The new book Modello by Design-Inspiring Interiors from Artist’s Portfolios is HERE! I’ve told you about it before-remember this?  And this? It is SOOOO beautiful and I am so proud of the work that our fabulous customers do and also need to give a special thanks to Lauren for helping me lay out this book in record time-under two weeks! I just finished writing a press release for an industry message board for the book, so I’ll be lazy and just repost it here- 

Modello Designs was launched in the fall of 2003, introducing the concept of Decorative Masking Patterns to the decorative finishing industry.  Since that time, thousands of decorative finishers worldwide have discovered the benefits of using custom-sized, cut to order vinyl masking patterns for their decorative painting projects.

The exciting and inspirational new book features the creative Modello work of 80 different artists in beautifully photographed interior settings.  Various chapters highlight the use of Modello patterns on floors, walls, ceilings and furniture. Special chapters highlight the body of work of three featured artists: Terri Reisenman of Palm Desert, CA., Robbie Calvo of Nashville, TN.,  and Gina Wolfrum of Hicksville, OH.  Their varied styles of decoration really help to highlight the many styles of surface ornamentation that can be more easily achieved with this versatile medium!

This book, the first in a series, will provide an invaluable resource of design ideas for decorative finishers, designers, and their potential customers alike. For an industry that revolves around a highly visual and tactile experience, it helps to fill the current void of inspiring images of painted decoration that used to be so common in books and magazines.

We mailed out complimentary, signed copies to all the 80 contributing artists this week. Yeah, that was tiring! Thank you, thank  you everyone! If you didn’t get a chance to submit a project for the book, you can buy it here, and…..there’s always next year!
  

As I’ve mentioned here before, I loaded up my bookshelf back in the 80’s and 90’s with a plethora, (yes, a plethora) of books on stenciling and decorative painting. This century has been a bit of a disappointment so far, if only for a lack of new material on my favorite subjects. Well, I’m happy to report that there are suddenly two whole new books on the market, and I was fortunate to be involved in both.
Decorative Finishes Inspired by the South of France offers 12 step-by-step finishes that Barb Skivington and I created, taught and applied (we DO climb the occasional ladder) at our Brandywine project for the Art of Living series. Check out some good project photos here and here. I have to give Barb and her staff all the credit for pulling this book together, and GUESS WHAT?? We are going to announce the NEXT Art of Living project later this week. It will be A-mazing.
Mural Painting Secrets for Success is the latest book by my best bud, Gary Lord. He asked some of the best mural artists in the world to contribute and somehow slipped me in there with them. I like to think that at least my project, with NO hand painting involved, is achievable by anyone! This is really a beautiful book with lots of sage business advice to go along with the eye candy projects.

I feel like I have been opening presents all day! You see, today was the deadline for submissions for customer photos for the soon-to-be published Modello by Design book. As artists ALWAYS work best under pressure, many waited till the last day to submit and I am thrilled to say that it looks like we will have almost 100 decorative artists and their work (and our Modello patterns) represented in this book. We have the basic layout designed to now we will be busy, busy, busy putting it all together in under two weeks. Special shoutout to Lauren here at Modello Designs who is doing a fabulous job managing all of this and will be laying it all out in the gorgeous way we’ve come to know and love.

More shoutouts go to….

Robbie Calvo,

Barb Skivington of Faux Works

Raina Gentry of Walls of Pompeii

and Susan Allemand, Out of This World Finishes.

We get so inspired from seeing the photos that our customers send back to us showing how they have utilized our Modello patterns in artful applications! A picture IS worth a thousand words. I know that our customer base of professional decorative artisans get a lot of great ideas by looking at other artist’s work and also how important it is to be able to show a potential client how a design will look in a real-life setting-in living color. And so, last month we announced that we will be publishing an inspirational book entitled Modello by Design, Inspiring Interiors from Artist’s Portfolios. We asked our customers to submit photos of some of their favorite projects which we will be compiling for a book to be released in late July. I love the idea of being able to get our talented customers “in print” while giving them a tool to spark their imagination and entice their clients.

Cover photo by Terri Riesenman.

Marquetry floor by JoAnn Kingsbury.

Fabulous ceiling by Nichole Blackburn.

Awesome niche by Dee Ann O’Neal.

The photos are still coming in! The deadline for submission for Volume 1 is April 31 so if you are out there and sitting on some great work we’d love to see it! Soon!! Here’s the skinny on how to submit.

Of the many books I have on Morocco and Moroccan architecture and design this is one of the best…..Living in Morocco-Design from Casablanca to Marrakesh.

As a PS to this post I have to share that if you EVER find yourself in the Marrakesh airport-which currently pretty small but undergoing an expansion-CHECK OUT the bookstore!!! They have the most amazing selection of art, architecture and design books. They are mostly all in French, but who doesn’t just look at the pictures most of the time anyway!?

I was too loaded down at this point to pick up a heavy book, but next time I will know better….

Some pretty images from Morocco Modern

More carved plaster designs….

And that amazing blue!

Excuse me?! No, not burp, BLURB!

When I was presenting at the Meeting of the Masters last October, I saw a gorgeous, printed portfolio in the booth of a very talented artist, Carol Pascale. I’m like, “How did you afford this!!” She looked at me like “Are you serious?” No big deal, it’s through my iBook, but Blurb is cheaper. Blurb, blurb, blurb I repeated in my head so I wouldn’t forget. Miraculously I didn’t, and found the website immediately upon returning home. Isn’t this just the coolest thing ever?! You can while away large chunks of time previewing other peoples books (ask me how I know this!) and getting great ideas to make your own. What a perfect tool for a limited run of swanky artist portfolios!

  

So, I’ve been biding my time trying to decide what my first Blurb book will be. Ah HA! The Painting of Peacock Pavilions! (working title). Maryam has offered to contribute some wickedly witty writing so I think it’s going to be a winner! Even if it isn’t it will be fun to do and a great keepsake for the artists in the group, don’t you think?

More-

This also would have been great to do after the Italy Painting Trip. Darn! Not quite as glamorous, but I DID write an article on that for the most recent issue of the The Faux Finisher magazine! 

And more-

Maryam just sent me this link from Grow Wings. What talent! Look at these lovely ladies….

The Mughal style of decoration was the conscious creation of a line of Indian rulers who encouraged and financed excellence in the art of architects, calligraphers, painters, weavers, metalworkers and other skilled artisans beginning in the mid-1500s and lasting 250 years. They created remarkable visual unity in their surroundings, surpassing the limitations of scale and materials by repeating the same decorative themes across their architecture, fine arts and applied arts: Geometry, arabesque, calligraphy, flowers, animals and birds. These images are from the pages of the book, The Majesty of Mughal Decoration. The beauty of these surfaces that were created by human hands leaves me speechless.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

   

 

Ask me what my prized possession and major obsession is. Okay, I’ll tell you. It’s my paint, design and decorating book collection. I’m a fiend. A hound. An addict. I get my fix on Amazon and that pusher is open 24/7. Do I want to kick this habit? No! Give me more in massive doses. It got a little hairy for a few weeks when my books were all boxed up during the move. I was having major withdrawals for a lack of aimless book browsing and design brain tingling. Well, I got my fix and my babies are back!

They took awhile to organize due to the desire to revisit each one and sidetrack myself yet again.

But I finally made some sense of the assortment and built high stacks.

Ready for their new home and easy access to my wandering eye and aching need.