The Sydney Morning Herald - Domain - 26 September 2002
Picture Perfect
The Hangman
Area: Sydney Metropolitan
Inquiries Jonathon Lee, 0419 424 604
It’s the finishing touch to a renovation. You’ve pulled down walls, polished floor boards and painted. Now it’s time to hang your artwork, but where do you start?
We finished renovating five months ago and I still can’t bring myself to put a nail in those perfect walls. What if I make a huge hole and have to patch and paint again?
And as time passes, deciding where the pictures should go just seems to get harder. Enter Jonathon Lee of The Hangman.
“People spend so much money getting their homes renovated and then neglect to hang their art properly”, says Lee. “I should be the last person in so that when I walk into a house I can see what I call ‘hot spots’. I can see where artwork should go. It’s either obvious to you or not.”
Lee, who trained as an actor, fell into picture hanging through a casual job at an art gallery. “A couple of paintings sold and I offered to hang the works and it took off from there.” That was eight years ago.
He has hung work all over Sydney including The Wharf at Woolloomooloo and 2500 pieces at the Olympic Stadium. “I don’t just bang a nail into a wall. I’m not a decorator but in my residential work I will make suggestions about where furniture should go and I will move stuff around. But only if that’s what the client wants. You can’t impose your taste on other people.”
The main thing Lee looks for are colour and balance. “I’ve done a lot of hanging in Altair [in Kings Cross], for example. People always want to hang their art too high there. You really need to hang them low as the ceilings aren’t very high.”
If Lee thinks the artwork is damaged or needs to be reframed, he can recommend restorers and framers. “I work with a couple who are very good. I really trust them to do the right job.”
And if you feel you’d like more artworks, Lee can help. “I’ll take a client shopping to different galleries and I’ll keep an eye out for just the right piece for them.”
Lee charges $120 an hour for two men, which includes GST and insurance. “Prices can vary depending on the size of the job. I can give you a ballpark figure over the phone. I try to get a sense of the client and what they want, what they can afford. I would never recommend something too expensive to a couple starting out collecting. You really need to cater to where a person is in their life.”
The Hangman
Area: Sydney Metropolitan
Inquiries Jonathon Lee, 0419 424 604
It’s the finishing touch to a renovation. You’ve pulled down walls, polished floor boards and painted. Now it’s time to hang your artwork, but where do you start?
We finished renovating five months ago and I still can’t bring myself to put a nail in those perfect walls. What if I make a huge hole and have to patch and paint again?
And as time passes, deciding where the pictures should go just seems to get harder. Enter Jonathon Lee of The Hangman.
“People spend so much money getting their homes renovated and then neglect to hang their art properly”, says Lee. “I should be the last person in so that when I walk into a house I can see what I call ‘hot spots’. I can see where artwork should go. It’s either obvious to you or not.”
Lee, who trained as an actor, fell into picture hanging through a casual job at an art gallery. “A couple of paintings sold and I offered to hang the works and it took off from there.” That was eight years ago.
He has hung work all over Sydney including The Wharf at Woolloomooloo and 2500 pieces at the Olympic Stadium. “I don’t just bang a nail into a wall. I’m not a decorator but in my residential work I will make suggestions about where furniture should go and I will move stuff around. But only if that’s what the client wants. You can’t impose your taste on other people.”
The main thing Lee looks for are colour and balance. “I’ve done a lot of hanging in Altair [in Kings Cross], for example. People always want to hang their art too high there. You really need to hang them low as the ceilings aren’t very high.”
If Lee thinks the artwork is damaged or needs to be reframed, he can recommend restorers and framers. “I work with a couple who are very good. I really trust them to do the right job.”
And if you feel you’d like more artworks, Lee can help. “I’ll take a client shopping to different galleries and I’ll keep an eye out for just the right piece for them.”
Lee charges $120 an hour for two men, which includes GST and insurance. “Prices can vary depending on the size of the job. I can give you a ballpark figure over the phone. I try to get a sense of the client and what they want, what they can afford. I would never recommend something too expensive to a couple starting out collecting. You really need to cater to where a person is in their life.”