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Projects Around the House

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 kitchen corner with painted spice box
This spice box hangs near my kitchen stove.. Especially when painting furniture for myself I can see how I’ve definitely been influenced by Rich Entel’s furniture painting style.
hand painted or custom chinoiserie
The cat piece, attached front and center, was made by a Haitian artisan.
 mosaic
I found a starburst frame on the side of the road and used it for this street number mosaic.
 hand painted or custom chinoiserie, tree-of life, wall relief, bah relief, custom sculpted wall panels, hand sculpted wall panels,
designer walls

designer walls

hand painted or custom chinoiserie, tree-of life, wall relief, bah relief, custom sculpted wall panels, hand sculpted wall panels,
corner flower pod
hand painted or custom chinoiserie, tree-of life, wall relief, bah relief, custom sculpted wall panels, hand sculpted wall panels,
detail wall relief flower
(there are several photos of my dining room)
In my dining/sewing, etc. room I’ve been sculpting and painting over-sized flower forms. (Chinoiserie?, tree-of-life sort of?) Parts are sculpted, other parts aren’t.
Jane Burke's dining room wall
 The square object framed in tile on the dining room wall is a little fireplace that burns gel fuel.
sculpted wall details, Jane Burke, painting by Paula Ragsdale

Nature Outside My Door

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yard decor with handpainted cat, trailer, flowers.

yard decor with handpainted cat, trailer, flowers.

My dooryard is tiny. On a wooden fence I installed a piece that I’d made for a stage set a number of years ago. Its a painted version of a trailer similar to the one I’d called home for many years. I’ve been refining and adding to the painting, and just below the area where I was painting a cat looking out a window, I attached an actual window box.
outdoor garden mural
During days when I wasn’t working on it, a pair of birds – carolina wrens, began building a cave-like nest camouflaged among the plants in the box.
detail: outdoor garden mural, janeburkemurals.com
When I went back to finish painting the cat, I found that the birds were actively returning to the nest to feed hatchlings! Every 12 or so minutes when I heard one issue a call, I’d move to about 8 feet away and wait while the adult would deliver a tiny worm, caterpillar or insect to the nest.
wren fledgelings in nest
Later I’d move only 4 feet away and continue working on a different area of the painting. ApPARENTly that was good enough for them; the four young birds grew. Now fully fledged, they flew away this week!
I saved a photo several years ago from a design magazine showing a kooky yard with plastic shrubs which I thought were hilarious. I finally found some for sale online but they were extremely expensive. Guess what I found at Maine’s most well-known and notorious surplus and salvage store? (MARDEN’S!)
(I was trying to attach those photos here)
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