Leonora Service Murals

I was chosen to paint this mural by an interior designer and her client who wished to recreate a mural in the main bathroom of her clients house based on the anniversary packaging of a famous champagne house. I created a light infused background of pale blues, greens and off whites, with weeds, underwater plants and bubbles. The fish were added last using gold, silver, bronze, copper and platinum leaf. Over 300 people applied for this commission and I was thrilled to be chosen to paint in such a glorious house.

Set into three arches with Trompe L’oeil bricks, this was a landscape of the clients favourite views, their dogs, donkeys and other ‘escapee’ animals and birds around the conservatory, and a final arch with two trees and song birds.

Amy Poon contacted me to find out if I might like to paint her new restaurant - Poons, Somerset house. You can imagine that I said yes! With references to the mural in the original Poons run by her parents, choosing auspicious vegetable & fruit, the famous wind-dried meat and sausages, a lobster smoking a cigar, combining English and Chinese styles I had a lot of fun painting this one.

This mural was painted on tiles by a swimming pool in a basement in Kent.   The client wanted the seating area by the pool to look as if you were sitting under lilly pads.   I researched what water looks like from the bottom of the pond and also what plants grown there.   I spent a long time mixing colours to make the water shimmer and tried to make the plants look as if they were moving in a steam.

This is so far the largest mural I have painted - three stories high and 25ft across. The idea was to create a landscape with a waterfall falling in sections until it joined the real waterfall and pond below it. The real trees and plants heightened the feeling that you were looking at a view, with the leaves of the trees meeting at the top and disguising where the sky stopped. I added 7 butterflies, 5 dragonflies and one bubblebee (my signature) for the residents to spot with their grandchildren. They seemed to enjoy watching me paint the mural - a large, everchanging group coming everyday to watch its progress.

Using gold paint and colours dragged down the wall to create a wood effect, I then used thin white paint on top to pick out circling fish. This was something of an experiment and free form painting rather than using photo references.

This mural was painted in the master bedroom in a farm house situated in a lovely wild garden.  The family were keen for me to add as much of the local wildlife and fauna as possible - various insects, lizards, toads, rabbits, the neighbours donkey, their favourite olive tree and the wild flowers and grasses of Provence. The colour was chosen to warm the room in the winter and compliment the sun in the summer.  Seen from the terrace below the whole room glows with warmth.  It was a wonderful four weeks, walking to the local village in the morning to pick up bread and cheese and sitting on the terrace in the evening. Simply heaven.

The client asked me for a homage to their favourite modern artist and I happily accepted the challenge. All of my murals are hand painted and I don't use stencils, projectors or anything else - until this mural!  The petal of each flower had to be the exact same size so I constructed 6 cardboard stencils of varying sizes and took them with me to the location.  The main challenge was to make sure that the petals of each interlinking flower was in the right place.

The client wanted something light and fresh in her entrance hall that reflected the garden around them.  It took me five days to paint and was an especially enjoyable commission as I was kept company by their many dogs and cats, and the house and garden were particularly beautiful.

The client contacted me to painted a mural in her pool house, with both the ceiling and three walls to be painted. The pool was emptied and covered with boards and a scaffolding tower erected. A prolific traveller, there was some discussion as which country would be the best subject matter, but eventually a decision was made to base the mural on Santorini. At one end of the room I painted a pink house with trompe L’oeil shutters, lattice work and plant pots so that standing by the pool it felt as if you were looking down the village and out to see. The colour of the sea was then painted to match the tiles of the pool, with cliffs and Greek fishing boats and her yacht in the distance.

This mural is in a hallway in London.  At one end is a tree with birds and pheasants and at the other, bamboo and butterflies.  This was my first Chinoiserie and I spent a long time looking at fabric in the V&A trying to get the birds and insects right. 

Painted in Acton, London, on the wall of the main room, inspired by twisted cherry blossom trees and rocks, with Mount Fuji in the back ground. The base of the mountain will be just above the sofa, the colour of which is the same as the center of the flowers, and the rocks match the colour of the floor.

Returning from many years in Africa the client wanted to have a Tinga Tinga style splashback for her new kitchen. I created a design with her preferred animals on an A2 sheet of paper and this was transferred onto tiles and put behind the aga in the kitchen.

These books were painted onto a canvas in order to cover a radiator in a flat in Bristol.  The idea is that each book represented an important influence in the clients life.  He, or they, chose a title that suited either an experience they had together or a title that summed up their personality.  The ruined books are the client’s ex’s and there are also a few gilded books that are in tribute to some of his friends who are sadly deceased.

These three panels were painting in the private dining room at Poons - a light hearted representation of the animals from the Chinese Zodiac, and influenced by the colours and shapes from the cave art at Dunhuang. Rabbits play a heated game of Mahjong, a monkey catches a lobster, a dragon breathes fire into the fireplace below, and tigers come to tea - just don’t pull his tail.

A mural based on the ‘Gardens of Livia’ painted in London for a lovely historian, her family and their social media star cat.

