Finally got my computer back with its new hard drive. Lesson to all.........back up, back up, back up! Its devastating opening my iphoto and finding all pictures of my work ......gone....years of work....gone. I still have the old hard drive and can look into seeing if the data can be retrieved, but that takes money, so it'll have to wait.
Meanwhile I've decided to start doing some housecleaning on the side to try and get a more consistent flow of money coming in, mural work is just not paying the bills right now, and the stress is getting old. It wasn't easy deciding to go back to doing this kind of work again....a slight bruise to my ego, one month I'm painting murals for a $29 million dollar mansion on the ocean and the next I'm cleaning one, go figure. But I'm looking at it this way.........I'm getting paid to exercise! I hate exercising but I need to badly, all this inactivity from lack of work is, shall we say.......showing..lol. I'm also working on sketches for two mural clients, so that keeps my spirits up.
Actually I got lucky with my first new cleaning client, a really cool young couple (with new baby) oh, and four dogs. A gorgeous huge home, and I wish I could remember the history of it. I remember she said it was built by a senator.....was it around 1900?...not sure. Most recently though it was used as a dorm for students from Bryn Mawr College. This couple bought the property almost two years ago to save it from demolition.....can you imagine. When I drove up the driveway the first time, I said out loud......oh, my god!
Anyway........I took some pictures today. I'll have to ask the owner again who the mural artist was, but I think I remember her saying he had done some work in the Panama Canal? I'll check on that. I was just so busy trying to take everything in visually that I wasn't really listening.
This is the formal living room where the mural work is.
And here are some close ups of the work.
Here are some photos of the ceiling in the room that is used as an office. This little seating area is at the far end of the large room.
The ceiling
A shot of some of the beautiful stained glass windows in the hallway.
And this is a shot of some of the original wallpaper that is in the family room.
and I just wanted to show you what I first saw driving up the driveway.......I think my first word was "yikes!"
Today I start a new family who needs some help....three kids and a big lovable hairy dog, oh boy....happily though a much....much smaller home :-)
What I had to do first was create a background and because this family lives in Atlanta, Ga., I decided to use Piedmont Park with a hint of the Atlanta skyline for that.
I still have more work/detail to add to this, but wanted to get started on the boy before stopping for the day. I just blocked in his sweater and need to work on his arm on the left because its actually longer in the painting than in the photograph.
In the photo the cuff of the sleeve just begins to show at the bottom and I'm concerned about lengthening the arm unnaturally, or needing to add a bit of hand showing..........I'll work on this next session.
This child's playroom is just part of the finished basement. There is also a great family space/den/office/bar.......not sure how to describe it, but you could fit my entire apartment in it probably three times. Its beautifully done, lots of texture, stone work, very warm and inviting.
The client would like a woodland scene, the husband is an avid sportsman. This will be another project done on canvas. With the amount of detail that will go into it, working on it at home (aka my studio) is best....the client also lives about an hour away, so it will save on commute/travel expenses....this will not be a one day job.
I'll have to try and select a few objects and find larger pictures of them..these are obviously too small to work from. I'll of course post pictures at the end of the day....woooooo-hoooooo can't wait!!
After more discussion she also decided that she wanted this 'window' scene to appear as though you were standing in a barn looking out and she wanted it to be a substantial size (5.5' wide). It was decided a stable door (or dutch door) would work well, so now the pig will be replaced with a rooster sitting on the lower half of the door, since the pig would not be tall enough to be looking into a half opened door. Five and a half feet felt too wide for a single door, so I'll be doing a double dutch door. Part of this will be painted on canvas (the scene) and once I installed it the surrounding wall will be painted to look like barn wood walls and I will add the open top doors.
I was also commissioned to do a child's portrait yesterday from a previous client in Atlanta.
Anyway........I took some pictures today. I'll have to ask the owner again who the mural artist was, but I think I remember her saying he had done some work in the Panama Canal? I'll check on that. I was just so busy trying to take everything in visually that I wasn't really listening.
And here are some close ups of the work.
The ceiling
And this is a shot of some of the original wallpaper that is in the family room.
