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

  1. 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.

  3. 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.

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

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  9. 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!

  10. 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.

  11. 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.

  15. 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?

  18. 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!

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

  24. 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…

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

  30. 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!

  35. 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/

  39. 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!

  42. 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.

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