Textural Contrast Quotes

My favorite thing about decorating is mixing different periods and styles. If you have something that's old, and you really do want to mix those styles, then you have to add something that's obviously modern with it. You can't put a kind of a mediocre thing in the middle.

Chris Ofili's suave, stippled, visually tricked-out paintings of the nineties, with their allover fields of shimmering dots and clumps of dung, are like cave paintings of modern life. They crackle with optical cockiness, love, and massive amounts of painterly mojo.

Although I am basically self taught, I consider Debussy my teacher - the most important elements are colour, light and shadow.

You can really have a no-holds-barred relationship to materials with mixed metals and colorful schemes or more controlled palettes that are more tonal or restricted to a single accent color or metal finish. There are really no rules, and that is what makes contemporary design so limitless and enjoyable.

The mild creaminess of cottage cheese makes it a perfect blank canvas for almost any flavor combination, savory or sweet. Since it's so soft, I usually try to give it some textural contrast in the form of something crunchy. Brightening it up with acid is also a must.

We use many expressions of fennel: blended with potato, it's an earthy, rich puree; the raw fronds add a fresh, green note; and the braised version gives it a luscious, home-cooked feel, something people can connect to - you need that in any dish.

I tend to work in layers. There's a huge orchestra in the film, but I also record a lot things with very intimate groups, and I like to be able to use the textures of those intimate groups.

Anytime I see an unusual combination of colors or patterns or texture, I buy it.

By drawing or exposing two or more patterns on the same bit of film I can create harmony and textual effects.

Architecture only does part of the work. How you fill the space matters just as much, sometimes more. I designed a beach house with a continuous living/dining area, but it had to have a table in the middle to give it a visual rhythm. Every room has a foreground and a background. But you also need a middle ground - like that table - to go between.

Take your average couscous salad, and it's almost always a sloppy mush, no matter how much attention has gone into getting flavours in there.