Submitted by Bicycle-Fine-Art on
The Art of Art Selection for Interior Design
Bicycle Fine Art artist, Danielle Voight, is a nocturnal painter. This practice may lend a hand in her painting style – which, although light and warm, focuses on a kind of quiet calm, as though you were standing at night in an open field and spotted a brilliant star. In her painting, such as Dissolve into Everywhere, she leaves a good deal of the canvas monochrome, open, and uncluttered, with concentrated areas of hushed color and activity. These are peaceful bursts and they are introspective and meditative in their focus.
This is exactly what drew Flora Angela Brama, Principal and Senior Designer of REVELRY STUDIO in Minneapolis, MN, to Danielle’s work. In their collaboration together on Flora’s just-sold www.4620chowenaves.com property, you can see this thoughtful concept of space and tone take shape. The unity between the interior design and artwork selection when staging and presenting a home on the market is so vitally important because it sets the mood of the entire house. These are connections that Bicycle Fine Art always works to forge between artists and designers.
Flora rebuilt the Chowen property from practically nothing. When she first came across the house, there was very little that was redeemable of the old structure and the project turned into a real “labor of love,” with every inch designed and crafted by her and her partner, Nick. Once completed, Flora set down to the task of staging the house, where she had to take into account the texture and surface of each room and what pieces would stand out and compliment her vision.
As this vision developed, Danielle’s paintings became more and more of a clear and natural choice. Flora notes, the “soft, tonal abstraction drew me to her work. Danielle shows so well with a lot of natural light; and with the openness of the space, her works fit right in. Their rarity, depth, and monochromatic coloration also functioned in a non-compete way in the house.” Flora placed some of the pieces in the entryway because of their welcoming, open quality. “They played so nicely off the materials and I thought, really added a sophistication.”
For many years, Danielle was secretive about her work and hesitant to share it, even with her friends or family. Her time in an artistic, if not literal, solitude has given her space to fully mature into a style that accepts the volume of meaning that minimalism can convey. While she has always been interested in minimalism, she has “learned to be more comfortable in the negative space [of the canvas]” and to “be forgiving and fluid and let the piece evolve itself.” Beyond concept, Danielle’s ever-evolving process is apparent in the way she mixes her oil paints, finding the perfect color for a given piece in each layer and pigment she folds in to the work.
This fluidity, it seems, perfectly characterizes the pair’s collaboration. As Danielle says:
“One thing I was thinking about specifically with Flora’s design and my work, was that I felt we both moved together perfectly in the space. It’s all so, so open and simply done in the touches; and then with the minimal style that she designed the space with, it allowed for both our effects to work very well together. The art shined brightly but never overpowered or took away from the house and both were really allowed to shine.”
