DESIGNERS’ NOTEBOOK Home-related tips, trends, and tidbits
DELICIOUS DESIGN: Christine Bridger, of Company + Cottage, designed the beautiful interiors at Coast 236, a Saugatuck restaurant. “Our vision was to create a soothing familiarity with a fresh wave of touches,” Bridger says. “It has a relaxed and clean, coastal feel, and features enlarged vintage beach postcards that have been transformed into murals, as well as vintage lanterns rewired as lighting.” coast236.com, companyandcottage.com. HOME ICON: Rachel “Bunny” Lambert Mellon was an art collector, horticulturalist, gardener, and style icon. A new title from Gibbs Smith Books, “Bunny Mellon Style,” reveals how her style developed and how she became a self-confident, hands-on designer of homes and gardens. Find it wherever books are sold, or visit gibbssmith.com/bunny-mellon-style. GO GREEN!: PPG Paints has announced its 2022 color: Olive Sprig. The hue is a relaxed, enticing green that brings to mind the soothing feeling of aloe vera or a fragrant plant that brightens any space with its organic liveliness. ppgpaints.com. TILE STYLE: Island Stone has introduced Stone Essentials Textured Wall Tiles. The easy-to-install tiles are suitable for indoor/outdoor applications and can enhance walls, kitchen backsplashes, fireplace walls, shower walls, and exterior walls. The timeless, crisp tiles come in five colors. islandstone.com. — Compiled by Megan Swoyer
Have news about waterfront living? Email MSwoyer@Hour-Media.com. 22
Capturing the Seasons Artist Betsy O’Neill immerses herself in Michigan’s natural bounty By Megan Swoyer | Photos of artist by Jasmine Bykerk
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etsy O’Neill feels periwinkle. Yes, she feels it. The blue-violet color taps her imagination regularly, and it often hovers quietly in her mind until she eventually dabs her paint brush into it and swirls it onto her canvas. You’ll see it in this artist’s water, grasses, trees, and sky. And especially in snow. “I’m painting my feeling in the snow scenes,” she says. “There’s no way to explain it. It’s a dimension my subconscious is feeling.” Periwinkle (called light blue violet) is one of the artist’s trademark colors, and when it’s blended with her sense of form and composition, you get some beautiful painterly artwork made with a unique mix of acrylic paints. With two daughters ages 12 and 10,
and one son, 16, O’Neill and her husband, Craig, are always busy (they home-school their daughters). But that doesn’t stop the Grand Rapids artist from turning out lots of artwork, from originals to prints to notecards and more. “I get little bits of time to paint. When my kids are doing extracurricular things, I paint — even in my van! Or I’m folding notecards in some random place, like in a parking lot, making good use of time,” O’Neill says with a laugh. She also admits that being an artist-mom has its challenges. “My family always comes first, so (sometimes I struggle with) finding the time to create, to work on my website, to email people, to sign prints. I’m often torn in a million directions.” O’Neill wasn’t always a city girl. “I grew up in Caledonia on a 10-acre hobby farm. We had pigs, cows, sheep, goats, and a horse. I was home-schooled and had the best childhood — being in the barn, in the fields. I just loved the look and smell and feelings; I’d immerse myself in the seasons. I find my soul in places.” That soul-finding is especially expressed in her paintings. “If I drive past a place, I can see what it’s saying, and I want to stop and paint. Art makes me stop and see. So many people miss that in life. They’re not stopping and seeing.” Her snow paintings often include hints of purples, periwinkle (in the shadows and highlights), and navy blues. “People are amazed that those colors are in snow. I hope my art inspires
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