Art in Residential Architecture is about how this architectural firm commissioned several pieces of fine art from a talented artist for a custom house.
Merry Soellner, Cashiers NC area Real Estate Broker knew her husband, Rand Soellner, ArCH, NCARB, liked the idea of locating 3 nature-inspired abstract paintings of similar size as their home’s upper level clearstory windows, to be placed in between them. So Merry researched artists and found a few, some in other countries, some on the other side of the USA, and one only about 45 miles away, in Arden, NC, where she and her husband shop from time to time. After investigating and emailing two of the artists, Merry settled on local regional fine artist Hillary Winfield. Hillary’s style incorporated the feel of the type of abstract nature art that she and he husband liked. The image above is one of a set of 3 slightly different original paintings created by Ms. Winfield specifically for the couple’s custom house and for placement between the clearstory windows, with the intent of abstractly coordinating with the views to nature through the adjacent windows. This had been the Architect’s intention while designing the house and building it in 2018.
“The pointillism and Jackson Pollock-like techniques Hillary Winfield incorporates in some of her paintings worked well for the painting locations in this custom home,” said Architect Soellner of HOME ARCHITECTS ®. “The idea was for the 3 new paintings to recall, in an abstract manner, what is visible outside the 4 clearstory windows near them, sort of like these 3 paintings now made the total clearstories to be 7. But we didn’t really want the paintings to be literal. We would have taken photos and blown them up if that was the idea. We preferred an interpretation from a talented local artist, and gave her the freedom to look at this through her artist’s lens.”
“Our home is starting to feel like a fine art gallery,” said Merry Soellner, “which suits us just fine.”
“Our house was designed with big views of the Blue Ridge Mountains,” said Architect Soellner, “and Merry’s ideas of commissioning and installing special abstract nature paintings fits in with that architectural concept perfectly. The key is in the precise locations and sizes of those pieces of art.”
art in residential architecture