I tried to paint what I saw…

From the Lake ~ Georgia O’Keeffe

“I tried to paint what I saw…I thought someone could tell me how to paint a landscape but I never found that person…I had to just settle down and try…they could tell you how they painted their landscape but they couldn’t tell me how to paint mine” ~ Georgia O’Keeffe

Storm Cloud, Lake George ~ Georgia O’Keeffe

Lake George (formerly Reflection Seascape) ~ Georgia O’Keeffe

Black Place II ~ Georgia O’Keeffe

Lake George Barns ~ Georgia O’Keeffe

Jack in the Pulpit No.V ~ Georgia O’Keeffe

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abiquiu, new mexico ~ georgia o’keeffe country

“When I got to New Mexico, that was mine…as soon as I saw it, that was my country…I had never seen anything like it before but it fitted to me exactly…it’s something that’s in the air…it’s just different…the sky is different…the stars are different…the wind is different” ~ Georgia O’Keeffe, age 92, from a video interview taken around her home in New Mexico

July 1981 ~ Georgia O’Keeffe’s home and studio in Abiquiu, New Mexico…photography by Mary E. Nichols for Architectural Digest

Georgia O’Keeffe ~ 94 years old, July 1981

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golden yellow

Wishing you a glorious weekend filled with shades of golden yellow!

Green, Yellow and Orange ~ Georgia O’Keeffe

Yellow Farm at Pouldu ~ Paul Serusier, 1890

Yellow Irises ~ Claude Monet, 1914-1917

Orange and yellow ~ Mark Rothko

Yellow Haystacks (Golden Harvest) ~ Paul Gauguin, 1889

Two Dancers in Yellow and Pink ~ Edgar Degas, 1910

Characters in yellow ~ Paul Klee, 1937

A girl in yellow dress ~ Amedeo Modigliani, 1917

The Yellow House ~ Vincent van Gogh, 1888

The Yellow Curtain ~ Henri Matisse, 1915

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monticello yellow

Whether it’s used as a bold statement or an artful accent, these interiors illuminate yellow’s power to transform a space and lift our mood!

“The color of an egg yolk from a chicken that dined on marigold petals” ~ Susan R. Stein, curator of Monticello describing the chrome-yellow shade which was applied to the dining room around 1815, only six years after it was invented in France

Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello photographed by Pieter Estersohn via Elle Decor

Table Tonic via My First Little Place

Living Etc via Home and Decor

Jenna Lyons Brooklyn brownstone via Domino

Darryl Carter via traci zeller designs

World of Interiors via Decor Pad

Eclectic Revisited

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a brilliant cheerful yellow

Gently Sloping, 2010, Pastel on paper ~ Wolf Kahn

“Again, I sit on the brow of the orchard, and look northwest down the river valley (at mid-afternoon). There flows, or rests, the calm blue winding river, lake-like, with its smooth silver-plated sides, and wherever weeds extend across it, there too the silver plate bridges it, like a spirit’s bridge across the Styx; but the rippled portions are blue as the sky. This river reposes in the midst of a broad brilliant yellow valley amid green fields and hills and woods, as if, like the Nanking or Yang-ho (or what-not), it flowed through an Oriental Chinese meadow where yellow is the imperial color. The immediate and raised edge of the river, with its willows and button-bushes and polygonums, is a light green, but the immediately adjacent low meadows, where the sedge prevails, is a brilliant cheerful yellow, intensely, incredibly bright, such color as you never see in pictures; yellow of various tints, in the lowest and sedgiest parts deepening to so much color as if gamboge had been rubbed into the meadow there; the most cheering color in all the landscape; shaded with little darker isles of green in the midst of this yellow sea of sedge. Yet it is the bright and cheerful yellow, as of spring, and with nothing in the least autumnal in it. How this contrasts with the adjacent fields of red-top, now fast falling before the scythe! When your attention has been drawn to them, nothing is more charming than the common colors of the earth’s surface.” ~ Henry David Thoreau, August 1st, 1860

Overall Yellow, 2011, Oil on canvas ~ Wolf Kahn

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l’avventura chair

I was so taken with the 4 Richard Shapiro designed chairs in yesterday’s post, I just had to learn more! The L’Avventura Chair is 47″ square by 30″ high and is shown in white linen (above)…simple yet sophisticated, modern yet timeless, it could be paired with any style or decor…LOVE!

Please enjoy this look at some highlights from Richard Shapiro’s stunning Studiolo Collection! (how fabulous are the textiles in the last photo?!)

photos from Richard Shapiro Studiolo

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a masterpiece in malibu

It should come as no surprise to me that I would fall head over heels in love with Richard Shapiro’s Malibu retreat…I have adored his work for as long as I can remember so when this magical home appeared on the pages of Architectural Digest, it was just another wow moment for me to take in…Shapiro worked closely with architect Douglas Burdge to create a home that feels altogether ancient and modern at the same time…let’s take a closer look at the details

Living Room ~ pristine steel windows enhance the rough beauty of frescoed plaster walls…4 Shapiro designed chairs happily co-exist with a 17th century Italian gilt-wood mirror and antique Cypriot fireplace

Kitchen ~ Basalt (a volcanic stone) and black lacquer cabinets combine to create a dramatic statement in the kitchen…the linen covered sofa is custom fitted to the alcove…how romantic!

Quite possibly the most artful staircase I have ever seen! The steel balustrade winds up to the master bedroom and bath…what an effortless marriage of wood, stone and steel…truly a masterpiece!

A timber staircase was designed to resemble the weathered ramparts of a Moroccan fort…pure genius!

