Paintings and Drawings by Savanna

Tropical Rainforest and Caribbean Marine Life

Main entry to a beautiful estate home overlooking Charlotte Amalie and the bay.

Before Mural   

Problem areas; no space to bring in color with potted plants, an odd and un-useable 2 inch deep niche flanking the front doors with electrical outlets in them, and a very stained driveway that continued up to the front entry tiles.
The owner’s wanted an area to display their beautiful bronze sculpture of 3 children looking at an insect, kids that resembled their own.  

Mural, 1 of 3 walls

This project covered the 3 walls of the main entry and the driveways ugly cement slab.

I created the bright tropical garden the owners wanted - in full bloom, a special area for the bronze to set, and made the whole entry area seem larger by adding in a distant skyline.

For the bronze sculpture, with the children setting on an old log, I painted a cobble-stoned area to make the transition from the wall to the drive softer.  The result was a natural surrounding for the sculpture.  The illusion of the cobble stones covering the old driveway worked so well that guest walked around it, and one guest asked, “if they had a problem with grass growing in the cracks of the stones?”

The owners are practicing Hindu, so as a special touch (where the odd niche had been a problem on each side of the front door) I created 2 red gates, with the symbol of Om painted on them in gold, beyond the gates - shaded trails with dabbled light and scattered fallen blossoms that lead deeper into the gardens, possibly to a place of quiet meditation.  They loved it. 

Close Up

 
This is a close up, showing the flowers and the cobblestones.  The grate in the lower right is a drain in the driveway that I had to work with, like the electrical outlet on the wall, (it disguised in the paint better, curious? it’s in the lower left curl of fern fronds).  The cobblestone of the driveway ends just below the flowers. Up this close you can see the line of where the wall meets the drive but further up the drive the illusion is seamless.

The youngest child, their young man of three and a half years, inspected my work daily and had his own request.  Each day I added an insect or lizard for him and his sisters to find.  He became more interested in my work as it evolved (the mural took 6 weeks… time to get to know his taste), on the last day he said, “we just need one more thing” I said, “Yes?  What would you like for me to do?” He said, "we need a big blue caterpillar so it can turn in to a big blue butterfly someday."  I placed it at his eye level near the front door.  When it was completed I asked, “Is it finished now?” He said, “Yes, it’s beautiful, you do very good work.”  I half expected him to pull the money out of his pocket and pay me.

I received a fun complement from the wildlife in the area.  One day, when I’d just finished putting in the yellow impatiens around the base of the wall, I was standing back from the wall, 20 feet or so up the drive, having a cold drink and deciding what to do next.  When 2 large 3' Green Iguanas hopped off the retaining wall nearest the street, quickly scampered up to the mural and tried to bite at the flowers (that I had just painted! happily the paint was already dry).  They hopped and jumped at the wall quite a few times, before stopping and looking at each other strangely, then clambering back up the retaining wall into the bush.  They must have been laying in wait, watching, waiting for me to move away.  I enjoyed the complement and the laugh.   Funny things make my day.