Murals on Kitchen Cabinets

Painting murals is not new to me. From my teens on up, I have painted scenes on walls, doors, commercial window displays and traveling circus trailers. (really!)
Sometime it can go faster than painting the same thing on canvas that same size. Don't ask me why. it just does.
If you have followed my "cabin in the woods" renovation you'll know that my building came with cabinets recycled from a 1950's kitchen. The wood was that hard to find solid "thwunk" type wood found in your grandma's kitchen. And it also meant it came with that dark varnished look so popular once upon a time!
I removed the doors...sanded them, then painted them...more than once, with white primer.

White doors with a mural on panel below it that I painted a few years ago

White walls, white ceilings, white cabinets. Something had to change before I started moving my art supplies into it.

I went to my computer and pulling from my folder of "random traveling photos" that I accumulate for ideas, I thought.....actually I knew what I would do if I went one of two ways-mountains. Or beach. I settled on mountains :-)

Sequence of steps

So I painted in the sky, added the clouds and then started the background. It's a whole lot easier to add the foreground after the background is completed. Otherwise you will try to paint around a tree or around the leaves and it doesn't work.....at this point I tossed the pencil and just started winging it. Take a look :-)

Adding Mountains and tree details

You can see where this is headed as I added the mountains.

At this point I had to decide what to do with the section to the far right. These cabinets are a little over 12 feet long and 4 ft high.

My plan is to add a sink under the shorter cabinets when I eventually get the water running to the studio.


You can just see where I added a white path to the far right.







Here's a closer look at the left side below

Bringing in a middle ground and foreground

A friend sent me some stunning photos of texas bluebonnets and Indian paintbrushes and I had my plan for the right hand side!

See what's been added!

DONE!

So there you have it-a soothing mountain view with birds, flowers....forgot the butterflies but hey I can add them later :-) So be brave-paint a door panel, closet doors, kitchen cabinets or anything else that strikes your fancy! And it you want to take it with you at some later date, just paint it on some lightweight plywood (birch is good) and screw it to the surface.
Go paint!

50 Shades of Green

Gray landscapes...even when the sun comes out the many shades of gray that form my vision of winter, linger.  The first spring flowers and the early blooming Bradford pear trees pop out to brighten the landscape but their background is still gray.  Then, as if overnight, the barren landscape turns into very subtle shades of green. At first it's just a filmy green; Like someone placed a green filter over a black and white landscape.  Then it becomes more and more obvious-almost as if the dark shades are being absorbed into the softer greens. And that is what it is-soft gray greens at first. Fifty shades of green.
Within a week, the maple "helicopters' are dangling from the trees and the honeysuckle leaves are opening.....
and then everything begins to announce that it is April in North Carolina and time to renew that glorious feeling that only comes with Spring!

Crab apple tree

Spring plowing and 50 shades of green

Maple Tree seeds

The wild dogwood under the sycamore