Furniture: 40 Years of Designing and Building

'Equestrian Bench' Carved mahogany with pigmented glaze finish.

My first juried group show was titled, "Things." It was in 1972 at the Brockton Art Center in Massachusetts. Jack Lenor Larsen was the sole juror. Two of my pieces were accepted. These were two tables that are shown below (see arrows). The one on the plinth in maple and rosewood is called 'On Point.' On the floor is a cherry table with a lamp as part of a carved 'landscape' underneath. As you can see the exhibition had a distinct 'crafts' tone. Well, Jack Larsen was on the board of The American Craft Museum, what is now called the Museum of Art and Design, in New York for many years. 

My first juried group exhibition."Things," Brockton Art Center, MA 1972.

This is my 'Colored Chair' in Robert Motherwell's Greenwich, CT living room. He had an apartment above the painting, collage and printmaking studios. That's the couch on which we watched Jimmy Carter win the election in '76. This chair is now in the Lewis collection, Richmond, VA. Photo taken in 1985.

My mahogany and pear-wood 'Chest of Drawer' end-table with a Joseph Cornell 'box' on top. That's one of Bob Motherwell's abstract paintings hung on the rear wall in ocher and black. Two African masks are on the upper-right.

A detail of the chest / table shown above.

'Black Mesa Clock'    Height: 2M

This clock contains a classic American hand-made bell-strike movement. The bell was made in a small British factory that has been making the same bells for hundreds of years. The dial was made of bisque-fired porcelain especially for this piece.

Rear of clock showing Jack Lenor Larsen stretched fabric.

When the bell chimes the hour, it will continue to ring for a full minute after it is struck. Most tall case clocks muffle the tone. The rear fabric panel allows the sound to be more easily transmitted into the room. Jack Larsen personally helped me select this fabric design from his extensive line.

Detail of clock with key for doors.

To wind the movement or inspect the lower weights, the key is turned to open the upper or lower front doors.

'Greek Mountain Table'

A small end table that has four small 'bird cage' columns supporting the top. The base was stuccoed by hand with a tinted mix.

'Lysistrata Table'

A small writing table named after the principal character in a comedy written by Aristophanes. Carved and painted maple legs are connected by means of an iron apron. The top is in figured 'birds's eye' maple.

'Flag Back Chair'

A painted wood and metal chair prototype. It is intended to have a formed leather seat and back. A hidden spring mechanism in the back allows it to recline.

'Landscape Chest'

This chest has twenty drawers and over one hundred dovetail joints.

'I Miss You' table, twin towers street side.

A few days after 9/11 a gold Mylar balloon landed in the David Austen rose bush outside of my Amenia, NY studio. I picked it out of the thorns and examined it. It bore the hand written legend, "I Miss You." Some time soon afterward a Roman Catholic nun, Sister Mary Lanning, said to me, "Oh yes, we released hundreds of those balloons in Harlem." I decided to make a commemorative table in honor of Sister Lanning's efforts to promote healing and reconciliation.

'I Miss You' table, river side.

'3 Sided Glass Top Table with 4 Legs'

Carved and painted maple, forged iron, glass.

'Carved Mahogany Bench'    Shown in Robert Motherwell's collage studio 1970s.

This bench has a cabinet with colored glass and a small drawer built into it.

'Thalassia Coat Rack'

Painted oak with a metal pan on the base to collect water from dripping coats and boots.

'My Wooden Herculaneum'

Another small table based on the double bird cage theme.

'My Wooden Herculaneum'

'Night Sky Table'

A dining table that seats eight. Hundreds of stars are painted on the top in the manner of the Milky Way.

'Night Sky Table'

'Exhibition with Paintings Studies'

The 'Equestrian Bench' and '3 Sided Glass Top Table..' were exhibited in NYC at the Franklin Parrasch Gallery in 1990. I often use very large paintings on paper to finalize these designs as shown above. L-R: 'Her Moods' (after a poem by W.H. Auden), the 'Bruno Chair' (my son's middle name).

'S. Maria Novella Humidor'

A humidor with a cast bronze base and painted mahogany box. S. Maria Novella is my favorite building in Florence. The Gothic arches with alternating green and white are taken from the facade of the church.

'S. Maria Novella Humidor'

Shown with the top open.

'3 Shadows Table'

Carved and painted maple, forged iron, glass.

'Ribbon Table'

Forged iron and glass.

'Folding Music Stand'

Designed in 1971. This stand is often used as an easel to display framed art. The Folding Music Stand design is in the permanent collections at MoMA and at The Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego.

Forged iron picnic table with free-edge spruce board top.

Springtime Paintings

'Zurich in May'

'Goldeneye'

'Frari'

'Beaver Swamp Fence'

'Pink Pearl Fisher'

'Yalta'

Architectural Projects and Details

Architectural Projects Designed by John E. Scofield

Inside of two back-to-back 'Rumford' fireplaces. 

I designed and built a group of 'cabins' for a Hollywood producer who owned land in Connecticut. This shoot for Vogue was the first design story in the USA for editor Hamish Bowles. He arrived in a white fur coat, no hat, on a very cold day. I built him a fire in the main cabin and toasted up some scones in the fire place. That cheered him up... 

On the fire screen, in the upper left corner, there is a small forged-iron screech owl. This was to commemorate the owl that once sat in a nearby apple tree during the middle of the day. Stonework by the late Anders Chase. Ironwork: Peter Catchpole.

• See two photos with red dots in the story below.

This is an authentic

Adirondack 'Rushton'

canoe in front of the 

cabin's screened-in porch.

