A heartfelt farewell and a roundup of top newsletter articles

Hello to my IDAL community!

This will be my last communication with you as my time as a board member ends mid-April. As I complete my tenure, I am also entering a new phase with my decorative painting business, and artistic goals. I’m a bit older now and truly never want to stop working because I love what I do, but I do want to stop climbing ladders at some point. I will do more of my own fine artwork but my sensibility still lies with creating art for environments.

So, appropriately, this newsletter’s theme is, “What’s next for a decorative painter who wants to get off the ladder?” We have a very full newsletter, chock full of nuggets for you to investigate this possibility!

There is a wonderful article from Indiana Coated Fabrics explaining all about their Art Cambric Cloth. This product is great and I will put my plug in for it in the next paragraph. We also have an article by  Dee Lenehan, who has been creating murals for years, and she also has a link to purchase her manual explaining all about hand painted murals. Another article is by Michelle Bergman, who has been using ICF products for a while with her teaching and mural work. The next article is by Diane Williams, who has found much success creating beautiful decorative work on whiskey staves, which can be customized. Our last article is by Tobey Renee Sanders, whose work is now gracing Bloomingdale’s walls, and for sale, in Atlanta, and who also has opened a decorative painting academy.

As for me, I got familiar with ICF’s Art Cambric cloth at IDAL’s last convention, where they were a vendor at our Expo. I used the product in Michelle Bergman’s Bespoke Wallpaper class, loved it, and won the winning bid for a roll of their fabric, which they donated for our silent auction. I am always looking for a good canvas with the right kind of tooth and I just love painting on this surface! I recently completed a job for a hair salon.

The owner wanted a floral design so she could bring the outside in and feel like it was always springtime. The salon had shiplap walls, which would have been difficult to paint on, and also hard for me to execute while business was being conducted. So I painted everything in my studio on the Cambric cloth, and cut out all the shapes.

The fabric doesn’t shred at all and, because it is lightweight, very easy to paste on the walls. The shiplap walls remained intact, so they provide a nice backdrop to the cutouts. I just can't wait to do another project like this!

On another note, I have also been doing bas relief work, of which some work can be done in my studio, and most of the rest onsite using low ladders. Years ago, in college, I created bas relief work in clay, and some of those works were cast in bronze. That work subsided as my decorative arts career blossomed, mostly creating with paint and troweled plasters.

At my first IDAL convention, which seems like ages ago now, I took a class with Ellie Ellis and I was able to apply my bas relief skills to plaster. I will be forever grateful to her, and I continued on with more instruction with her. 

Between the plaster and canvas, I am having a great time doing some very different work for walls which I feel sets me apart from other decorative artists.

Let us know how you like these articles, whether you’ve gotten inspired, and if you have something to share about work you are doing, on or off ladders. Perhaps we can feature you in a forthcoming newsletter.

Thanks for a great five and a half years. It’s been a pleasure getting to know so many of you!

Jodi Heinz

Past President, Office Admin and Editor- Artisans Quarterly