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:
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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.)
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(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