my past

Before moving to Norway, I had a sideline hobby as a decorative painter. I did painting for designer showhouses, some retail stores, and private clients. I only did projects I wanted to do, and never really made much money, but just did it for the joy of it, the physical motion and the challenge. I mostly focussed on large scale stenciling projects, because stenciling is more about technique and planning than it is about being able to draw, which I suck at. But I am good at visual balance and scale, and stenciling fits very well into that. I loved the mathematical precision of creating just the right stencil for a space and the puzzle of how to fit it all together.

Sometimes, however, an interesting project that was outside my usual focus came to me. Bigger, scarier, but ultimately more rewarding.

Here is one such project I did*, for a house in Austin, that is now up for sale. It's kind of my masterpiece. There's a slide show link on the left, you can't see in detail what I did, but the "artist" mentioned in the article is me! You can kind of see the half-moon celtic stencil at the top of the doorway at the top of the stairs. You can also just see the stenciling in the dining room (top of the wall in the red part) and also if you look very closely, the gleam on the walls of the master bedroom is actually an all over wall stencil in pearlescent paint. I also did washes on the walls of the living room, office, bathroom and kitchen. Very little of that house escaped my brushes.

I think calling me an "artist" is a bit optimistic, but I did enjoy the hell out of working on that house and it remains my proudest painting achievement ever.

*The Austin American Stateman might require a log in.