Renewed vision!

Artists in Residence: Seventeen Artists and Their Living Spaces, from Giverny to Casa Azul by Melissa Wyse, Illustrated by Kate Lewis

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What a great idea! Looking at various artists’ residences. I know similar books have been published but I just really did enjoy this “seeing” through a different lens. Although reading this reminded me that I’d missed visiting Monet’s Giverny  years ago due to it being closed for the season. Sigh! Something I’ve had a lingering regret about over the years.

Kate Lewis is to be congratulated on her extraordinary illustrations. She brought the artists’ homes alive. Her illustrative exploration deepened the book’s aesthetic experience for us. What a wonderful way to research! And then, Melissa Wyse’s very different investigative  method over the years, of filling notebooks with descriptive prose about those residences!

Only for the two to so serendipitously meet at an ‘artists in residence” enclave! Brilliant!

Aspects the described homes have in common are colour and movement, a sense of touch, giving a sense of presence. The two very talented contributors reflect that joyously. They talk about their methodology of presenting the book. Hoping that through their joint writings and paintings, sometimes revisiting the homes, as giving them “a new intimacy with the creative life of each artist.” I found it invoked those feelings for me as the reader.

Cameo views from windows, spaces that wrapped the chosen artists and their residences and brought  them into focus. From minimalistic to crowded, simple to complex. A gift indeed!

I found myself walking around my home, reflecting on views through windows and pleasing patterns inside and out, on textures and lines, and determining to continue to consider the aesthetic of my personal space. A revisit of the idea of a home for all the senses as Kate and Melissa alluded to. They invite us to explore the aesthetic sense of our own homes—whatever that might be, through the example of some of the artistic legends they’ve shown us.

A Chronicle Books ARC via NetGalley