Wall painting in Amsterdam part 1

I have been spending a lot of time in Amsterdam, off and on, and have been working on this very large wall painting in the library of an 18th century canal house.
The idea is that the wall painting should have an eighteenth century connection, without it looking like we tried to ”fake” it, a modern feeling should be there as well.
As an inspiration we chose the Chinese wall paper at Nostell Priory. It is exceptionally beautiful, it was supplied by Chippendale who designed the chinoiserie furniture to go with it. It is however very ”busy”. I went for a more balanced custom design to fit the dimensions of the room. Also, the brush strokes, and my ”handwriting” will be clearly discernible.

The Chinese wall painting and Chippendale furniture at Nostell Priory.

My design for the right side of the room, with the fireplace:

The room! There are bits of wall to be painted on every wall except the windows.

The base color is finished, it is really three colors on top of each other, the last one very subtly sponged to make the color look less of a solid block.

The sketch. I paint directly on thge wall, I don’t use a magnifier which projects a drawing on the wall. This is of course more difficult, but it is also a lot more spontaneous.

The colors of the tree and the flowers. It is going to be very gay. The crane is almost finished

The bird is talking to the crane. One wonders what they are up to when the lights go out and nobody is in the room…

The painting is finished. Sort of. I am still wondering if I shouldn’t change a few bits here and there. Now the books with all their colors are in their cases, and the pretty knick-knacks are on the shelf, it looks very much integrated into the room.