/ by Libby McMillan Henson / photography by Eli Warren
A quiet Paris Mountain haven with big views, a large deck and a few terrific pets would, for many, erode productivity; but the memorable mid-century compound shared by Kent and Peggy Ambler fosters an extraordinary yin and yang lifestyle: peaceful but productive, orderly but unexpected, beautiful yet imperfect. Their captivating home and studio complex embody happy, artful lives lived well surrounded by significant personal collections of curios, collectibles and art.
At the top of a steep private driveway artist Kent Ambler (a ten-time Artisphere veteran) often works eighty-hour weeks, fueled by a drive to create. Galleries across the South— including Mary Praytor and Art & Light locally— as well as a half dozen others across the nation— showcase his work, primarily limited-edition woodblock prints but also paintings, original sculptures, furniture and whatever else currently piques his interest.
Ambler’s work has captured the hearts of collectors who share his connection with nature and a love for animals. With equal passion, but in contrast to her husband’s solitary pursuits, Peggy is a yoga and massage therapist and spends much of her time with others, helping them unwind, heal and meditate.
Until recently, Kent’s basement-level home studio barely contained his colossal printing press, an inventory of completed art and active workspace, but a new 1,600 square foot studio built adjacent to the home has given each Ambler some very inspiring breathing room.
Kent now brings his vision to life in a light-filled space that’s massive in proportion when compared to his former digs, which Peggy immediately claimed as her own yoga and meditation space. Together, the Amblers have created a peaceful world that undeniably parallels Kent’s favorite artistic themes– dogs, cats, birds and natural elements– and an organic ambience that soothes and re-energizes Peggy.
Ten years ago, the Amblers were living in a rustic Seneca home on a quiet road when Kent got the itch to be closer to Greenville. He narrowed his search to Stone Lake and Paris Mountain before discovering a listing for a secluded mid-century home with some acreage. The 1960s home has classic mid-century traits: a low-slung profile, multiple levels, large flat planes and open spaces. Harmony with nature is key to this particular style and the Ambler home, with its many windows and use of wood and brick, is an extraordinary example. Kent and Peggy appreciated the kitchen’s wooden cabinetry and the great room’s unpainted wooden ceilings and beams. They swapped out single-pane windows for doubles and overhauled the bathrooms. It was also important to replace the basement’s finicky and highly flammable oil-fueled heat with a gas fireplace insert, so artwork could be stored without concern.
Beyond these primary changes, early energies were focused on landscape design, furnishing the airy rooms and giving the home its unmistakable Ambler vibe. Today, it’s an inspired and telling home filled with the handmade and lots of art, by Kent and others.
Both floors are a heady experience with paintings as well as collections displayed beautifully. The couple shares an aesthetic devoid of clutter and despite the sheer volume of art and an ever-evolving landscape displayed through every window, a continuity of style and restraint forge a result nothing short of humble magic. A striking Diane Kilgore Condon diptych hangs above a dining room table Kent crafted by adding Mission-style legs to a former picnic tabletop. It’s paired with mid-century Rowland 40/4 chairs and watched over by a playful collection of significant face jugs. The screened patio adjacent to this space was built to face the setting sun.
The home’s great room with its tremendous views of up-close nature and the distant horizon holds a side table fashioned from a tree trunk. Peggy reveals it was a find from the Furman barbershop. It complements an extra large coffee table, an amoeba-shaped piece of polished wood from the former Greenville repository of goods, Shinola. But the real star of the room (and the third functional objet d’art) is a massive, live-edge dining table.
“It’s bubinga, from Africa,” says Peggy, touching the dense slab of African rosewood that Kent used to make the tabletop. Of its mysterious pedigree and eventual appearance in South Carolina, she explains, “It was actually too big to be milled in Africa, so it was shipped to Germany and made its way here.”
Kent trimmed the slab slightly to make it fit in the room and used the excess to make a headboard for the guest room. It’s surrounded with Eames DCW chairs, another perfect pairing in the mid-century home. Kent’s penchant for three-dimensional creations is further evident when visitors recognize his signature dogs, cats and birds adorning a corner cabinet. Pottery, paintings and small primitive sculptures draw the eye from space to space, eliciting smiles and curiosity from all who enter. There’s a definite outsider art feel to works created by Kent or collected by the Amblers, who find pleasure in the imperfection of what’s handmade. Small metal cutouts of animals and figures hang or repose in unexpected places, made by Alabama folk artist Buddy Snipe, a 70-something primitive artist whose work Kent has been collecting for 15 years.
