Theater Room: An “Outdoor” Experience
This family wanted to bring the outdoors ‘where memories are made’ to their theater room!
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Some of this family’s favorite memories are camping and sharing stories around the campfire. The screen in this home was a way that they shared stores indoors, so all that was left was to bring the environment around the screen! I was honored to be the one to bring this to life after years of the homeowner dreaming up the vision.
I started with the sunset gradient colors and clouds – this took nearly a week alone to achieve the effect I wanted. I have always had a fascination with sunsets and clouds prior to this project, but I continued to study each sunset on my way home every day to make sure I was creating a realistic painting in the room.
Next was drawing out the scene and working with the homeowner to collaborate on tree placement and the layout of the scene. He wanted to help recreate specific camp sites that he and his family had visited over the years.
Next I got to work on creating the faux trees and stones and putting layers of paint on the wall to bring the scene to life!
Some of my favorite moments during this mural was sitting in the outdoors studying flowers, trees and light hitting water in between painting it indoors. I especially loved painting the fish and the small waterfall near one of the faux trees.
I gave Michael a whole room experience by asking him to create an outdoor mountain clearing with trees in the foreground; meadows, rocks and a creek in the middle; and Pikes Peak in the distance. His finished product was a masterpiece. When I show off the room to others, the response is always the same … “Wow!” Adding to the challenge, I knew exactly what I wanted so I had plenty of novice advice to provide to the professional. Michael was a joy to work with. He always had an open ear and was willing to take my thoughts into account (that seldom happens with an artist!). He has an excellent artistic eye while also understanding the science of perspective, creating depth and incorporating nature. It took me a number of years to find someone I could trust to create what I was seeking. Michael did it in spades!
Darrell B.
Colorado Springs, CO
