BELLAS ARTES

How do you make your home come alive with personality, charm, and memory? In the introduction to Sean Scherer’s first book, Kabinett & Kammer: Creating Authentic Interiors, Anderson Cooper writes, “Scherer has a unique ability to place otherwise ordinary objects in a completely unexpected context or grouping and in so doing change the way you see them.” In Sean Scherer’s Vignettes, Scherer focuses in on the art of combining common objects into aesthetically pleasing groupings, or vignettes. Contending that a vignette can set the whole mood and tone of a room, he shows you how to use any surface in your home, from a tabletop to a bookshelf to a wall, to create lively displays of your favorite items. Beautifully illustrated with Scherer’s own photographs, the book demonstrates how to balance color, texture, and shape, and provides lessons on how to create both symmetrical and asymmetrical vignettes.

A swirl of elegantly offbeat parties and lush tablescapes, where ceramic snails creep under flower petals and chandelier girls covered in Swarovski crystals beckon guests to the dance floor: Gardner’s infectious irreverence shines in her glamorous approach to entertaining, where even the mundane is made delicious. This book—like her parties—is a decadent feast for the eyes, with a foreword by Sofia Coppola and photography that captures the surprise and delight of Gardner’s hyperbolic entertaining style. From a brass band leading guests to dinner along the tracks of the Napa Valley Wine Train to a pink-poodle-themed holiday party with a bountiful buffet of retro desserts, the pages burst with entertainments, heavy pours, and flattering light as all the elements combine in a perfectly orchestrated yet seemingly effortless way that makes it impossible for guests not to have a screaming blast!

A major monograph of the American realist artist, descendant of one of America’s most revered artistic families, and painter of dark and uneasy subjects. This book traces a persistent vein of intriguing, often disconcerting, imagery over the career of renowned artist Jamie Wyeth (b. 1946), famous for his hyperrealist paintings of farm animals and Maine lighthouses. The focus in this volume is on the chilling thread that runs through his work, present but not overwhelming, and ever-evolving with his style and subjects. Whether he is introducing curious characters or surveying strange landscapes, Wyeth is at home with uneasy subjects and a master of the unsettled mood