As with the inner, so with the outer

Last week it was the sanctuary walls and ceiling, this week, the wooden medallions on the exterior of St. John-Assumption Church got my attention.

Not quite my usual work, but friends are determined to keep me busy, and since it needed a color consult to match the yellow to the yellow bricks, and some skill with a brush to highlight the details in the gingerbread, I said "Sure, why not?"  Besides...

it was another chance to defy gravity.  We did use a lift, so it really wasn't difficult reaching the top medallions, and though the temperature was pushing 90 degrees, we were on the shady side of the church most of the time, with a light breeze, so it was a pleasant couple of days.

And here's how last week's sanctuary painting came out...

(Click to enlarge, click again for detail)

...and here's what the parish council wanted, but the diocese vetoed:

(Click to enlarge, click again to enlarge more)

I think if they had seen the actual sample, they might have approved the band of clouds, but they only saw the watercolor sketch, and I couldn't leave the sample until the next month's meeting, especially since I didn't exactly have permission to put it there.  It was Divine inspiration, I tell ya, and when an artist gets marching orders...well, what's a girl to do??? 

I think even the angels liked it better.

Ah, well, you can't always get what you want, but if you do the job they ordered, you can at least get paid.  Maybe next time it needs fresh paint, the diocese will give it the go ahead.  Thanks to my dear friends at St. John's who seem to be making a point of keeping me busy and out of trouble...or is it just that you figure that if I spend enough time there you'll eventually convert my heathen soul??? :)

No new photos of progress on this house again this week, since the few minutes I wasn't on jobs or running errands, I've been finishing the last non-photogenic kitchen bits.  That's about done, so I'm starting on the front porch and entryway Saturday.  I'll be working on her most of the weekend, but I will be taking breaks to do a few just-for-fun things.  Working on Belle Ami is my idea of fun, but one can get too much of a good thing... even chocolate loses it's appeal (or so I've heard), after a point. 

On Friday night I'm going to sit in the ditch and drink beer while watching cars drive by.  Really.  It's 'posta be fun.  Okay, the cars are classics, touring up to Henderson, and the ditch is actually the edge of my friend Beth's beautiful garden.  With enough mosquito dope to drown anything that isn't repelled, and a couple bottles of Leinenkeugel Honeyweiss (which I have no doubt spelled wrong, and spell check isn't classy enough to have this listed), it should be a great evening.

If you are in the area this weekend, don't miss the Jordan Art Festival, on Saturday and Sunday.  Because of my focus on finishing this place, I'm not participating this year (aside from painting the endless stream of sign orders!), but many of my dear friends are.  Try to catch Cindy Heimerl on stage Saturday, as storyteller Ruby LeFey...thought provoking and hysterically funny.  Maureen Carlson will also be doing storytelling, as well as having her polymer clay work on display, and her center open for you to check out.  Check JordanArtFestival.com for other features. 

There is wine tasting from local winery, Crofut, and the famous Pork in the Park, so I'm planning a lunch break there, while the caulking on Belle's not-quite vertical columns sets up.  Then I'm planning a lovely little nap.  Hey, I'll be starting work at 5:00 a.m., and it'll be in the 90's and possibly storming by late afternoon, so it's not like I'm slacking.  Okay, fine, I'll skip the wine.  Sheesh.

Have it good, and make something beautiful this week!

Make each moment an occasion...

Here's one of last week's projects...

This is about 7 feet square.  click to enlarge.

If you want to see it in person, you might want to check it out at Mystic Journey's Yoga Open Houses, next Tuesday and Thursday, here in Belle Plaine, MN.  Both instructors will be there both nights, but only one will teach a sample class each night, so you may want to attend both.  More info is on Sarah's website, yourmysticjourney.com.   If yoga's a bit too sedate, I have it on good authority that belly dancing will be offered soon, and having done just a little of that years ago, I can promise you that it's both good exercise, and good fun!

This week, I'm getting my exercise playing on the monkey bars.  Okay, actually, I'm monkeying up and down two and a half decks of scaffolding, adding some color and stencils to the sanctuary at St. John/Assumption Catholic Church. 