I was asked to paint this mural by a designer who was working on Studio Ashby’s restoration project in J.M. Barrie’s house. As a huge admirer of the author I was very excited to be part of the project. The brief was to feature trees from Hyde Park - I chose Ash, Birch, Willow, Oak and Maple - to be painted on the panels in the study of the house. These were to be created in the style of a screen print - which means using block colours sometimes and uniform shapes that do not always meet up. The colours chosen by the designer to match the rest of the room.

Painted for a client in his barn conversion in France this double height mural shows not only the surrounding landscape with its mountains, forests, towers, local chateau and village, French white cows, favourite garden plants but also the client fishing in the lake. The colour palate was chosen to be subtle and calm and the style of painting influenced by Nicholas Roerich.

I was asked to paint a vegetable patch using photographs taken in Italy.   The client especially liked the vibrancy of the Dutch still life painters.  This was a challenge for many reasons but especially because their compositions glow from a silky blackness whereas the wall I was painting was white.  Life was further complicated by the fact that I was painting at ground level on a narrow staircase so I would have to be careful not to fall down the stairs!

The client asked me to create a chinoiserie effect on three walls of their library.  I visited the V&A to look at their fabrics and Chinese section as I wanted to study how they painted their birds.   I mixed five different shades of blue and green for the back ground and then painted the birds and plants on top.    

This cottage in Argyll is in the most stunning landscape so it made no sense to have another landscape on the wall. Instead the client asked me to create a mechanical mural based on the wheels found in a Victorian factory to incorporate the wood burning stone in the middle of the room. It was a lovely project to work on and very different to my usual commissions,

This mural is in the entrance hall of a castle in Scotland. The client wanted something relevant to the period of the castle. I studied tapestries and wall paintings for how grass, trees and landscapes were painted and also designs for barrel ceilings. A modern twist was added when the pack of hounds became labradors and greyhounds. A portrait of the families pet cat and dog appear and the children chose the colours of the riders clothes.

This murals was painted on tiles in a lightwell in London and took two days to do.  The client wanted something simple and different to look at from her two guest rooms. 

Painted up three flights of stairs, the leaves of the tree change from fresh spring greens at the bottom of the stair case, to oranges and darker colours at the top. To this I added many song birds, a pheasant, a winnie the pooh, the owners Pekinese and a small spotted piglet.

This mural is painted on all four walls of a dining room in London.  The client had fallen in love with a wallpaper in the Beverly Hills Hotel that was no longer available, and we used this as a starting point.   She then showed me photographs of her favourite plants in tropical locations and the styles she admired by other artists which I combined to create her mural. We added two monkeys to represent her boys.  

This mural was painted for a client who wanted something fresh, modern with a Scandi twist to go with her new kitchen.   On the opposite side of the kitchen was a large mirror so that the wall of trees are reflected again, and it feels as if you are standing inside a woodland.

The client asked me to paint the panels that were covering the television in her drawing room.   I took my inspiration from the various Chinese lacquer boxes and chests.

The client loved warm, earthy tones, especially gold and wanted a 20s themed mural for her home office.  In the end we agreed on an antique paint effect with a small art-deco style border running around the top of the room.  

This mural is in the bathroom of a house in Scotland.  The couple had somewhat differing ideas of what they wanted but one thing was certain - they wanted peacocks.   I used gold leaf in the sky and gold paint on some  of the plants to highlight them and made some of the landscape, particularly the water, stylised.  They were especially pleased with the look of the peacock perched on the mirror.

This Fresco is painted on a terrace in London.  The client wanted to recreate the Garden fresco in the Villa of Livia.   The fresco is painted on lime plaster which I mixed myself using 2 parts sand and 1 part lime.  The colours are made by mixing raw pigments with water or lime.   Painting fresco is a very different process from painting a mural.  You have 8 hours to work before the plaster dries.  If you are interested in knowing more I have added a seperate section at the top of the page on fresco.

I was contacted by the friend of a previous client who had seen my work and wanted something for her roof terrace. I created a design which had a background of famous London monuments cut out in white against a blue sky, and in the foreground the owners favourite colourful plants painted realistically as possible.

I went down to Wiltshire to paint this mural.  It took me five days to paint and the idea was that as you were walking up and down the staircase the birds were flying away.  At the bottom of the stairs there was a portrait of the owners dog coming out of the grass. 

I was asked back by the interior designer to paint another two murals for her client in the spare bedrooms. This mural, which covered three walls, was based on the barley fields close to the house at Aldeburgh. Here the landscape appears to go on forever, particularly as Sunset, where everything is infused with a golden light. As can be seen in the pictures the designer was still working out the colour of the wooden panelling below the mural when I left the site.

This mural was painted in a light-well in London and took 4 days to complete.   The Light-well was very dark and gloomy as it was partially covered by the street above.   By filling a wall with flowers and putting down fake turf the client has a small, permanently in bloom, no-maintenance garden.

Inspired by one of my earlier murals my client asked me to paint long grass and song birds on the wall of their kitchen / dinning room in Fulham.

