Blog - Page 6 of 13 - Leichsenring Studios

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

by Sharon Leichsenring· June 01, 2018· in Floral, Murals, Trompe L'oeil, Video·

If it’s true that good fences make good neighbors, then this recent project will be making the whole neighborhood happy. I was contacted by Jan who began as a student and client years ago and has become a dear friend. I met Jan over a decade ago at the school of Anything but Plain Decorative Finishes in Houston where I taught workshops in mural painting, trompe l’oeil and perspective drawing amongst many other classes. Jan took a class and at the end took me up on the request I make of students: stay in touch, send me pictures. She did exactly that and then one day asked me to come to her newly built home in Grapeland, Texas to paint a mural. It would be the first of many murals I would come to paint there. A treat every single time as I fell under the charms of the peacefulness of East Texas. Here’s a picture of Jan and me at the Blue Bell Creameries, home of arguably the best ice cream in the country. This project brought many aspects of my Texas connections together. Amongst my visitors while working was Janie Ellis, founder of Anything But Plain, […]
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Strictly by the book… not in my studio!

by Sharon Leichsenring· May 03, 2018· in Artwork, Birds, Furniture, Murals, Ocean, Trees·

I’m going to have to start being a little more careful with my words. I simply can’t start every newsletter by saying this project surely is one of my favorites. But is it true, each and every time, and the bookshelves in this project have been on my bucket list of things to paint for a long time, and I loved it even more than I thought I would. My client gets all the credit for the concept. The four plain panels on this built-in cabinet were calling for something, but what ? She saw bookshelves in her mind’s eye, so that’s where we started. The sketching of one panel with five shelves, meaning a total of twenty shelves total, seemed a bit much. So I suggested letting the upper portion of each panel acting as a window showing some of the beautiful vistas of her properties and we were on track. Included amongst the books were some meaningful possessions and a beloved pet. Once I had drawn the four panels to scale, I added them to the photo of the actual cabinets to see it clearly. Here’s what that looked like. Canvas cut and ready to […]
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Fit for a Queen, a Royal Powder Room Indeed!

by Sharon Leichsenring· April 04, 2018· in Bathrooms/Powder Room, Dogs, Floral, Murals, Scrollwork, Trees, Video·

Sometimes, I simply need to pinch myself. A project is presented and I know how fortunate I am as an artist that the path has brought it to me. And what a challenge this would be. A small powder room, 58″ wide, 84″ long and 7 ½’ in height. Fill this space with images of one my client’s favorite places, the Gardens of Versailles. Challenge accepted. Here’s the white walls that I first saw. I drew scaled drawings suggesting different vistas, knowing I would have to seam them together. I started on the wall with the sink and toilet because it also had the one small window in the space. A stained glass window is being created to continue my vision and so as to keep the stained glass artist on schedule, this was the best place to start. I saved my palettes from the that area so that not only would he have the acrylic colors I was using but he could see the blending that took place for the best color accuracy. When it’s installed, I’ll share pictures. A few tricky areas getting behind the mirror and the sides of the toilet, but my world was […]
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This one is for the birds!

by Sharon Leichsenring· March 01, 2018· in Birds, Murals·

A few years back, I joked with my husband that he was officially old. Watching his colony of bluebirds thrive had risen on his priority list. Getting up early to feed them steroid munching sized worms. Only old people had time for the birds. I humbly stand corrected. I’ve been old, by that standard, for a really long time. Recently, I came across a picture of a heron I’d painted in a mural years ago. I’d misfiled it, and I was so excited finding it, I posted it immediately on Instagram, not even noticing I’d done so, cutting off most of his head. Here he is, in all his glory. I started thinking that I have painted quite a few birds over the years, because I think they are glorious subjects to include in a mural. So without further ado, here are some of my absolute favorites, and a few visits going back to one of my very first murals. This was a blue glazed ceiling, simulating sky. More mood than anything else, the birds were my favorite part. Another early mural is painted on the stockroom door at TileAmerica in New Haven. This was my early entry into trompe […]
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Up, up and away

by Sharon Leichsenring· January 03, 2018· in Childrens, Clouds, Murals·

From the start, my client made it clear that his son, in whose room I’d be painting, was indeed my client. The young man had some very clear directives of what he wanted and my job was to listen and see if I could come up with a design that would include all of them. Here’s the room as we first contemplated where the mural would go. Moving the bed to the adjacent wall freed up the best wall for the mural. It allowed an unencumbered view to the large window and the mural would be completely viewable. My target wall was big. Subtract for moldings, the painted area was 8′ by 17′. The first requirement was a bright blue sky with dramatic clouds and a meadow, Ok, then add add some hot air balloons, vapor trails (I have to admit, that’s where being a twelve year old boy comes into play; I would never have thought of that) and maybe some flowers. Hmmm….remember, I said, that’s a lot of square feet here and meadows, though pretty, are not enough to sustain it. That’s where the hot air balloons became front stage. They gave focus and color, lots of color […]
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A Little Piece of Heaven

by Sharon Leichsenring· December 05, 2017· in Birds, Ceiling, Clouds, Historic, Lettering, Murals, Signs, Trompe L'oeil, Video·

