We bought a new house a few years ago, and realized that nothing from our old home really worked anymore in our new place. We had moved from a large two-storey suburban home on the west end of Calgary into an inner-city 1960's bungalow. Decidedly NOT large. With the help of a designer, we settled on a mid-century modern style and got to work pulling that look together on our main floor. The budget would not extend to the rest of the house. We had to prioritize the great room, as it is the area that everyone who comes over enters first. We put in blinds, drapes, new furniture, new light fixtures and some pops of colour in the pillows. I loved the new look we had achieved. Then came the final challenge. The walls. They were so. freakin. boring. Vast swafts of light beige throughout. Luckily we had gotten rid of the dark brown trim in favour a soft white. But now we were faced with a completely blank canvas. It was exciting and overwhelming all at once.
As a professional photographer, I love hanging family portraits on my walls. I have them all over the place, with plans for even more. However, when it came to designing the walls for the great room, I wanted to hang something more unusual and thought-provoking. It started with a large abstract landscape piece that I did of Rundle Mountain in Banff. My parents had gifted our family a sleigh ride for Christmas, and the same for my sister's family. We all had a great time enjoying the beautiful horses, incredible views and hot chocolate by the fire. We took a million photos. When we were ready to go and I was just about to put my camera away, I caught a glimpse of the reflection of Mount Rundle in an icy puddle. I liked it so much that I took a photo of it. I later used that image and an image of a bird from the same day to create this piece of art. It is a 4 foot by 4 foot metallic print finished in acrylic. Whether people love it or hate it, this piece has been a conversation-starter.
The next piece I set to work on was a 2 foot by 4 foot wrapped canvas of an image I took of the Napali Coast in Kauai. My husband and I had gone there to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. I had many shots to choose from that I had taken from land, helicopter and boat. This one happened to be from a sunset cruise and holds special meaning to me. I chose it for its simple gradation of blue colour. It has the same monotone feel as a black and white image, but is 100% colour. You would laugh at the original image, which was more than a little crooked, thanks to the bouncing waves beneath us.
Finally, I wanted to represent my family, but not in a typical way. I came up with an idea: silhouettes. I took profile images of each of my three children where I would expose them to be black and the background to be white. Once I captured those and took them into Photoshop, I decided that I wanted more than just a plain black and white silhouette. I wanted modern, bold, colour. Andy Warhol's pop art images came to mind, so I decided to take my inspiration from that palette to design my silhouettes. I had a test print done, but it was still not quite right. I had bold colour, but it lacked texture. It was a bit flat. I contacted my professional print lab to find a heavily textured fine art paper that would complete the look I wanted from these pieces. The mat and frame would provide the final finishing touches. I knew I wanted to weight the mat heavier on the bottom. I've always liked that look, so I played with the dimensions until they looked just right. From there, I worked with my framer to choose a sleek, modern frame and museum-quality glass to protect my work. It's right by our dining table, and that glass has saved the delicate paper more than once from destruction by yogurt or milk. The glass also has a UV coating to help prevent the sun from fading of my bright, bold colours.
All in all, I am happy with the results. Our plain, boring walls have been given life, colour and conversation. I love having a story behind the artwork in my home.
shoot.print.love.laurie
P.S. I love to do pop-art silhouettes for clients too! We can get so creative in representing YOUR family, whether it includes kids, no kids, dogs, cats parakeets.... The possibilities are endless. Book a complimentary consult with me if you crave some personal art in your space.