ILONA ANDREWS

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The Deer in Blue

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Our house has finally been repainted. It looks lovely. It was a lot of lost productivity, but it couldn’t be helped and the final result is great. Also our GC gave us an inconvenience discount.

One of the big parts of the renovation for us was getting a new mural in the dining room. The previous mural depicted a weird semi-Italian landscape and looked a little bit like something you would find at Olive Garden. Over the years it became grimy, the colors dulled, and trying to clean it quickly proved futile because the paint would come off with the dirt.

Our general contractor put us in touch with a local artist. Her name is Michelle Wilson, and you can see some of her art at Michi’s World of Chaos or on her Instagram.

At first, we were going to do something neutral because the plan was to sell the house, But in the end we ended up going for something personal. Something we liked. If we do end up selling, the new owners might keep it or not, but we love it. It’s weird and it’s us.

Inspiration:

Texas Blue Bonnets
Image by joangonzalez from Pixabay

The Mural:

It is strange and slightly magic, and the more you stand in front of it, the more things you see.

Huge thanks to Michelle for the amazing piece of art.

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Comments

    • Wish I had that kind of talent. First thought when I saw this mural was Miyazaki’s Mononoke Hime. Magical.

  6. That is wonderful idea – I have a wall that is inset like that, and it never occurred to me to have a mural put in (wheels turning in head). It’s beautiful!

    • +1 it’s a great idea. Even a wallpaper mural could be cool. Why didn’t I think of it???

  7. A lovely mural- it looks like it might be a door opening at Gertrude Hunt and offering a Vista of another World.
    Glad your renovation is done.

  8. Wow, that’s beautiful!

    My daughter, who is an illustrator-quality artist, painted tree frogs around the panels of her bedroom door (on the inside) back when she was in middle school. The nest has been empty for over a decade, and when I put the house on the market next year, the frogs will still be there. This is a desirable school district, in a semi rural area with tons of wildlife, and the right buyers will want the frogs.

    The deer IRL, I have mixed feelings about. They are so graceful, and the fawns are so cute. OTOH, I like my plants and need my veggies. As long as they stay away from those, we’re good. If they get into them, the dogs get some exercise chasing them away.

  9. Congratulations on the completion of all the painting. Now gather your crew of family and do a weekend blitz of cleaning and putting away. Love the mural. Now for a question: is Sergeant Bear from the Legacy stories based on the real story of Wojtek the bear cub raised by Polish soldiers and who stayed with them during WW2 (check it out on Wikipedia)?

    • Thank you so much for posting this. I visited the wiki page and am smiling right now. What a great story and I hope it was the inspiration for Sgt Teddy.

  10. The deer look like they’re about to leap into the room. That’s very cool.
    And so glad the painting headaches are behind you….

  11. Wow! That is lovely! I don’t think it is weird at all and having meaningful art in your home makes home a more comforting place.

    Glad the remodel is done!

  12. That’s a very cool mural! I’m glad your home is getting back to normal and that the remodeling and painting is done. Living in a construction zone is so wearing.

  13. wow. I’ve been living in my current home for 15 years and never did anything to beautify it because I didn’t think we’d be here for more than a few years. The walls are white and bare, for example. My youngest daughter (now turning 30) says that it looks like the home of a serial killer.

    I realized, just a few weeks ago, that even if we were to sell it tomorrow, I should be living in a home not a house, and I’ve begun making it homey.

    • I always found just putting up wall art helps the transition from house to home. Wall art is a easy as kids or grand kids picture art in protective slip covers to the beautiful mural seen here.

      Have fun with the process!

    • Quilts used as wall art also work and can absorb noise. I know someone who visited a friend’s house after she had taken down her wall quilts to feature in a show and he said that the house practically echoed.

  15. It’s fabulous and now I want one in my house! I think you made the right call going personal. Glad you survived the painting and that it turned out. ????

  16. That is friggin beautiful. Just what I needed today. Fellow Texan here so uhm. Yea. Struck a chord. This humble fan thanks you

  25. How lovely ????. However, you gorgot the “Don’t Mess With Texas” sign (fellow Texan here). Bluebonnets and Indian paintbrush are the best flowers. They inspire weekend road trips through Texas in the springtime.

    If only I had space for a bluebonnet mural, I have settled for wall art from a San Antonio artist.

  27. Wow! I love the concept and colours. Experiencing the painting the more time you spend with it is awesome. I love that you picked this and thanks for sharing. Kudos!

  29. My brother did something like that for a wall in their house, but it’s wallpaper. I can’t remember if the image was one available from the wallpaper company, or if they found a picture somewhere and the company made wallpaper out of it. Turned out pretty well.

