Neglected to Noteworthy
Art and personality abound in this delightful small home. Artist Tom Redfield, a member of the Portuguese Bend Artist Colony, took an “almost derelict” cottage and created a dazzling retreat surrounded by manicured lawns and mature plantings framing dramatic cliff and ocean vistas.
Built in 1949 by a San Pedro shipbuilder, the 2,000 sq. ft Cape Cod featured rotting decks, rusted farm equipment in the yard and gaping holes and raccoons in the guest house when Redfield purchased it in 1994. Now an artistic eye, talented friends and sweat equity have transformed neglected into noteworthy.
“The house told me what to do,” said Redfield. The result is a solid Arts and Crafts feel with well-aged Oriental rugs and custom quartersawn oak, Craftsman-style furnishings, wainscoting, mantel and bookshelves. Filling the shelves are some of his 1000-plus books and memorabilia from an artist’s eclectic life.
Everywhere there is art, more than 400 canvases, of which 95 percent are still lifes and plein air landscapes by Redfield. Usually at least one “work-in-progress” rests on an easel in a studio corner with special lighting and brushes in beer bottles.
Other artists in the collection include his fellow Portuguese Bend artists and sculptor George Carlson.
Finally, in the bedroom are two prints of plein air paintings by his great grandfather Edward Willis Redfield (1869-1965), a Pennsylvania impressionist, whose work hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
