Painter Girl

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

Master Bath Screw Head Ceiling

For the remainder of last week, I was back on Beacon Hill working on the ceiling in this long, narrow Master Bath.  While I wish I could take credit for this awesome design concept and technique, all credit goes directly to the Queen of Creativity, Melanie Royals.  This finish, which Melanie calls "Loose Screws" is part of her Boho Modern Workshop series.

This was a finish I have been dying to do since I first saw it last summer at both the Sali Convention and Faux Event Convention.  I knew instantly that this would be the design to adapt for this Master Bath used solely by the man of the house.  It has a great masculine feel and gives this odd shaped ceiling a lot of character.  This curved, overhang part of the ceiling is at one far end of the bathroom, over the toilet.

This view is from the far end of the room, under the curved ceiling, looking toward the opposite end of the room, into the shower area.  The screws are repeated as a border on the remainder of the ceiling, with a metallic green glaze in the center.

Another view, into the shower stall.  And here you can see the curved, overhung ceiling again.

The color palette was inspired by this great sink and granite.  This was a very fun finish to do!

Get Out And Vote Today!

 

Let's hope we have something to celebrate about tonight! :-)

Talk About Inspiration!

While I'm on my "inspiration kick", I thought I'd share with you a glimpse of this project I have had the pleasure to be a part of.  About a month ago, I did something I often do when I want to target a new neighborhood for potential business.  On a sunny afternoon, I walked door to door and left my over-sized postcard in their door. (note to anyone who wants to try this form of marketing... it is illegal to leave such materials in a mailbox, so place it elsewhere). 
 

Here is the front side of my postcard.

And here is the back side.  I can use it as a mailer, or when dropping off in person, at homes, I can write something in the blank space... such as "Get your home ready for the Holidays!" I get all of my postcards and business cards from Vista Print, on line.

I always enjoy this little activity, because you I get to leisurely stroll around some very nice neighborhoods.  Sometimes I get no results, but other times I do get one or two clients out of this.  It really only takes one new client to make this more than worthwhile.

Anyway, on this particular day, as soon as I returned home... I got a phone call!  This lovely woman called to tell me she was just looking for someone like me to help her with this "Van Gogh Bedroom" she was recreating in her home.  She has been working on this room, engaging several different artisans to help her with the elements in this room, for the past 3 years.  I am only going to post 2 pictures, because I know she wants to have this room photographed and submitted to our local media soon and I don't want to spoil that.  When this room is unveiled for all to see, I will post more about this.

This is the painting  of  Van Gogh's bedroom that the room is based on.

One of my projects was to paint this table.  (some else previously painted the walls).
I did do some additional work in this room, but will post at a later date.

I think this bed that was commissioned by a furniture maker in Maine, is the best part of the room!

More to come when the room is complete and unveiled!

I am off to visit a friend in New Jersey for the weekend.  Hope everyone has a great weekend.  And of course... Go Red Sox! ;-)

Meet Kari & Kijsa

This is just one of the reasons why I am enjoying blogging so much.  A short time ago I discovered a blog written by two sisters, Kari & Kijsa.  If you go to their blog and look at this entry on Tuesday, October 9th, you will see a gorgeous nursery that was painted by Kijsa.  Well, as soon as I saw this picture of this room I had to email Kijsa to tell her how this room inspired me to paint a nursery for one of my clients several years ago.  You see, I saw this very room featured in a magazine several years ago, and immediately ripped it out and put it in my reference notebook for Fabulous Children Room Ideas.  Shortly after that,  I had a client call who wanted a nursery done, and I showed them this tear sheet and drew up a sketch for their nursery, using Kijsa's nursery as my inspiration.  I never knew who created that room.  I think that info was not on the sheets I tore from the magazine.  :-( Anyway, I sent Kijsa a note with this story and a pic of the room she inspired me to paint.  See Kijsa and Kara's response, which is listed in my blog under We're Going To The World Series.  It is no secret that I often say, "Sometimes I don't feel like I have a creative bone in my body!"  I can execute the job alright, but I have a very hard time coming up with the concept most times and rely heavily on inspiration from other sources. 

I loved the way Kijsa had "frame" her work, so I used that concept.  This was a very, very small nursery, with little wall space.  The "frame" is done with Melanie Royals
leaf stencil.  The birds, frogs, and rabbit are from Lynn Brehm's line of stencils (I added the clothes on the rabbit and the crown and hat on the frogs). 

Here's a little closer look. I believe the crib bedding had a frog theme w/frogs wearing crowns and pointy hats.

