"Wall Art Revisited: Painted Interiors and Decorative Woodwork" What to do with our walls? This is a question that has beguiled home owners since the time of cave dwellers. The art of early America was domestic art – furniture, silver, ceramics, and textiles. The uses of paint for decorative purpose and embellishment, above and beyond the plain surface coatings used to protect or conceal the surface of inexpensive domestic woods, emerged steadily during the 18th century, blossoming into ornamental traditions that were complex, diverse and often astonishing. This program honors the legacy of two early New England preservationists and contemporaries William Warren (1912-1998) and Nina Fletcher Little (1903-1993), who preserved, documented publicized and collected evidence of an important but then largely unknown aspect of American art. This program surveys the remarkable range of interior wall treatments practiced by early New England’s artisan decorators, highlight important new work in the technical preservation of decorated walls and conclude with a survey of wall treatments during the 19th and 20th centuries and a celebration of the resurgence of custom wall and mural art in contemporary life. To book a feature length version of this program contact - wnhosley@snet.net

1. Wall Art Revisited: Painted Interiors and Decorative Woodwork

3. Joseph Pitkin House, East Hartford, CT c 1755

4. Seth Wetmore House, Middletown, CT (now at Wadsworth Atheneum)

5. Overmantel paintings, 18 th century

6. Overmantel painting from John Potter house, S Kingston, RI ( now at Newport Historical Society)

7. Warner House, Portsmouth, NH Indian Kings Mural – c 1740

8. Evidence for exterior paint treatments, 18 th century – Historic Deerfield

9. Introduction of wallpaper

10. Portrait of an American Artist Thomas Ware Woodstock VT (Woodstock Historical Society)

11. Most American painters and artists painted anything that paid

12. Fireboards

16. Rufus Porter – An American Icon

17. Caroll House, Springfield, NY (now at Winterthur Museum)

19. Raising the bar - American Victorian interiors

20. Shard Villa, Salisbury, VT - 1874

21. Kimball-Jenkins Hse Concord, NH

22. Lockwood-Mathews Mansion, Norwalk, CT

26. Sol LeWitt at MassMOCA – America exuberant wall art goes global

27. Wall Art Revisited: Painted Interiors and Decorative Woodwork by Bill Hosley, Terra Firma Northeast – wnhosley@snet.net Special thanks to Mary Lou Davis, Susan Buck, Glenn Andres & David Wiggins