We at Art Logic love a challenge, so when we were approached by Hunt & Hunt to find art for a lawyer’s reception lounge, we jumped at the chance.

‘That doesn’t sound like much of a challenge’ you may say – well, when you factor in that the lounge space is a long, narrow area and that everyone in the office had to like the art, it becomes significantly more difficult!

First things first: the shape of the space. While much art can benefit from close inspection where you can observe the details of the work, it is also important to be able to see the piece from a distance. When you are close to the surface of the art, you can typically only focus on one aspect at a time, and you need to be able to step back far enough to appreciate the entire piece at once. Without this distance, it is all too easy to feel somewhat claustrophobic and ‘pressed up’ against the art, especially if it a large piece of work. Yet having pieces that are too small would make the already slim space feel even more stunted and out of proportion, since the space is quite long.
 

Before Art Logic: a long narrow reception - that's a challenge

A conundrum already! But wait, there’s more:

Having two people agree on art can be difficult enough when buying privately for your own home; consider how many people work in a lawyer’s office. Having them all agree is indeed a challenge.
 

Unlikely that all would agree to the above more 'challenging' artworks

To make this even more convoluted, art in any busy must also needs to reflect the image the business wishes to display. This is both a blessing and a curse, as it significantly reduces the number of pieces to select from by eliminating certain styles or genres, but by the same token can result in some people disliking the remaining pieces of art simply because the styles are not ones they favour.

So, there you have it. Well, not all of it: these challenges can be mitigated by renting art for periods of time so that the pieces can be rotated through different sizes, orientations and styles. However, when Art Logic presented the options to a group of ten partners from the business, they decided that they wished to own the pieces to be displayed rather than renting them.

In other words, there can be no trial and error – the art has to be exactly right the very first time it is put up!
Luckily, our proposal system means that we can run the pieces we suggest by our clients before we actually bring any pieces on site, and they can see how the different pieces work together.

Our first proposal for pieces had some of the partners enthusiastic, but others weren’t so sure how the pieces would work with the other aspects of the space. The solution? Take note of their concerns and make a new proposal, of course!

Since Hunt & Hunt is a primarily Australian company, they wanted to support Australian artists, but we went one better: why not have paintings that represent this wonderful country as well?
 

Our artist John Lacey  -  a self portrait

Our artist John Lacey had just recently joined Art Logic at the time, and as you can probably tell from the pieces of his online, he takes much of his inspiration from the world around him (namely, Australia).

In fact, he often uses a technique known as ‘en plein air’ – painting outside – to create ‘studies’, which are smaller pieces used to capture the shape, feel and some details of a scene. These studies are then used to help the artist create larger pieces of the same landscape back in the safety of their studio, where both canvas and artist are protected from the elements.
 

Hunt & Hunt after Art Logic

So, the second proposal was made up of two (since that was how many pieces the client had requested) of Lacey’s pieces. The partners liked them so much that they ended up buying five of Lacey’s works!
Now that’s what we call a challenge fulfilled.
 

Artworks by a South Australian artist that represent our wonderful country