A Few More Baseball Related Pics

Ok, I found just 2 more Red Sox related pics from kids rooms I've done over the years. 

The Green Monster.  This is a pain to do because of all the lettering and numbers, but it's a real crowd pleaser! ;-)

Kids/parents usually pick a game that they attended together and use that scoreboard.

Here's another version of the Red Sox shirt, but also note the baseball glove to the right.  This is on the wall with some framed pictures of the Red Sox.

And this concludes my tribute to the Red Sox for now! ;-)

We're Going To The World Series!

Ohmygod....I can't believe we are going to the World Series!  Twice in my lifetime! I am so proud of our Red Sox.  In honor of their win Sunday night, I thought I would post some Fenway Park murals and baseball themed rooms for kids, that I have done for clients in the past. Btw,  not to slight the Indian fans...they were a great match for the Sox and they certainly kept us on the edge of our seats throughout this series!

This mural is in a little boy's room.  The size is approximately 5' wide x 3' high, plus the logo on top.  This client won this mural as part of a fund raiser for the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless.

Here is a close up of the little boy, Kenny. What a cutie, huh?!

This is a hallway of baseballs, leading down to a playroom for the kids who live in this house.  The baseball stencil is from the Stencilled Garden. This is a 2 overlay stencil that works up very quickly.

As you enter the playroom, I painted this wall of sports shirts to look like they are hanging on a clothes pole. I cropped the picture, to focus on the Red Sox shirt. ;-)

This Red Sox shirt was painted over a child's bed. As you can see by all the baseball pillows on his bed...he's a big fan!

This painted Red Sox cap "hangs" on a trompe l'oeil hook in the same bedroom as the red shirt above.

This billboard and Red Sox shirt was done in another little boy's bedroom.  His bed gets moved so the headboard is directly under the shirt.

Here's a closer look at the mural from the pic above.  When I do this billboard, the kids and parents get to pick out which logos will be used.  Typically they choose their favorite fast food places and logos from the parent's work place.

Design Boston 2007

I just returned from spending the last 2 days at "designBoston 2007" at the Boston Design Center. For 2 days I was treated to inspirational and informative lectures, incredible food and drinks, and a great opportunity to network with local designers.  All of this... for free!  Yes.. for free!  I came home at the end of each day loaded down w/fun freebies from all the vendors and my head spinning with ideas from all I had seen and heard.  The first day, Wednesday, I was only able to stay for part of the day, due to other obligations.  But... lucky for me, the morning lecture was Patrick Frey, President of Pierre Frey, presenting French Style/Global Influence.  Mr. Frey was a most gracious and inspirational speaker with just a wealth of information about fabrics and the history of his company, started by his father.  He brought with him, many very old samples of fabrics from his company's archives and explained how these older designs are reprinted and adapted for today's current trends.  This hour presentation flew by and I came away feeling I had learned so much from this man who is clearly very passionate about his work and company! A big thanks to Martin Group Fabrics who sponsored this lecture.

Today, I returned to the Design Center and was able to spend the entire day there. The morning began with a very fun lecture entitled, "From the Runway to the Hallway, The Way Fashion Influences Color Trends".  This was presented by Sherri Thompson, Director of Marketing and Design for Sherwin-Williams.  Sherri had a fun slide show which featured current clothes fashions juxtaposed w/the current paint colors.  Btw, Sherri is one of the people who gives names to all the paint colors. Haven't you ever wondered who has that job?! She claims the first few hundred colors are easy to name, after that, a good bottle of wine helps!

These two lectures were the two that were the most benefit to me.  I have been exploring using stencils in combination with paint, plasters, metallics, textured materials, etc. to mimic wallpaper and fabric in creative ways.  Now I am really eager to get back into my studio to experiment!  Ugh... I just remembered what a mess my studio is in at the moment!  Maybe this will be inspiration to clean it up! ;-)

Did I mention all of the food and drink that was served throughout these 2 days?!  I think I gained 5 pounds!  Everywhere you turned, someone was offering up appetizers, delicious pastries, ice cream, champagne, wine, etc.!

The last presentation, the keynote speaker, was Dara Caponigro, Style Director of domino Magazine.  After some technical difficulties, Dara's slide show featured shoots from the magazine and her take on the design trends featured in domino.  A cocktail reception followed, but I was beat, had clients to call, so headed home.

A big thank you to Marc Bordet, Bordet Interiors, for signing me up for this event and another big thank you to the Boston Design Center for all their hard work!