Wednesday 11 February 2009

The trompe l'oeil painter - # 09/20

It's always nice to see someone working. At Ham House we are boxing-in a delicate table marble-topped table piece that needs to be protected at certain times and in certain conditions.

Tim and I painted and prepared the wood with an ultra smooth finish, laying on about 5 coats of paint to very precise instructions, each coat being a different type of paint and smoothing down each layer to a mirror-smooth finish before the next one was applied.

This work prepared the base for the trompe l'oeil painter who created a realistic marble top that matches the original hidden underneath the box, and now she is applying a design that will match the surrounding wall panels, which you can see at the back.

It looks great! I tweaked the contrast a bit to emphasise the shadows, but you can already see the realistic effect emerging on the flat surface.

See other "At work in Ham House scenes" in posts # 10, 12, 33, 49, 296, 08/06, 08/73, 08/78, 08/158, 08/167, 08/259, 08/265.

8 comments:

  1. Most interesting work she is doing. Is that your wife at work? She is doing a nice job.

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  2. I have a very good friend who does this type of decoration! Amazing what they can do!

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  3. Hi Chucker! Trompe-l'oeil always intrigued me; amazing!

    Interested in Rajasthan? Blogtrotter has it! ;) Enjoy, comment and have a great weekend!

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  4. Facile pour moi d’imaginer la minutie de ce travail, car j'ai côtoyé un architecte grand spécialiste de "l'habillage" des murs afin de rattraper les différences de niveau. Ponçage et re-ponçage ! Même sans trompe l'oeil. C’était un spécialiste aussi de la laque.
    Chez Claude Monet, à Giverny, il y a beaucoup de meubles peints, notamment dans la cuisine. C'était un procédé de l'époque car n’existaient pas nos matériaux modernes.
    (Le focus est fait sur la porte ; on se laisse tout de même abuser...)

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  5. I have done some handpainting and I so admire these trompe l'oeil artists. It is amazing what they can achieve. I'd love to see the finished product sometime.
    V

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  6. I so admire trompe l'oeil painting - and it sounds as if you worked really hard to prepare the surfaces. That's a lot of coats of paint. Very interesting. Love to read and see photographs of what goes on at Ham House.

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  7. Hi Chucker! Can't see your new post, if any... Blogger peculiarities...
    Probably, you were so busy with Valentine’s Day, you didn't paid attention to Rajasthan? Great mistake... ;))
    Have a great Sunday!!
    Blogtrotter

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