Painting a studio floral mural in Brooklyn, New York
How I found the mural painting project
In the past year I’ve been working hard to build up my mural painting business in New York, it’s a new country where few people know I exist, so I’ve been working hard to gain a foothold and get painting in the local area, and figure out how to find walls over here. While it’s been challenging, I feel there is no other point in my career where I’ve grown as fast as in this bustling, non-stop city.
I reached out to a few people who’ve already done it here. I pinged the amazing Natasha May Platt (known for her flower mural painting) an email, and she kindly jumped on a call. She suggested a few US and New York specific ways to start painting in this city. One of which was Craigslist, which I began searching for projects.
Designing the mural
Up popped Java Studios, needed a huge new mural, I got in touch to let them know I was interested and quickly we started working together. I was thrilled to have a huge, outdoor 26 square meter canvas in the Green point, Brooklyn, New York. The business wanted a design that would draw attention to their business from the street and reflect their fun, young, creative brand. They’d seen my portfolio and wanted something in my style, but with a few of their own ideas brought in. And so work began with a call: what would inspire the design? Is there anything they'd like to see included? They sent me the below inspiration images for the project.
Inspiration images from Java Studios
The mural designing process
A few days later, I visited the site. The wall had been accidentally cleaned by a power-washer and was peeling with some remnants of a previous mural design. This posed an issue, as there are still remnants of paint and we wanted to ensure the new mural does not peel off the wall. I reached out to my mention PJ Hannagan (from Mural Nomad) and she guided me to buy a special primer that stops paint peeling away. Hery at Java Studios was kind enough to prep the wall for me with this primer.
The damaged wall, with remnants of a previous mural
As the universe works in mysterious ways, when I arrived on site I was greeted by a hand painted floral mural by talented Natasha May Platt (who I’d asked for advice on how to make it in the big smoke!). This felt like I was walking an exciting path and a sign that things were going in the right direction.
Natasha May Platt’s (@surfaceofbeauty) mural was alongside mine.
Next, I created mock ups of two mural painting designs (see above) I thought would work well on the wall, and reached out for feedback. The feedback was simple and I began painting a few days later.
Painting the flower mural
Of course, there were some issues to overcome. The projector wouldn’t work, luckily Nico (pictured below - a fine artist who helped me throughout the project) came and helped me to get it going. An hour’s job became a whole evening including a sprint to CVS to buy a USB stick which finally got the project rolling! We split the design into four and finally got everything ready on the wall.
In the following days I used high quality Behr Exterior paint with Zibra brushes (and a few sweeping brushes) to get the design layered up. Working outside was challenging, being at the whim of the weather and the light constantly changed. I was lucky to have two assistants helping me for two of the days and lots of cups of tea to keep me going in cold new York weather. I can’t get across how cold it was! We were really on the cusp of just being able to paint with it being around 3 degrees Celsius (37.4 Fahrenheit), the paint starts to freeze if it gets much colder, and I was wearing several pairs of thermals, painting in gloves and hats and had to stop half way through one day when it started snowing!
One thing ended up being cut from the design (after speaking to the client) the wall was very textured and painting the lines onto the mural was causing us many issues. Instead of looking clean and futuristic like in the mock up, we ended up with wobbly lines. We weren’t able to utilize painters tape for the lines as the texture meant it wouldn’t stick well and the paint bled out. In the end I recreated a version without the lines and the client was happy to simplify the design.
The final result was a huge, hand painted flower mural, which took a boring wall and transformed it into a dynamic place-making design. Shouting: this is where the Java Studio is! The client was thrilled and gave me a lovely five star review. This is one of the pieces I’ve enjoyed painting the most in my career, and I loved having the two artists Nico and Ava help me. I even enjoyed the physical side of climbing up and down a scaffold all day and left with some new muscles!
If you’re looking for a local mural artist and have a project you’d like to see come to life, don’t hesitate to get in touch for a no-pressure chat!
