Murals Archives - Leichsenring Studios

Sail With the Vikings

by Sharon Leichsenring· December 31, 2021· in Artwork, Bathrooms/Powder Room, Historic, Murals, Ocean, Trompe L'oeil, Video·

I can’t say it enough. The opportunity to create a mural in a powder room makes my heart smile. It’s a chance to create a contained world in a very small space. In this case, the powder room is a scant 61” square but my painting area was 85 square feet. My heart is more than smiling here, it’s doing jumping jacks! My client, a woman of extraordinary vision is requesting pure, undiluted magic. Bring a Viking village to life! Challenge on. Here are the first two proposals. Did I forget to mention the magnificent mirror driving this concept? A carved dragon wrapped around the mirror. More about this mirror later. Suffice it to say, the dragon carvings will appear on the ships, on the long houses and on the high seat in the mural. Also, it is paired with draw dropping dragon sconces. Here is the final approved drawing. I’ll show you photos of the entire mural, but let’s just set the mood with this video. Here are the four walls. I’ve included the wall with the mirror before the mirror was hung so you can see it without the sconces and mirror. The high seat was added at […]
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My Home Away From Home In Texas

by Sharon Leichsenring· November 01, 2021· in Artisan Finish, Artwork, Bathrooms/Powder Room, Ceiling, Columns, Dogs, Floral, Gold Leaf/Silver Leaf, Lettering, Murals, Trompe L'oeil·

There are times as I think about the subject for my next newsletter, that I remember, I’ve been doing them every month for thirteen years. Blatantly directing you here, almost all of them are on my website, under the tab “Projects”. What’s not so apparent is my connection with Texas. The late nineties saw my goodbye to my career as Sharon the Sign painter. It was not quick, or painless. One doesn’t sell a sign painting business. It is a matter of walking away, or moving on. For me, it was to the world of decorative painting, mostly murals in my case, but also some really satisfying work with plaster and glaze. I spent a three year period in both worlds until the Studios’ demand for murals was in position to shut down the sign painting. In weeks that I typically worked at least 60 hours making that change, I also needed to go back and take classes to fine tune my skills. Trompe l’oeil classes for starters in New York with the legendary Pierre Finkelstein, and then on to San Antonio at the atelier of the esteemed Nicola Vigini. My quiet little plans were pretty much dashed to the gutter […]
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Paint is the best medicine

by Sharon Leichsenring· August 02, 2021· in Artisan Finish, Artwork, Budget Conscious, Lettering, Murals, Scrollwork, Video·

I’ve told you all, dear readers, that I am beyond fortunate to have found the field in which I work. Very seldom are my days not creative and filled with challenges that stretch me as an artist. And then along my path comes this hallway! It’s well appointed with molding, easy on the eye colors and flooring. But it’s a residence. And it’s boring, though my clients are anything but. So what to do? It’s not really a place for a mural, it’s a walk through. The answer had to be contemporary, colorful and could we add fun?? Oh yeah, indeed we could. It’s times when I know I going to go quite a way out of the box that I like to make a 3D model to show my client the design. And I might add, I just love making them. Here’s the finished model in actual color and scale. At home in the studio, I started the makeover for the mirror. Sharing a little trick here with any DIYers out there. Using playing cards is a great way to protect from paint getting either on the mirror or under the edge of the mirror, where it shows. The trick […]
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It seems I have painted a lot of furniture

by Sharon Leichsenring· July 01, 2021· in Budget Conscious, Chinoisierie, Fretwork, Furniture, Gold Leaf/Silver Leaf, Lettering, Murals, Scrollwork, Textured Finishes, Trompe L'oeil·

When I’ve been asked, do I “do” furniture, I mostly think, a little, now and then. But as samples started for yet another piece, I realized, I “do” quite a bit of furniture.Sometimes it’s truly a cost effective method to transform an existing piece to fit into perhaps new or recently redesigned surroundings. Sometimes it’s to add that all important dash of whimsy or elegance-both staples in my repertoire- to a new or old piece.So here we go…A coffee table was treated to a tissue finish for texture and bold zebra striped graphics A very traditional piece got an art deco uplift in black and metallic gold, brush applied. Another traditional piece got star treatment with stried plaster, tissue, metallic paint and glaze with razor sharp accents in black enamel This bathroom vanity had wicker painted in trompe l’oeil. You can see my source inspiration on the printed paper on the lower shelf. It looks so real. These two pieces were lovely when first purchased but the wood finish no longer fit the space. Painted in a deep burgundy, depth added with black wax and just the slightest tough of pewter metallic wax for accent. The buffet pictured here is […]
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When you are not afraid of color

by Sharon Leichsenring· June 01, 2021· in Artisan Finish, Ceiling, Furniture, Murals, Textured Finishes·

