Ornamental Plaster Sculpting, Mural Painting, Faux Finishing, and Imaginative Interior Design.

Ornamental Plaster Sculpting, Mural Painting, Faux Finishing, and Imaginative Interior Design.
CLICK ON THE RABBIT ( yes, those are cabinets) TO SEE MY PORTFOLIO, AND LEARN MORE ABOUT MY SERVICES...theartofthehome.com

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Wanna get plastered?


When just paint just isn't enough, plaster adds texture and dimension to your walls.  Whether it's a trowled plaster wainscoating, perhaps with fossil leaf stamps, or a hand sculpted frieze of hummingbirds on a soffit, there's a plaster technique appropriate to every style of decor.

Sculpted Plaster Stove Hood

faux copper stenciled plaster stove hood



Hand sculpted plaster arch details above, and with added sheetrock dimension, below.





Stenciled plaster wall texture, with gilded hand sculpted border, above, and finally, if you just can't commit to permanent dimension, the  trompe l'oeil (fancy for "fool the eye") sample below only looks dimensional.  Takes just as long to get the shading right as to sculpt it for real, but easier to change, should you ever want to!

Sunday, March 14, 2010

As long as we're talking about church art...

Awhile back, I mentioned another artist George Bilak, and invited you to click a link to his site.  Now that I've gotten my hands on a few pictures of his work, I would like to extend that invitation again.  These photos are of his work at St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church in Cambridge, MA.




 If you want to see how it all started, before shipping from Serbia, click www.carvingart.com/A0..htm, and if you want to see the cheeky brat's website, click on http://www.carvingart.com/.  All kidding aside, this guy is a serious, and seriously great artist.  His work is collected by people all over the world, and he is available for commissions.  If you love his carving, but aren't wanting a religious piece, he will do some non-religious projects.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Art For Your Spiritual Home


Every home is a spiritual home, or should be, but it seems since January all my work has been for churches.  Yup, more churches!  First, it was lettering the Ten Commandments to look as though they are carved in 5' tablets of stone, at Hope Presbyterisan in Richfield (sorry, camera was traveling elsewhere when I finished that one, so no photo).  Then it was painting two new statues for St. Francis Xavier in Taylor's Falls, on which I tested my patience with a new-to-me paint, Flasche vinyl acrylics.  Beautiful matte finish, but they dry so fast that blending large areas is nearly impossible.  Anyone reading this who has experience with these, I'd love to know what your thoughts are.

My last project was a triptych screen (built by TC Fogarty) and statue restoration for St. John/ Assumption, a little old Catholic church that sits on the hill above town.  The angels and St. Joseph got fingers and noses resculpted and cracks filled, before having their original paint refreshed.  St. John (who seems to be showing up a lot in my life lately...hmm) had to be stripped and completely repainted, as he had been stored too long in the bell tower, and his paint was too far gone to salvage. 










If you belong to a church that is storing it's statues, including the Christmas Nativity figures, please be sure they are in the most climate-controlled place possible.  It's not so much the heat and freezing, it's the humidity!  At the very least, be sure they are on pallets, so that air can circulate under them.  Most of these old plaster statues wick up moisture through their bases, and it eventually results in loosening the paint from inside, as it looks for a place to escape.  If your church is ready to refurbish it's statues, please have them contact me.