At the used furniture store where I bought the Victorian cat postcards I also bought three pictures, which I will first show all together in a chair so you can get an idea of scale:
Left to right they are: “the street one,” “the bunny one,” “the twins one” |
The street one is the first one I chose. It reminded me of the kind of picture my Aunt Debbie would find and then I would covet it and marvel at her ability to find something wonderful that I would have overlooked. Here’s a closer look at one corner, to show the style of drawing, the signature/date (looks like “Ammons 1963”), and the frame:
Here is a closer look at the tiny bunny one, and of the new cat who is attention-seeking and couldn’t stand that these STUPID PICTURES were getting attention when he wasn’t:
It’s tiny, and looks like someone was practicing framing her own art. The bunny might be stamped or might be drawn (or maybe stamped and then hand-colored?), and it’s on a fuzzy fabric (under glass)—like black velvet, but WHITE. (I just looked this up and it might be something called “Theorem Painting.”) The name on it is Jean Henry.
I dithered most over the third one, because I don’t usually acquire sentimental art of children. This one, though, reminded me of my twins: even their relative postures reminded me of Edward and Elizabeth. Here’s a close-up of just the kids in the picture:
And I liked the frame a lot, too. So I took a chance on it, and I’m glad I did. The label on the back says it’s called “Summer Swing”; I looked it up and it’s by Richard Judson Zolan, and it was apparently sold at Meijer, among other places, because that’s the exact frame.
I have found that if I bring home new wall art, I need to put it up immediately or else it will get dusty in a dither pile. The first one to go up was the tiny bunny, which I put on a tiny slice of wall between two doorways:
Next I put up the twins one, next to my desk, between my framed 1940s fairy tale print and my endearingly-tacky decoupaged kitten that William brought home from a yard sale and insisted on having up on the wall. The new picture takes two sets of hung-up stuff and makes them into one set:
And finally the street one, which required a little more thought because I couldn’t find a single place it looked right, except for with some other pictures, where it looked like it was BORN TO LIVE—but there was no room for it in that group. So I took a picture out of the group, and put the new one in instead:
The super satisfying part about this is that the tree picture I took out was a place-holder, put there because the picture that used to be there needs to be repaired. So I replaced the tree picture with the street picture, and I put the TREE picture in an incomplete arrangement ELSEWHERE. This arrangement wasn’t up when I bought the tree picture, and it’s WAY BETTER now that it has it! (It was too vertical before, and I was keeping my eyes out for another black-framed item.) (The round one is a mirror, and usually reflects white wall or light window or my earrings as they’re being put into my ears, so the effect is not usually so dark.)
(Looks even better when not “diagonal to avoid glass-glare”) |
I’m so pleased!
You’ve inspired me. I need to stop piling up things for my gallery wall. I need to just hang them up already! Your walls are lovely with all of your art hung up, thanks for sharing the pictures!
I love the pictures and I love the arrangements in which they now live! So pretty! I want to be someone who is as good as you are at finding lovely little paintings and drawings. How does one BECOME that sort of person?
I really do see Elizabeth in the twins one! Great finds.
I can’t choose which one I love mostest.
I am completely envious of that street picture.
You should be pleased, it looks fantastic.
I am just envious of your supernatural ability to get your pictures actually hung up on the wall. We have serious problems in that department.
I would be too! I love your choices and your wall colors. :)
Ahh! This post makes me so nervous!! You make it look so simple and the end results look so GOOD! We’ve been in this house about 3 months now and I have pictures SITTING on the floor, right below where I WANT to hang them. But I just can’t. I’m terrified to put holes in the walls and I don’t know which height, if the arrangement will look good, if I’ll regret the placement later, or if I’ll just do it all wrong and it’ll fall and rip a big hole in the wall and my pictures will fall and break.
As you can see, I have picture hanging anxiety. haha