Trees Archives - Leichsenring Studios

Yep, I have a digital hoarding problem

by Sharon Leichsenring· January 31, 2023· in Artwork, Ceiling, Childrens, Clouds, Furniture, Trees·

I’ve been writing my monthly newsletters for almost 14 years now. You can find most of them if you’re so inclined under the PROJECTS tab on my website. A thank you here to Pat Marlin of Business Technology Solutions. I write the copy, choose the photos, and she -with great patience and my dancing close to deadlines-makes the technical magic happen. I admit, I find the digital tasks daunting and I make things difficult because I have way too many pictures, and they are filed in a most abominably illogical pattern, most of which I try to keep organized in my head. So, it’s time to write February’s newsletter, and though I’ve been busy, there’s no one interesting project to share. There’s been a great deal of sketching, sample making, and frankly, some just plain boring work. What to write about? I decided to start cleaning through this huge file called “ mystuff” (can’t make this up) and found pictures of a really early project that predated my newsletters. Just the thing to share with you. It’s important to me for a number of reasons. Here’s the first. Check out my hands. What you might notice is that my right thumb […]
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Once Upon A Time in Bristol, CT

by Sharon Leichsenring· October 31, 2022· in Artwork, Clouds, Historic, Trees, Trompe L'oeil·

What a ride (taxi cab!) this painting commission has been. I was contacted by the owners of a magnificent building in the somewhat sleepy town of Bristol in Connecticut. I would soon see that what is a town that has escaped the noise of big cities by being located away from major interstates, was in fact, a bustling commercial city in the early 1900s. At that time, it was considered one of the premier clock-making cities in the United States. I’ll try to keep the background brief. If you get curious, google New Departure Mfg. Co. Bristol CT. A business started by the Rockwell Brothers (the Rockwell Company) would become known as New Departure Manufacturing Company. Not content with their successful cycling venture, they drew up plans for an automobile. The first was produced in 1904. The Roxwell Taxi rolled out of the Bristol plant. Check out this ad So the current owners of the building, my client, had an image of a hand colored photo from about the same time. There was no way to enlarge much bigger than a sheet of paper without the image pixelating. And, that dear readers, is my cue to enter the picture. We arrived at a […]
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My Own Camelot

by Sharon Leichsenring· March 01, 2022· in Artwork, Clouds, Murals, Trees, Video·

It started one night I couldn’t sleep. It was back in October. I was staring at a corner in my bedroom, an outside corner that puzzled me until I realized why. I’d painted murals around corners that turned inside a room, but this corner turned outward into a small entrance into the bedroom. How would a mural translate going from one side to another? And then there was no stopping the thinking process that had started. I’d have to paint something. Something (how selfish!) that would be just for me. Trusting my husband Hans would love whatever it might be as much as I would. Turns out, I am a very difficult client indeed. I wanted everything. I wasn’t sure. The possibilities were overwhelming until I got a request from someone who had seen a mural I’d done years ago, that was a border of acanthus leaves. (I do hate to leave loose ends of a story. That request is on hold until the potential client decides she will purchase the property she’d had in mind.) But the seed was in place and I had a direction. I love painting acanthus leaves but this time I’d go one step further. The […]
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What’s with the trees?

by Sharon Leichsenring· October 01, 2021· in Artisan Finish, Artwork, Ceiling, Childrens, Headboards, Historic, Staircase, Trees, Tropical·

I’m working on a mural design right now. It’s a tricky one, more of a puzzle at this stage. I’ve got to weave in my clients’ favorite Central Park NYC locations, and in a very natural way, add in the Eiffel Tower and a pair of European landmarks that have a great deal of importance. I’ll be sharing more about it when I start painting, but that won’t be happening til spring of next year. But. Right.Now. This is the most challenging part, to make the transitions from vista to vista feel effortless. Not contrived at all. My magic elixir, add trees. In this case it will be winter branches, heaped with snow. I know it will work, as I’ve used trees before for just this solution. Trees, actually, (besides clouds or maybe scrolls, but we’re not talking about that right now) might be my favorite thing to paint. Pictures say it better. So, this mural which is in a private residence in Branford, CT, portrays many historical vistas of the now bygone Branford Driving Park, first used for horse races, then automobile in the early 1900s. Check out just how elegantly the trees frame each vignette and bring your […]
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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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The day I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life

by Sharon Leichsenring· January 02, 2020· in Artisan Finish, Ceiling, Clouds, Columns, Dome, Historic, Murals, Trees·