So sometimes a project starts out as a wonderful surprise. When I pulled into the driveway of this home for the first time, I just knew this was going to be something special. Looking at this beautifully restored country church in Fairfield county, Connecticut, I had no idea of what to expect. Originally built in 1873, the church was sold and converted into a private residence when the parish outgrew its tiny size in the 1950s. An attic floor was built converting it into a five room home. My client purchased it in 1990. By that time, the deed restrictions dictating that “it not look like a church” had passed and she was able to renovate the exterior back to its original beauty in 1992. The interior renovations started earlier this year and are nearly complete. When the closet was demolished and the false ceiling removed, an absolutely lovely foyer space emerged. Salvaged wainscoting was used where needed. I experienced the special gift when I “get” a new client and they in turn “get me”. It’s a special combination of crazy and inspiration, with a dash of whimsy and when it’s there, we get magic. Here is the vision I […]
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The Glow of Gold

by Sharon Leichsenring· October 31, 2017· in Artisan Finish, Bathrooms/Powder Room, Birds, Gold Leaf/Silver Leaf·

I’ve got to admit, this powder room is going to be a tough act to top! Simply put, I loved every part of it, from the planning to the last bird. Oh, the birds! But I’m rushing ahead of myself. My client, to whom I’m truly grateful for this painting experience, made the initial choice for the room. She had an inspiration picture that she had filed away several years ago, knowing this was her vision for this powder room. It showed a gold leafed wall with traditional chinoiserie painted on top of it. First, I made two gold leaf samples for her. One was very formal, and as close to perfect as the human hand can make it. The second, done on a brick red bole, the rich color that is behind the gold leaf and adds to his great depth of color, had some irregularities, leaving some of the seams about a sixteenth of an inch exposed here and there. Actually harder to do creating the irregularities, but well worth the effort. It gave a gentle sense of aging to the gold. Gold leaf is actually incredibly thin pieces of gold that are attached to a tacky sized […]
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Trending Tissue Finishes

by Sharon Leichsenring· October 04, 2017· in Artisan Finish, Bathrooms/Powder Room, Headboards·

As much as painting murals is my favorite work, I have to admit that that every so often, I have an opportunity to create one of my favorite finishes, glazed tissue with raised stencils. And I love it! Hmmmm….you’re wondering. What exactly is that? It’s a dimensional, textured finish. It’s created by first troweling on a stencil in plaster, creating a raised, or embossed, image. Then the surface is covered with tissue paper. The creases and crevices found in the rolled tissue over the stencil is caught by the glaze that is applied as the final layer. Take a walk with me through a recent job. The biggest challenge was narrowing down several possibilities. All of them looked so pretty in the light coming through the shutter, but the test would be which would look best without the benefit of the added light. I’ll be showing you closeups of the winner’s choice in a moment, but this finish was a close contender. This is a plaster finish in the look of linen. I then troweled my favorite fern leaf stencil for an additional layer of depth. This was painted in a muted metallic gold paint and then washed with an […]
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The Paint Whisperer

by Sharon Leichsenring· September 05, 2017· in Artwork, Horses, Murals·

This project needs so many words to describe it. It was an honor being able to share in the magic of my client’s horses. It was far more difficult painting horse portraits than people because I had to try to understand a whole different way to visualize personalities. It was also a pleasure working on this huge canvas which measures 6′ by 9′ in my own studio. My husband would come in with a cup of coffee and say “the horse whisperer at work”. But horse whisperer I am not, but hopefully, a paint whisperer, yes I am. My client, the extraordinary Wendy J, offered me entrance to a very spiritual and grounding place with this commission. There are a total of seven horses in the composition, the smallest shown being a family favorite who has truly, no pun intended, crossed to greener pastures. It was so much more than just drawing them and getting their coloring down right. It was understanding their personalities and how they feel about each other that brought this to an entirely different level. Here is the original pencil drawing. From left to right, meet Moon and Esse . Moon is only a […]
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When you hit a brick wall

by Sharon Leichsenring· August 02, 2017· in Brick Treatments, Commercial Space, Lettering, Murals·

When I hit a brick wall, it’s with a smile on my face and paint brushes in hand. Painting on brick brings a whole set of challenges to the table. The surface is uncompromising and changing at every turn. I deal with it by remembering the mission: to end up with result I would have on a smooth surface. Some recent projects have been interior ones. Truthfully, each of these has been fun and an opportunity to paint something a little out of the box. A huge shout out to Bruno DiFabio , along with Steve Cioffi and Germano Minin, at whose restuarants these brick beauties reside. The most difficult part of painting these walls, ironically, is not the painting. It’s the step following, distressing armed with a sander and a squirt bottle of dirty glaze to make the work appear as if it’s been there for decades. You will find the Bertolli girl at Bronx House in Stamford. The lady on a boar just makes me want to grin. She presides on the focal brick wall at Ridgefield’s Village Tavern. I can still hear Sandra DiFabio as I got ready to hit the just completed painting with a sander. […]
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