Brushed with Magic - Functional art for the goddess within

No need for artist Kerri Neild to tell you she likes colour. Just stepping inside her Red Chair Studio, near Five Corners, is like immersing yourself in a warm bath of therapeutic hues.

Her distinctly decorative floral-botanical paintings range from semi-realistic close-ups of blooms to hard-edged stylization and even playful motto-driven works, all featuring a spirit-lifting rainbow of shades.

But while it may seem Neild’s taking the outdoors indoors, she’s actually doing the reverse with works that use outdoor house paints and fully-sealed canvases designed to resist the elements.

It’s all part of the design trend toward blurring the line between outdoors and indoors to maximize the use of home spaces.

Thus interiors borrow from or extend outdoor elements, while more and more furniture, lamps rugs and other decor items are geared to making greater use of balconies, gardens and patios as living spaces.

Neild’s work is designed to bring an additional brightness and colour to the equation, making outdoor spaces all the more livable and enhancing the view outward from indoors.

“When it can be so cloudy for so many days, you can look outside and have this splash of colour,” said Neild, former owner of the Picasso’s Cousin art, decor and gift store.

“I’ve been in home decor for around 17 years now and this seems a natural next step. I started doing my first outdoors pieces a couple of years ago and started the Red Chair Studio officially in February.”

Neild said her background has helped her assess what work is likely to sell and she has a broad range of price points in the studio, from tiny related canvases to large one-of-a-kind pieces.

“Florals are really big right now, and I’m trying to keep my colour palette very current.”

Neild said the paintings mark a return to subject matter she has always been drawn to.

“I always doodled flowers, since I was little,” she said.

“My mom would put paper beside the phone so I wouldn’t draw them all over the phone book. In art school I didn’t want to do flowers – they weren’t cool. I would do mostly figurative work, but now I’ve come back.

“A flower is a beautiful image, and very symbolic of a lot of things.”

Although her paintings have been thoroughly tested for their outdoor durability, she still finds she sells as many for indoor use as for outdoor hanging. But she will also paint pieces on commission for outdoor areas.

“It works well for me to paint something specific for someone’s home,” Neild said.

Other commissions have taken her outside her usual subject matter – everything from herons to a large piece for a coffee company incorporating frogs and a jungle-like atmosphere.

She’s also been called on to paint a really large old French door for a client who had been carrying it around for years with out knowing what to do with it.

“I also do vintage windows that have been taken out of old houses – I clean them up and paint them,” she said.

Neild is also taking pains to gear her work to the seasons, she said.

“I’m now working on things specifically for Christmas; magnolias and amaryllis and birds on branches. I have a whole line of Christmas pieces, particularly smaller paintings, that are great for teacher gifts. And I’m going to be doing art shows, craft shows and things like that.”

Foremost among them will be the Red Chair Studios own pre-Christmas open house, coming later this month.

It will coincide with another feather in her cap – having her work featured in an upcoming issue of Canadian Gardening.

The latter recognition has reaffirmed for her that she has found a niche in the art field in which she is almost alone.

“I’ve researched it, trying to find someone else who is doing what I’m doing.

“Apparently in the same issue there is also an article about a man in Ontario who also does work for outdoors – he’s the only other one I know about.”