Painter Girl

The Stenciled Collage Wall in Progress

 The pictures you will see in this series are sections of a 15' long x 7 1/2' high wall. Since I am still working on this wall and other walls in this teenage girl's bedroom, there is a lot of furniture in my way, as well as all my painting supplies.  As I finish each of the 3 girls bedrooms, they are putting the curtains back up, and moving the furniture into place.  I'll re-shoot their rooms again later.

   

 

 

 

Well, I hope you can get the visual of layering stencils/patterns on patterns from these photos.  The final layer will be to add three groupings of very large, metallic flowers.  Once I base painted my wall in the orange tone, I lightly sponged on some Tequilla Sunrise Lusterstone and some white glaze, just randomly throughout the wall, to give it some visual texture and interest.

All of these stencils shown are from Royal Design Studios.  Some of the stencils I have had for years, but I also just recently purchased a few stencils from Melanie's more recent additions.  The newer stencils include:  Large Ikat Zig Zag, Kimono Allover, and Allover Oriental Vine.  The older stencils used were:  Basketweave and Floral Chain.  I also used a variety of paper and foil doilies for one time use stencils and some mesh fabric.

Stenciled Collage Room

I am very excited about starting the work in this room.  A few years ago, I did this accent wall, but now that will all change as the room gets a big makeover.

I've painted out the entire room; three walls with this shade of green that I love, love, love, and the accent wall is done with the same orange I used in the Jungle Room.  I think I am going to have to use this green in my back hall, whenever I can find the time to finally redo that area.

Here is the sample board that I am working off of.  I will stick with these colors, but will be adding some new stencils I just bought from Royal Designs.  If you have not had a chance to check out Melanie's latest collection of stencils, get on over there and do so.  She has some fabulous new designs out!

The room has a LOT of furniture in it, so I am quite cramped with all my painting supplies scattered about.

This is driving me a bit crazy, because I like to stay neat and organized while working.  Because the space is limited, I am constantly moving my boxes all around the room as I maneuver the ladder.  It's adding a little more time onto the job and I'm feeling a little stressed about my self imposed time schedule.  Now all the base painting is done, the real fun will begin!

Ugh... I need some new clothes!

I took a few pics of myself, while working on the Jungle Mural, to shame myself into buying some new painting clothes.  Here I am taking a pic of myself, looking into a mirror in the Jungle Room.  See how pathetic I look?!  I no longer have any overall shorts, so I've cut off a pair of overalls to make some shorts.  It's finally warm here, so working in long pants is just too hot... even with the a/c.  Whenever I work with other decorative painters, they always look much more pulled together than me.  Not many I work with are fans of the bib overalls, but this style really is my fav for painting.  I like the fact that they are loose and comfortable.

A common problem with ALL of my overalls at the moment is the fact that the buckles are beyond repair.  Both of these straps are held up with giant safety pins.

I believe these are my best pair/cleanest pair of overalls.  Just sad.

Now I've written about the quest for some more attractive painting attire before and had done some good research into where/who has something decent, but must confess, never followed through.  After all, I'd much rather buy myself some fun clothes to wear when I'm NOT painting, vs. putting money into clothes that I will surely trash the first day out.

But... I've been disgusted by my shabby work appearance lately and that is not a good way to start off the day.  After all, I do spend a good 8-10 hours/day in painting attire, so I need to shape up and sport something a little more creative, fun, and not held together with safety pins!

So... I followed my own advice and ordered myself 2 pairs of these

coveralls from Rosie's.  One in pink and one in khaki.  I also ordered one of their cool bandannas.  I'm hoping they fit, are not too small or too big. I love the fact that these zip off and convert into shorts, plus come with removable knee pads.   When they arrive, I'm going to customize them a bit with some stenciling (of course!) and I thing I will either embroider or stencil my company logo somewhere.  I'm leaning toward embroidering the logo, just to set it apart from the stenciling.  Could a lowly PainterGirl actually be stylin'???!!!  Stay tuned for their arrival and transformation.

Breast Cancer 3 Day/Jungle Mural Completed

Before I begin my post about the completion of the Jungle Mural, I must tell you how proud I am of my daughter and her friend, Tanya for taking on the challenge of the 3 Day Breast Cancer Walk held this past Fri-Sunday, here in Boston.  They walked twenty miles each day, beginning their walk very early Friday morning in the pouring... and I mean pouring, rain!  I met up with them on Saturday and Sunday to take a few photos and cheer them on.  Over 1500 walkers participated in this event, each of them raising a minimum of $2300.  Both Sarah and Tanya surpassed their $2300 goal, calling on friends, family, and co-workers to support the cause.  Great job girls!!!  (Tanya on left, Sarah on right) Love their temp tattoos!

The Jungle Mural is now done.  Here you can see the full view, give or take a few inches.  Now the problem with thinking I am truly finished with this mural will be left to see if I can actually stay out of this room while I proceed onto the next 3 projects in this same house!  I already overstayed my welcome in this room by 1 day, fussing around.

