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Where does george not found live3/30/2023 Hence the ranch’s radiant sweeps of resilient red-and-yellow firewheels, white prickly poppies (Mrs. Though the former first lady appreciates hydrangeas and other refined species, "out in West Texas, where I grew up, your best choices were the ones that stayed alive ," she explains. Plantings emphasize native species, especially polychrome patches of wildflowers that are strewn around the property like Oriental carpets. It’s not hard to understand how the former president would draw inspiration from the natural setting, and the couple has made sure the home’s immediate grounds are in sync aesthetically and ecologically with the surrounding land. Bush remarks, "It reminds me of a Fairfield Porter." Referring to one of the latter canvases, Mrs. A few of his landscapes-expressive ranch vistas and tree studies-are propped in the breezeway. A selection of his portraits of world leaders were exhibited earlier this year at his presidential center, and several other works are displayed in the house’s study, among them a likeness of Barney, one of the family’s late Scottish terriers. Bush’s much-publicized foray into painting. Bush and I describe working together as a painterly process, talking about things, layering, evolving," says Blasingame, adding playfully, "That probably inspired the president." It’s a respectfully tongue-in-cheek reference to Mr. (A gift to the elder Bush from his employer Brown Brothers Harriman, the desk now usually sports an in-progress jigsaw puzzle by Elms, a Maine company whose hand-cut wood creations are a Bush family tradition.) And the couple owns a number of carpets-including the one in the study-made by Arzu Studio Hope, which trains and employs underprivileged Afghan women. Bush’s, and a santo painting by El Paso talent Manuel Acosta join a leather-top partners desk that belonged to Prescott Bush, the former president’s grandfather and a onetime U.S. In the living room, sculptures by Pamela Nelson, a Dallas artist and close friend of Mrs. At the Crawford dwelling, the designer arranged flower-painted Mexican wood plates known as bateas–two inherited from the former first lady’s maternal grandmother-in the breakfast area, above an antique Philadelphia cabinet the Bushes brought back from a trip to Maine. "Every house in Texas should have something from Mexico, because it’s such a part of our culture," says Blasingame, who has worked on the couple’s homes as well as rooms in both the White House and the Bush center. Indoors, the rooms showcase an easygoing multicultural mix, overseen by Fort Worth–based decorator Kenneth Blasingame, the Bushes’ go-to aesthete for nearly three decades. Rainwater runs off the house’s standing-seam metal roof and into a gravel-filled moat, where it filters into a 42,000-gallon cistern concealed beneath the rear terrace and is recycled to irrigate the lawns. "We had to take away their levels," the architect recalls, adding that the stone was relaid the old-fashioned, slightly irregular way, with taut string and appraising eyes.Īn advocate of sustainable design, Heymann incorporated into the compound a number of green features, including a geothermal energy system for heating and cooling. The Bushes wanted to have a subtly rustic, handcrafted look, and Heymann had deliberately chosen to use the so-called rough-back pieces that were traditionally thrown away in the trimming process rather than smoothly finished blocks. Bush pointed out that the masons’ work on the Texas Lueders limestone that clads the exterior (and some interior) walls of the home was absolutely perfect-and thoroughly wrong. "She has a lot of experience from seeing the carefully organized houses that her dad built, and she has a very, very good eye," he says. The former first lady worked closely on the project with Heymann, who found her to be a highly perceptive accomplice. Bush’s house in Crawford, Texas architect David Heymann conceived the house, Kenneth Blasingame Design oversaw the interiors, and the landscaping was done with Michael Williams. Bluebonnets and Indian paintbrush flowers brighten the grounds of Prairie Chapel Ranch, Laura and George W.
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