Mediterranean Decor Wall Art

Mediterranean Decor Wall Art

This subject splits cleanly by orientation, and knowing which half you are in saves a lot of second-guessing. Coast, harbour and terrace views are horizontal by nature: a low horizon, a wide band of sea, a strip of sky. Alleyways, painted doors, cypress trees and bougainvillea climbing a whitewashed wall are all vertical — tall, narrow subjects that look strangled in a landscape crop and excellent in a portrait one.

Once orientation is settled, light is the next question. The appeal of this whole category rests on a very particular quality of sun: hard, high and bleaching, with sharp blue shadows under every arch and awning. Images made under grey skies keep the architecture and lose the reason anyone wanted it.

Blue and white is the obvious palette and also the easy trap, because a room that already has blue tiles, blue crockery and a blue rug does not need a fourth blue. The stronger buys often lean on the other end of the range: sun-bleached ochre, terracotta roof tile, dusty olive, the pink of oleander. Those sit more comfortably against warm neutral walls, which is what most kitchens actually are.

Kitchens and dining rooms take this subject naturally, for reasons that are not complicated. It also does well in a north-facing room that never gets much sun, on the reasonable grounds that if you cannot have the light, you may as well hang a picture of it.

Placement tip worth following: hang the wide sea and harbour views low, at seated eye level, above a sideboard or a sofa, so the horizon sits roughly where your eye rests. Vertical street scenes want the opposite — higher, in a narrow gap between a door and a corner, where the tall shape has something to work against. A tall image marooned in the middle of a broad blank wall just looks lost.