  34. Looks perfectly lovely to me, but then, my bedroom is an impressionistic woodland sunset.

    • …which, since I’m selling the house in November is soon to become an all over light camel color. But I will get to create something new after I move. So there is that.

      • A great trick is to paint your next mural on thin boards. They attach and are unattached fairly easily so you can take them with you! Learned the hard way.

  36. congrats on the house painting being FINISHED. Happy to hear how good it finally turned out, too. And the mural is seriously fun. If/when the next family comes in and doesn’t like it, then they can fight with painters, heh

  39. That is gorgeous & think could stare at it for hours. It seems to draw you into. Are you sure it is not an inn Door?

  40. Ooooh, I like how having it in the arch makes it seem like a doorway to somewhere else. I think this will make you happy however long you live there. Sometimes you need to live in the moment.

  42. Wow! I love your mural, like a doorway to another realm. Is House Andrews, on it’s way to becoming a House? I know Houses are born, but stranger things have happened. Glad it ended well, enjoy your new beautiful space.

  45. Yay on the painting being done! I agree with the others, that mural looks like it should be a door to Gertrude Hunt. Maybe that is the door the inn is trying to make contact with. Hmmm… 😀

    Stay cool and hydrated everyone. It’s hot as Moloch’s Arizona palace out there. Ugh!

  47. Beautiful. And, I’m agreeing with the others, personal is always the best option.

  57. OMG that is lovely. enjoy your newly renovated house and hopes it bring joy after the nightmare it has been for you.

  60. Congratulations on being done with the painting! And the mural is fabulous.

    It must be frustrating to lose so much productivity time, but at least you’re not being hounded by publishers to meet a deadline. Going independent was the right call for right now!

    When I saw the blog post title I definitely flashed on the Gertrude Hunt. It’s in Red Deer, after all! ???? I can certainly understand why so many others commented on it.

  61. That is amazing! They are such a talented artist! So glad all of the painting is finally done.

  66. That mural is amazing! It has the vibes of a mysterious fantasy world, I love it!
    So glad the repainting is done at last

  71. Very nice! Somewhat Van Goghish. Love the colors. so glad your home painting has been done to your satisfaction and that you got a discount! Thank you for sharing!

  72. Oh I love it! I love them so much that when I couldn’t afford to hire a painter I did one myself. I painted a ballerina in a smoky covered pirouette. But yours is prettier ????by a lot

  76. That’s awesome. I love everything about it.

    The colors, the deer, the impression of bluebonnets, are both so indicative of Texas but the impressionist almost watercolor effect makes it magic and makes you wonder if you can step into that alcove and walk off to another world.

  83. that’s really pretty! I’d love a mural like that if i could take it with me from house to house. Military life doesn’t really allow for permanent murals just yet!

    • You can cheat! Get a large thin panel board from the hardware store and shape as desired. Then get it painted with your mural (or if artist prefers attach it to the wall first for easier painting) and you can “feather” in a color similar to the wall color around the border and then mount on the wall to achieve the mural look (or just mount it straight to the wall without a border). Come time to move un-mount it and take it with after filling in a couple screw holes. 🙂

  84. I love this mural! It could definitely inspire a scene in one of your books.

  85. OMG! This is SO CUTE! ???? Such a great idea and such a talented artist! I’m very happy that your troubles with painting the house are over! Take some time to relax and enjoy the summer! You both deserve it! ❤️

  91. The mural brings memories of Texas in the spring. I miss seeing bluebonnets since I have not lived there in 30 years.Thank you for sharing your beautiful mural.

  92. Reminds me on Shadows and Bones on Netflix where the heroine sees the deer in her visions.

  97. I love this so much! I am so happy for you!

    I painted a mural in our last house while it was for sale. It was taking forever to sell and I was frustrated so I said “who cares?!” and painted my favorite Oregon beach and added some little whimsical whales and such. My realtor was a bit freaked (she didn’t say much and that in itself was something, realtors are all about conformity). I enjoyed it for a few months and let go of it. They might have painted over it but I did the thing I always wanted to do. Now we are in our (probably) last home and I’ve painted a forest floor, a tree on one wall, and spent three months on a penny floor. There is a starry universe planned for another wall and perhaps more. Why not?
    It was freeing to do that first one.

  101. The mural is beautiful. I am sure you will enjoy it no matter how long you live in your home, and now you know a artist to call if you do sell if you want a mural in your next home.

  103. Evening!

    For some reason the previous post link is listed as “girl with a sword & lion” and I was like …. Per my navigation method that wasn’t the last post (no matter) however I took the opportunity to visit that post and re-read it… At the end of it you stated

    “Isn’t this cool? For some reason, this struck a cord with me and made me miss Kate a little bit. Just the whole feel of it, the lion, the moon, the girl… ::waves at Post-Shift Atlanta:: Maybe it’s time to revisit. We will see.”

