My Biggest Mural Ever

In art and dream may you proceed with abandon. In life must you proceed with balance and stealth. ~Patti Smith

Yup, here it is ... the biggest mural I've ever painted. Ta daaaaaa! I painted this several months ago for my friends Doug and Durell, who live in my ole hometown of Jacksonville.

I waited a while to post it because my only photos of it were the ones my son took with my iphone:

Well, I guess that isn't so bad.

Anyway, D&D have a simply gorgeous dining room with lots of natural light and a beautiful vintage chandelier. It just needed a little visual interest to make it fabulous. Durell loves classic designs that seem breezy and effortless. When she came upon this House Beautiful feature, she fell in love (cue angels singing). So we copied the designer's handpainted wallpaper, which is based on a classic Swedish pattern.

As always, I started out with chalk sketches and went from there. After two solid days of painting, here's the result... I love the colors and the fact that the pattern is unusual, yet nature-inspired and calming. Isn't it great to have friends who are brave enough to strive for the unique? (And daring enough to let you paint all over their walls!)

Here are some details...
I added the little nest. It represents their home and their sweet little family -- mama, daddy and baby girl.

These flowers took me a while to get. I stressed about every little detail. Then I took a step back and realized those imperfections are what makes a handpainted mural special. Soooo ... it's really gonna be OK.
See? Take a step back and get some perspective. Maybe a good metaphor for life!

Asleep Under a Tree

The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep. ~ Robert Frost

Even though I haven't been writing this blog for very long, it probably comes as no surprise to my millions of readers that I love trees. I love planting them, tending them, walking among them, looking at them -- and of course, painting them. So when I was searching for inspiration for decorating our bedroom, a whimsical, restful tree just seemed perfectly ... natural.

With two preschoolers, stressful jobs (both in and outside the home) and endless home improvement projects, I wanted our room to be a peaceful place with quiet, cool colors.

We started out with something not so quiet and restful -- sunshine yellow. Since bright yellow is notoriously hard to paint over, we primed and painted the room ice blue. Now all I needed was inspiration...

I found it, oddly enough, browsing through Esquire magazine. (Yeah, I read guys' magazines. The writing is so smart and snappy -- it has to be, since most guys really don't read.) I came across some photos of a New York City apartment the magazine had designed for some fancy celebrity party. (Sigh ... oh to design apartments for fancy celebrity parties!)

They used a handpainted wallpaper from a fancy schmancy British designer to "collect and soften" the room. I LOVED the effect and set about figuring out how to make it mine. I tested some ideas in my printmaking class -- trying different shapes and colors.

Then I chose a background color: Benjamin Moore 2123, "Sea Star," a soft greenish gray. Which sounds more like a dead fish than a silvery gleam on the ocean, but it's reeeeally pretty. Promise.

Anyway, I sketched out a willow-like shape in chalk and got busy painting. This is the result! I love the free form of the trunk and branches, and the modern simplicity of the oval "blossoms." And I know this sounds pretty goofballs, but the tree has become a sheltering place for me -- it represents comfort, peace and stability -- kind of holding our family up. I swear I sleep better under it!

Yep -- that's an upholstered headboard and yep, we made it! More on that next. Until then -- sweet dreams!

Hello World!

Hi everyone! Guess I'm a little late joining the wonderful world of blogging, but I've always been a bit of a late bloomer. Nevertheless, I'm excited to finally get started. I think the best place to start is one the things I'm most excited about right now: murals.

Last weekend, two fellow artists and I painted some Dr. Suess murals in what will become the nursery for my nephew Tyler, who is due May 24. My brother Greg and wonderful sis-in-law Dana wanted some whimsical walls of their own, and that's just what they got!

I've done wall paintings before in my son and daughter's room (more on that later), but this is the first time I was under the gun to make my painting recognizable! I had so much fun sketching and painting these fun, fanciful images for them that I am all about looking for new projects.

If you know anyone who would like a mural, silhouette or some other whimsical image on the walls of their home ... point them in my direction!