photographs last March, when I first discovered them through Artsy. I’ve since connected with her and count her among my favorites. I am excited to be displaying “The Goldfinch” in the model apartment I am decorating at Troy Boston this spring. Many thanks to Cig and Maja at Robert Klein for making that happen.

Here is a sampling of images straight from the pages of Harvey’s book, and a quick shot from the gallery too. (Cig, if you see this, I am sorry to have missed you at the opening!)

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Fine Art Photo Book By New England Photographer Cig Harvey

Gardening at Night  •  Cig Harvey

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“Gardening at Night” on view in Boston through June 13
Robert Klein Gallery

ARTmonday: Sarah Lutz’s Marine Inspired Artwork

My mother-in-law introduced me to the fanciful marine-inspired art of New York City artist Sarah Lutz when over Thanksgiving 2012 she brought me to the the Miranda Arts Project Space to see the installation Interplay, a collaborative work by Beth Dary and Sarah Lutz. This marine-inspired art installation mapped out the sea levels of Port Chester, New York waterways—past, present, and future—using sculpture, painting, drawing, and collage. I loved it; the overall concept and look, and the close-in details. (You can see my blog post about it here.)

I’ve since met Sarah Lutz on the Cape, where she spends summers, and have been tempted by her pieces at Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill. Her current exhibition Tales from the Garden . . . And Other Mythologies is currently on display the Mercy Gallery at the Loomis Chaffee School, where Lutz is an alum. The scale of the pieces is much larger, thanks to the freedom she found in her new, larger studio. 

Here is a mix of work Sarah Lutz’s show at Loomis Chaffee, as well as the marine-inspired art of hers displayed in my living room.

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Origin  |  Rapture

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Urchin, 2013

sarah-lutz-2013-inlet

Inlet, 2013

sarah-lutz-2014-boardwalk

Boardwalk, 2014

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Fissure (Mint Balls), 2014

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Aegean Cluster, 2012

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Sidewalk Series No. 2

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 County Fair, 2012

sarah-lutz-2012-coyaba

Coyaba, 2012

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Hanging Garden Series X, 2013

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Cenote Series No. 6

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Pan’s Reverie No. 1

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Surge Series 2
in collaboration with Beth Dary

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Surge Series 10
Sarah Lutz + Beth Dary

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Surge Series 1o on the shelf in my living room.

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Mercy Gallery at Loomis Chaffee School

ARTmonday: Asia Kepke’s Self Portraits With Mannequin

Boston-based photographer Asia Kepke is a former model with a great sense of humor. Her series “Bridget and I” are self portraits starring a mannequin (Bridget, I presume) in all sorts of environments, indoors and out. She shot them over the course of ten years with a 4×5 camera (with the exception of the water images).

I discovered Asia Kepke’s self portraits at the SMFA Sale 2013, when I had one of her mannequin photographs in my hand, but ultimately didn’t buy it. (I now wish I had.) She also has a series of humans wearing horse and squirrel masks, but I will feature those another time. For now, let’s enjoy her journey with Bridget.

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asia-kepka-bridget-and-i-crumbling-bathroom

asia-kepka-bridget-and-i-hospital-bed

asia-kepka--on-the-bed

asia-kepka-green-door

asia-kepka-on-a-footbridge

asia-kepka-in-the-pool

asia-kepka-in-the-garden

Images courtesy of the artist.