PICTURES FORM MOTIF FOR COLOUR SCHEME

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1043, 6 August 1930, Page 6

PICTURES FORM MOTIF FOR COLOUR SCHEME

Some of the most charming Mayfair drawing-rooms of today have a colour scheme which has been deliberately built up from a single picture. Usually it is the picture which fills a panel, or hangs on the wall imme fliately%bove the fireplace, the most arresting spot in the room (writes George Tremaine in the "Daily Telegraph,” London).

In some cases the pictroial motif is a plain landscape, in othefs a seapiece, wherein the greyish-green ex panse of water supplies the keynote •to a wallpaper coming within the varied range of the much-favoured pale greens. Some hostesses prefer an old Dutch or Italian flower painting, and this, perhaps, is the ideal picture for the purpose. The rich yet subdued colourings which distinguish the best examples afford scope for endless ingenuity in the choice of wallpapers, hangings and loose covers, to achieve a perfect decor. If a floral picture be designed to fur nish the keynote of a colour scheme it should be carefully cleaned and its hues developed to their full beauty. Many of these pictures are so black ened by time that the colours are barely visible. Once the cleaner gets to work unsuspected beauties come to light—a butterfly poised upon a tulip petal; a caterpillar clinging to a tendril; a snail on a veined leaf. In the old manor houses of England a Dutch still life painting was often framed in the wainscot over the fireplace, but it has been left to the modern decorative artist to develop the idea and bring the colours on the canvas into harmony with the furnishings of the room. VX/TIAT proportion of homps is owned ” by the families who live in them? Shortly after the close of the World War, government reports said that 40 per cent, were home-owners. It is claimed that the average since that time has been slightly raised. Analysts, basing their claims ou incomplete research, say! 46 to 48 per cent, now own tlieir homes. Germany, France, and other European countries claim as high as 80 per cent, home ownership.