Rose Garden Pavilion Vintage Shabby Chic Ceiling Tin

I have finished my large ceiling tin, just today actually, I put the finishing touches on it. I'm very pleased with the way this one came out and all in all, it came together rather smoothly for me. I'm going to start you off at the beginning so you can see how the painting progressed.

This is what I started with, a blank and very large 24" x 24" ceiling tin. It is very ornate, with the beautiful wreath motif in the middle and elaborate edging, it really leant itself to a very elegant design with lots of possibilities.

For most everything I did on this tin, I used very wet paint on a dry surface. I sketched on the rose pavilion after my sky and grass areas were painted. Once the building itself was done, I started working on some of the far off rose bushes. Those are done by using lots of wet paint on a wet surface. The paint kind of mingles together and really creates a look of distance.

There wasn't a fence like this on the Vanderbilt property by the rose pavilion (You can refer to my working photo from my March 6th post) but that is the wonderful thing about art, I can change things around to suit my own purposes. I wanted another solid structure in the foreground so I cam up with this weathered fence. I love fences, walls and stone so don't be surprised if you see more of them in the future. I think they are beautiful architectural elements and can be used in so many different way.

I really needed something solid in the foreground to go next to the soft scape material I was putting in on the left side, they balance each other nicely. These roses, while still vague, are not like their relatives a little further back in the scene, they are starting to take some shape at this point. Again lots of wet paint on a wet background, with just a bit more of a definate shape.

I added lots of shading at the bottom of the scene, it really needed it, the darker color really anchors the scene down.

Didn't I tell you there would be a blue bird?? I didn't lie, there he is at the top of the scene, but outside of the scene , a nice large bird, pirched on his branch. I had a lot of ideas on how to approach this painting and this particular idea, believe it or not, came to me one day as I was vacuuming the bedroom carpet. : ) I wanted to create some elements outside of the rose garden scene, that were large and spilling into and out of the landscape.

At this point, I wanted to give the grassy area more of a pathway look to it so I added some lavender, pale blue and white for a lot more character and color.

To finish off the piece, I added 2 pink roses, spilling down on the lower part of the tin, cascading out of the scene. I think they balance with the blue bird nicely and both the roses and bird, I think, give the tin added dimention.

A close up of the little blue bird. I actually fussed over this little guy for quite a while, until I got him just the way I wanted him.

Ok, I lied, I wasn't quite done......I decided after a day of standing and looking at this tin from across the room that it needed something more. I had already, early on, painted the wreath shape in the middle, a nice clean white and I really liked the way that contrasted with the cream colored tin. I decided to do the same with the 2 outer borders as well.

Chris told me after that to just follow the KISS principal (keep it simple stupid), I had never heard that one before. Still, I don't know, it needed a bit more so I took a blue/gray color and did a dry brush effect around the two outer borders, most darkly though, around the edges. I'm glad I did it because I really like the way it looks now.

At this point I've got some orders to work on so, until next time.........