Wealden Times | WT171 | May 2016 | Restoration & New Build supplement inside

WT Supplement
“Murals offer solutions to tricky surfaces like bare plaster between beams in timberframed
houses. odd angles and curves with perhaps, lumpy walls”
Melissa White of Melissa White Hand
Painted Design and Decoration
I was drawn to reproducing Elizabethan wall paintings as I loved
the loose, hand painted qualities of these near 500-year old
murals. I’ve decorated houses from medieval to modern, painting
bold patterns directly on walls like our ancestors or finding less
intrusive alternatives that allow me to work from my studio then
install on-site. These might be made-to-measure fresco panels,
large tapestry-like wall hangings or custom-made wide-width
wallpapers printed or painted to order. Unlike a traditional mural,
these artworks are not permanent and therefore can be installed in
your new home and, I can incorporate the fresco secco treatment
to ensure a more authentic look.
Bespoke wall treatments go beyond the mechanical repetition
of normal wallpaper allowing for dynamic movement across a
wall. They have to work both from afar and close-up at which
level brushstrokes, imperfections and patination bring life to the
design. The finished wall makes a unique decorative statement
achieved via an exciting creative dialogue between artist and client.
Murals offer solutions to tricky surfaces like bare plaster
between beams in timber-framed houses, odd angles and curves
with perhaps, lumpy walls. One challenge was a Tudor castle in
Norfolk with ugly 18th century stencilling that needed to be
preserved yet, concealed. In the fabric walling tradition I stretched
and nailed linen painted with Elizabethan multivines around the
walls to protect it.
Even a large expanse of flat, characterless wall can be
transformed. When commissioned to supply artwork for an
expansive 2-storey wall in Notting Hill I painted a luscious 6x8m
Roman garden scene made up of 24 huge fresco secco panels all
cracked and aged at my studio. It was an elegant solution to a
challenging blank wall.
Melissa White Hand Painted Design and Decoration
01424 868048 www.melissawhite.co.uk
Detail from a hand-painted wall commissioned
by a client for the hall of their house in Iden
www.wealdentimes.co.uk
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