It’s the end of the year as I’m writing this newsletter. A time to reminisce. It seems only fitting to share a project that convinced me becoming a decorative artist was truly my future. This work predates the onset of my newsletters. Although I’ve grown as an artist, I feel his work has withstood the test of time. You let me know after you walk through it with me. My client made me laugh showing me the first area I’d be painting. A dome on the second floor. From the windows spread the lovely Bantam Lake in Connecticut’s town of Morris. He commented, ” I know there are all those theories saying that painted clouds are so much more than white on blue. That is you look closely, you’ll find the whole of the rainbow. Pinks, yellows, gray. Maybe so, but I want to see what I see when I look out these windows. I see pure blue skies with white clouds. Give me that, Sharon”. And so I did. Here’s the finished picture. Work moved to the wine cellar. The brick work, including the ceiling, had been completed. I needed to make my mural look integrated with the space. […]
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Calling All Colors

by Sharon Leichsenring· May 01, 2019· in Artwork, Budget Conscious, Childrens, Murals, Trees·

A call from Ridgefield, CT designer Eileen Segalman (whose wonderful work can be seen at www.eileensegalmaninteriors.com) always means something exciting is heading in my direction. This recent project was no exception. We visited the office of Pediatric Associates of Western Connecticut in Danbury, CT. I was taken at once by the vitality of the front welcome desk area. Architecturally crafted trees with dimensional canopies promised a happy visit to this practice. I was impressed by the staff, the physical surroundings and most importantly, the warm and at the same time, professional atmosphere. On to site one. The waiting room had one of the wonderful trees already in place, a welcoming fish tank and vinyl animal graphics on two of the walls. What is was missing was a big shot of color. (OK, I promise no more poor puns.) Here is the waiting room before, and a view of the existing decals. My task, to finish the third wall in a manner that complimented the existing artwork but at the time to add vibrancy. Here is my sketch. I painted the new animals as silhouettes and kept the other elements as solid blocks of color. Mission accomplished. Here’s the new wall. […]
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A Tale of Two Commissions

by Sharon Leichsenring· April 01, 2019· in Artwork, Birds, Closet, Gifts, Ocean, Trees·

Sometimes, it’s truly a pleasure to take a break from flinging paint and plaster at walls and sit down before a canvas on my easel. I recently had two such projects. My first commission went as smoothly as any artist could wish. My client has a vacation home on Long Beach Island and was looking for large canvas pieces. After discussing the size of the walls, we settled for gallery wrapped canvases, measuring 30′ by 40″. I would paint the edges, eliminating the need to frame them. What to paint? After reviewing literally hundreds of photos, the choices narrowed down to a particular stretch of beach and another view of the bay area. The dunes were easy to find reference pictures, but the advantage of having an artist design the scene is that it can easily encompass all the particulars that were important to my client. No one photograph could do that. These clouds, these waves, this angle of the bay where small ponds caught the reflecting blue in the sky. Add a slight touch of impressionistic painting, and voila! We have arrived. Here are the two paintings, still at home in my studio. It was really hard parting with […]
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Tying up loose ends

by Sharon Leichsenring· August 31, 2018· in Artisan Finish, Artwork, Dogs, Furniture, Textured Finishes, Trees·

Some months, my newsletters seem to write themselves. It’s a project that has its start to finish completely falling within the calendar days of that month. I write my story, share my pictures and out it goes to you. Easy Peasy. And then there are those projects that have a life of their own, the last piece taking its time to fall into place. I made promises to share the end shots with you, so enjoy. My April 2018 newsletter (you can read it at https://www.leichsenringstudios.com/fit-for-a-queen-a-royal-powder-room-indeed/) was about one of my favorite powder rooms is in Stamford, CT and was completely muraled ,including the ceiling. My client asked if I knew someone who could take care of the final detail that needed to be dealt with: changing the existing casement window into one made of stained glass. Yes, I did know someone whose work would be a perfect match to my own. Enter Michael Skrtic. An extraordinary stained glass designer and maker. You can check out his work at www.theglasssource.com. I drew the scene in the window area that would have been painted had there been no window. I also saved my palette so Michael could see […]
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