New Artwork: Scale Matters

After years of looking at some big white spaces on our walls, the past two weeks have seen extraordinary progress.

Two weekends ago, I picked this painting up at an estate sale in Cobble Hill:

I love it!  I am especially excited to have found an abstract painting of this size that I like so much.  SO MUCH!

It is by a painter named Joe Clark and was included in a show of his work entitled "Ibizan Bitch" in January 1962 at Camino Gallery in NYC.  (A little history: Camino Gallery was one of a group of artist-run, cooperative galleries known as the "10th Street Galleries" located in the East Village in the 50's and early 60's.  Alice Neel and Elaine DeKooning, among many others, were members of Camino.)

Then, this past Sunday, I bought this painting from my next door neighbor at his stoop sale.  His mother painted it sometime in the 60's:

V loves this one.  She says she feels about it the way I feel about the first one.  So, that is good.

The two paintings are on opposite walls facing one another at one end of our living room.

So, what about it?  

Well, the first big takeaway here is that scale matters a lot.  For 15 years we have been hanging small pieces in these large spaces and it never looked right.  

The second takeaway is that hanging art immediately is the way to go.  We live with dozens (literally) of small pieces of artwork that are not hung - just leaning on top of things or stacked in closets.  With each of these paintings, I went straight out and bought hooks and set up my laser level on a tripod and hung them right away.  

Finally, I am inspired to hang more of the art we like which is lying about as soon as possible.  I don't really need to worry about putting holes in the walls that I might regret since the walls I'll be hanging them on are so beat up anyway that it can only be an improvement.  Time to get on that.