‘Stained Glass’ Vines
Dining Room | Roaring Fork Valley, CO
Creative Brief
a muralist stays in the
home of an art lover.
In my first month of moving to Aspen Valley in Colorado, it was kismet that I ended up connecting with an amazing family and was lucky enough to stay in their home while I got settled in. Wanting to work on my painting as a daily practice, I asked if I could paint the windows. Which of course is a weird question to a host-homeowner, so I then shared this website. After seeing my work, she and her husband both told me I had free reign of the house.
I asked more questions about the home, what they use it for, and what they like. Immediately, she shared a photo of a beautiful vine that used to grow in the dining room but did not make it one winter. That was it.
I got to sketching, looking up inspiration, and pulling from the different art all around the house. I found a cabinet with stained glass leaves next to the front door that created my “aha moment”.
The piece was to recreate her beloved vine pulling from the stained glass around the house and be texture-heavy to add visual intrigue and balance the beautiful mesas just outside the windows.
Final walk-thru right after painting the final details. Taken with iPhone.
bringing a plant back
to life in paint.
Design: Completely customized design freehanded. Pulling inspiration from a photo of the homeowner’s former houseplant, nearby stained glass furniture, and colors inside and outside the home.
Location: Rifle, Colorado in the Roaring Fork Valley.
Room: Dining room visible upon entry into the home. The archway is a transition space between the dining room and the kitchen. The red color already existed.
Total supply cost: $42 (sample quart of paint for the green, leftover white paint from previous projects, 2 rolls of green tape).
Size: Roughly 8’ x 12’
structure organic forms.
Duration: Four half-days.
Colors: Pulled from the original wall color and other home details. Only 1 paint color was bought. All other colors were mixed by hand to achieve variation and gradient effect.
Technique: Hand-painted, using tape for straight lines and a lot of slow hand strokes for the curves
Planning: I found inspiration and then free-handed it all from there. This kept the shape looking very organic and forced me to use my knowledge of stained glass to think about how it would translate into organized sections if it were to become a window.
Process Pics
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Original Vine
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Stained Glass Inspiration Piece
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Selecting Green Color
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Before Photo
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Step 0: Inspiration Collection
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Step 1: Drawing the Shape
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Step 2: Experimenting with Texture and "Stained Glass" Sections
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Step 3: Filling In Sections + Adding Wrapping Vines
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Step 4: Touch Ups
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Step 5: Sign it, sit on floor, and stare