Library ~ A daybed covered in mismatched stripes creates a cozy nook for reading in the corner of the library…table is 15th century Italian…painting is by Shapiro

Photography by Miguel Flores-Vianna for Architectural Digest

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a photographic journey

“My book is a meditation on how to live. It’s an old-fashioned idea, but you should always try to do what you love to do.” ~ Annie Leibovitz

Annie Leibovitz’s recent photographic journey is a bold departure from her iconic portrait and fashion photography…published by Random House in 2011, “Pilgrimage” is a highly personal exploration of people, places and things that have significant meaning to the artist ~ a collection of handmade pastels by Georgia O’Keefe, the darkroom of Ansel Adams, Emily Dickinson’s only surviving dress…she captures their essence, their soul, without a face but with an intimate look at their beloved possessions…

Cactus and dogwood specimens pressed by Emily Dickinson as a girl

The astonishing natural power of America’s most famous geyser, Yellowstone National Park

A collection of handmade pastels in the O’Keefe Research Center in Santa Fe

A red hill behind O’Keeffe’s Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, that looms large in her paintings

A glass negative of a multiple-lens portrait of Lincoln made on Feb. 9, 1864, by Anthony Berger at the Brady Gallery in Washington, D.C.

A door in the adobe patio wall of Georgia O’Keefe’s home in Abiquiu, N.M.

Emily Dickinson’s only surviving dress at the Amherst Historical Society in Amherst, Mass

Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance warehouse in Yonkers, N.Y.

Annie Oakley’s heart target ~ one of Oakley’s most popular stunts was shooting through the center of a small heart on a card from around 40 feet away

The darkroom in Ansel Adams’s home in Carmel, Calif., now owned by Mr. Adams’s son, Michael, and his wife, Jeanne, friends of Ms. Leibovitz

The gloves Abraham Lincoln wore the night he was assassinated

Sigmund Freud’s couch in his study at 20 Maresfield Gardens in London

All photographs by Annie Leibovitz from her book “Pilgrimage” ~ Resources  – NY Times, Vogue, Wall Street Journal, NPR

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fashion at versailles

Due to severe weather in my area yesterday, I lost my internet connection! So sorry I was unable to get a post published! All is well now, and luckily, we had no damage to our house or yard…sadly, the town next to us was devastated by a fierce micro burst leaving the streets and parks looking like a tornado had touched down…thank goodness for the sunshine and cool breezes today…

With thoughts of fashion and photography still fresh in my mind from Tuesday’s post, I couldn’t help but be reminded of one of my all time favorite fashion spreads ~ Kirsten Dunst photographed by Annie Leibovitz at Versailles for American Vogue…for me, it is a sublime coming together of talent, beauty, art and architecture…take for example the first image…my eye is drawn to the composition as a whole…not just the dress, the muse, or the setting, but to the entire photograph…it is a balanced, inventive and most importantly beautiful work of art that will surely stand the test of time…

Photographers Annie Leibovitz, Karl Lagerfeld, Steven Meisel, and Gilles Marie Zimmerman all found inspiration from the grace and elegance that is Versailles…please enjoy this marriage of fashion, photography and the one and only Versailles!

Annie Leibovitz for Vogue September 2006

Karl Lagerfeld for Harper’s Bazaar Romania November 2007

Steven Meisel for Vogue October 1994

Karl Lagerfeld for Tatler Russia July 2012

Gilles Marie Zimmerman for Paris Match March 2012

Karl Lagerfeld for Harper’s Bazaar June 2007

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couture and photography

These artful photographs, by Gerard Uferas, capture the creation of Dior’s Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2012 collection from concept to completion…much like the movie Yves Saint Laurent: His Life and Times/5 avenue Marceau Paris written and directed by David Teboul, Uferas offers us an intimate look at the creative process…his still images allow us to linger and savor the details…

To accompany this photographic journey is an eloquent interview with Uferas describing his own creative process and passion for photography and fashion

What story do your photographs recount?

The idea behind them was to follow the complete making of a collection, from the initial ideas to the final show. This common thread allowed us to recount the entire history of the house and transcribe the impression we all have that the spirit of Christian Dior still animates it, that his spirit is present throughout the collection. The lines he drew are still here, and they are a natural fit with my style of photography.

What did you see during your time at 30, avenue Montaigne?

First of all, I discovered that there is a true dialogue between the studio on the second floor and the ateliers on the fifth. Toiles, prototypes in white cotton canvas, pass between them like love letters. They are interpreted and in the end they tell a story! For me the palette was vast; I wanted to show the human element of the house. The moment when the première d’atelier (head of ateliers) places the sketches on the table and everyone chooses the one they find most inspiring. It has to be love at first sight – there is a true love relationship between a drawing and the couturière who brings it to life. And there also disappointment for those who see their dress cancelled because the color is off.

Many of your photographs are in black and white. Why did you choose this format?

When I started taking pictures, the ateliers were working on toiles : everything was white and I just couldn’t imagine working with an inexistent color. Black and white photography is a slight abstraction; like the toile, it is a bit removed from reality. So one focuses on structure. Color came into the story gradually, just as fabric replaces the toiles. Red made an appearance at the end of the collection, and it also appears toward the end of the exhibition.

What is the relationship between couture and photography?

Photography and fashion are cousins. Both are an applied art: even if the world around it is creative, the ultimate purpose of a dress is to clothe a woman. And that of a photo is to reveal a world. Good photography is a vehicle for emotion. Like a dress, it must be well-constructed. It must have a sense of proportion, a graphic concept and a sense of elegance.

photography by Gerard Uferas, interview from Dior

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