Old fashioned Hollyhocks are one of my favorite flowers but I can never seem to get them to establish themselves in my garden, so instead I painted one!! Painted in a hyper-realistic style, with sharp shadows, this flower seems to jump off the background. A bee hovers near by. This Hollyhock is painted on a slice of wood about eight inches tall.
The request for this vintage tray (provided by the client) was for “lots and lots of scallop shells”. I tried to paint them as if they were randomly scattered on the tray to avoid making the piece look like a summer camp project of glued-down shells. I included a star fish as well as a variety of sizes and kinds of shells, all facing many directions. I had an actual shell or critter model for every item I painted. One of my models was an enormous orange shell. If you look at my Scallop Shell Lazy Susan you will see the inside of this same shell which is actually purple and white! The tray has a glass insert that protects all my painted shells. I did not change the nice mahogany finish of the rim or the background surface, I merely touched up a couple bad spots and sealed the entire piece. I also painted the handles metallic gold.
This mural began with two brand new plain closet doors! It is painted in Trompe L’oeil style to look like a real bank of lockers just jam packed with sporting equipment. I had a ball doing these doors (pun intended!!) The client and I collected all sorts of sports paraphernalia to use as models. We added in anything we could think of! Who’d ever have thought painting smelly old sneakers could be such a great idea? Did all of you UConn fans notice the ‘old’ Husky sticker peeling off? Even the masking tape names and the door handles are painted on. I have included a photo of one of the doors ajar, just to help you understand the illusion. To open the closet however, one pulls on real combination locks and a real golf ball which were added after the doors were hung. I am particularly proud and fond of this project.
This little child’s chair is painted as if it were a mural. The chair belonged to the client who gave me free reign to do whatever I wanted and this was the result. The beach scene wraps around all surfaces of the chair. The light house is a famous one, I am sure you recognize it. The model for the hyper-realistic copper sand pail was a miniature pail that I stuck into rice to capture the look I wanted. The seagulls were taken from photos a friend took at the beach. The sand castle which I painted on one of the sides was a particularly difficult challenge.
