by Diane Widler Wenzel: My daughter's artistic hanging maximizes the effect of my paintings

The light gray walls complement my color saturated paintings.
Accessories like flowers and pillows repeat the blues and yellows in my paintings.

Thank you my daughter, Nancy. I hope these paintings enrich your life.

Places that inspire a story

by Rain Trueax

When writing fiction, why is it set where it is? Some authors create places. I prefer placing mine in real towns and landscapes. Sometimes where that is will be influenced by the problems the characters will be facing. Because I know them best, Oregon, Arizona and Montana end up in most of my books.

In my books, of course, there's a love story but with complications. When I know the problem, the reason I am interested in writing the story, next comes its setting. I need to know where my characters live, their homes.

To give where these people live, I found some images from my own photos and others I'd purchased. Naturally, their homes are only part of the environment as they move around. Sometimes I only know where they'll roam once I start writing. That's the fun of writing, the discoveries I make along with them.

Part II, Diane Widler Wenzel on How I Hang the Pictures I Paint.

I couldn't be happier with last Sunday's  lunch with visiting family to celebrate 120 paintings hung at home and then the public art opening at Albany Public Library's main branch.    A sister-in-law commented,  " I could hang way more paintings than I ever thought I could. "  upon seeing how I hang groupings between large empty spaces.  One of my daughters wanted a grouping of 3 paintings from the corner fireplace installation in the dining area. The home celebration and reception made me feel loved by my supportive family and friends.

Part II of how I hang paintings continues with examples of how empty spaces around the paintings are important to their effect on us.  Also covered are my experiments in hanging solutions in the dining area and the entry from the kitchen to the laundry room.

Dining with Paintings that Contribute to the Room's Ambiance

Below is Don eating and a panoramic view of the green paintings that he sees from his side of the table. I selected for him green, his favorite color. Green is clean looking and soothing.

Below is Diane and a panorama of what she wants to see - a cozy corner:

Walls of three entries frame paintings.
From the front door the eye is apt to look beyond on into the dining area with busy activity and also paintings.

From the kitchen entry to the dinette the view includes empty wall space.

The  hall from the back of the house. 

The cool colored green paintings and white matt make the warm colored collage dominate the grouping. The collage is suppose to be the first thing seen.  Then looking at the collage the eye is directed leftward by a  shape pointing to the warmer colors in the green paintings, thus the eye moves around this grouping. The green vertical painting with a black matt counterbalances the warm collage. For me this group works. I hope that it works for others. Purhaps the reason Don slows down as he eats is because he has some greens around him.

To frame or not or hang out from a corner?

Two of the paintings and the collage are framed with oak frames made by my fantastic partner, Don. The paintings that are unframed work better in a grouping?  Or do these frames isolate them acting as obstacles preventing the eye from moving from painting to painting?

I feel none of my groupings have to be perfect because my hangings are works in progress. I am learning and do not know all of the answers. I like to ask, "what if," as I decide the next grouping.

 

An innovation for me is to draw attention to corner paintings by hanging them so the sides are on opposite walls. The kiddy corner arrangement makes them more dominant especially when walking down the hall from the back of our house.  From down the hall the left side wall is at too much of an angle to see what is happening in the paintings hung flat to the wall. Corner paintings work less like windows on the wall and more like a three dimentional architectural fixture that I have difficultyillustrating in a two dimentional picture.

For the coldest wintery nights we remove paintings close to the fire box and keep a fire burning.

 Paintings are clutter busting by creating distance in tiny laundry / fly tying / utility room.  

In this cluttered place I see the painting before the clutter. How about you?

After adding a painting with deeper dark green depth to the wall behind the sink,  there is a greater sense of depth. I feel less cramped.

Because of the humidity of the laundry room I do not leave pictures here for long periods especially during the winter. 

Rotating paintings is a favorite way to get inspired for making more paintings. Some of the ones I will be rotating are stored in my studio.   I will show my studio with storage cabinets in the next blog, Part III, How I Hang the Pictures I Paint.