Somehow, I enjoyed last week's sanctuary a little more.  It's tornado season in Minnesota, which means hot and humid, and the peak of this sanctuary gets steamy by the end of the day!  The best part of the job are my guardian angels, TC and Carol Fogarty, who stop in to check on me often throughout the day, and bring me home baked cookies and iced Frappucino every afternoon.  Trust me, I'm burning it off...and the paint is looking pretty good so far, too.

p.s. Carol, please don't worry so.  I grew up following my big brother "the billy goat" up every cliff and tree in Eastern Oregon.  This isn't even kid stuff!  Really.

Sirens and Sanctuary

I'll tell you all about this week's project in a minute, but first, a note about something I love about Belle Plaine:  Tonight, someone's kid(s) had a moment they will remember all their lives.  I don't know who may have won the state baseball tournament, or maybe it was the spelling bee, but as happens about once a year, long slow sirens and the honking of horns were heard, and I, like all the neighbors, stepped out on my porch to watch a firetruck, waving kids hanging out the windows, leading a parade of honking vehicles through town to the schools.  It doesn't matter if the winners come home at 1:00 in the morning, if you're a kid in this town, and you achieve something big, there are grown-ups who will meet you at the city limits to make sure the whole town celebrates you.  Sometimes I think this town is as backwards as they come, but tonight I'm reminded that it's full of some really fine people.

(The gray is because it was still wet when I shot this photo.  Click to enlarge, click again to zoom)

I spent the week with some really fine people, sculpting this hummingbird vine over their dining room windows.  As fine as the people, their fine feathered friends really stole my heart.  Their home is on a peninsula of land between two creeks, and they have a backyard full of bird feeders.  In the last four days, I saw orioles, black-capped chickadees, ruby throated hummingbirds, rose breasted grosbeaks, cardinals, red bellied woodpeckers, hairy woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, blue jays, mourning doves, house finches, purple finches, wild turkeys, white breasted nuthatches, yellow bellied sapsuckers, chipmunks, and four squirrels, two of which were so fat, they could be mistaken for small bears.  Okay, that last bit is an exaggeration, but the list is not. 

I have never seen so many birds of so many varieties at one time in my life, and to watch the different species interact, which ones played nice, which ones chased others away, was so distracting, I actually ended up working an extra day (okay, part of that was the usual "plan the job one way, then dream up a way it could look even cooler" thing that I do).  Still, to spend the last four days sculpting pretties, plus some other decorating, for these two gentle souls, in the refuge they have created was the very best way I could have spent the work week.  Heaven on Earth.  Sanctuary.  Ahhhhhh.

(click and click again)

And just to give you an idea of the endless options, here's another version of hummingbird plaster, done with Italian style scroll work, for the traditional home of one of my favorite customers and dear friend...

cell phone shots, better ones to come.

posting postponed

Due to the ridiculously high volume of sign orders (yup, more sign orders), the Thursday night blog will likely happen around Saturday noon.  Sculpted hummingbird plaster job is going beautifully by day...I'm working at a window with a hummingbird feeder just a few feet from my ladder, so I have live models, not to mention great entertainment.  Second shift signwriting is going beautifully by night, with Belle's projects happening in small bits in the early mornings.  If you are awake at 3:45, send me some good thoughts... and a triple espresso!

Be careful what you ask for

Have you ever asked for a sign from the Divine, and gotten a billboard of an answer?  This actually happens to me fairly often, but I think the Universe is getting a good laugh this week. 

Click pictures to enlarge, click again for detail

(Just painted this one)

If you are a former sign writer, and wish to stay that way, I suggest you not ask for signs from God.  I just wanted a little hint that a project I have in the works is going to actually one day pay off.  "Could I please", I very specifically asked, "have a clear sign that this idea of mine will make money?" 

Um...got it. 

I am pleased to be busy, and I do enjoy lettering, but it's a bit like the pop machine that just keeps spitting out cans of cola.  Pretty much any order this past week that hasn't been a sign, and there have been ten of those, has at least included lettering.  Even my volunteer projects this week were signs.  Considering the fact that I have not been a commercial sign painter for many, many years, it's a little extraordinary to keep answering the door to people asking for them. 