    1billion% YES … ha ha ha … but anyway it made me laugh when I ran across your remembrance, reminiscing … whatever.

    I still personally think that Kate will be picked up by Netflix,Amazon,HBO whoever and created into a ridiculously successful series … think … game of thrones meets the tv series success of Buffy/Friends. At that point you and Gordon will wish you made another 30 Kate books! So the money that your work generates would allow you to buy the whole island of Hawaii (not that you would cuz global warming means it will just reduce in size/disappear as the seas rise) but yeah!!

    Have a good day!

    *PS*
    I tried to use the KD books to help a friend from Colombia learn English and they asked me many many questions regarding their understanding of the KD universe and as we went through this process I came to the working hypothesis that your writing for the first 3 KD books is (forgive me) *less polished* especially book 3… now with my VERY limited writing skills and knowing ALL your subsequent works is the only reason this might apply…Personally I love all of them but after KD gets picked up into a series do you have thoughts about what as an author you would want to do as the books get “scriptified” into a screenplay?

    My 2c … change only what you think needs changing and for the rest of it stick to your Vision (think Peter Jackson & LotR)!

    • The posts are organised by category. The “previous post” link shows you the most recent post under the “art” topic before today’s.

      Authors’ style and craft evolve and change, especially in such a bountiful career as House Andrews have had ????. To everything there is a season…

      Series also get better the more we read because of the very nature of the thing- characters grow, we get more and more invested in their lives and world and how they progress.

  105. Oh so gorgeous. Great choice and I would love to walk into a showing and see that.

  106. I’m so glad the painting nightmare is done, and that is lovely! After having to paint over a mural I did before moving once ever since I started making mine mobile to take with me. Just got it hung up recently in my new place! Odds of me pulling out a paintbrush to do random edits in the future are also fairly high. I already had to put a seal on the Dutch doors I made for the linen closet so I’d stop fiddling with the vines.

  107. To paraphrase Voltaire “I may not agree with what you’ve painted, but I’ll defend to the death your right to paint what ever you like in your own home”.
    Full Respect. I personally have a floor to ceiling wall size digital wall paper of a napoleonic Union Jack flag by Vivienne Westwood in my dining room.

    Ooh! What’s your favourite home in Andrews’ Land? Mine is Julie’s state of the art home inside the hovel she carefully has built.

  109. Well done on the mural. It may be personal and not ideal for selling but its your house you live there and enjoy it so have what you want. Had same comments on car purchase once, dont choose that colour not good for residuals. Fudge off its my car I’m buying it for me not the next owner!

  110. I wonder if the artist is a fan of Van Gogh. The piece has hints of his famous techniques. It is beautiful. I hope there is a window nearby that the sun’s rays (with crystals) and even the moonlight could shine on it – serene.

  111. My step mom’s place has a mural from the 70’s in the dining room. She doesn’t love it, but could never bear to cover it up. I like how sometimes murals persist much longer than other decorations. Like those faded signs painted on brick walls of old buildings. There’s an ancient hotel near me. The old sign advertises how fire-resistant it was. Brings to mind gas lamps and whistling radiators. Horse-drawn carts in the street.

  115. I may have been looking at the mural pics too long:
    Between the back legs of the deer in the foreground – is that an outline of …a book?

  118. I love the mural! I can’t wait for a story line where Gertrude Hunt opens a doorway and a beautiful mystical blue deer walks in!

  119. I love the mural! It seems very House Andrews. How lovely to live with that image, regardless of how long you do.

  124. Hah, when you said the other mural reminded you of Olive Garden, all I kept thinking was Roland and Applebee’s…

    Come to think of it, the mural could use a tower in the distance…

  128. And someday, we will read some sort of story that relates to deer in blue bells.

  130. The antlers have leaves! OMG! The antlers have LEAVES!!! It’s so magical! It’s like they are spirits of the forest, peeking into your home!

  135. I’m so glad the painting is done and to your liking. The mural is beautiful.

    This is an artist I came across recently. If I could afford it, I would purchase his TOGETHER IN THE MAELSTROM. My husband has been diagnosed with dementia and this picture describes it perfectly.

    https://andykehoeshop.com/

  139. So glad your painting insanity is behind you! I love the mural! We often have deer in our yard, and while it annoys me that they have now eaten the “deer resistant” Caladium that I planted, I love to watch them. I feel like one of the planets in the Inn’s sphere would have a place like your mural to rest in. Enjoy it!

  142. What a fabulous, magical mural. Great taste, IA.
    The blue bonnets are lovely. The photo reminds me of carpets of bluebells in Ireland in May.
    Thank you.

  152. Congratulations on getting through this difficult renovation. That mural is gorgeous, the right person will buy the house because of it.

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