Do you ever get the “mean reds”? It’s like the blues but worse, Holly Golightly knows about this – she’d visit Tiffany’s to cure her mean reds because “nothing very bad could happen to you there”.
Well, when I got the mean reds I’d visit Freedom furniture with my take-away coffee and a magazine and just sit on my favourite couch for the same reason. I’m sure the sales staff thought I was nuts! But this couch was my Tiffany’s and I coveted it for years.
Finally, I was forced to react. Freedom was closing down, my Tiffany’s was being destroyed!! I bought this beautiful red couch (from Nick Scali, not Freedom, incidentally) and now I have my own piece of peace in my very own home!
My Couch (and my boy!)
So you get how important this couch is to me right? It’s not about owning a fancy piece of furniture it was about building a sanctuary, a safe place. My own oasis of calm.
I wanted something specific to put on the wall and complete my oasis. Something that would match my new red couch and bring the colour across the room to tie in the colour scheme.
Other than my wonky Zebra, I hadn’t really given painting much of a go since my early years in school. So, for this piece, I just bought a few cheap canvasses and used “house paint”. Yep, I went along to the local hardware store and bought Solver Fanfare paint – the colour matched perfectly! I call it “Mean Reds”.
'Mean Reds' House Paint on Canvas
I’m actually pleased with it. Not because it’s particularly clever or anything but because it matched my thinking. It worked in the space in that it spread the bold red into the rest of the room to complement the couch. I like the simplicity of the design too and the fact that I thought of it by myself. The decision not to colour all the squares only came to me as I painted.
I don’t know what sort of art you’d call this, or even if it is art! I did enjoy the process of designing and creating something original and specific though.
It is a representation of something – what do you see?
I see a New York skyline.
I love the red couch. When we were living in Wellington NZ in 2007, there was a gorgeous red leather club chair – I wanted it so much but lugging furniture back from New Zealand was out of the question. I’m curious if they still have the chair – it would make a great addition to my office 🙂
Very specific! And yes, you are right – it is a representation of a city skyline.
Re the club chair – I looked on Freedom’s websie and couldn’t see anything (not in red). Try Nick Scali, I find they have similar products but a better range and at a better price 🙂
Correction – red leather club chair was at Freedom too.
Love the couch and the paintings! Fabulous job! Red is a wonderful color. One of my favorites.
Thanks! Red is pretty awesome, the right shade of red anyway – one of my favourites too!
Oh, and about what I see, I just saw squares and red, but I’m so drawn to shape that I can overlook what it might represent. I just love abstracts.
I love that everyone appreciates their art a little differently! Thanks for commenting 🙂
What I see is…..the game tetris! 😀 http://www.freetetris.org/
Wow, you’re really good at doing paintings for interior decorations. I love your mean reds too. 😀
haha! It does look a little like tetris now that you mention it! I love tetris. When I load my groceries onto the conveyer belt at the supermarket I pretend it’s like tetris and try and load all the groceries up like its a game!