This mural was painted on the upper terrace at Chucs restaurant in Notting hill forPeter Mikic Studio.   The restaurant is Italian and the owner wanted to create a Italian Riviera terrace.  I researched the trees and plants that grow there  and some famous landmarks and got painting.  This was in December and it was freezing cold but thankfully the waiters kept me supplied with a constant flow of coffee.

This mural was painted on the floor of a terrace in London.   The client wanted various images that reflected her family history.   We looked at tiles from all different periods and countries but eventually settled for an Italianate style.   Although I used the best primers and varnishes we agreed a bi-annual repair and maintenance visit to check for wear and tear damage.

I offered a small mural as a prize at the charity auction and the winner contacted me to ask me to paint something in their dinning room. The room was next to the sitting room on one side (open plan) and the small terrace garden outside, while being at the bottom of the staircase. Painting a pale willow tree with fronds appearing on all of the walls, beams and pillar in the middle of the room, with more intensely coloured plants in the foreground the mural meant that the outside garden became part of the house.

I painted this mural up the staircase of an Elizabethan Farm house which was once part of Hampton Court Palace. The idea was to have green leaves on the bottom, turning green/blue on the second floor and yellow/green on the top floor. The origional inpiration came from the Paddington bear tree mural but the client wanted theirs to be in natural, softer and paler colours and not dominant red and pink.

This was my first of several murals painted in a retirement village in California. The idea was to give the residents something to look at whilst they waited for their washing in an otherwise featureless room.   I had spent a bit of time exploring the landscape around San Francisco.  I had fallen in love with the beaches and took many photographs of the local plants which all went into the work.

This Trompe L'oeil was painted in the sitting room of the client.  They wanted a very simple panelled room.  I used tape and spirit level to make sure that the lines were straight and used a box to cast a shadow on the wall so that I could match the colour of the shadows.  

This mural is painted on the clients bedroom wardrobe and is a replica of her childhood garden.  She wanted the colours to be muted and peaceful with hints of red to pick up the colours in the fabrics that made up the cushions and curtains.

Based on the garden in the courtyard of the main house this was the third email that I painted for this client. Originally based on work by Eduard Vuillard, I built the mural up using a pointillist technique as can be seen from the picture below. The change in design came about as the client preferred a non-symmetrical design - last minute changes do happen!

This Trompe L'Oiel is painted on a hallway wall outside the kitchen door.  The client took me for a walk along the canal in Little Venice and pointed out the things she loved in the area: The church, the bridge, the railway sleepers propping up flower beds and the barges moored to the side.  They chose lavender and jasmine for the pots on the window ledge.  

This mural was painted in a bathroom in Argyll. I used a technique that uses only two colours to create the landscape, which was similar to the one outside the window. The border was an attempt at grotesque, with floating heads (portraits of the family), animals and mirrored shapes.

This mural was painted in the bedroom of a house in Argyll on a slopping ceiling above the bed. Although the general style is chinosierie the birds, chosen by the client, are all local to the area and painted in a naturalistic style.

The client wanted to have the small wall outside his son's bedroom painted with something cheerful so I decided on a cartoon version of London.  I added the usual landmarks but also his favourite football stadium, a red Ferrari, taxis and the O2 arena.

This mural was painted on a wall in a basement in America - the second commission from this client.  I had been inspired by the Californian scenery viewed from Mount Tamalpais - huge redwood trees, long beaches, eagles and mist creeping in towards San Francisco.  

This mural was painted outside a basement flat in London.   I added the clients favourite flowers - daisies, poppies, honeysuckle, lavender and irises.   I also painted her a some snails, butterflies, a house for her dog statue and, as an amusing joke, a trompe l'oiel worm. 

This was a mural painted on the back of a stadium at a primary school in Shropshire. The stadium had been built between the school playground and school field. The children were asked what should be included so my brief mentioned the school logo, bracelets, school uniform, the PTA sponsorship of the mural, learning attitudes, local landmarks, wildlife, sport, subjects, a lake and the countryside.

This mural was painted on the walls of a staircase that lead from a garden into Primrose Hill.  The idea was to cheer up the stained and rather dull walls and create something pretty to look at on the way too and from the park.

This fresco is painted by a swimming pool in Italy and was my first commission having finished my course.  The client loved the beautiful fish mosaic found in Pompeii so I recreated some of the fish for her in the fresco.    

This mural was painted on a wall outside the guest bedroom at the top of the house.  When you stood up you had a view of the park but when you sat on the bed all you saw was the wall.  The client wanted plants found in an English garden.

The client had stripped the plaster off the wall to reveal very old bricks and lime and horsehair putty.  A beam had been removed and a lump of concrete had been used to fill the hole.   I painted the concrete to mimic the old bricks.

This mural was painted as a retirement gift on the front of the house. I spoke to the client about what they wanted - they really loved passion flowers and hummingbirds which is what I painted for them

The Client wanted me to paint a stylised cherry blossom in her sitting room.   I searched for photographs of cherry blossom trees until I found an image of one bending over a lake.   The trunk of the tree in the mural is formed by its shape.   Unfortunately when I finished it was very dark so the photographs are somewhat blurred.