A cozy paneled library is chock-a-block with artful surprises and a walk down the hallway (playfully covered in Kent’s own cutout dogs), reveals a long horizontal niche populated by dozens of small toy farm animals, a collectible antique barnyard of sorts. Peggy says “it takes longer to dust the farm than it does to wash three dogs.”
Kent first found one of the toys in a thrift store in Bloomington, Indiana. “The pieces from the 30s and 40s are the ones I like,” says Kent. “They were sort of sloppily made. The mold marks weren’t removed or cleaned up; a quick slap of paint and they were finished. With the rubber hardening over the decades, they became cracked, twisted, and brittle, which is how I like them. I wouldn’t want a pristine piece.”
Ambler’s own work is much the same. His prints, made with multiple passes on the press, one per color, are deliberately out of register ever so slightly giving them the less-than-perfect look that affirms a human was involved.
The guest room holds a large gold-leaf icon of Peggy and child, facing a bed with the bubinga headboard, a homemade quilt and walls filled with art. The hues in all the bedrooms are similar to Ambler’s prints and add to the home’s soothing vibe. Two side-tables in the master were handmade by a past artist in residence.
The home’s master bath was reimagined with Kent’s designing eye. Large sliding mirrors top a wooden vanity designed and crafted by him. Bleached wood and tile that mimics wood are ideally incorporated in the space. The shower offers a view of the great outdoors from behind a massive glass wall. A hand-carved boat hangs above the commode; it was a find at the Pickens Flea Market. “It’s probably a hand-built project for a radio controlled boat that someone never finished,” says Kent. “I thought it made a really nice sculpture.”
Over the past ten years, patrons of Greenville Open Studios have learned that the don’t-miss tour stop is the Ambler address. Woodblock dogs, birds, cats and oddly familiar landscapes have been the prime catalyst for visitors to what is now a twelve-acre artistic haven. The Amblers had, for nine previous years, graciously allowed interested event-goers to tour their entire domicile, before descending to Kent’s basement studio and this past fall they were treated to the same warm open house, but with the added bonus of a first look at Kent’s enviable new atelier.
When surveying the studio’s two massive printing presses, it’s difficult to imagine the sheer space required for printing and drying work in various stages of creation that had occurred in the confined basement studio. Until the rise of the new building, the green space between the house and a small garden workshop held a swimming pool built some decades after the home and not in keeping with the property’s mid-century style. Kent began to envision a separate art studio in the space, a dream that grew in priority with the passage of time, but it took seven years to convince Peggy to fill in the pool.
Randy Hensley of Glassy Mountain Grading was hired for the project, using dirt cut from an upper hillside, which also created more parking. Kent was ready for what came next. Having spent years designing the best studio he could have within the means of the footprint, he handed his construction crew a handmade 3D model (which he still has today) including fully designed deck and water features to cohesively tie together the look of the new studio to the house. “There’s nothing he can’t do,” says Peggy admiringly.
Moving Kent’s 2,600 pound press was a monumental undertaking. The basement studio windows open nearly to the ground, a mid-century hallmark, so they were removed and the press was jacked up and rolled across mulch using plywood. “It was a scary day,” says Kent. “There was a lip from the mulch up to the driveway, so we made a ramp and hooked tow straps to a guy’s truck in case it started rolling away from us. It was just like old time, very low tech.”
The new studio is spacious and white with vaulted ceilings, white-washed purlins, huge highboy is beset with dozens of bobbing Ambler dog heads and a variety of current work cover the walls, which he replaces as they sell.
In the rare hours during which both Kent and Peggy are taking a break, they’ll be on their deck, overlooking the view and breathing in the nature all around them. Their idyllic mid-century property is a perfect reflection of who they are and what they love. “Turns out when I was seven and eight, I had a step-grandpa who had an awesome mid-century modern house in Miller, Indiana that I recently saw for sale online. It must have made an impression on me,” he says. “I like clean, simple, well-thought-out designs.”
Hands On
Peggy Ambler is as masterful with touch as her husband is with paint. She trains physical therapists on yoga techniques, teaches weekly classes for those suffering with eating disorders as well as works with many private yoga clients in The Cliffs communities. Twice weekly, she offers free classes to cancer survivors at The Cancer Institute as well. When able to relax at home, Peggy gravitates to her downstairs studio, which she says, “can be dark for restorative yoga and meditation or opened to the light for yoga core and strength-building.” Quiet time on the deck, with its koi pond and tiny waterfall, is a favorite retreat.
