Product Description

In The Painted Ceiling, Graham Rust shares his secrets for creating a wide range of painted ceilings: daytime and nighttime skies; birds and animals; cloud formations; rustic schemes featuring flower-decked trellises; trompe loeil architectural details such as plasterwork, paneling, and coffering; simple geometric patterns; and allegorial scenes in a grand manner. He also explains how to choose just the right design for the area you wish to paint.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #380601 in Books
• Published on: 2001-05-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 176 pages

About the Author
Graham Rust is internationally renowned for his murals and ceiling paintings, which can be found in houses in Britain, Europe, and America. A collection of his original mural designs appears in his highly successful book, The Painted House. His drawings and paintings have been widely exhibited and special collections have been used as book illustrations.

Customer Reviews

View from a professional
As a professional mural painter, I found some of the ideas in this book to be inspiring. However much that was written in the book was useless information describing what you are seeing in the picture. This is not an instruction book. As for his artistic style, I really didn't care for it - his use of color seems rather Disney-esque. Everything is bright and vibrant without much richness and depth. While the creatures he paints look decent, his cherubs and people leave a lot to be desired.

This book was usefull for me in the aspects of seeing how another artist does his layout, but if you're looking for a book to study murals and color use... study the paintings done by the real masters.

Inspiration
If you are looking to be inspired, this is the book. I am a muralist who is looking for something extraordinary to aspire to. I found it here. This is not a how to book for the meek. If you can paint well already you can learn to improve your own work by careful study of the renderings but you won't find instructions.

For Graham Rust fans only
I bought this book on the basis of some of the glowing reviews here but was very disappointed. Yes, his paintings are beautiful, BUT his advice is mainly on how he makes HIS work. There is a chapter entitled 'Practical Aspects', but it has only ONE page of actual text! The rest are more pictures of the same work.

If angels, clouds, and birds are not what you aspire to paint exclusively, then stay away from this book. If you are buying a book solely for inspiration, as I was, a better choice is a book featuring the work of many artists such as 'Trompe L'loeil' by Lynette Wrigley. If your aim though is to paint like Graham Rust, this book is it.