Stones on a Vanity Table

What a joy it was to paint this table!  I worked from real stones and photographs of real stones. It was a challenge to make the randomness of the stones both natural and artistically placed.  Painting realistic stones takes a combination of technique, patience and old brushes that can be handled ‘roughly.’ Doing the stripes that naturally occur in some stones is not easy, if done wrong the stripe would seem painted’ on the outside.   The client requested “No pink or brown stones”, but the piece needed the hints of rust, yellow and green or else the all gray palette would have been too cold.   Of course there has to be a bug on the stones! A delicate Damselfly was perfect for what appears to be a scene from the water’s edge.  Everyone who has seen this table points to a different stone as their favorite. Which one is your favorite?   I painted the legs in four alternating shades of gray.  When this table was originally brought to me it was painted an ugly bright yellow, what a transformation!

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Delphinium Chair with Hand Caned Seat

Larger than life lavender Delphiniums grace the backrest of this vintage chair. The flowers are hand painted in acrylic paint in a hyper-realistic style with a touch of   soft focus.  I really like the effect and I hope you do too.   The chair itself is done in soothing blues, purples and greens.  The darkest color is very deep purple.  On the back side I painted a Silver Studded Blue butterfly.   I also hand caned the seat.  It turns out this sturdy chair might be pretty old as I found that the caning holes were clearly hand drilled. They were irregular in size, placement, and spacing, making this quite a challenge for a first time caner! I have included an image of the rescue chair as it first came to me! Look what a little paint and love did to it!    If you are interested in possibly purchasing something similar to this piece please Send me an email or leave a comment.

Chair Painted With Ribbons and Dried Roses

I chose a palette of grays and browns for this surprisingly colorful chair. The ‘natural’ wood grain on the legs and back supports is faux work as the chair was painted cream when I found it. The seat is painted to look like someone casually set down two dried long stem roses with trailing ribbon. Hopefully the ribbon looks like you should brush it aside before you sit down! The next three pictures zoom in on more detail.Can you tell that these flowers are not moist and fresh, but crisp and carefully preserved? The shadows are very important to the illusion of being real. the swallowtail. He’s painted with the same limited palette as the seat decoration. 

This chair is for sale @ $150 plus shipping and handling.  If you are interested in possibly purchasing of this piece or  you want to know more about this piece  Send me an email or leave a comment.

Paris Mural

This mural is painted in acrylic on six unwanted wall mirrors which surrounded a table nook in an average size kitchen.  It is quite dramatic when viewed in person.    I worked with the client to select motifs that suggested  Paris street scenes.  All the names and numbers in the mural have specific meaning to the family that commissioned it.  I had so much fun doing this mural that I didn’t want this project to end!

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