Wednesday, October 31, 2012

What Am I Looking At Today: Miniature Paintings

 Good Morning Gentle Readers,




As I am still landlocked in my Upper Westside apartment in NYC, my one very dangerous pursuit is internet shopping.......and while I am now building a doll's house, furniture shopping and artwork are high on the list....I came across these three miniatures with ivory frames...the two 18th c Venetian pictures are 3 1/2 x 3 /1/2 " and would look lovely in my drawing room.



Below is a 16th c 3" painting of saints that would be nice in the library.....now...if I can 'win' them at auction, we're in business....but i somehow think they'll be out of my range for a doll house...



I suppose that printing them out and making frames would work...but wouldn't it be nice to have originals!

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

What Am I Doing Today: Bricks



Greetings All,

I hope that the storm last night, which has left most of the Jersey Shore in shambles and my own hometown of NYC partly underwater has left you unscathed and well. As I cannot leave my apartment today, I thought it would be a good time to start working on the house....and so here we are making rusticated stones for the foundation.....sadly, I've run out of materials, so it will have to wait...and with any luck, the walls and floors will be up by the end of the week....don't think there will be many packages arriving in the next few days so everything will be on paper....

Well, that's about it....slow going for now. Stay safe and dry.



The foundation will look like rusticated stone with piers running up the ground floor to hold 4 pilasters...


....and after all of that, I had to remake them all, as I'm so used to working at 1/4" and this house is 1:12"........lol



Friday, October 26, 2012

What I'm Looking At Today: Scale and What To Do!

Greetings Again,

Well, here's my second post and I have received my Gloucester House, but as I feared, the scale is a bit smaller than what I was looking for, so I've gone and ordered some wood so I can make something up....also gotten a Dremel and ordered a few bits to start with. In the meantime worked on a few floor designs and the search continues for wall decoration for the neoclassical room.



Thinking that these chairs might live in a sitting room or a gallery.


Hamilton prints that will become part of the wall decorations.

Below is a great neoclassical chair....Think I might try my hand at making a set soon.....and if it doesn't work out, there's a classical chair below that might be able to doctor up.




Hoping that the wood comes tomorrow so I can work while the storm is afoot.

Best regards until next time....

Monday, October 22, 2012

A New World

Let's start with an introduction.

Greetings Dear Reader,

First thing's first. My name is Louis and I am interior decorator living in NYC and working on houses near and far. I'm not a historian in any way, but I do like antiques and classical interiors. Recently a friend turned me on to the world of miniatures and well, I'm hooked. So I thought that I should build a house.....I am in no way a woodworker or a craftsman, tho I can can draw and paint rather well and I can decorate with the best of them...so here I am writing my first entry for A Miniature Gentleman....

I've chosen a house, but sadly,I'm thinking I will have to build one from scratch...not that there's anything wrong with it other than it has low ceilings....and I need at least 12' to get the look I want....so I've drawn up plans and will head off to the lumber yard to have the pieces cut. Hopefully, I will be able to put them together.....in the mean time I've been shopping around....and I can't seem to find classical wallpapers, so I've decided to make my own....below are some attempts at Grecian borders and a grisaille...guaches and ink but I think it may be easier to eventually print these borders out....mixed media as it were...planning a few mod paintings too...

Well, let's see what happens...I'm thinking I need to learn how to make molds soon...I need some caryatides for pier tables.....