Ceiling Murals

As summer draws to a close , we can look back and say wow! We had quite a diverse and busy summer at that! between the school murals 18 in total, the renovation of a historical landmark home( which I will talk about later) and the cieling murals we have worked on we had a few very exciting jobs this summer. The cieling murals were done in 2 resturants and 1 private residence. All clients wanted very different and distinct looks for thier spaces. We atarted with a new resturant in Valley Stream , owned by Umberto Napoli this family style Iatlian resturant features a very large tray cieling in the ceter dining room. The walls have a beautiful shimmering plaster treatment, created by leslie Salka, of ACI. The cieling was painted with a large tropme style motife in soft gold colrs, decorative foliage, and a blue sky. The border is a Melanie Royals design that frames the mural sky beautifully. Our second cieling is in a residential home , this cieling is in an enormous great room. We painted a simple sky with warm clouds and bordered the sky with flowers and vines that matched the custom draperies. Our last sky is a study in perspective. We painted ballister, and a balcony from a "worms eye view" our ornament around the sky area is full color floral matching the clients bold upholstery. Cieling murals can be a challenge, preliminary sketches are important as well as scaffolding and well planned designs.

Chatterton School Murals

I recently had the pleasure of working with two very kind ladies. Lisa and Penny, chairladies of the Chatterton School PTA in Merrick. We collaborated together to create several murals incorporating the students curriculum and beautifying the all over appearance of Chatterton School. We came up with a colorful faux finish for the entry way collumns, decorative scrolls outlining bulletin boards, and several murals that will surly excite the children when they return in September. Among the themes of the murals were Charlotte's Web, an Aquarium, a Rainforest, and popular Childrens fairytales.

KEEP LONG ISLAND BEACHES CLEAN!

I spend quite a bit of time at the beach, I have loved the oceans all my life, and teach my children to love and respect the oceans. (10 people drowned here on Long Island in July alone.) The ocean beaches on Long Island are beautiful, but nothing like the Carribean. The Atlantic Ocean can be volitile and deadly, I get angry because I see so much disrespect for this wonderful gift , people do not appreciate. I go at least twice a week sometimes more, we own jet skis so I enjoy the water as a craft owner also, the waters are clean and thriving with marine life. What puts a bee in my bonnet is, that I am a swimmer, I never allow my children to just "jump in" with out checking the currents and I always sit up close or go in with them, I can not for the life of me understand how so many mothers do not go in, swim, or even glance up from thier conversations to see if the kids are being pulled out. I also don't get how these same people drive nice cars, live in well to do nieghborhoods, and spend money on recycling . but leave thier trash all over the beach. Every time I go i bring an extra garbage bag and fill it up. Today i picked up 26 empty bottles and cans. I felt like that crying Indian from those 1970's commercials on pollution. If we as a human race do not care about one of greatest natural resources than how can we expect to survive as a whole? I am not opening a political can of worms here, I just don't get it. Every where I look there are signs, movements about "going green" and these same people can't even pick up an a water bottle. My son was annoyed at me because I made him pick stuff up too, but I told him, these beaches our a little slice of heaven and if he wants to take his son out in the water like I swim with him, he better pick his stuff and the slob next to him stuff up too...sorry for the rant............just that I love the beach and I want it clean............

Mural Class at Convention

This years convention was held in South Carolina, and the new name "Idal" was unveiled! I taught a class for the first time at convention and the students were great. We painted an undersea mural on Roclon canvas, using Golden acrylic paints, the students transferred an image and used various techniques to paint the mural. We went over the use of dark underpainting, light source and blending methads as well as free hand drawing for smaller fish and plant life. The students all did a fabulous job and everyone left with a painting suitable for framing!