Part One: Diane Widler Wenzel on How I Hang the Pictures I Paint

This post is about hanging art in my home but first a brief announcement.
Everyone is invited to my painting exhibit, "Water Speaks,” opening tomorrow Sunday, October 22 at the Main Albany Public Library upstairs in the periodical area between 1:00 PM and 3:00 PM. The library is at 2450 14^th Ave SE. The paintings can be seen during regular library hours until October 31^st.

I am Diane Widler Wenzel, a fine arts painter with a large collection of my own art. Over the past 65 years I have sold some of my art but still have a big representative collection of my own creations. I like to live with my paintings so I rotate them. I swithch paintings around every time I start to clean house. Revolving art gives me a lift in spirit like living in a newly remodeled home. A recent epiphany came to me while washing windows and hanging 114 works in my home to show to possible clients.

The way paintings are displayed in a home can change how we feel.   You bet they can.  Painting groupings can even improve how I feel about my spouse's habits and different likes.

My husband Don and I live in a 1950's vintage, 1,200 square foot, one story, ranch style house. The living room is long and narrow with a long gallery wall facing a large picture window providing north light.This gallery has expanded over the years to every available wall space in the house creating an uncomfortable, visual stimulation overload. Bright active paintings were jumping out at us everywhere. So I have come up with ideas on how to hang more and more paintings so they both energize and sooth us. My aim is to make our home beautiful for both of us.

When hanging my painting I consider the views of my work from the locations we occupy during our daily doings.

For 32 years on my living room gallery wall I have auditioned my latest work next to older pieces for comparison. Also, I view them here before choosing the final touches. Since my epiphany I understand Don and I view the wall differently from our different easy chairs, the computer, the coach and when we enter the house. Don and I gravitate to different places with different views of my paintings so I can select his favorite impressionistic works where he is most likely to see them. I place more abstract warm and active paintings in the locations I see them.

I didn't use to think as deeply of how my work was effecting Don. Now I understand that my husband and I want to live in a comfortable space for both of us where we can be free to spread out our activities without the confines of decorator magazine perfection. He can lay out his fishing gear and prepare for his next trip. I can paint in either the livingroom or dinning room when it isn't nice enough on the patio.

 The shape of space around the pictures in a grouping is very important in making an overall impact.
 

Intuitively I have hung the largest paintings at the entry into the living room creating the impression that the wall is longer. The spaces between paintings is larger at the entrance than between the paintings at the end. The stair stepping of heights, and different sizes create an interesting negative space around the paintings. This shape around the pictures makes an overall casualness that impacts our feeling about how we want to live.

 

The more active are the color contrasts,

the greater the need is for a larger surrounding empty space and order.

 

 

Hanging next to the window is a painting called “My Palette My Table” in which I, with an open bag, stand small, practically unnoticeably harvesting lushious color. This painting is energizing to me but also is orderly because of the repetition of squares. Repetition goes beyond the painting. Squares and rectangles in my chair space include the stacking of abstract square paintings on the white wall, the lamp shade, the Guatemalian tapestry and the picture window.

I view this island of energized order at our computer desk where I am immersed in an island of clutter, I am too close to the gallery wall to see the casually hung paintings but I do see Don's island of doings and an occassional hat or pair of sandals. For a rest I can turn towards the window and my corner chair with the energized large painting made orderly with repetition of squares within and surrounding the painting. Then beyond to the empty front door area with empty walls.

A balance of motion and rest is not a newconcept to me but now I can apply with love to my relationship with my husband. It is as true in a painting as it is true when considering how to hang paintings in the architectural spacet o make a home our oasis of activity and rest.

Coming in Part Two of How I Hang the Pictures I Paint will be about our dining area, kitchen and laundry room. I will share ideas on making better use of corners that get visually lost. Discuss museum wrap, frames and  framing pictures with the architectural elements in the room.  Part Three I will show my studio/storage with ideas for storing more art in a small space with easy access for making rotations throughout our home.

I believe every painting collector has a different living space and different needs that their collection can satisfy. Collectors not only own a part of someone elses creativity but they can embark on a personally rewarding, creative journey of their own in finding what gives them the most satisfaction in how they display their collection. Perhaps some of the principles I have discovered here and the ones in future posts will be adaptable to your own collecting process. I hope you will share some of your experiences here in comments. I am still learning.