Painter Girl

Daycare Center Window Work

Ugh... I am really behind here with my postings.  The good news is I've been very busy with work.  The bad news is I have yet to finish my taxes and I am taking an online course that saps most of what little free time I do have.  I'm only complaining about the tax part.  I love all the work and am enjoying being a student again!  That said, let me bring you up to date with actual work, since that is the main focus of this blog. 

I enlisted friend and fellow decorative painter, Tasha Cough to help me out with painting some more windows for one of the Learning Zone Daycare Centers.  This is always a fun and easy job, but a bit labor intensive with the layers.  Also, this work has to be done at night, when the kids are not there or else on weekends.  Tasha and I decided we'd rather give up a few evening hourse vs. weekend hours. 

Look who came to help??? Olson joined us one evening to assist Mama Tasha with her painting. 

Other than that, the job was pretty uneventful.  We knocked off 3 rooms of windows in two fairly short nights. Well, not so sure how "short" they were for Tasha, with Olson in tow!  Talk about a working mother, huh?!

 

 

 

Expanding at the Learning Zone

You have seen me working in all of the Learning Zone Day Care Centers  before.  Owner, Melissa Ananias is in the process of expanding the Waltham location and I was happy to be included in the expansion plans!

As with all the Learning Zones, we try to keep the walls simple, colorful and educational.

How can you not be happy in this room?!  Melissa thought she'd try something new here, and this really works well on this wall, greeting the kids as they arrive for the day.

 

 

 

These circles are in the new reception area.

 

 

 

 

Lastly, a former office space has been converted to a classroom, so I added a few geometric shapes.  It's always fun working at the Learning Zone! 

Mirror Update

I almost forgot to post the finished mirrors.  You can see the before here.  The client just wanted them to go from a light color to a deep brown.

 

 
There are 14 of them in the salon.  The finish you see was done by someone else, well over 15 years ago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a close up of the detail.

So... Why No Blog Posts Recently?

If you are indeed, still checking in to see if I've come around to put up a new post, I whole heartedly thank you for being a faithful follower!  I have a few things on my plate this month that are leaving me with little time to crank out new posts.  Trust me, it's not that I don't want to...but there are just so many hours in a day, as much as I hate to admit to that little fact.

So, what has been consuming all of these hours, you may be asking?  One great time sucking item on my agenda, has been to get myself registered to begin taking some classes online at Lesley University.  It's been a very slow and frustrating process.  Phone calls are not returned, paperwork has been lost.  This results in more paperwork for me and more follow up phone calls.  I wish I had a dime for every time I was put on hold, transferred to another department, or my favorite... disconnected.  I decided some time ago, to return to school for my Masters in Science Education (K-8).  I'm not ready to leave the world of decorative painting, but I do have a deep fascination for the sciences and totally enjoy my after school Mad Science classes I teach twice/week.  I'm thinking I would like to be able to design and implement some after school Science programs for this age group that combine art and science... the science of art, or the art of science... so to speak.  Going back to school is a step in that direction.  Because ALL of the classes will be online, I will be able to keep the same schedule I have now, only more frazzled!

I have also been developing some new concepts for my PetMats.  I had to let the PetMats slide after the holidays so have done no new PetMats nor any promotion.  My former next door neighbor, Lisa Cohen, who is a wonderful photographer, called me with a proposal I could not refuse.  She knew about my PetMats and this fit in nicely with her new foray into pet photography, SnapTails.  She has arranged for us to have a little opening, March 2nd, from 6-8 pm at Durty Harry's in Charlestown, MA.   Durty Harry's  offers  "Do It Yourself" dog wash stations, as well as gifts and treats to further pamper your pooch.

I'm very excited about my new PetMat designs.  While I will still be carrying breed specific PetMats, I am introducing a line of pet quotes PetMats.  Here is a sneak preview of a few:

I will have these, and more, on my Etsy site shortly.  As always, a portion of all sales will be donated to Angel/MSPCA.  More about this event later next week.

 

 

In my studio, I'm up to my eyeballs in mirrors these days!  I have 14 of these huge mirrors from hair salon that I am redoing.  Here is a "before" shot.  The salon owners want them to be a very dark brown now.

 

 

I've rearranged my small, messy studio to be able to accommodate 4 of these mirrors in one room and 1 more in the adjacent room that is normally just used for laundry and household storage.  It's hard to tell from these photos, but the mirrors are about 3' wide by 4' tall. They are lightweight, made of molded styrofoam, but very awkward to move solo.  Luckily, it's school vacation week here and I've been able to recruit a few of my friends who are teachers to give me a hand transporting them.  I'm doing seven at a time, so I don't leave the salon mirror-less!

Of course, the ever ominous task of preparing for my 2010 tax return looms large! Here's where I'm at... still entering numbers into my spreadsheet and hoping for the best. (which would mean I hit the Lottery, a zero in a million chance since I never even play!)

 

 

Quick Accent Wall

Ok, if you can stand seeing one more project where I have used Helen Moris's fabulous StickyWeed and Fennel stencils, here we go!

I swear every time I pull out the Fennel stencils that it will be my last time I can use it because it is taped together in many, many places now!  I really must order a replacement.  The StickyWeed is a less intricate stencil, and I have not used it quite as much, so that is still very much in tact.