Call it coincidence, if you like, but I know better than to ask for guidance and then ignore the answer.

These pictures are of last week's work.  Some Art Nouveau lettering with a Celtic flavor, and details from the same era in the adjoining kitchen.  I am grateful for everything, even the sign orders.  Especially the sign orders, though I do look forward to next week's sculpted plaster projects...nary a word involved!

As for progress on my own house this week, nothing photogenic to show off.  Some design sketches that may amount to something, a little primer, a little varnish...oh, and a great table I found on craigslist.org, which I have been searching for at an affordable price, since choosing to buy this house.  Seriously, I had a picture of the table (Jacobean Revival, popular from the turn of the century through the thirties in this part of the country), and was looking for the kind of house it would go in.   Found the house five years ago, found the table (for a song!)  five days ago...I'll show it on here one of these weeks.  An extra special thank you to Cathy Isles for her patronage, her joyful encouragement of big dreams, and the tip that paid for the table!

Talk about trying something new!

When not working on my own house lately, I've had the chance to do some fun projects for actual profit.  This dining room recently went from typical beige Midwestern to colorful Contemporary Country, with the help of designer Amy Kos.  The client actually chose the wall treatment, painted to look like panels of rusting barn siding, embellished with real screws, and her husband chose the wine bottle chandelier.  There is a reclaimed barn wood table on the way, and a childhood toy box bench and wooden barn will take their place alongside a buffet and corner curios from Ballard Designs.  What a fresh spin on American country style!  I'll post pictures of the finished project in a few weeks, along with a link to Amy.

Click to view, click again to enlarge

I was back on the job this morning, putting a quick crackled black-rub finish on their simple oak mantle...just a small detail to give context to the black firebox, and a more rustic finish to better compliment the organic nature of the stone.  That's fancy for "A little less builder oak, please."

Hope you have a great Memorial Weekend.  Check in next week for photos of "How I Started my Summer Vacation"...yeah, that's as in "What I'm painting next, here at home".  Throw a brat on the grill for me!

Details, details, details

Now that the big stuff is done in the kitchen, it's time to focus in on the smaller details.  Today I had my Third Thursday Art Group here, and after they took in the ceiling, walls, cabinets and floor-that faux tile floor really does fool the eye-they started asking about the bits on the counter.  Uh-huh, here we go through the brambles again...

Why buy spices in jars when you can buy 'em cheaper in bags, then spend a jillion hours creating custom containers from recycled olive jars (martinis anyone?), Pebeo ceramic paint (their glass paint is too sheer), and polymer clay? 

Why buy canisters from Target when you can top lidless yard sale finds with vintage china plates, to which you epoxy handles styled from recycled cabinet pulls and more polymer clay? 

And why leave a perfectly cute candlestick lamp alone, if you can give it a funky paint job and a paper clay rabbit head? 

Why hang out in the pub or in front of the telly when you can go to your playroom and make cool stuff that all your friends envy?

To all my friends who say they have no time to do those fun little projects they always talk about but never get around to, I issue a challenge:  Turn off the t.v. for a month, invite your friends to come over for art dates, instead of meeting for drinks or coffee, and see how much more satisfied you feel at the end of those four and a half weeks.  Divinity is in the details, and the details happen in the minutes we choose to use fully.  Have a perfectly divine weekend, whatever you choose to do!

Tea in the garden, anyone?

I meant to do something unique, but I didn't quite envision this, when I started out.  If you want to see my  kitchen in it's former yellow plastic glory, scroll down to the previous entry.  If you want to look at anything closer, click on the picture, then click again for a close-up.

She's painted from floor to ceiling, or is that ceiling to floor?  The "copper" ceiling is actually paintable wallpaper, first coated in metallic copper paint, then in gold glaze, to look better against the pink walls.  One hint, should you want to try this:  cut the paper into about three foot lengths along the natural divides, as it is very heavy, and will pull itself down before the glue dries.  Once painted, the cuts never show.

