Palm and Rural Murals

Two more murals painted in our home.



This palm was added to finish a short hallway and hopefully complement the larger palm mural I had painted several weeks earlier. It is 3.5 feet wide and nine feet tall. Again, I used natural sponges.



A tapered piece of foam was used to create the grasses.



The small country home, painted in the master bath, tries to represent the Mediterranean region countryside we have come to love.



The piece is 4.5 feet wide and 3.5 feet tall. Natural sponges were used for the scenery and small brushes used for the building. This is the second time I had used brushes on a mural.

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Palm Mural

In July of 2003, we moved from Colorado into our present home in California. It was exciting to be living where the scenery was dotted with palm trees.

Several months later my wife asked if I could paint a palm tree on one of the bedroom walls. Having covered our Colorado garage walls with murals, I said I'd try. I thought painting inside our home would a take little more talent than 'slopping' paint on garage walls.

The following mural was my first attempt in our new home. If it didn't work out I knew I could always over paint and start anew. I guess that fact took some of my fear out of attempting something so large inside the house.



The colors I used were returned paints obtained at several of the big box hardware stores for two to five dollars a gallon. My palette, if I can remember, consisted of at least an off-white, a dark blue, an ugly maroon, a brown and a very pale green. The most expensive paint was a quart of a bright yellow I purchased to mix my greens. Using a combination of enamel, flat, semi-gloss, latex, indoor and outdoor paints and natural sponges, I began.



The mural took several weeks and was completed in September 2003. The dimensions are just over four feet wide and nine feet high on a wall between two doors. Working with such a large 'canvas' was fun and I learned a little more about mixing colors. There is one more wall that may see paint and sponge but that will have to wait for a cold winter's fortnight.

When driving though the countryside, I still am excited when I see a palm.

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