You can find inspiration in everything, if you can’t then you are not looking properly.
– The designer Paul Smith once said.
If we believe this then we need to look closely at our favorite painting, a photograph, or an image in a magazine that grabs our attention. What colours do we see? Are there two colours which sit together in a very appealing way?
Is there texture that catches your eye? Lines and shapes that appeal to you? It’s time to release the artist inside. Look and look again; design students are often told to have an opinion on everything they look at. Take your favorite image and ask yourself why do I like this, and how can I apply this inspiration to my home.
There are two iconic things that inspire our design team, Paris at any time of the year and Monet’s water lilies at Musèe de L’orangerit in Paris, one of the great design cities with inspiration around every corner. It’s history and culture touch’s almost everything. In the Tuileries Gardens lies a great museum L’Orangerie which is perfect for a quick injection of culture, and a beautiful sanctuary from this amazing but busy, metropolitan city.
Two egg shaped rooms house 8 panels of Monet’s most inspiring work, Nymphéas, or the water lilies; a series of more than 250 paintings, painted between 1890 and 1926. Monet created a garden with water lilies in his Giverny home in the valley of the Seine, France. From this garden he painted his most prolific subject.
His painting included weeping willows, bamboo, water lilies and the beautiful Japanese bridge. His inspired garden can spark our imaginations, his tranquil and beautiful artworks can inspire colour schemes and our decor. His painting concentrated on the changing light of the water lilies in the pond. His palette for these painting was limited and vibrant. Violet, ultramarine, emerald green, cobalt, carmine red, cadmium yellow and lemon are the palette we can take from these painting, soft shapes and watery pattern will add interest. Soft textures add comfort.
Greens beside pinks and white, indigo with lavender. Tones of the same colours together and curved soft following lines all inspire. Include plants and pinks and white flowers. Add touches to a room or to a neutral colour palette to modernize and transform. Be the artist of your life, let the creative juices flow.
Pictures on Commons License: – Portrait of Monet coutesy of Wikiimages
Photograph of Monet’s garden courtesy of Nadrog@pixabay