Yes, you can paint vinyl flooring.  The secret is very good primer and very good clear coats...and a lot of hours if you plan to do all the shading you see here!

The counter tops are painted in a faux marble, and the backsplash is troweled plaster with a piped on twig trellis, reminiscent of majolica pottery.  Usually I prefer to leave piped plaster white, but this time, I tinted it, as it seemed to help coordinate the backsplash and counter colors.  Dimensional plaster really is one of my very favorite things to do!

Every bunny needs an escape route!

Usually this is where I write the menu for the week, but with all this painting, I haven't been cooking much!

There are still some details to attend to...valances over the windows, paint on some of the furniture pieces that sit against the other walls, and maybe bringing the 1940's stove back up from the basement, where it was plumbed in for a summer kitchen when the "new" stove was installed.  For now, I think I'm ready for that cup of tea...or maybe just a wee nip of sherry? 

Whew!

Done with the kitchen.  Okay, not quite.  I've a few details and styling (that's fancy for put the stuff back on the counters) to do before I take proper pictures on Sunday, after which I'll put three coats of poly on the floor, after which there are a few dozen other things I could still do, but probably won't.  Somebody stop me, please!  So, here's where it started, bright and airy, but not at all my style, even when it was in fashion:

Before:  vinyl wallpaper patterned with butter churns and spinning wheels, yellow plastic counters and backsplash, and vinyl flooring in a color that British designer Lawrence Llewellyn-Bowen once referred to as "there's a reason we flush"...'70's Country Americana at it's, um, finest?

Almost there...

For those of you checking on the kitchen progress tonight, the paint work is almost done.  I've of course thought of amazing details to add to the "stone tile" floor, so I'll be painting through the night.  If you're awake, send some good vibes my way, and check in around 9:00 tomorrow morning.

Belle's Birds

Click on photo to enlarge, click again to view details.

Alright, this should be the last tease before the whole kitchen is unveiled.  Here's one of the upper cabinets, graced by the neighbor's apple tree, and one of the resident mourning doves.  I love painting animals I haven't painted before.  I check out every book from the library across the street with pictures of the subject (It's a tiny library, so it's not like I'm stressing the 100 book limit), and really research the details.  This dove was a little fluffed up, compared to the sleeker poses of the others, but it made it more interesting to paint, being able to see more individual feathers.  Amazing how many details and shades of color there are on a plain gray bird!  Yup, another trip through the brambles, and don't even get me started on the endless possibilities for apple varieties.

Someone asked about "Belle's" Kitchen, and I realize it's been about a year and a half since I introduced Belle Amie, whose name is French for Beautiful Friend.  Belle is a 1906 post-Victorian eclectic with hints of neoclassical influences in th...huh?  Sorry.  Belle is a big white quirky confection of a house, built by Friend J. Whitlock, in the very heart of downtown Belle Plaine.  She has a huge front porch, a back parlor that makes a perfect art studio, a brilliant pink stained glass window in the entry, and three mismatched fanlight windows in her huge attic.  She's asymmetrical, quirky, beautiful and charming to the core...like all my best girlfriends!

She's also far from finished, in the decorating sense of things, and as she's supposed to be a showcase for my work, I'm pushing hard not to be another one of those about whom people say "Oh, you know, it's like the shoemaker whose kids go barefoot..." (Does anybody say that anymore?  Do kids even know that there used to be shoemakers, before there were sweatshops in third world countries???  Oops, wrong blog.)  Anyway, tune in next Friday morning for what I sincerely, wholeheartedly, please Dear God let it be true, hope will be the unveiling of the finished kitchen, painted fully, floor to ceiling.

Belle's Kitchen: the saga continues

I have this poem by Robert Frost on my studio wall.  I'm sure you know it..."Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."  On different days, I give it different endings, like "and I stood frozen, unable to choose", or "and I turned around and went back home, 'cause who wants to go into the woods anyway"...and various other endings, depending on just how late I'm working, and just how grumpy I am at myself for never taking the easy way.  I think I have finally hit on the version that honors my truest nature:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I went hiking off through the brambles.

