Hand Painted Bamboo Ceiling

The images shown here depict a hand painted bamboo ceiling for a residential addition. The entire room is finished in Quarter sawn white oak finished with a multi layer wood finish. There are carved lion heads in the ceiling piece and two carved elephant heads Shown at the entry of the room. The safari theme for this room is executed with the addition of the bamboo ceiling.

I will go through the basic idea of how this was painted, however, I don't have any images available for the step by step process.

I wanted to design the ceiling so it would look as much like an actual bamboo ceiling or at least how it would be if you were to look up and see it in an actual "hut" (though this room is far from a hut).  Larger bamboo shafts are depicted in the painting and everything is held together with the idea of rope bindings.  Parts of the bamboo are broken away to reveal the sky and vines growing over the top.  Additional silk vines are added  to help further create the illusion of vines and greenery.

This project took about 4 weeks.  It began with a light yellow base coat followed by a light rough in of the main bamboo shafts.   A series of glazes in a couple of umber colors were then applied to the shafts in a more general application.  I continued to add "shadows" with the glazes getting a little more exact with every single bamboo shaft.  Using mainly a "dagger" brush and a straight edge/level, I proceeded to literally define the bamboo piece by piece.  Weeks later and a massive neck ache it began to evolve to what you see now.  I then painted vines in and out of the broken bamboo areas.  Silk vines were added to help further the effect of the mural.  The sky was added and kept pretty low key with some subtle clouds.   A note on the wood work,  The entire room was trimmed in Quarter sawn white oak and finished with a series of shellacs.  A white wash was added to show a weathered safari style wood.

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