Overcast

While it's warmed up a bit, every day seems to be cloudy with a chance of rain. But that can be quite beautiful...

Benjamin Moore's Bear Creak 1470

Benjamin Moore's Gravtint 1611

Benjamin's Moore's Stone Harbor 2111-50

Donald Kaufman Color Collection's DKC-8

A Peek Inside

Even though it's beautiful outside and the tress are finally beginning to bud, we look inside today at our upstairs keeping room in New Hampshire. Our hunt has been amazingly rewarding the past few weeks and we've picked up pieces whose palette, patina and evidence of hand compliment our 19th century home...while still feeling fresh and modern. We're so excited about how it's coming together that we wanted to share some of our favorite finds...

19th century grain painted cupboard in blue paint, hand woven Shaker rug

Pennsylvania red painted blanket chest ca. 1800

Oil on canvas portrait of a woman, 19th century, alongside two mid-century vessels

18th century shoe forms, early bee skep and wallpapered box

Shoe form detail

Shadows against a rope chaise from 1810 in red paint

Structural

We had started a small collection of vintage wire baskets- the idea has been to hang them on the wall in our keeping room, celebrating their utilitarian beginnings while abstracting the forms, playing with light as it hits the structure. This weekend, as we installed the baskets, Martin Puryear and Terry Winters came to mind. Perpetual favorites, their work seems essential to us- grids and structures that seem organically engineered for the sake of art alone. Somehow, they provide aesthetic insight into infrastructures and composites that me may otherwise take for granted.

Wall baskets, NH

[1]

Martin Puryear, Greed's Trophy via MOMA PS 1

Terry Winters work via Findartinfo.com

[3]

Martin Puryear structure via The Best Time of Day

[4]

Terry Winters, Album #2 from The Tate collection

[5]

Terry Winters, Good Government at The Whitney Museum

[6]

Leprechauns on Clouds

From chippy paint that's seen winter's wrath, to mossy trees and stones desperate to show-off a new spring, we're welcomed each weekend in New Hampshire by lovely shades of green and white. Today we bring the outside in with some inspiration for our New England home...

Vintage chaise underneath green stairs via Remodelista, photographed by Ditte Isager

Grouping of art and antique mirrors via Lonny

Flowing whites photographed by Anna G Tufvesson, via emmas design blog

Something Exquisite

Helen Carnac enamels via Thinking Through Things

Roger Ballen, Ape Skull

Terri Brooks, Beige with Black Dots

There is something exquisite about the works of Roger Ballen, Helen Carnac and Terri Brooks. We grouped them, using some kind of aesthetic association, because they all are very human in process and markings--gestural and rhythmic, referencing both growth and decay.

Roger Ballen, Funeral Rites via Kamel Mennour

Helen Carnac's vitreous enamel on steel

Terri Brooks, Orange and White

Helen Carnac, Each Other

Roger Ballen, Configuration

Terri Brooks, Grey Pencil

19th Century Portraiture

Portrait of R.F. Jameson, 1846, from Dennis A. Waters via The Magazine Antiques

We love 19th century itinerate American portrait painting and have begun exploring it's rival of the time: daguerreotypes. Both offer a link to our past, a face-to-face interaction with those whose footsteps we walk in. Look beyond the hairstyles and clothes, into the eyes of the sitters, and you'll know the people in them.

19th Century portrait at Forsythe's Auctions

Unattributed Man with Light Hair circa 1840 from Dennis A. Waters, Fine Daguerreotypes

Ammi Phillips, Portrait of a Man, circa 1835 via Samuel Herrup Antiques

Robert Cornelius, Intense Teen with Grey Backdrop circa 1839 at Dennis A. Waters

Sheldon Peck, Portrait of a Man circa 1828 at MFA Boston

19th Century daguerreotype at Dennis A. Waters

Ammi Phillips, Gentleman in Black Coat at the Table with Two Books at Sothebys

Ammi Phillips, A Lady in Eyelet Collar and Cuffs at Sothebys

Southworth and Hawes, Unidentified Child circa 1852 via Eastman Photostream on Flickr

Ammi Phillips, Portrait of a Young Girl in Light Brown Dress holding Spray of Pinks via Wahoo

Southworth and Hawes, Ellen B. Bacon circa 1852

Ammi Phillips, Portrait of Jeannette Payne circa 1841 via The Athenaeum