I did this small accent wall for my friend Joe Gallagher who is opening a new showroom, Attleboro Kitchen and Bath.  This time, I thinned a brown latex paint with water and lightly stenciled the fennel.  For the StickyWeed, I used an orange latex paint, straight out of the can for full coverage.  With a liner brush, I added some brown outlining here and there.  Lastly, I used Modern Masters Burnt Orange metallic paint to give the StickyWeed some highlights.  Once the showroom is all together I will have Joe send me some more pictures.

Sign Installed

Of course, there are also some down sides to being self-employed and installing the sign at this VW dealership.  The best time to do the installation would be a Sunday afternoon, while they are open, but the Service Department is closed.  This would allow me to be in that hallway with no interruptions.

To ease the pain of having to work on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, I took another quick trip over to Habitat in the morning for a quick ski.  It's been cold here, so all of our beautiful snow is not melting and there is still plenty of it to sled, snowshoe, ski, and play in. 

 
Now, remember I just bought that new iPhone?  Well, I'm still in the "learning curve" phase.  I thought I had the camera set to take photos, but instead, it was set to take a video.  I was able to convert the videos to still pics for this post, much to my surprise!  Not the clearest photo, but you get the idea.  I put it up with wallpaper paste and it covers the previous signs I did completely.  Hopefully, this new sign should help guide customers to their destination. 

The Perks of Being Self-Employed

I had a little sign project to do for the VW dealership where I did that mural and giant VW logo a few months ago.  I had also added this signage on the wall. This picture to the left shows the "before" shot.

The dealership felt customers were still confused as to where to wait for service when they first come into the showroom, so I was asked to come up with another sign option to put here.

 

I did a rough sketch on my computer and emailed it over.  Because this is a very busy hallway with little room for me to work in, I proposed the sign be done on canvas, like the mural, and then installed.  It would cover up the previous signs, so no re-painting/prep work to the wall would be required.

 

 

 

In my studio, I base painted the canvas, taped out areas, and cut some lettering to be stenciled.     Then, I looked out my window and saw all this beautiful snow and the sun shinning, so decided to go for a little cross country skiing.

 

 

 

 

 

A quick drive over to Habitat, a wonderful wildlife sanctuary, only a few miles from my house, and I was ready get a little exercise.  I came home two hours later and did a some more work on the sign. 

 

 

ABC's

 

 

I recently returned to my favorite daycare center, the Learning Zone, to add a few blocks to two walls.  They are quite large, approximately 18" each, so they make quite a statement when you walk into the room.

 

This is a very fun time of the year to be at the Learning Zone, because every room is decorated for Halloween!  Many of the decorations have been made by the kids.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was very fun to do.  I really wanted the blocks to look like the old fashioned blocks I had as a kid.  While I love this idea for a daycare center, I think it would made one cute nursery too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since the blocks are so large, they can easily been seen when you are in the adjacent room, looking through the window.

 

I have to tell you, every time I am working here, it is either in the evening or on a weekend, when no one else is around.  I am always completely freaked out by some toy sounding off, out of nowhere!  All of sudden, I will hear something talking, or some music playing.  I go and look around, but the sound stops, so I can never find the source! 

Finished and Hung!

I brought the mural up from my studio and hung it on the wall in my office again, so I could make some adjustments.  The angle of the license plate was off, so I whited it out. 

There are 2 additional canvas pieces, one on the right and one on the left, that will be added on the job site.  They are too big to fit on this wall.  The two pieces extend the ripped paper effect.

 

 

 

 

Now I just fooled around with it, adding shading and shadowing and highlights. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I recruited my lovely daughter, Sarah, to help me install the mural at the job site.  She was a great help and is a few inches taller than me, so could reach the very top with no problem!  Here she is burnishing away.

The mural is installed over the entryway to the customer lounge/waiting room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here it is up, minus the right hand piece of "torn paper".  I was having trouble getting the right edge to stay glued to the wall, so I decided to leave it overnight, with some pushpins in to secure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I returned the next day, the right edge was looking good.  I added a little more wallpaper glue at the top and the right side, then I added the final section of canvas on the right.  And of course, I still did some tweaking...more work on the lisence plate and I added some pearl glaze to all the glass.

 

 

 

 

 

This is the only angle where I could stand to get the entire mural in the frame of my camera.  The hallway it is in, is only about 10' wide.  The good news is that it is opposite a huge wall of floor to ceiling glass and the mural is very visible as you drive into the lot.

When Sarah and I installed this mural, the place was closed.  When I returned the following day, few people where around, so I've had very little feedback about this mural.  It's not clear to me whether they like it or not.  I guess time will tell.

 

VW Mural... getting there!

Well, of course, I had hoped to finish this mural today, but, for those of you who do murals, you know they always take longer than you think they will.  At least when you are doing a finish on a wall, you get to a point and you know you are done!  Not so with a mural.  You never seem to feel "done".  There is always a lot of endless tweaking.  I'm not even to the tweaking point yet though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I did a little more work on the front of the car...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

... and added more detail to the back end of the car.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I spent a lot of time getting the "torn paper" to look like "torn paper".  I feel I did make some very good progress today, and I sure hope I can finish this tomorrow because I will fall behind with some other jobs if not. :-(  It's always a juggling act.  Luckily, they are really just my own self imposed deadlines, so there is some wiggle room here as far as the installation date.  I did convince my daughter to help me hang this on her day off, so I'm shooting for that.  Oh... and the good news... she found an apartment we both like, so now that search has come to and end!  Yay!