• A garage / workshop with great-room and fireplace on the second floor:

Exterior stone steps take you up to a terrace and main entry to the great-room:

Contractor: Jack Nelson, Concord Environmental Construction Services, Kent, CT.

• An insulated cabin / studio overlooking Hatch Pond in S. Kent, CT:

Note a garden supplies storage area below. Designer / Contractor: John E. Scofield

• Architectural amenities for a commercial project: 

'Mountain Waves' This enclosure keeps mechanical equipment
(air conditioning units etc.) and noise away from the buildings.

A medical building with a 1,000 s.f. yoga studio on the 2nd
floor. One of the (12) buildings in the commercial project. 

'My Song is Love Unknown' concrete relief.

'Peel' utilities enclosure / raised planting bed with mahogany curved bench.

'Peel' detail.

'Figures in Landscape' concrete relief hides electric meters. 

(Construction photo).

• A curved-top oak kitchen trellis on an 18th century country house: 

Note bottom hinge brackets that allow the trellis to be lowered for maintenance.

• A 10,000 s.f. sculpture and landscape project in Branford, CT that was published in Landscape Architecture Magazine. 

Landscape plan designed / drawn by Peter Alexander, Greenwich, CT

House designed by architect Peter Woerner, New Haven, CT

• Residential porch addition / before and after photos.

Interior detail with 'eyebrow' window.

Interior and exterior features of addition designed by
Bartley I. Johnstone and John E. Scofield.

John Scofield Designs, LLC

   PO Box 761

   Sharon, CT  06069

   mobile: 860-671-0153

   johneverettscofield@gmail.com         

       www.johnscofield-designs.com

Daniella On Design Post / Colored Chair

'Daniella On Design' very kindly put this photo and text on her chic contemporary design blog. Please click on the words 'Colored Chair by John Scofield' below to go to her site.

"Colored Chair" by John Scofield

Colored Chair: Shown in Robert Motherwell's library, Greenwich, CT in the 1970s. Matisse collage on lower right was one of his 'testing' art works. Chair is made of carved cherry and poplar wood, flocking, leather, varnish.

08/29/2013 'Daniella on Design' Post:

The School for American Craftsmen at the Rochester Institute of Technology has trained some of the best American artists and craftsmen. One of them the amazingly talented John Scofield, created this sculptural chair, the “Colored Chair” while a student in 1971. Robert Motherwell bought it three years later and kept the chair in his library for the next 17 years - until he died. In 1990 the Franklin Parrasch Gallery sold it to legendary design collectors and patrons Sydney and Frances Lewis, who gifted much of their extraordinary collection of American Arts and Crafts and French Art Deco to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.  

http://www.daniellaondesign.com/2/post/2013/08/colored-chair-by-john-scofield.html

Architectural Design, Remodeling and Construction Supervision: A Porch Addition

My wife, Bartley Johnstone, and I collaborate both in life and in work. Trained at Parsons as a fashion designer, Bartley is also a talented and successful interior designer. Her fashion store in Kent, CT is called B. Johnstone & Co. I have designed, built, remodeled and supervised many residential and commercial projects. My company is called John Scofield Designs, LLC. Here are 'before' and 'after' views of a remodeled porch addition that we created together for a house in Connecticut:

The 'before' condition of the porch is shown above. It is a small room with a small porch that was added on later. They have two different roofs that do not meet. There are no screens. The foundation is bare concrete. The door on the far right was a sealed-off 'door to nowhere' from the living room.

The completed porch is much enlarged as shown in the 'after' photo above. It wraps around the formal entry room and is fully screened. New double French doors on both sides allow people to move in and out easily during parties. The new standing-seam copper roof is unified and tight. New stone foundation piers match the original stone on the house.

It was Bartley's idea to add the new 'eyebrow' window over the screen door.

Here's how it looks from the inside. The new eyebrow window and barrel-vaulted ceiling brighten the space and make the chandelier sparkle! They also add a more formal quality to a previously moribund room. The entry door and French doors are new. To keep expenses down, we rehabbed the two original flanking windows. Bartley found the chandelier in pieces up in the attic. She had it cleaned and rewired. Note the perimeter down-lighting and speakers.

This framing detail shows you how the barrel-vaulted ceiling was made. The workman is cutting the sprayed-in foam, high-R insulation to conform to the curve. Next, thin panels of sheet-rock will be lightly sprayed with water and fastened to the wood strips. That lamination process creates a distortion-free curved surface. Traditional plastering would have been much more expensive but not necessarily of better quality.


Here are more views of the completed addition:

 

7 Sept. 2013 post script:

Designer Melissa Brunet, in Paris, just requested the following: "I love love love to read about how people solve design problems. And I know I'm not alone on this so please continue!" 

OK Melissa, here goes: The design for the addition was tricky because the new roof peak could not go higher than a 2nd floor window sill. Squeezing the vaulted ceiling, framing widths, plate height etc. into the available space - leaving room for roof pitch - took a little Texas chainsaw massacre work...! The authentic Greek columns are fibreglass from Brosco. Cutting each one burns through a new skil saw blade per column. It's still worth it. They don't rot. The square columns are rot resistant wood that we fabricated on site. The mahogany deck has a decent pitch; sheds water. Had to 'ice and water shield' the new roof to the house wall to prevent future leaks. That sprayed-in foam solved another problem. Code makes you vent the entire roof; soffit and ridge - unless you fill all under-roof voids with approved foam! Done. Would you like my dissertation on nails too...?