Still Life Paintings

When a person chooses a theme or colour scheme for re-decorating a room, they don’t tend to think so much about the pictures they’ll end up having on the wall. The wallpaper, or paint – sure; the carpet or rugs – naturally; and the furniture – of course: but the paintings, prints and photos tend not to get a look in. Result? A well-decorated room whose art is thrown in at the last moment. Sometimes, that can be successful, in a sort of “deliberately random” look; most of the time, it’s pretty unfortunate, and leads to the room in question feeling more than a little unbalanced. Thinking about art work for a re-decorated room at the same time as thinking about everything else, can create harmonious finished spaces that are a joy to be in. Depending on the room and its’ feel, different styles of painting are appropriate. Still life paintings offer an excellent choice for larger kitchens and any lounge, bringing calm lines and soothing compositions to the walls. Still life paintings are particularly effective in the kitchen: for the fairly obvious reason that still life paintings tend to contain lots of images of food. Because still life paintings are often rustic in nature – they’ll portray either a bunch of food items piled up on and old country table, or some fresh bucolic blooms – they work exceptionally well in kitchens that have been furnished in the rustic style. Wooden tables, big saucepans, and so on. That said, plenty of modern still life paintings are of all sorts of things that have nothing to do with food: and this is where the effectiveness of still life paintings in decorating any area of a home starts to become obvious. Modern still life paintings can be of all sorts of things – piles of trash, robotic or machine-like pieces of metal and other obviously man-made objects. Modern still life paintings can capture the essence of a city, or a modern life, just as well as abstract art does – which makes modern still life paintings a good bet for a contemporary lounge. In both cases – the bucolic kitchen and the modern lounge – still life paintings add a touch of calm to the theme. That’s because the objects in still life paintings are, perforce, frozen – there’s no motion in still life paintings, so they naturally exude an air of “stillness”. That can be an excellent combination, when placed in a room that has vibrant colours (or the ever-moving tapestry of a huge TV) – giving ideal counterpoint to the shapes and lines of the rest of the room. Still life paintings offer equality and balance for any re-decorated room – and if a person stops to give them some thought before they start, they can be chosen according to the colour schemes intended.

Tags: Paintings, Still, Life