Pompeian Mural

Just finished painting a Pompeian themed mural for a lounge in Hockley, Essex.

I spent three days painting the fresco as it may have looked over 2000 years ago and then spent a couple of days adding the cracks and the discolouring. The finished piece was then giving a couple of coats of flat acrylic varnish to help prevent any real damage.

Medusa Doors

I painted these two cupboard doors for the bathroom in which I painted the Roman fresco a couple of weeks ago. The Medusa motif was chosen to reflect the bathroom tiles with the Greek key pattern. Once again I aged and cracked the design to match the first mural.

Roman Fresco

I finished my Roman Fresco mural yesterday. It is a reproduction of a fresco found in The Villa of Agrippa Postumus in a settlement on the southern slopes of Mount Vesuvius, north of Pompeii.



As usual my favourite part of the work was adding the cracks and aging effects. I was also pleased that I managed to paint this within the four day window that I allowed myself - all my speed painting on 'DIY SOS' and '60 Minute Makeover' is paying off : )

Sky Ceiling

I have been busy working on a painted sky ceiling in the heart of Oliver Cromwell country near Huntingdon.
The property dates back to Cromwell's time and it is rumoured that he may have even spent a night there.



As you can see from the photo I have been working from a scaffold tower to paint the ceiling on which I stand on as opposed to laying down. Everyone assumes that such murals are painted laying down.
In my youth I did paint my first ceiling in that manner but found it to be too restricting on the arm movement and there was also the problem that any paint drips would end up in your eyes or up your nose - I would not recommend it - even Michelangelo stood on his scaffolding when he painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling (I must add here that I am certainly not comparing my ceiling to Michelangelo's).

I start with a white base when painting a sky ceiling. I then gradually add subtle washes of light blue, pink and purple to help form the shapes of the clouds and the blue sky beyond.
This method prevents the clouds from taking on the form of lumps of cotton wool and also creates some fantastic pinky greys when you wash one colour over another.
I describe my sky painting method in more detail with a step-by-step project in my first book - 'Trompe L'Oeil Interiors'.

Cosmic Ceiling

I have spent the last couple of days creating a cosmic ceiling for a child's bedroom in Essex.


The effects you can see in the photos were built up with layer upon layer of paint -applied by flicking a toothbrush & nailbrush. Half the paint made it up on the ceiling - the other half ended up on me : )

I do not normally paint this way and was pleasantly surprised at the different effects that can be achieved. It was my original intention to use an airbrush for this ceiling but opted to tackle it this way instead.


To add another dimension to the mural I have also used some glow-in-the-dark paint so when the lights are turned off - the stars carry on shining.

Venetian Window Mural Video

Here is the video as promised. I was up into the early hours editing this - hope you like it.

Crumbling Wall Mural - the video

This was the main reason for painting the crumbling wall effect that I wrote about in my last post.



I have been meaning to put together a video of my mural work for ages now. I have done a lot of video editing for my family over the last few years - ever since we ditched the old PC and got an iMac about four years ago - yes, I am one of the converted : )

The bundled iLife software also included a fantastic video editing suite and now every year I produce a DVD of all the family footage I have shot.

The actual painting itself probably took about four hours to paint over a couple of days. I then had about an hour & a half of footage to edit down into about three minutes. This process has taken an awful lot longer than actually painting the thing in the first place : )

Hopefully this will be the first of many - if any of you have any suggestions for a video then I'd love to hear them - no lewd suggestions though ; )

Crumbling Wall Mural

I've been working on one of my favorite paint effects - The Crumbling Wall.

I first tried out this effect about 15 years ago in my old office. At the time I was not particularly proficient in effects like stone blocking, marbling and rag-rolling so my decision to paint a derelict wall was almost like a reaction against those type of effects.

Marbling has an elegant and luxurious feel whereas a crumbling plaster effect looks like a wall in bad repair. I enjoyed this stark contrast - it's my rebellious paint effect and over time it has become my signature piece.



Over the years I have painted this effect many times in my customer's homes and also in a few Italian restaurants where the effect unselfishly lends itself to painted Mediterranean views and the odd trompe l'oeil glass of wine. It also works especially well in sun-baked conservatories.

I have also featured the effect in my first book, 'Trompe L'Oeil Interiors', as a step-by-step project. Since I wrote the book nearly seven years ago I have slightly evolved the way I paint it - to be honest every time I paint it I do something slightly different.

It is also quite a relaxing effect to paint as it requires minimal planning - I just start with a basic idea of where I want the exposed brickwork to be and then just sketch it out loosely with a paint brush and build it up from there. This ensures that the effect is kept as natural as possible - there is a danger that too much planning will reflect in the finished piece looking too contrived.

My main reason for painting this project will be revealed soon - it is something I have been meaning to try out for some time.

Watch this space - all will be revealed soon.