Speaking of gardens!
This Saturday the Ballard studio Piano Nobile is having an open studio party. It’s called Grow/Draw: Works on paper, wood panel, and canvas, ranging in size from 6 inches to 6 feet wide. Below is a short interview with artist Isabelle Grizzard Robertson.
It’s going to be neat. DK met Piano Nobile—also a couple, Nick and Isabelle—in person recently. We loved their story of doing art and architecture together in New York before relocating away from trendiness to our town of Seattle.
How did you decide on the theme for Grow/Draw?
I wanted the drawn lines to describe the movement of the subject — stems growing up from the ground, leaves tracking the path of the sun, gravel scattering and settling. These pieces are all about motion, from the imperceptible, minute force that grows a plant to the sweeping arm movements that create a drawing.
What inspires you?
Light and color and line and Nick.
What do you like most about Ballard?
I love the cultural history of Ballard, as well as the life of the waterfront. They are closely connected and still very much in evidence. It is just so very, very different from New York!
How come Seattle and not New York?
I was ready to live somewhere new. I love New York and loved my life there, but I recognized that there were so many other places that I wanted to explore more completely than just a vacation.
What’s next for Piano Nobile?
Nick and I are working on a few new pieces that incorporate industrial scraps. I am developing a group of new textiles on the most beautiful organic fabric that will be available by the yard.
Chadhaus is introducing a new table to the Farmhouse Modern set, and I’m hoping that there are a few more pieces in that line! They are so inventive.
dao jewelry is on a repurposing kick, incorporating gorgeous scraps of wood from Chad’s shop in her silver baubles.
“Intricate leaves and stems disappear in the frenzy of drawing, sometimes reappearing as marks in the foreground, sometimes assembling into the structure of a flower, a garden hose, or a field of gravel.”
GROW/DRAW
An Exhibition of New Paintings by Isabelle Grizzard Robertson
Saturday, June 20
4 to 8 pm
More info: StudioPianoNobile.com
Show runs thru July 10, 2009




Nice picture. Looks vaguely like a detail from a Pre-Raphaelite/Art-Noveau piece. Could have it in the sitting-room, which is kiss-of-death for a modernist, perhaps [grin].