A New Mural for A New Location

Recently, we re-located Silver Hill Atelier to new studios in TriBeCa.  We've been busily working to renovate the studio, and of course we new we needed to put an excellent hand-painted mural up in our reception area.

We built a really great curved wall, but what to put on it, to best show-off our skills?  (all pictures enlarge when clicked)

Last fall, we saw an amazing show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art called "A Private Passion - 19th Century Paintings and Drawings from The Grenville L. Winthrop Collection".  It was a really beautiful show, but one of the works that impressed us the most was two studies by Ingres for a painting called, "The Martyrdom of Saint Symphorien".  The finished painting is not so exciting, but the studies, which are not large (both are 24" x 19") have a dynamism and vitality that is remarkable.

Creating a mural size interpretation of these works could be a perfect means to demonstrate our skills in classical painting techniques as well as highlight the dynamic and vital spirit that motivates us at Silver Hill Atelier.

Our wall was 8' x 8' so we had to slightly adjust the proportions.  Also, we knew the reception desk and receptionist would be blocking some of the mural, so we left it more unfinished in those areas.

We painted the mural on heavy weight muslin on another wall in our studio.  Here's a picture of the finished mural on the wall of our studio.

We left a blank strip up at the top so that we could add our company name to the mural in stand-off letters after it was installed.

Our artist who painted this piece is a great admirer of Ingres, and really enjoyed interpreting the details of this incredible study .

We've painted works by Ingres before...

This reproduction of Ingres' "Odalisque"  was painted on a wood panel, and 'cut-out' for installation at one of the Limited's 'Express' stores.

Installing a mural of this size is not too difficult.  The wall should be smooth, sanded, and 'primed for paint' (generally 1-2 coats of a standard interior latex primer).  Even though canvas is going to be put on the wall, defects in the surface can telegraph through, so strive for a smooth even surface.  Typically, we glue the murals to walls with heavy duty vinyl adhesives.  To insure a long-lasting installation, we'll also prime the wall with an adhesive primer. 

Then, it's just centering the mural, applying the adhesive to the wall, and unrolling from the top down.  Wrinkles are smoothed out, and edges are trimmed.

Once the mural was installed, we attached pin-mounted letters with our company name that we had silver-leafed.

It looks great, and we're really happy!