Tree House Hidden Room Mural: Day 2

I spent about an hour adding more clouds to the ceiling and upper wall today. No big changes, except I decided to give each of the owners' grandchildren their own cloud. This one is for Gabe:

More to come this week! 

 

Tree House Hidden Room Mural: Day 1

Today, I embarked on an art adventure. A big one! Some good friends of mine have hired me to paint a tree house mural in their new home. But wait...there's more! The mural is being painted in a 114 square foot hidden room. That's right...a HIDDEN ROOM!!! It's even behind a bookcase! I feel like I'm in a dream! Follow me through the bookcase...

To the left, there's going to be a big tree house, complete with a play kitchen, a ladder, and a beautiful view! (It's not there yet, so use your imagination)

To the right, there will be a large rock wall from floor to ceiling and a chalkboard wall. 

On the ceiling, there will be clouds on a clear, blue sky. You just saw the "before" shot, now check out the beginning of my cloud handiwork:

I'll keep you all posted on my journey. It's going to be so fun! What would your hidden room look like? 

 

 

 

 

 

Four Last Laughs

"Earth laughs in flowers." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nobody in the world makes me laugh like my younger brothers. Nobody. One of my brothers, Sam, and his wife, Brooke--who gets the privilege of laughing at Sam every day--just bought their first house. Brooke has spent some of her spare time on Pinterest, gathering together different design and decorating ideas to incorporate into their living space. She found this painting on a Pinboard by the blog, Decorno, and fell in love with it:

I wanted to get them a housewarming gift, anyway, so I decided to create something similar for them. This is my interpretation of this painting, which I have fittingly named "Four Last Laughs." Maybe one day, I'll get a better quality picture, but for now, this will have to do:

Recycled, aged paper was decoupaged onto a very large 30X40 canvas. I created the flowers with oil pastels, which I have never used before. There was a surprising feeling of satisfaction in drawing basic lines and shapes, then using my fingers to spread the medium around to create each part of each flower. My husband, Aaron, whom I fondly call "Mitch, gave me this eye-rolling grin and shook his head every time I passionately uttered the phrase, "I absolutely LOVE doing this!" He knows I was made for this.