Playroom Mural
When Anna and Pete asked me to paint a mural in their playroom, I was so happy that they trusted me to take on this project. Even though my initial reaction was flattery and excitement, self-doubt showed up quickly. Luckily, I had quite a bit of time to really work out all the details and plan what I was going to do before I actually started painting. Anna and Pete gave me complete free rein on the project. The concept, colors, and overall theme were up to me and would be a complete surprise to them. It felt slightly overwhelming, but I trusted it would come together.
I played around with several different ideas, from geometric shapes to outer space to a circus theme. I wanted something that would be fun for a playroom, but also elegant enough to stay on the wall even when the kiddos were teenagers. Inspired by the family’s love for Colorado and an existing picture they had in the playroom, I decided to move forward with a Colorado mountain theme.
Last year, I painted a landscape of one of my favorite places on earth, Grand Lake, CO. This painting was a little passion project and something I was just doing for fun. There were a lot of interesting textures throughout the painting. Different colors and lots of polka dots created the illusion of trees. This was something that was different from the realistic paintings I usually do. Although I still don’t think the colors look cohesive ( I almost can’t even look at the painting ), I did really like the technique I used and how the composition came together. One night, after begrudgingly staring at the painting, I thought that if I got the colors right, it actually could be really cool as a mural. The fun textures and polka dots would be perfect for a playroom. I decided this was the style I was going to use for the mural. It was starting to come together!
To create the composition, I knew I needed to start with the mountains. I could have just freehanded random mountains, but I wanted it to be more special than that. I decided to use the mountains that can be found in Silverton, CO, which is where Anna and Pete got married. It was perfect. It was easy for me to decide to add the Buffalo, as Pete went to CU Boulder, and the family still regularly attends CU football games. The pika was added after it was determined in a recent conversation that Anna’s spirit animal was a pika. Also, they are so cute, and I knew I needed an animal in the foreground to balance out the painting. Around that same time, Pete mentioned how much he liked a painting of a fox I did in a separate project, and so naturally, I added one into this painting as well. The wildflowers were a no-brainer as they were a great way to add more color and some more depth to the painting.
Determining what colors I was going to use was going to be the most important step. I wanted it to be cohesive with the color of the other walls in the room. I also wanted to the colors to complement each other as I wanted the space to flow and feel comfortable. So no bright or out-of-place colors. By experimenting on a small canvas, I was able to able to come up with the color scheme that I felt would accomplish what I needed it to.
The actual process of painting went pretty smoothly. I did change a couple of things a I went along, but I had anticipated this and prepared myself by deciding I was going to leave a lot of room for changes. I really had to trust the process and myself. I was not sure how it was all going to come together, but I knew I wasn’t going to stop until I was satisfied with the result. And if things went really wrong, we could just paint over it! This was the biggest mural I have done thus far, and I really enjoyed the process. I’m so grateful for the support and encouragement from Anna and Pete, and I’m looking forward to doing my next one.