04 Sep International mural commissions.
Every now and then working as a murals london artist has its rewards in more ways than one.
As someone who loves to travel on average once every two years I get an international
commissioned mural. I returned to London last month from spending 6 weeks painting a mural in Montecito, Santa
Barbara California. I had already done some trompe l’oeil stone blocking for the client for his
property in London and he was so pleased he invited me to visit him the next time I was in the
USA, which I did.
His property in Montecito was originally built for William Hearst’s granddaughter Lisa in a
modern cubist style, she sold it because she did not feel safe from kidnappers in this semi
remote location. It is perched on top of the hill and has views of the Channel Islands in the
distance on a clear day, with its beautiful semi tropical garden with koi fish pools and a 30 metre
lap pool it is truly a magical spot.
During one of the fires that that area of California has had many the pool house was burnt down
and the owner wanted to rebuild it adding his own touches.
The pool house as well as a large shower area combined uses and could be used as a guest
house, to make the most of the limited space a murphy bed was built onto one wall, his idea
was for me to do a beautiful mural to blend the protruding murphy bed and cabinets into the
wall.
The design he wanted was a new version of something I had already done in London before, a
sort of mixture of art deco and chinoiserie.
I had asked for the wall furniture and wall to be painted in a base colour before my arrival
enabling me to start work on the mural straight away. After a basic sketch the areas where the
gold leaf was to go and the flying cranes were blocked out and then the remaining areas were
finished in a woodgrain effect going at different angles looking like inlaid wood.
The next step in painting the mural was the gold leaf rays which spread from top to bottom, I
also added some circles of gold paint. When the gold leaf was perfectly dry I antiqued it, making
it darker on the base and getting lighter near the top.
Lastly white cranes were painted flying across the whole wall; these stood out as a total contrast
to the background, when the mural was completed the gold shimmered, reflecting the light
differently depending where you stood.
The positioning of the mural and the gold leaf was so well thought through that at night a soft
interior light made the gold reflect through the glazed doors so it could be seen from the outside.
Every day on that project I felt grateful to be a mural artist painting and creating in such a
beautiful environment, it doesn’t get much better.
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