In the 1930s, this would have felt radical. It still does. One bird, one colour, nothing else and a room instantly reads as calmer than it did five minutes ago. The soft blue takes the edge off hard modern surfaces, and the empty space above the stork gives a busy wall somewhere to rest. Hang it at eye level in a hallway, above a bedside table, or on a narrow study wall between shelving. It sits happily with pale woods, linen, cream ceramics and painted furniture in off-white or soft grey. Keep the wall around it clear; crowding it with busy patterned pieces or heavy dark frames undoes the quiet it’s doing all the work for. As a canvas, the soft blue reads more like painted plaster.