Nudes (Couple in Forrest) 2013, Photo Romi CortierNude (Man Kneeling on Towel) 2014, Photo Romi CortierNude (Woman at Shore) 2014, Photo Romi Cortier
These exquisite Nudesby Phil Bower on view at the Samuel Freeman Gallery were a remarkable discovery during the Culver City Summer Solstice ArtWalk. I’d seen the latter image, Nude (Woman at Shore)online, but wasn’t prepared for how remarkable she’d be in person. The paintings are billed as photorealism, however, they’re far beyond that in person. In my opinion these paintings are a new form of Impressionism. When viewed up close the images become almost pixelated and difficult to understand… step back about 5 feet, and Voila! Your eye connects the dots and builds the image for you. Bower’s use of color is a true gift, especially when combined with his glazing technique. His images are culled from websites broadcasting voyeur videos from around the world. He then takes a frame grab and works from the low resolution images. While it may sound a bit creepy, these ‘models’ have been captured in a moment of being pure, honest, and completely uninhibited. Standing in front of Nude (Woman at Shore) was like being transported back to the Musee d’ Orsay in front of Alexandre Cabanel’s The Birth of Venus… it took every ounce of restraint to not reach out and touch her life like flesh.
Louis XVI / French NeoClassical Chair in Blue Silk in the Room of Mirrors. Photo Romi CortierLouis XVI / French Neoclassical Chair in Mauve. Photo Romi CortierGilded French Empire Fauteuil (open arms) in the family room of Louis-Philippe. Photo Romi CortierGilded French Neoclassical Chair in Fuschia in the room of Malachite. Photo Romi Cortier
These chairs from the Grand Trianon at the Palace of Versailles speak volumes about their inhabitants during this critical time in Frances history. The reign of Louis XVI (the 16th, last of the three Louis’s including the 14th and 15th) ended abruptly in 1789 with the French Revolution. Louis XV (the 15th) had a design dictum of Rococo, curvaceous with natural wood grains. The furniture above was a reaction to that period. Therefore, the look of the furniture became a reference to the Romans and the Greeks, which was inspired by the discovery of Herculaneum and Pompeii. Sleek straight lines with right angles, fluted columns, oak and laurel leaves, wreaths, pastel tones… logical simplicity. Madame du Pompadour had an interest in all that was new and fashionable and helped influence this look that is now typically referred to as ‘French Neoclassicism’. The period was short lived, from roughly 1760 – 1789. After the French Revolution in 1789, the outraged citizens held an auction to sell off much of the furniture of the Royal Court… an auction that lasted 365 days!
I Love these Drapery Details from the Grand Trianon at the Palace of Versailles! The Grand Trianon was built by Jules Mansart in 1687 for Louis XIV, (also known as the ‘Sun King’) as a reprieve from the formality of life at the main Palace. This little get away for him and his mistress, Madame de Montespan, was lush with decorative details. This remarkable color palette is over 300 years old, and is proof that some things are always a classic, regardless of the current trends. I would assume that these items have been refreshed or refurbished since 1687, as much of the Palace has been undergoing renovations during the last decade. The furniture and art of this residence is so spectacular, that these details could easily have gone unnoticed. I’ve been to Versailles several times, and this was one of the few times this residence had been open to the public. If you’re there and it’s open, don’t miss it. It’s usually less crowded than the main Palace and can easily be done in an hour… unless you like to linger and enjoy the details. Then by all means, walk very very slowly because there’s so much to take.
I was schedule to meet the Iconic Architectural Photographer Julius Shulman for lunch at Pinot’s on Sunset, April 4th of 2004. The lunch had been arranged by a client of mine who’d known him for years. Once the date was set, I cleared my schedule and arrived early for our 1:00 meeting. At 1:15 my client came dashing in the door and said ‘Julius can’t make it, his friend Pierre just died and he’s fielding phone calls, would you mind getting lunch to go and meeting us at the house?‘ Absolutely. I arrived 30 minutes later at his Hollywood Hills home with our lunch in tow. From the moment I crossed the threshold into his home, I was speechless. There in front of me was every iconic image of his that I’d ever studied in my art history classes at UCLA, and then some. I had to fight back the tears, because at that moment I knew I was in the presence of genius. No Hollywood celebrity could hold a candle to this man standing in front of me, a man who’d shaped how I’d seen the world of architecture, long before I even knew who he was. But in that moment, his life’s work touched me in a very profound way that I’ll never forget.
As we were setting our lunch entrees on the dining room table, Julius began telling his stories. Stories about how his peers looked to nature to create the homes of their era… cutting an avocado in half and being inspired by it’s color. He gushed about how the architect Soriano had built his home for him nearly 50 years ago and that he’d watched the trees grow up around the home. The phone rang and interrupted him… it was another publication calling and wanting to use his image of the Case Study Home #22 for free. ‘Absolutely not, I don’t work for free’ he replied. His friend Pierre Koenig had built it… the man who’d just died. It was all making sense now. He was the architect of the Stahl House, one of LA’s most iconic home’s for 50 years, the home that Julius made famous as 2 elegant women sat perched in the glass box that appeared to float over the city at night when he snapped their photo in 1960.
After lunch Julius gladly autographed one of his books for me, which is what he’s doing in the studio shot above. It’s a bit jarring to watch the virtual tour and see his studio stripped bare, and the walls of his home without his iconic photos, but they’re all in safe keeping at the Getty Archives. Ultimately I ended up buying that iconic photo from Julius and returned to his home a second time to pick it up. He rolled it out on his dining room table, inspected the print, and signed it in white ink. It’s still one of my favorite possessions to this day and I’m so grateful that I had the incredible honor of meeting him.
DIY Charles Rennie Mackintosh Inspired Mural, Creating the WainscotDIY Charles Rennie Mackintosh Inspired Mural, Framing the FlowersDIY Charles Rennie Mackintosh Inspired Mural, Painting the FlowersDIY Charles Rennie Mackintosh Inspired Mural, The Big Reveal
I created this DIY Charles Rennie Mackintosh inspired wall mural for a client who was converting a second bedroom into a home office. The ‘Mackintosh Roses’ are the focal point of the mural, with added geometric patterning to balance the composition. The white lines also feel a bit like a wainscot, which work to frame the chairs that I found at the GoodWill for $10. One of my favorite tricks in a small room is to paint one of the walls darker than the others. It seems to draw your eye to the outer corners of the room, making it feel larger that it really is. I was able to easily complete this mural in just a few hours.
Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife Margaret McDonald were hugely influential in creating a modern esthetic in Glasgow Scotland, in a time when Victorianism was all the rage. Their rooms with clean white geometric lines were a stark contrast to the dark baroque inspired furniture of that era. Some of their masterpieces include the Willow Tearooms, the Hill House Residence and of course the Glasgow School of Art.
