Earth Tones For Interior Design

One can only have so many showpieces in an art collection, with bright colors or dramatic themes taking center stage and being the star of a room. When designing a space and organizing a scheme that will carry people through gracefully and comfortably, relying on natural colors and earth tones can work wonders to create a solid foundation— the meat and potatoes, if you will. The subtle browns, greys, blacks, ochres and sepias that paint the landscapes of the natural world work to manifest an interior landscape of rich and quiet beauty that can resonate throughout a space. They furthermore present an accessible color palette that quite simply complements everything.

This 1959 abstract work by Pierre Tal-Coat Derriere le Miroir looks like weather patterns, possibly as seen on the surface of water or inscribed in stone over countless years. It is reminiscent of metal lustres or sunshine, of carved wood or bristling plant fibers. The piece also takes on further natural qualities in that it is a lithograph printed from stone, as were all the works published in the popular Derriere le Miroir French art magazine series.

Toned Brush Landscape, a gorgeous print of one of Anna Ticho’s renowned landscapes, is a mysterious and energetic charcoal drawing— the smoky greys that only charcoal can lend imbuing the work with shades of emotion.

Boudoir Thoughts, a signed and numbered stone lithograph by an unknown artist, inspires the same kind of mood probably surrounding the subject in the piece, a peaceful and meditative glow. And Paul Klee’s Angel From The Star takes the mood one step brighter, giving his blissful angel a playful bent.

Rodolphe Raoul Ubac’s Corps Endormi, meaning ‘Body Asleep,’ is a magical overlay of two contrasting forms and styles, reminiscent of walnuts in their shell or perhaps something like cotton in pod— the shapes and motions of nature, complete with its enigmatic appeal.

For Georges Braque a simple concept can be quite striking, as the vase in this Untitled 1959 stone lithograph reveals— the mixture of textures and the bold shape create depth and movement, playing their part in the long narrative that follows this universal historic object.

And in DLM No. 176 Cover Alain Le Yaouanc mixes abstract geometry and intricate detail, man-made structures and nature-formed expressions echoing rock faces with lichens or moonscapes with mineral deposits.

In DLM No. 175 Cover Antoni Tapies transmits emotion and energy, vigor and humanity with this charismatic piece featuring hand and finger prints, and impassioned marks walking the line between handwriting and cuneiform.

George Ortman’s The Baltimore Museum of Art 50th Anniversary Exhibition is a signed silkscreen from 1964 with a beautiful presence from both far back as well as up close— the design is strong and warm simultaneously, and the artist’s hand is evident, lending a distinguished empathy.

And in Yukihisa Isobe’s Crests Series, a signed 1965 stone lithograph, a considered arrangement of what are perhaps designs for family seals or bowling teams functions as nicely in historical sincerity as in abstract decoration. Pleasing in subject, composition and color scheme, this work is a total charm.