The Fontana dell'Ovato

Finished the mural yesterday - client is very happy and now I have to get back to some mundane decorating back at home where I have a hallway to re-decorate before Christmas.

The Fontana dell'Ovato

Day five finished on the mural - a couple of days left to go for completion (I hope).
Lots more colour added now - still lots of work to do on the oval fountain - avoiding the temptation to go into too much detail.

The Fontana dell'Ovato

Here are some photographs of the halfway stage of a mural I am currently working on.
It is an interpretation of the The Fontana dell'Ovato ("Oval Fountain") which can be seen at Villa d'Este, Tivoli near Rome in Italy.

At this stage I have very loosely painted in the design in raw umber and then I am gradually building up the washes of colour. I intend for the finished piece to be more suggested rather than get bogged down in too much detail.

Orange Tree Video

Finally finished editing the footage for my Orange Tree video. Hope you like it.

Orange Tree

Orange Tree canvas has been finished and the painting process has been filmed ready for editing.

Unfortunately it has been a while since I have last edited and back then I used a wonderful program called iMovie HD on my old Mac. Our new Mac has iMovie 09 installed on it and and does not make any sense to me whatsoever and judging by all the forums I am not the only one who is frustrated by this.

iMovie HD was close to perfect and Apple decided it would be a great idea to scrap it completely and re-build a new editing suite from scratch. A bit like trying to improve the wheel by giving it right-angles.

I will get the YouTube video done - although it may take me a little longer than anticipated as we need to rebuild the old Mac and re-install the software (including iMovie HD)

YouTube

It has been about 2 years since I last did a YouTube video so it is long overdue for me to make another.
I am currently halfway through an orange tree trompe l'oeil which I hope to complete tomorrow. Then it will be the simple task of editing all the footage together and uploading it to YouTube.

This piece is also being painted onto a canvas so if anyone is interested I may be selling it at some point.

Work in Progress

Here are a couple more photos of the two commissions I am currently working on.
Finally got some colour on them today. The blue doors on the Provencial window will be louvered and the lavender will be coloured lavender - I just like to base it out with green first.

Provencale Panel

This is the other commission I am currently working on in my studio at the moment.
It has been painted onto 9mm MDF that I have then cut to shape.
So far I have planned out the basic window shape and the Provencial landscape in a monotone and will gradually build up the colours as I progress.

The finished piece will be used for a exhibition stand by a company that specialises in French style home accessories & gifts.

School Mural

Haven't had much painting time of late but managed to get some done on the school window panels today.
I have now fleshed out the tones a bit more. The paints I am using are Raw Umber and white with a Magnolia base...! Yes, I did say Magnolia :-)

School Mural

It has been quite a few weeks (months even) since I posted last. Consider my wrists slapped :-)

I am working on some panels in my studio at the moment. Two of the panels are for a couple of windows in a school in South London. When the school was extended these two windows had to be blocked in so with the panels I am aiming to re-create the lost view.
It looks a little bland at the moment whilst I plan everything out - lots of roof tops interspersed with foliage and some wildlife. I have just recently finished a Peter Pan theme mural so I have been painting lots of rooftops of late :-)





The other panel is for an exhibition stand and will be a Provencal window complete with lavender fields. Once I have planned something out I will post up some pics.

Monument Valley Mural Glow-in-the-dark

As promised I managed to take a couple of photos of the mural in the dark to show the effect with the glow-in-the-dark paint.

The silhouette effect of the monoliths works really well and was worth the extra effort in masking off all the areas I didn't want splattered with glow paint.

Monument Valley Mural - Finished

It has taken a bit longer than expected but the mural is now finally finished.

The ceiling has glow-in-the-dark stars, galaxies & comets and then comes down to the horizon so, when the lights are off, the rocky monoliths form striking silhouettes.
Unfortunately my mobile phone's camera cannot capture this and I cannot find my other (proper) camera at the moment. I need to mount the camera on a tripod and set a long exposure in order to capture the glow effect. It does look stunning but for the time being you will just have to take my word for it :)

Monument Valley Mural

Slowly getting there with this one. Gradually building up the rocky forms in a monotone way with a little white. Also starting picking out the stars in Titanium White - still got quite a bit of work to do.

Monument Valley Mural

Gradually building up the night sky - this is the really messy part as I am building up the effects using a nail brush to splatter the paint. Most of the paint ends up on me but that's a small price to pay.

Monument Valley

I have recently started work on a mural depicting Monument Valley at night. I am painting all four walls and the ceiling in a child's bedroom - the ceiling has been painted a deep purple and this will be the backdrop to some swirling galaxies, stars and comets which I will continue down the walls.

What started as as simple idea has now become a bit more involved - my plan is to also used my glow-in-the-dark paints to give as close an authentic night sky effect as I can. Hopefully it will not disappoint.

Desert Mural - Day 5

Finished the mural late yesterday evening. It was just as well that I finished late as the M25 was completely clogged during the afternoon due to the closure of the QE2 Bridge amongst other problems. By the time I drove home the road was nice & clear - even through all the roadworks :)

I painted the glow-in-the-dark stars yesterday. Because the ceiling had been painted blue I first painted the stars in white acrylic and then painted the glow paint on top. this will help the paints to glow more effectively.
The varnishing took me much longer than anticipated. This was due to the fact that I have painted the mural on top of a textured wallpaper so the varnish took a lot more working in.

The clients were very happy with the finished result and no doubt look forward to getting their room back :)

Desert Mural - Day 4

Just about there now. Finished off the pyramids today and the chap riding the camel.
Just the glow-in-the-dark stars to add and a couple of coats of varnish - long day tomorrow.

Desert Mural - Day 3

Just worked on the two desert palm trees today - nice to get some green into the mural.
Back onto the pyramids and camel tomorrow - and I have the moon to add as well.

Desert Mural - Day 2

2nd day into my desert theme mural. Now I have some pyramids and some colour at last. I am sketching the bulk of this mural using the brush & paint rather than drawing it all out first.

Desert Mural

I am currently working on a desert theme mural. As with the tropical island mural I painted at the end of last year, I have started with a blue base and have sketched out the mural using Raw Umber. Once I have fleshed out the design out in I will gradually introduce the colours.