you are visiting Gordon Collett's artist site, www.muralartist.co.uk for murals, trompe l'oeil, portraits & illustration

I believe that a good mural is one that allows the viewer to forget that there is a wall there at all, and to visually enter something beyond it.

If you ever considered having a mural painted in your home or workplace, have you tried looking further than the usual landscapes to see the amazing effects of illusory spaces ceated by the use of trompe l’œil?

Trompe l’œil murals can completely modify a difficult space into something more inviting. Small spaces, or confined ones (e. g. basements) can be opened up into limitless virtual horizons. In 2000 I painted an open beach scene and sea view with a sense of that diffuse light of the north, echoing the client's homeland, Denmark. As a result the then somewhat dingy office room, now feels airy and spacious, despite opening onto a small courtyard walled in by three storey buildings.

By the use of architectural trompe l’œil, spaces can be changed, even to the extent of adding another "room" or "garden", that can only be entered visually. Whole new, and apparently 3D, spatial arrangements can be set up through the use of grisaille (traditional grey monochrome) work and trompe l’œil. Plus, with the addition of painted cutouts, the distinction can be further blurred.

Mural painting has been practiced since ancient times, and since then it has always been more than just a method of decoration. Besides obviously being a way of personalising one's home, there are other greater benefits, in that it helps people to create an inviting space for their lives and work.

Contemporary uses are very varied and almost unlimited. Wall painting can be used to further an interior decoration scheme, bringing walls in with the overall effect, beyond mere colour. For example, murals can tie together other themes from the building (such as architectural features in trompe l’œil), with the decor (for example a monochromatic painting coloured to match furnishings, etc.), as well as purely adding a touch of grandeur or glamour if one so wishes.

Traditional images can be used to re-create period styles, or, through suggested influences, allude to them. Rooms can have their environments made sympathetic to their function. Murals offer a chance to bring wit and charm to a decorating scheme. For example the right dining room mural will give even the least talkative of guests something to converse about.

Murals can be fun too; children's areas benefit greatly from walls painted to match the brightness of their world. But fantasy images can bring fun and escapism to adults also. One could have windows over looking Impressionist Monte Matre, Tuscany, or a Mars colony! A pool room's walls could transport swimming to a Bahamas' coral lagoon, the splendour of ancient Rome, or put the swimmer at the bottom of a sparkling river (looking up at the underside of lily pads). Lying in bed one could be looking up at a summer sky, a flight of birds or angels.

Floors can also be painted into the scheme. Wooden floors can become palatial marble, or the surface of an ornamental pond.

Bearing in mind the infinite possibilities of this, please do not consider this site to be a fixed catalogue, but more like a sample-book.

I am very happy to discuss ideas and help with suggestions, should you not immediately find what you require.
Work can be done from your own references or, at the other end of the range, I can specifically design for your needs. Mediums and methods are explained on the modus operandi page below.

Why not have paintings on other surfaces? For example:

• furniture,
• glass- immitation stained glass or effects with frosting, and
• even floors can be painted- wood effects, immitation mosaics.

An interesting question from a student of Interior Design..

I have just found your very interesting page on the web and I need your help. I am currently studying interior design and for an essay I need to know more about muralists. The basis is this:- is it worth employing artists today to paint on walls and ceilings in public buildings? Would this be economically viable? Are they still used to do this, and do you think that the interior designer has taken over this role with the wide range of materials used for specification?
Thank you, Elayne

Yes it is worth it if the work is to be:
a) a permanent piece of art, sculpture is expensive too;
b) essential to the company identity eg. Warner Bros. Studio Stores; or
c) an efficient permanent advertisement, eg the Bejo seed company.
An apparent conflict of interests is the cause of these considerations. Current interior design has a much shorterned lifespan due to increasingly more rapid changes in fashion. If a long term view is taken of a building's use/identity, then over time, a mural works out more economic (and substantially more characterising) than a succession of annual modish makeovers. So murals are still very much viable in the right place.

For more biographical information please go to the C.V. Page.

For information about free estimates and to commission my work,
please visit my "Modus Operandi" page to get an idea of what is involved.

For prices of work exhibited here, please e-mail me for a list of style and medium examples.