My kitchen illustrates this perfectly.  I meant to do something interesting on the cabinets, something a little different than you might expect, but I did not intend to spend weeks of early mornings and nights after work, painting a full color, fully detailed mural...with brambles.  Last week, I showed you the cabinet to the left of the stove (rabbit conveniently located near the stew pot, heh-heh-heh!), so this week I bring you the sink cabinet.  You want to find the compost bucket in my kitchen?  It's behind the rhubarb, of course!

click on photo to enlarge, click again to zoom on details.

Comparing apples to pomegranates

Sometimes people think they can't afford my services, without ever asking my pricing.  For almost any effect you wish to achieve, there are multiple ways to do so, and the dollars are in the details.  I can paint an 8'x8' mural in a day, or I can paint it in a week...just depends on what you like, and how much detail you want to pay for.  Here's an example:

The artwork on my business card is a photo from a full-surround mural I painted in a baby girl's nursery that was to later become the mother's home office.  Animals like this are about $60 each in a mural project.

This artwork is from a mural painted across cabinet doors.  Animals painted with this level of detail are about $360 each in a mural project.  This section of cabinets took nearly as long as the entire room done in the simpler style! 

By the way, if you like this newest bit of art, check back next week to see if there's another installment in the long drawn-out saga of "Belle's Kitchen"...

Even superheroes need a place to sleep

One of my favorite clients, Kemerie, called me last year to tell me they had moved to a bigger house, and although she had visions of a classic and tasteful little boy's room for her son Graham, her husband had bought Graham removable stick-on decals of his all-time favorite guy, Spidey.  Not at all what Mama had in mind, but I assured her we could work with it.

Though definitely "all boy", with a love of cars, policemen,  firemen, and superheroes,  Graham is one of those little boys who speaks in long sentences, wears khakis and polo shirts, and will probably own a briefcase before he graduates middle school...if he doesn't already!  I wanted to give him a room that would be a backdrop for the interests he has now, and would be likely to work through his teens as well. 

To create the Minneapolis skyline, I drew and masked off the buildings, then brought the ceiling color down onto the wall "behind" them, fading it into a light version of  the wall color, so the contrast wasn't too stark.  No need to repaint the whole room; no need to worry about the custom work clashing with anything Graham might want to hang on the walls.  With Arts and Crafts style furnishings, this room is classic enough for a grown-up, but rugged and neutral enough to look perfect filled with all the colorful toys Graham and his pal Peter Parker love to play with. 

This is a great use for all the new vinyl wall graphics.  I don't paint licensed characters, as they are copyrighted, and now you can buy them cheaper in vinyl than any artist can paint them anyway, plus, they are removable.  With any theme room, from Pooh to Harry Potter to Spiderman, you'll get more longevity, and possibly a less cluttered look, if you paint the room as a place for the favorite character to live, rather than with images of the character.  This also creates a backdrop for your child's imagination to go beyond the limits of someone else's character.

You splash my back, and I'll splash yours!

Well, I had thought that by now I would be posting pictures of my own kitchen, but the backsplash is holding me up.  Nothing going badly, just my usual way of starting with one idea, and with no real restriction on how much time I can spend, being continually sidetracked with thoughts of  "Hey, what if I try this...or this...or maybe..."  So, my backsplash next week...I think. 

For now, here's one I painted in a kitchen up toward St. Cloud.  Yup, painted.  There is no tile in these photos.  The marble countertops are real, the red tile...paint!  Now, this is fairly time consuming, so not a huge amount cheaper than real tile, but since the homeowners knew they were thinking of selling, they wanted something potential buyers wouldn't be put off by, if red tile isn't their thing.  Five minutes with a sanding block, and they can roll right over it.

The house, by the way, just went on the market.  It's just a short bit from the Annandale exit, tucked back in the trees.  I'm remembering four bedrooms, two fireplaces, attached garage and seperate storage buildings, as well as a dog run, nice landscaping...and some really cool paint in a few rooms!  email me if you want more details, and I'll forward you to the homeowners.

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!