california design

Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, with Sam Francis AbEx Retrospective

“The process of painting is one of devotion to that image. The illusion is what you make of it . . . each painting is like my body print, taken at different moments of my life.” ~ Sam Francis

www.artesmagazine.com — Sam Francis working on Basel Mural I in Arcueil, Paris studio, c. 1958. Photo: Georges Boisgontier.

One of the twentieth century’s most influential Abstract Expressionist painters, Samuel Lewis Francis (1923–1994) created art that is both intuitive and cerebral; his complex and varied use of light and color has its own distinct characteristics and interpretations while also referencing historical painting traditions. With a career spanning five decades of painting, he also became known as one of the first post-World War II California painters to develop a truly international reputation, drawing inspiration from the Fauvist colorists as well as the French Impressionists, California Bay Area Modernists, and ancient and contemporary Chinese and Japanese scroll and sumi-e ink paintings. Francis’s lyrical hand, sense of movement, and capturing of light and color as well as the sheer energy of his gestural images embrace and define a beauty that he found inherent in the exploration of one’s imagination. The paintings illuminate his process of documenting moments in time and ongoing questions about the concepts of infinite space. His paintings set the soul of the world into motion. artes fine arts magazineMore

High Tech Lighting Solutions for High Rise Living

Randall Whitehead Lighting — Custom adjustable picture lights by Phoenix Day Company subtly offer additional illumination for the paintings by Marianne Kolb. The box beams visually float down from the ceiling to allow indirect light for the room

As more people select high-rise living in cities across the country, they are facing the tremendous challenge of how to get lighting where they want it, when the construction is primarily concrete. Often they are given a few junction boxes from which to draw power for their lighting needs. Sometimes they don’t even have that.

For example, the dining room in this luxurious 52nd story condominium at the Millennium Tower in San Francisco had little for the lighting designer, Randall Whitehead and interior designer, Michael Merrill to work with. Even though they had ten foot ceilings there wasn’t even a junction box in the ceiling for a power source.

The two designers worked together to come up with a solution that provided both ambient light and accent light for the space. They decided on the concept of fabricating of a series of box beams. The only power source they had to work with was a power feed for motor controlled blinds located in the upper corner of one wall near the ceiling line. A soffit was created along the wall to allow power to be run seamlessly from one beam to the next. The new soffit also helped balance the boxed-in HVAC ducting on the opposite wall.More

Randall Whitehead’s High-Tech Lighting Solutions Transform a Traditional Home

whitehead ext_trad — Exterior: Traditional homes reap benefits from energy conscious. Here, exterior lanterns use two 8 watt CCFL by Litetronics, providing 45 watts of light, lasting 25,000 hrs. Resembling standard household bulbs, they dim with a standard incandescent dimmer.

Our California-based lighting expert explains a remodeling project in dramatic before/after images that is both earth friendly and cost effective

People are constantly being hit over the head with green design. In these hard economic times homeowners are not moving into the next bigger house but are instead staying put and investing their hard-earned…if somewhat deflated…equity into upgrading their present residences. Energy efficient lighting plays a big role, especially here in California where Title 24 requires the use of high efficacy lighting in kitchens, bathrooms and outdoor areas.

Design magazines looking to remain current offer up contemporary architectural layouts and stark, eye-catching interiors. While it’s true that futuristic design and green design seem to go hand-in-hand, it’s not for everyone. How does the owner of a more traditionally styled house make use of today’s earth friendly lighting and interior design techniques? Can progressive lighting design be applied to non-cutting edge spaces to enhance the sense of warmth and comfort that these cozy interiors inspire? Absolutely!More