My preferred surface is paper. I love to paint or draw and paper is great for the multi media work I normally do. I can cut, sew, and collage on top of a painting or easily work with natural materials alongside my pencils. But lately, I've been out of the studio, working on some small murals! I have been wanting to paint the doors in our place since the moment we moved in. (And that was years ago!) We are dealing with winter light here folks, so sorry for the poor photos!
First step is primer... boring, but that means playing I Think You Should Leave in the background and laughing my ass off! Then we move onto the fun part. Painting calls for flow state music. Which at first was Phoebe Bridgers, then on to 3.15.20 by Childish Gambino, but by the end of this project I was dancing to iT by Christina and the Queens on repeate. The dancing between paint strokes is something I highly recommend by the way. Keep on reading to hear my thoughts behind each door. (pun not intended, but accepted.)
I wanted to play and let go of perfection to create something really fun. Our bedroom is soft, feminine, and more relaxed than the rest of the house. I'm a maximalist and a collector so the house is filled with treasures. But we wanted the bedroom to be a little more romantic and quite. It's walls are pink, the bedspread a mossy green velvet, and there are brass sconces to hold beeswax candles. The mural needed to fit the vibe! So I went with something romantic, feminine, and impressionist. I painted with interior paints that I had on hand already from previous projects and I used a dry brush to give it an aged look. I wanted to see brushstrokes and get a vintage feel by using a simple impressionist style.
For my daughter's room I wanted something that was really playful. I was inspired by the tarot. (I used to write blog posts for my mother-in-law's tarot website by the way!) This has an ace of cups reference for sure. Of course, I wanted some plant medicine so I added three wild roses to the mix.
For the bathroom door I painted with psychedelic punchy colors to match the purple hallway. I had to do some nude figures of course!
So that what I've been up too. Life is too short not to paint murals on stuff, right! It really adds personality to the space. The doors fit our eclectic and bohemian space much better now. (Bohemian- not the too generously used "boho" that is applied to everything and anything. Bohemian implies unique personal style, you can't buy it in a chain store. Sorry, mini rant over.😏)
I'll get back to the studio soon and work on some drawings that have been living in my mind's eye for far to long now. They want to get out and onto paper but there have been so many other creative projects to attend to. These murals have been so great for me to do something different and just have fun with it!
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