mural blog

A Good Night's Sleep

It's Monday here at Silver Hill, and as usual on Mondays, I wish I had gotten more sleep last night.  Well, if I didn't sleep like a prince, at least I can rest well knowing one of our clients slept like a princess.  The above picture show a ceiling mural of a sky through a rose trellis we did for one room in a client's home.  With the lovely furnishings, the mural completes the room to create a perfectly romantic atmosphere.  Who wouldn't sleep well in such a "dreamy" room?

Seasonal Affective Disorder

Click picture to enlarge....

Today in New York was cold, wet, and grey.

But artists can fix things like that...

You want happy?  Try this one for happy....

This is a mural we created for the fashion label 'Moschino'.  It was painted for their New York City showroom, and it always gives me a smile to look at.  Moschino was a really fun client (we did work for their store as well).  Always pushing the boundries - always doing something unexpected and unusual.  Clients like these can be challenging, but you often do your best work for them.

This mural was a hand-painted rendering of a sunflower, and the 'smile face' was gold leaf on top of the paint (you can see the smile more clearly in the reflection in the mirror to the right of the mural)

Spring seems so so far away.......

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

As the holiday swings into full gear, we are reminded of a fun job we completed a couple of years ago for the ornament maker Christopher Radko. 

He has a showroom in Atlanta, and he commissioned us to create a winter/holiday scene to line the hallway that approaches the showroom.

The concept was that as you approached the showroom, you were walking through a street of a magical Christmas village.  On either side would be shops and storefronts highlighting the Christmas Spirit.

Now, we could have done a straight mural, but we determined it would be more fun to create a 2-D mural with some 3-D elements.  This would increase the illusion, and be more fun for viewers.

This project began as we begin almost all projects; with design sketches in pencil for the clients approval.  (Click pictures for enlarged view)

The pencil sketches help us determine a composition that will be acceptable.  We then typically make a color rendering, or a partial color rendering to finalize colors for the project.

These renderings, which we call 'maquettes,' form the roadmap for the project - a vision that both our artists and the client agree on so that the everyone involved has a clear idea of how the project will appear when complete.  Of course, there are differences of interpretation as one goes from small scale maquette to full sized artwork, so the maquette is not the answer to all differences of interpretation that may arise.  Nevertheless, maquettes are a very helpful and sensible tool that are beneficial to both the artist and the clients, and we recommend it for all projects.

After the maquette is approved, we start to paint the project.  Like almost all projects we do, the mural portion of the project was painted on heavy weight flame retardant muslin in our New York Studio.

Here's a picture of some of the 3-D elements we made for the mural - window casings, mullions, dormers, crown moldings, and pediments.  These 3-D elements were painted, and then, after the full mural was installed in the space, these elements were installed on top of the mural, and integrated into the mural.

Here's a couple of pictures of the installed mural.  The two images show what you would see as you approach the door to the showroom.  On the image on the right, you can see the 3-D elements, like the ledge above the store front windows with 'snow' (foam) that we painted with blue iradescent paints to add a little sparkle.  We also had lighting incorporated into the storefront to further the illusion we were creating.

All in all, a successful project to put one in the Christmas Spirit!

 

Websites We Like

Create your own online masterpieces and email them to friends with art.com's art pad digital painting  flash application. 

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!

An Exciting Day!

December 1, 2004 - MOMA just re-opened in New York and Mural Blog is now Open For Business.  What an amazing time for the arts in New York!  We look forward to sharing our experiences, thoughts, and ideas about life in the mural and decorative arts business. 

To learn more about Mural Blog, and what we are all about click here.  We plan to update Mural Blog on a weekly basis, so we hope you will bookmark our site and check back frequently.

Most importantly, we welcome and encourage your participation in Mural Blog.  Your comments and thoughts can help make Mural Blog transform from "just a website" to a community and resource for artists, designers, and art lovers.