ED IT OR’S NO TE PHOTOGRAPHY BY SARAH PRAK
North Haven
Portland
L
ast winter, I took a painting class through the continuing education program at Maine College of Art (MECA). Ten of us—we happened to be all women, ranging from a South American exchange student to a retired doctor to several who, like me, were squeezing in a bit of right-brain creativity after our nine-to-five hours—met every Thursday in one of the available studios. The class? Inspiring, and demonstrative of the educational vision at MECA (Staying the Course, page 50). My painting ability? Let’s just say it’s a good thing I have this nine-to-five. During one of the exercises, we were to replicate a well-known work. I sat before an easel in old jeans and my now purple-paint-stained puffy coat, and working from a photograph, I studied dozens of different colors in an attempt to find each match. What kept going through my head were lines from a chapter on John Ruskin in Alain de Botton’s The Art of Travel. De Botton writes, “If drawing had value even when practised by those with no talent, it was, Ruskin believed, because it could teach us to see—that is, to notice rather than merely look.” Ruskin had it right. Since that class, I’ve never regarded anything quite the same. Art gives you a new way of looking, and encourages you to study the details, to open up your eyes and gaze upon beauty, and finally, for the first time, to really see. All those hours of slowly swirling out a slightly brighter blue, adding just a bit more green, a hint more orange have given me a new appreciation for when a designer comes up with a killer color palette, or for how the veining in a marble countertop, for example, may complement the pattern of a tile backsplash which plays off the warm cast of the bronze pulls, their square lines echoing the seatback of the dining chairs. Aren’t designers basically painting their vision of a room? Even the best designed home never really feels decorated until there is actual art on the walls. It creates a focal point, brings in a sense of texture, and most important, should be something the owners love to look at. So I’ll leave you to feast your eyes on the following pages. They’re filled with artful beauty at every turn.
Kennebunk
APRIL IN MH+D Stories from around the state
Jen DeRose Managing Editor jderose@mainehomedesign.com 18 MAINEHOMEDESIGN.COM
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2/28/17 1:27 PM