Stairwells

Painting murals in stairwells is a bit of a challenge. First, access is difficult. Over the years I have come up with various devices to make using ladders practical in a stairwell, and in this case I had to use two different ladders. One was equipped with levelers; the other was supported on one of my homemade devices that spans three steps with a platform on top so the ladder will sit level. This device is made of wood, and always makes me a little nervous. Think I will modify it soon.

The next difficulty is perspective. Since stairs are at various heights from the ground floor, finding a vanishing point is the problem, as you want the scene viewable from all possible locations. Putting the brick wall (they have brick on the house) below helped to level out the view, but the perspective is still higher up than what I would have preferred. However, since the viewer travels up and down the stairs, the actual perspective and the viewers perspective is adjusted by the brain automatically (I hope).

This mural took four days, finishing Thursday (7/3/08). If it had been on a regular wall, three days would have been possible. For the first three days, it had a road leading off to the right, but after seeing a movie Wednesday night about Monet, I switched (with the client's blessing) to a garden path instead.