When the designer says this client is not afraid of color, I must admit, my heart beats a little faster. A lot faster. And from the very start, we were looking at color. Great, saturated choices. There would be a focal wall, very contemporary and the ceiling which benefitted from an opportunity of just thinking outside the box. Dyane ( Dyane Prezioso Interiors of Huntington, CT) had chosen the anchor color of Aegean Teal. It’s Benjamin Moore’s color of the year. Incidentally, I loved it so much, I recently repainted my own family room with it. And the simple method that makes it work? The walls and all the trim are the same color, with just a sheen difference; matte for the walls and satin for the trim. The effect is a warm, sexy cocoon of color. Perfect for this master bedroom. Here’s the sample we used as a starting point And the fun begins. I was looking at all the stirring sticks I had used to make the colors for my sample. Some were matte, some metallic for vibrancy. They were laying on my worktable drying and I had an inspiration. I cut off pieces and lined them up. Shot […]
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New Beginnings in Springtime

by Sharon Leichsenring· May 03, 2021· in Floral, Murals·

Yep! It’s springtime and everything is starting to bloom. Always a perfect time for a floral mural and even better when the client is requesting big, oversized blossoms. My personal favorite. To easily show the scale, I drew the proposed sketch on the blueprints. Approved! The only surprise came on the first day of work. I sometimes layout a mural directly on the wall, but because this was a freshly painted wall, I decided to enlarge the flowers on paper and pounce them. More time in prep work but makes job site time much quicker. Just tape them up and pounce charcoal through the patterns and I’m ready to go. Right. Except, when I got to my space, I found that a huge air conditioning unit had been installed on my wall. What to do, what to do?? Rip the patterns apart and reconfigure. Drawn in new buds and branches and I was ready to go. There was also to be a connecting blossom on the adjacent wall, but given that it was going to be always open, I moved that blossom across to the other side of the doorway. Now, time to paint. Easy to pick my colors. There’s […]
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Sometimes Less is More

by Sharon Leichsenring· November 01, 2020· in Brick Treatments, Fireplace, Murals, Scrollwork·

As wonderful as it is to have a glorious, detailed mural on the work docket, there are many occasions where the solution is the more direct and simple. When done correctly, it is elegant. Being a decorative painter, there are just so many paint paths besides mural painting. Two such occasions presented themselves recently. In the first, interior designer Dyane Pjura ( Shadee Lady Interior Design and Custom Window treatments in Shelton) wanted to discuss her vision for a new look for her client’s foyer. She showed me the carpet sample that would be used as the runner on the stairs. She said: “I see scrolls. Big scrolls”. “Ok”, I replied. “Just how big?”. Pencil to paper shows the results. The largest scroll is almost 8 ½’ in diameter. The design was streamlined, one color only so the graphic had to carry the entire focus. No shadows to distract. Just scrolls. Big, glorious scrolls. Take a look. I could look at these for a long, long time. The second occasion had a completely different set of requirements. Though there is no average or typical client, when your client is an interior designer, you are looking at a project through an […]
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Looking Back at Looking Up

by Sharon Leichsenring· October 01, 2020· in Artisan Finish, Ceiling, Clouds, Commercial Space, Floral, Fretwork, Gold Leaf/Silver Leaf, Lettering, Mica, Murals, Textured Finishes, Trompe L'oeil·

OK, I’m not proud to admit it but there is a really bad outcome when two of my personality traits collide. I easily admit to being a bit technically challenged. Less easy to admit is that when there is a task at hand that I really don’t want to do, especially something requiring computer skills, I dig my heels in and become a first class procrastinator. And now I’m dealing with the fallout. I had to get rid of my beloved laptop because I kept accumulating photos way past the point of storage capacity. So I have a new laptop with tons more storage and I’m creating clutter and chaos. No way to avoid it. I’ve been cleaning up my mess. There was a silver lining. While sorting through hundreds ( OK, thousands) of old photos, I came across ceiling projects that for the most part, I don’t think I’ve ever posted. There might be a few that have showed up on my Instagram feed, but the fun was the older projects, done before I started this newsletter. And forgive the quality of a few of the older photographs. Just saying. I didn’t have an Iphone 11 back in the […]
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Sakura Sakura

by Sharon Leichsenring· August 03, 2020· in Artisan Finish, Artwork, Chinoisierie, Floral, Murals, Trees, Video·

Sakura, sakura… My client played the music of this traditional Japanese folksong while I was painting. It means cherry blossoms. And touches on the deeper meaning of why the cherry blossom is such a revered symbol. They last but such a short time, paying homage to the fleetingness of life. And so, such a delicate balance, this task. Using such a powerful motif as one of the major elements of this mural. Add in the iconic Mount Fuji and figure this puzzle out in a contemporary home. The serenity of the architecture embraces you as soon as you see and appreciate the design. Dark wood is balanced by huge banks of windows that deftly bring the simply elegant landscaping into the home. My task, to design a mural for this long triangular wall in the kitchen. It’s approximately 18′ by 45″. I find it comfortable for my clients to see my ideas drawn on pictures that have the entire room in them so they are not looking at a drawing in isolation but rather seeing it in relationship and scale to the room. From the start, I saw the backdrop of pine trees that I could see from almost every […]
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My Garage Doors Have Murals

by Sharon Leichsenring· June 01, 2020· in Artwork, Birds, Floral, Murals, Trees, Video·

This is a project that has been back-burnered for years. I’d contemplated painting murals on my garage doors for several years but every time I thought about actually beginning the work, I’d rethink the entire situation. Would I really want to start something that would take me months, squeezing it in on weekends and being at the mercy of the weather? That start and stop approach would probably suck the joy out of this. Would my neighbors really want to wait who knows how long for me to get this done? And then Covid 19 arrived and life changed for all of us. If I could sew, I’d have been making masks, but I don’t. I needed to keep finding projects that would keep me focused. And did I have a beauty sitting in my pocket! No excuses to prevent me painting my murals. I had a new job. Here are the sketches I started with. And I should show you my canvas. I started the first one by sketching it in charcoal. Remembering that I was now dealing with outside weather, I went over the charcoal with a thin outline of paint. I had made myself an outside coloring […]
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