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Decking the Halls This Year with Melissa Skowlund The Owner of Summer House Lifestyle Talks Holidays b y D e n i s e K . J a m e s
Parma, Italy Comes to 30-A b y Te s s F a r m e r
S trolling into Curate 30A on Main Street in Rosemary Beach, it’s hard not to immedi- ately notice the vibrant hues, grand scale, and just overall happiness on the walls represented in the artwork of Italian artist, Nicoletta Belletti. “The aim of my art is to make people feel good, happy, joyful,” says Belletti. “That’s why I typically use bright colors and paint funny animals... Happiness is the key of life, sometimes hard to achieve but always worthy to pursue.” Her hometown studio has been open for more than 10 years in historic Parma, Italy, a city in the northern Italian region famous for its art, architecture, and culinary specialties. Belletti has had several artistic collaborations, including the Centro Botanico Moutan in Viterbo, which keeps the world’s greatest collection of Chinese Peonies; as well as with Salumificio Terre Ducale (producer of Italian deli meats, and Codap (producer of fine milk and cream products). She has been exhibiting since 2000 exclusively in Italy and now has an expanding public interest... which led to her discovery by Gary Handler, gallery owner of Curate. Her personal technique has become a substantial and characterizing part of her paintings. She especially loves to paint natural scenes depicting animals, flowers, and sea creatures as subjects. Her pet portraits have become popular too, giving collectors a chance to work one-on-one with Belletti in the creative process. “I love working on custom pieces because interacting with customers becomes a sort of learning experience,” Belletti adds. “It may happen that their requests push me beyond my routine with new subjects, new points of view, new ideas. “For the pet portraits in particular, the challenge is catching the pet’s personality so that my customers truly see THEIR pet, not just a dog or a cat,” she says. “Considering the great success of Nicoletta’s pet portraits, we’d say she’s quite successful at it,” adds Handler. Her work often begins as a charcoal sketch with the hint of acrylic paint on a wooden board. She then creates her final wonders by using an acrylic paste medium. It is often laid on with a trowel or spatula and in some cases includes the addition of natural elements such as sand and stone.
Share a time you decorated “on the fly” for a holiday gathering or dinner and what your tips are in those situations. Greenery and flowers—you can never go wrong with floral ar- rangements and greenery. These are always my go-to for quick din- ner parties: orchids, roses, and lots of greenery. Add some ribbons and fun placemats or napkins with a brass napkin ring, plus festive stemware, and you are all set. Answer this question once decorations? And when is the appropriate time to put them away? I refuse to put up Christmas decorations until after Halloween, and my husband prefers me to wait until after Thanksgiving, as he likes one holiday at a time. I generally put them all out the day after Thanksgiving, so I follow his rules! I take them down at the end of January. It really bothers me if I still see Christmas in February, but some people cannot let it go, ha. I think that is a Northern thing though—I’m from Wisconsin, and people tend to leave them out un- and for all: when is the time to bust out festive
Share the background of Summer House Lifestyle.
Summer House Lifestyle has been designing homes in Walton County and beyond for over 10 years—we work on homes all over the country with various design styles. We focus on custom work with attention to detail throughout the home. This past year, we have worked on homes in Con- necticut, Wisconsin, Park City, Dallas, and Tennessee. We are a full-service boutique design firm, and we work on CAD drawings, lighting and plumbing specs, space designing both indoor and out, and window treatments, wallpa- per, and tile design. Our focus is on customizing a space for the way our clients want to live in their home. We try to create spaces that are sophisticat- ed, light, airy, and inviting. When decorating for the holidays, we try to bring the beauty of nature indoors. What trends are you noticing for this year’s holiday season? I think the trend is to keep it simple and elegant... or maybe that is just how I like to decorate for the holidays! Take what foundation you already have in the home and accent it with some sparkle and shimmer. I’m seeing a lot of mixing metals —silver and gold throughout the home. Red and green are making strong comebacks, and holiday plaid
Featured Artist Nicoletta Belletti
This paste brings dimension and wonder to the piece. We asked Belletti about the base for the paste and she described it “as a kind of acrylic resin but the recipe is secret and guarded together with Coca Cola’s recipe!” It is produced by a small company there in Parma specifically for her. Together, years ago, they attempted several tries to achieve a product with the right features: strength, lightness, compactness, and capacity to keep vivid colors. Her original muse, however, was a simple flower blossom. Her blossoms are cheerful, colorful, and modern, exploding in all their vividness. The flower remains one of her favorite subjects. They are a source of continual discovery as so many varieties exist; each with their own shapes and details to reinvent. She also has a water series which was initially produced when she began to experiment with artistic resins. This new medium allowed her to “drown” her drawings, creating a thick wet looking layer on the board. Growing up, Belletti’s parents were always encourag- ing of her love of art and creating. Her mother was also
an artist and allowed her to try whatever she wanted. “That’s why I always say to let children express them- selves in any way and have fun with what they are doing. They do not have to feel judged and be discouraged, particularly when they are very young. “A good technique comes from experience, I mean a lot of experience, a lot of tries and a lot of mistakes too,” says Belletti. Curate offers a selection of the most sought-after artists, ranging from the most alluring rising new talents to nationally recognized museum artists, in an impressive array of original paintings, mixed media, and sculpture. Belletti is planning to visit the gallery in 2022 for a free public event. Curate 30A, (850) 231-1808, info@curate30a.com 72 Main St., Rosemary Beach, Mon-Sat: 10am – 9pm Sunday: 12pm – 8pm
Melissa Skowland, Bess Pooler and Stephanie Wiesel
What are “must-haves” for holiday decor? Visuals and festive scents. I love to have plants be the focus during the holidays, whether a boxwood wreath, amaryllis, paperwhites, or poinsettias. I love a home full of greens. I also love candles to add some ambience. Throw in some gold and crystal accents, and this just screams holiday to me. I also think the house should look and smell like the holiday. I burn a candle every day to keep the aroma lingering. Ribbons are also essential! Take the best of each room in your house and accentuate it with greens, ribbons, and some gold or silver accents.
is also making a comeback. I think the look this year is very classic Ralph Lauren: plaid and Americana Christmas. There is also a trend to bring in natural stone materials. For instance, I am seeing a lot of quartz and selenite and crystal being used, and a lot of onyx bowls and containers. These bring a natural, textural element to any decor. And of course, boxwoods — wreaths, topiaries, and boxwoods are a holiday staple that is here to stay.
til it thaws out. But I say please put them away by the end of January; that is almost two months of enjoyment, and it is time by then to move on! As a side note, I always want to redo a room after I take down Christmas decor. It makes the rooms feel like something is missing. Early spring is a great time to refresh and redecorate, so I say move on from the holidays and start your spring decorating project in late January. The way furniture is selling, you might have new items in time for next year!
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