before and after: tree silhouette mural

A person becomes known for their talents and skills, and friends and family always come to such people for favors. A good friend of mine can sew. I’m jealous of her because she can basically make anything while I’m clueless with a needle and thread. My husband has requested many a favor of her to sew tears and broken zippers. Sewing is her talent; painting is mine. So when she asked me to do this favor I was beyond excited to finally be able to do something for her of such great sentimental worth.  Better yet, she told me that she trusted my artistic abilities and didn’t want to hold me back by giving me all sorts of rules and guidelines. Best client ever! 

Before

After

My friend wanted me to paint an organic tree silhouette in her entry foyer. She brought it up to me
about five months ago, and I immediately loved the idea. The space is small and intimate with gorgeous arched doorways and a high ceiling. After she showed me her paint choices I was even more eager about the project. 

We had briefly spoken about what sort of tree she envisioned on a few previous occasions, so I already
had a pretty solid idea of what she wanted. We also did a brief Google image search right before I began painting. The space available on the wall determined much of the composition. (Often a work of art will turn out better if you let the material dictate what it wants to become instead of fighting it.) No
sketching or pre-drawing here. I dipped the brush in the paint and took it straight to the wall. I
determined the size and direction of the trunk and painted a sort of outline, along the outlines of two
main branches. This served as the basis of the tree, and everything grew from that raw outline.

She also wanted some sort of root system so the tree didn’t just end. With my tree outline in place, I
moved on to the roots as they were smaller and would require more time (and I could sit!). This also
took a bit more thought because the roots had to support the tree without taking over visually. When I
was satisfied with the result, I moved on to completing the trunk and working out the branches. After
finishing a branch I would step down from the ladder and view the whole tree in its entire space. This
helped determine where the next branch should be painted. 

The scariest part of the experience was climbing to the top of a ten-foot ladder and still having to step
on my tip toes to reach her ceiling. Being pregnant, my balance is not what it used to be! I would find
myself near-falling at the slightest lean, shift in motion, or from moving too quickly from the paint can to the wall. I found this lack of balance frustrating because I practice Pilates and Yoga. No worries. I found a method that calmed my nerves and steadied my shaky balance. Once I dipped my brush in the paint, I began to exhale and slowly turn my body to the wall. Next I slowly extended myself onto my tip toes, moving from the exhale to the inhale. While inhaling, I slowly extended my right hand up to the ceiling to reach the end of the tree. I thought of the whole process as a Yoga pose. 

Perhaps the coolest part of the painting is the branches on the left of the tree trunk wrapping around
into the stairwell. She had painted this wall brown, so we reversed the yellow and brown color scheme.
On the front main wall we have a brown tree on a yellow wall. In the stairwell you get a nice little
surprise with yellow branches on the brown wall. While the brown tree required just two coats of paint, the yellow required three.  The entire painting took a total of just under ten hours (spread over two days) to complete.