Friday, April 29, 2011

Mural of Hill Town in Tuscany is the perfect decor for a living room!

    
 I recently completed a mural above a fireplace in a customer's home. It was so much fun to paint this particular mural, because I got to use some photos of my travels to Italy. The client had an awkward space in her family room that just needed a wow! factor. The wall is curved and therefore it is hard to hang artwork or the like in that spot. A hand-painted mural was the perfect solution. To keep the mural from being over powering and out of place, I designed it to be a "tapestry" hung on the wall. The artistic technique of painting an object/scene that looks real but is only painted is called "trompe l'oiel" and that is the technique I used to paint this mural. Once I had narrowed down my photos of Italian streets, buildings, interesting windows, and elements, I put them all together in a sketch for the client. Once that sketch was approved, I went to work painting the mural on the wall. I do all of my painting and drawing freehand, never relying on projectors. This paritcular mural was tricky to reach because of the large semi-circle hearth at the bottom of the fireplace. Thanks to my handy dandy stair ladder, I was able to work it all out and get the job done.
    Painting for me is like a Zen experience...I am just in a zone that I cannot explain. I let go and let my talent flow freely out until the mural is all done. I love this one in particular because it is comprised of photos I took that hold precious, inspirational memories of my times in Europe. I love to travel and I love to paint, so this was a marriage of both passions!  The clients were very happy and have booked me to come back and paint another wonderful travel-inspired mural. Time to get out the photos of Venice, Italy!
Until next time, Ciao!