This small footstool is painted with a profusion of sunflowers! Of course there is a bee visiting the flowers. A few fallen petals are painted on the two longer side panels. The top of the stool is only about 12″ X 8″. I have included a ‘before’ picture to help you understand the transformation better.
All this china is painted on the front of a simple jelly cabinet. There are teacups, teapots and lace doilies. The door has two panels each of which I divided into two faux shelves. I created some of the china patterns while other designs are from taken from well known patterns such as the teapot with the Cherub. Searching out china patterns was such fun! The Chinese spoons are part of my personal collection. The green and pink spoon is very old and I tried to preserve that when I painted it. I added a ‘real’ Hydrangea blossom for a change of texture. The jelly cabinet was originally found at a yard sale and likely started out life as unpainted furniture. It came to me in pieces, painted half brown and half red. Now its blue with gold edging and is “filled” with faux china! Open the door to find a surprise butterfly painted inside. This piece is currently a focal point in my own living room.
These three trays are painted with three different and striking floral motifs. Deep purple tulips wave in the wind on one of them. Water lilies slick with water densely pack another tray. I painted the lilies with the goal of capturing the memory of dragging my hand, as a child, through the slippery carpets of saucer shaped leaves while on a canoe ride on a New Hampshire lake. The third tray is filled with delicately painted Hydrangeas. You may have noticed that this is a favorite flower of mine and I have done them in many styles over the years. Of course there is a bug on each tray!
The client brought me her daughter’s old table and requested Trompe L’oeil pink Peonies. Although flat objects are easier to paint in a ‘Fool-the-Eye’ style, I was delighted with the challenge. Trompe L’oeil should tell a story, so I included a scissors which is still wet from cutting the flowers. A lady bug has come in with the blossoms by accident. Water droplets on the leaves, petals and scissor blades add to the realism. This table came to me in a dry, stripped condition with damaged areas and a request for a subtle color scheme. I pulled out the details of the table itself with simple taupe, grey and cream which also helped down play the missing molding on one corner. A peony is a flower with multiple layers of petals and is not exactly easy to paint. For those of you who are interested in my process, I included a photo here of an early stage of this piece. You can see that I have painted the leaves, but the highlights of the flower petals have been done in just white, allowing the background to show through for depth. The next step was a pink wash over the whole blossom.
