This is my little mantlepiece installation of found branches. The large stick (a beach find) has been propped up there for a while now. I recently added the other three specimens, plucked from my handy plate of natural objets. What do you think? I was inspired by the many examples of branch art incorporated into the decor and outdoor living environments at Hidden Pond in Kennebunkport, Maine. (Yes, I am a bit obsessed with Hidden Pond.)
The mantle in our house on Cape Cod.
Trees, branches, twigs, bark, logs, and natural wood slabs are used all over the grounds of Hidden Pond, in many different ways, both decorative and functional, from decorative applications, to partitions to furniture. I’ve included some decorative applications here.
Krista Stokes, Kennebunkport Resort Company’s interior designer (the company owns Hidden Pond a handful of other equally charming properties in town), commissioned the work in 2011. She and artist Tim Coppinger gathered most of the pieces that are scattered throughout Hidden Pond from the surrounding woods. For the outdoor showers and exterior accents, they spent two weeks collecting and strategizing and another two weeks playing with all of their foraged materials in the cabins and bungalows.
When Stokes met Coppinger, he was living in a yurt in the woods not that far away from there. She says, “He’s an amazing creative thinker and he has been making sculpture from found objects for years. He’s the real deal” Coppinger also installed an oyster shell wall and built the slate and rock headboard in the “Lazy Days” bungalow at Hidden Pond.
Some branch art at Hidden Pond:
At the tree spa—a birch log on the top of the railing and a swoop of branches on the building.
At the gym—a bark sculpture that resembles a skull.
At Earth restaurant—a real branch chandelier and log installation.
A branch as decoration on the exterior of a building, above a birch rail.
The shower outside the room I stayed in—a a plaque of short sticks on the far wall, a tree trunk in the corner, and a branch attached to the top of the near wall.
All photos by Marni Elyse Katz for StyleCarrot