I did have this ugly butterfly in the mural.  As soon as I did it, I hated it.  I tried to adjust it, but it just got worse, as you can see.  So, I painted it out..

...and replaced it with these two, softer, prettier butterflies.

These photos show you a closer look at some of the elements in the mural:

Now I am moving on to what I call the Stenciled Collage Room.  :-)

Progess in the Jungle Room

I took Monday off from on site working this week to get some samples done.  Tuesday and today I made some very good progress in this Jungle Room. 

Now remember, when viewing these pics, that it is a work in process...no where near complete yet!  To stay on my self imposed schedule, I should have wrapped this mural up today. But, I'm having a lot of fun with this, and decided I wanted to put more detail into it than what was originally planned.  The mural had to be scaled back quite a bit to fit within the budgetary constraints.  Since I am doing 3 bedrooms and 1 addition to a mural in another bath,  I decided to go the extra distance with this mural and will spend one more day in here tomorrow.

This mural will have 2 monkeys.  Today I put in the first.  This one is an old stencil I've had for years from L.A. Stencils, no longer in business.  The second monkey, which I will add tomorrow, will be projected from a picture found by the little girl who resides in this room.  I am using a combination of freehand drawing and stencils for this mural.  I have all of the stencils at the job site right now, so will credit the stencils used at the end of the project when I have them all in front of me.
When I left today, Melanie, the room's occupant, was not home so I stuck this little note near the monkey for her to see.  It says " Hello Melanie!  I've come to live in your room. :-)"

I love this Red Ginger stencil.  Again, this is one I've had forever and have not had a chance to use it for several years!

More tomorrow........

Prepping the Jungle Room

The pink walls have now been painted with this awesome shade of orange.  I am using the Aura line of paint from Ben Moore on the walls in all three bedrooms.

The ceiling has also now been painted a medium tone of blue and some soft, white clouds added.  This corner of the room pictured here, will be where the Jungle Mural will be painted.

I'm doing all of the prep work myself for this job, vs. subcontracting.  Sometimes it is just nice to have a break from the finishes and do some straight painting.  All of these walls and ceilings in the rooms are in very good shape, so that makes it much easier!

This bunk bed weighs a ton, is not on wheels, and is on carpet.  It would not budge, so I painted the 2 other walls and just did the cutting in along the ceiling line on the remaining 2 walls.  The bed will be moved for me by the next time I come to paint. 

Having a few hours left to my day and no way to complete the other 2 walls in the Jungle room,  I moved on to the Sophisticated Elegance room.  This room belongs to a 15 year old girl.  There will be a lot of black and white on these walls with some deep red accents.  I don't want to confuse you with all of these rooms, so even though I am jumping around from room to room while working, for the most part, I am going to try to present one room at a time here.  I wanted to get the ceiling done in here because all 3 bedrooms will have ceiling fans installed today.
The fans are all in boxes in the hall.  I am hoping the electrician can get them all installed in one day because Monday I will be doing some studio work and then returning for the remainder of the week.

Starting the Girls Bedrooms

Yay!  This job is finally underway and I think it is going to be a lot of fun.  I will be painting in 3 sisters bedrooms and also extending a mural in a bathroom that I did a few years ago in this house.  The girls are all very excited and were very involved in the planning.  There are actually four sisters in this house, but the youngest will have her room done next Spring, for her 6th birthday.  She is very excited about me being at the house and keeps checking on me throughout the day.  I think I'm going to have to paint just a little something in her room before I leave so she will not feel left out.  She wants a horse mural when it is her turn, but she also likes dogs a lot.

I have done a lot of work in this home during the past 6 years.  Today I just ran around and quickly snapped a few photos of the upstairs where I am working.

I think I did this last year or maybe 2 years ago.  I still love it.  Very bold.  It's a large room.  The other walls are painted a deep eggplant color and one is painted a deep orange, the colors you see in the concentric circles.  This stencil can be order from the Stencil Library.

I did this soft limestone finish on the walls in part of this hallway and in the two story foyer which you start to see on the far right.  I came back about a year or so later and did the stripes in the remainder of the hallway.  They are done using the same limestone finish for one stripe and alternating with a Lusterstone stripe.

The first room I am working in, is the Jungle Room.  This room belongs to an 8 year old girl.  The pink walls will be changed to orange and the ceiling will be blue with clouds.  I worked on the ceiling today.  This is the "Before Picture".

The Jungle will be in this corner, extending on the left wall about 2 1/2 feet and then over onto the right wall for about 5 feet.  It will fade out on either side, into the orange walls.  It is supposed to rain Saturday (what else is new here in the Boston area?!), so I am planning on working at least an half day to get the Jungle going.

