Leonora Service Murals

I was contacted by interior designer to paint a mural in a child’s bedroom in one of the most beautiful houses I have had the pleasure in staying in. She asked if I could paint a mural as if the bedroom was a hot air balloon. She had found hot air balloon lights and (after I pointed out the length of time needed to paint basket work) some wall paper for to create the basket. The original idea was for the ‘bedroom balloon’ to be flying over mountains with other balloons in a race. I expanded this to include many fields and pastures (matching the surrounding landscape) and the sea.

I painted in Shropshire for my niece who loves tigers, and my sister who did not wish her be frightened by the tiger looking at her in the night! A lovely chance to spend some time with my family and unlike many of my murals I could take a bit of time to work on it.

This wall, painted on the wall of a poolhouse / playroom, was a homage to Takashi Murakami. In order to make each flower perfectly symmetrical I created a stencil for each size and then worked out how to fit as many flowers on the wall. It was a little like putting together a massive jigsaw puzzle. Once drawn on I painted the petals with simple and bright colours and added a black outline to each flower.

A attic transformed by tall trees meeting at the top, landscape, bluebells and the family cat. This was slightly challenging as much of it was painted on a sloping ceiling and on clapper board - the tree trunks only lining up if looked at straight on! This was the second time of painting for this client.

Mural painted on the ceiling of a child’s bedroom in Kensington - pirate ships, dragons, aeroplanes, hot air balloons and rockets - all flown by teddy bears.

This mural was painted in a little girls bedroom in London. I spent a long time with the client discussing her favourite children's books but eventually settled on the Enid Blyton’s Far Away Tree. The walls are painted all the way around with a continuous story so that as furniture came and went there is always something to look at.

The idea for this mural was to have the two famous bears meeting and going off to have adventures together. Although it would have been fun to paint them in London I decided the countryside would be better as I could put in a steam train, tractor, spaceship, plane, hot air balloon ride, seaside adventures and flying kites - perfect for the small boy who told me exactly what he wanted in his bedroom!

This mural’s landscaping was based on the drawing of the amazing Harolds Planet, a favourite of the client. I added a lemon tree on one side and psychedelic flowers on the other side with hills and beaches, trees and flowers.

I painted this tree on a very awkward wall that could not be used for shelves or pictures and added two squirrels, very much in the style of Squirrel Nutkin.

This wall was directly outside a little boys bedroom which meant that he had no view. I decided on a cartoon version of all the London sights including his football mecca Wembley and his dream car - a bright red Ferrari.

This mouse was painted on a plywood board covering the fireplace. I first painted the board to match the surrounding wood and then added a mouse hole and little mouse.

This mural was painted in a child's bedroom in London. I painted some fairies, a peacock above the door and a dog and rabbit surrounded by colourful flowers.

This fireplace was in my sister's room in London and used as an experiment as to how well I could freehand paint various childhood characters from comics and other illustrations. The problem was that people who saw them felt they must be stickers rather than hand painted, which I decided rather devalued the reason for having a mural painted in the first place - to create a unique work of art!

This was the first mural I created after returning from Florence. I had always loved reading the chronicles of Narnia and decided to paint as many of the storys on the wall as I could - Fledge and the two children, the ship Dawntreader, talking animals, Beaversdam, Tumnus, the Lamppost, waterfall, Cair Paravel and Aslan as the sun. I made the door leading to the garden into the wardrobe door.

This mural was painted for a little girl who loved rabbits and stars near Ludlow. She also wanted there to be carrots and beetroot so they wouldn't get hungry when she wasn't there.

These mice were painted in a house near Earls Court. Each mouse represented one of the children, their initial on their front, but I later added each child's best friend. I was also asked to paint a housekeeper mouse doing the ironing. On the back of the door I added a stylised passion flower plant and some purple dragonflies.

The client had put butterfly wallpaper on one wall and had the idea of some of the butterflies escaping. This I did, butterflies escaping the wallpaper in a cloud on one side of the room and random ones appearing inside the wardrobes and bookcases.

This mural was painted in Kensington in the bedroom of twin babies. The client chose the animals and birds they wanted and I painted them and the tree in a stylised cartoon manner.

This mural was painted in a lovely gypsy caravan in Shepherds Bush, London.  I used a combination of the fathers favourite children’s illustrator with a Tuscan twist (as the family is half Italian), the garden outside and various characters from nursery rhymes.  I suggested that they put down some fake grass and the children, having never really used the space very much, now have picnics and parties in there all the time.

This mural was painted on a canvas for an army family, commissioned by the husband as a surprise for his wife and daughter. The garden is a view from the wife's childhood home and the butterfly wings on the fairies are all native to the UK. The dog in the background is the family pet.