From 91 to 115 Framed Items in One House!

I wrote the original posting back in October, 2014. At that time we had 91 pieces of framed art. Well, since then we have added many additional pieces. So here's the latest numbers within the brackets as of July, 2017 which comes to a grand total of 115. This count does not include the plaques, wooden dishes, metal signs and a clock up on the walls. I can't believe we have so many items in a small house of 1100 square feet!

     Kitchen – 10  [13]
     Living Room – 16  [18] 

         Hallway – 16  [20]

         Half-bath – 8   

         Full-bath – 3 

         Study –  7  [9]

         Master Bedroom – 15  [16]

         Guest Bedroom – 7  [19]

         Laundry Room – 9 

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I bet very few of you reading this post know that in a previous life I was the manager and owner of a frame shop. Two things occurred during that time period. I can wax and wane on the dangers of using non-acidic materials for framing your beloved memories. Also, I came away with an enormous amount of framed art. Thank goodness I got a lot of things framed while I was in the business because I couldn’t afford to now.

So this past week I went into a dusty frenzy and started dusting the framed art hanging in our home. And this is what I found out:

·       Kitchen - 10 

·       Living Room - 16 

·       Hallway – 16 

·       Half-bath - 8 

·       Full-bath – 3 

·       Study -  7 

·       Master Bedroom – 15 

·       Guest Bedroom – 7 

·       Laundry Room – 9 

That comes to a grand total of 91 framed pieces of art hanging on the walls of our very small house! And, we still have art waiting to be framed. This count does not include the plaques, wooden dishes, and a clock up on the walls. When we move we are going to be filling a lot of nail holes! Swiss Cheese anyone?

Our collection comes from a multitude of places. In Mary’s family there were two artists. Mary’s mother, Eleanor, sold many of her pieces and luckily we have eight of her beautiful paintings. Mary’s grandfather, George Washington Brown was also an amazing artist. We are blessed to have three of his pieces. One is in oil, one in pencil and one in pen and ink.

Finally, we have twelve framed pieces and five unframed from Tullio Grendanin. He was Mary’s sister Chris’ father-in-law. Though he was known as a water colorist Tullio liked to experiment with different medium. We have several pieces done in oil during his “nude” period. Those fine ladies are hanging in our hallway!  We also have quite a few from his “barn’ period in watercolor and oil. Those are all hanging up in our Living Room. Between 1970 and his retirement from being a machinist in 1988 he had nine one-man shows and won a number of prizes in judged exhibitions. To support his family he made a career as a tool and die maker but he lived to paint.  A quote of his in an interview with the Times Herald Record in 1992, says it all “If I could not paint,” he said, “I would die.”         

Also, along the way both Mary and I have purchased art from various artists in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Colorado. We have very little wall space left. I even have one piece hung behind a door that is rarely seen but not forgotten. I may be hanging more pieces there in the near future if I can’t move certain pieces around to make more wall space.

Needless to say Mary and I love our collection and are very proud to be their owners.