Room to Grow
Painting a nursery is a moment based in preparation for the arrival of your child. Pinks and blues, cloud motifs, trademarked characters, and fuzzy critters sit in anticipation of a newborn baby. Painting a child's room acts as a reset to the space. A welcoming motif that evokes feelings of comfort and whimsy. The walls become a backdrop for their childhood, lending to stories, playtime, and dreams as they grow with their imagination.
When approaching the design for my daughter's room, I wanted to capture this moment in time and create a space for her that she could get lost in. A space that felt both relaxing and intriguing. My wife came up with the idea and direction of a magical forest. Complete with rolling hills, a starry night sky, and a tree line that spoke of adventure.
In the approach, we decided to base the artwork on a cut-paper style similar to the illustrations of Eric Carle and watercolor elements nodding to other children's books. The subject matter came from Grimm's fairy tales and other bedtime stories and tall tales. A fox springing across a hill, like from "The Golden Bird." A shooting star is highlighted by the grate in the wall when the lights in the hallway creep through. A full moon to remind her of her power, with sprigs of mushrooms dancing in it's light.
Compiling the piece, we wanted the movement to pull the viewer's eye around the room. Behind the furniture, across the doors, aligned between the windows. The sharp edges of the night sky allow the stars to drift away from the doorway, changing the scenery from night to twilight as the colors wind themselves through the tree standing behind the reading nook to fall back down gently around the crib and baseboards. Blues, violets, and greens give a calming aura that can be awakened each day by the eastern-facing windows.
For the sake of odor and interior application, this mural was painted with Golden Paintworks Mural and Theme paint. This was my first time using Golden's product; its application was perfect. The paint dried quickly with the faint scent of interior house paints but with the vibrancy and chroma of Golden's artist acrylics. Using a spray bottle of water and natural sponges, I achieved the watercolor effect in the trees. Hard edges were painted in a single pass, and the night sky was covered by a thousand dots from the end of a craft store dauber.
It's a room for adventure, a place to read aloud and imagine stories and adventures, a room to laugh and play, and a place to grow her opinions of the world. Once she's old enough to express her interests and opinions, she may tell us she wants it painted white like Mommy and Daddy's room - a blank canvas for me to teach her how to paint and to imagine another new world.