This is my new favorite beverage of choice!  I've never been a lover of soda or carbonated drinks, but this is lightly carbonated and just tastes great!  It was my reward today after I completed 2 coats of blue on this ceiling. :-)

Well if you hang in there with me for the next few posts of boring prep work, you will soon start to see some real fun happening on these walls and ceilings!

Crocodile Finish

I mentioned last Friday that I would be showing you some photos of a fabulous crocodile finish I helped my friend and fellow decorative painter, Susan Siefer,  out with a few weeks ago.  This finish really is best with an extra set of hands! 

Susan started out by having the walls base painted in this great shade of red.  We had 3 identical crocodile stencils from Faux Effects to play with.  Since we were troweling a metallic dimensional product thru the stencil, we had to wash the stencils after every 3rd repeat or they would become too clogged with product.  These stencils are very fragile, so you need a good sized area to wash and dry and spread out.

The more repetitions we added, the more we liked it.

We were working in a mudroom and a small hallway that led to the garage.  You really need a large utility sink nearby to keep washing off the stencils, so this location was ideal. I'd think twice before I'd do this in a room that did not have easy access to such a set up.

Of course, it also helped that this was an absolutely gorgeous house, with layers of moldings and detailing.

 

A rare shot of me at work, since I'm usually working solo! 

After all the repeats were done, we added a final toning layer to soften the gold and give it a richer, deeper look.

You can see the contrast well in these two photos

All finished!  You can see the hallway (far right) that goes to the garage in this photo.

This shows another hallway that leads from this mudroom to the main part of the house.  The croc finish stops at the edge of this wall.

Susan later glazed the ceiling.  This job was a lot of work but we both kept remarking how much fun it was and how we got more excited about it each day.  Thanks for the opportunity to try out this finish, Susan!

Past and Present/This and That

I have been working behind the scenes all week on several projects.  One, I am trying to pull my July/August e-newsletter together and get that out asap.  That is going quite slowly, I have to admit. 

Next, I have been designing concepts for 3 girls bedrooms, ages 9, 14 & 16.  This will be my next project and I am very excited about it.  One room will be a Tropical Jungle theme; another will be a Sophisticated Look with some black and white bedding to work from; and the third will be a Graphic Collage theme.  Next to actually executing the finishes, I love doing the research and tailoring ideas I come across to suit my client needs.  I have all my reference materials together now for the 3 rooms and will do a few sample boards in my studio today to help clarify my concepts when I present all of this information to the girls on Saturday.  Everyone is very excited about their rooms and each of the girls have sent me photos they have found for inspiration.  I love that they are so involved and invested in what their bedrooms will look like and that their parents are open to having them participate in the planning.

Finally, I have also been designing a few class concepts:  and after school program for children K-6;  a Middle School mural project and an Adult Ed. class.  I enjoy teaching, having done this on and off for several years, and have decided to spend a little more time in the classroom starting in the Fall to see how that works out.  The After School class hours still allow me enough time to maintain Paint It! and get jobs done and same with the Evening Adult Ed classes.  I do have to keep in mind how much I hate dragging myself out of the house in the dead of winter, when it's 15 degrees out, dark and dreary...especially after a long day of on site painting!  So... I think I'll keep the Adult Ed. classes to a minimum! 
(this Artist Palatte Clock can be found at ArtistGifts.com)

Next week I will feature a wonderful Crocodile Finish I recently worked on with Susan Siefer of MadPatter Productions and more about the progress of the Girls Bedrooms.

Getting a Little Inspiration

Over the Fourth of July weekend, while visiting with family in the Berkshires, I also visited the Clark Museum and Mass MoCa.  The Clark is located in Williamstown, MA and is small but wonderful museum housing an impressive collection of  French Impressionist works as well as European and American paintings.  I was there to view the current exhibit, Dove/O'Keeffe: Circles of Influence.  This is quite an impressive display of works by both Georgia O'Keeffe and Arthur Dove.  O'Keeffe was greatly influenced by Dove's work and they maintained a lifelong respect and friendship.  I was not familiar with Arthur Dove, but found several inspiring ideas for wall finishes in his work.   This exhibit runs through September 7th.

Next, I headed over to my favorite museum, Mass MoCA in North Adams, MA.  This is a huge museum devoted to contemporary art and always a lot of fun to visit.  Since I am out in this area often to visit my mother, I am a frequent visitor here as well.  The museum is quickly expanding and I found myself getting lost as connectors led me from one enormous building to the next. 

While I loved every exhibit here, the one that really spoke to me was Sol LeWitt: A Wall Drawing Retrospective.   This link will give you a wealth of information about the exhibit, Sol LeWitt, and the process of creating this installation.  Here are a few photos I took while there.  I think you can see why I could easily relate to this exhibit!

The shear size of these painted walls and the enormous size of the rooms in this converted mill complex make quite an impression.  There is also a great little cafe, Lickity Splits located just beyond a fantastic museum store on the ground level.  It's also my sole source for internet access while out visiting my Mom