Soon enough, the guest houses that make up Peacock Pavilions will be filled with exotic carpets and leather poufs, fluffed with down pillows and sequined vintage wedding blankets, buffed with silver vases filled with fresh flowers and sugary Moroccan mint tea. The plaster walls will reflect light from custom-made pierced metal sconces and pendants and Maryam will delight in making everything “just so”. For now though, Chris the architect husband is testing his talents for patience and perserverance as he fashions and finesses the glorious architecture that will house their family, Maryam’s delightful treasures and lucky visitors. It hasn’t been easy-and every day brings new challenges-but just look at what a fabulous job he has done!

Peacock-Pavilions-31.jpg
Peacock-Pavilions-41.jpg
Peacock-Pavilions-51.jpg
Peacock-Pavilions-61.jpg
Peacock-Pavilions-7.jpg
Peacock-Pavilions-21.jpg
Peacock Pavilions

Each of the three buildings boasts its own unique architectural details, while maintaining a connection to the land, the sky and its sister buildings. Each is filled with delightful nooks, crannies, arches, domes that are so visually strong they require no further need for decoration. And yet…..;)

Photos by Becky Roth and Debbie Hayes

May 30th, 2008

The Art of Living UPTOWN

The paint is barely dry and I’m a million miles away from getting caught up with myself but it’s on to ANOTHER big project. Bring it on! I love living a life full of creative tension and unrealistic expectations (of myself, mainly).

Art of Living Uptown

I just posted the details of the next Art of Living project over on the Art of Living Blog. Please check it out. Barb and I are super excited. We’re going UPTOWN!

Oh-and check back for more on Marrakech here. I have posts stacked up like the planes at JFK (leaving on Friday night for an international flight)

May 30th, 2008

Gettin Freaky at Chez Ali

Chez-Ali-4.jpg

A trip to Marrakech simply would NOT be complete without a visit to that great *Disney in the Desert*, Chez Ali. The timing was perfect as we were 10 of 1000′s that attended (they seat 3K) the night after we finished up the painting at Maryam’s. We were ready to party! Those of us who weren’t completely pooped, that is.

Chez-Ali-8.jpg

After arriving and being whisked through the large gates and past many large Berber tents surrounding the open field *stage*, and *a cast of thousands* we arrived at our tables.

Chez-Ali-q.jpg
Chez-Ali-2.jpg

Four bottles of wine were ordered immediately-and let the floor show begin! Oh, and if you are sitting on the outside of the table-or simply moved by the rhythmic drumming , you might have to *be* the floor show.

Chez-Ali-3.jpg

Wave after wave of different tribes from Morocco move past as the dining commences. Todd got WAY to good at imitating that high-pitched trilling sound the woman do with their tongues. Something about having just the right amount of red Moroccan wine after spending 4 days trapped on scaffolding with three women….

Chez-Ali-9.jpg

I am very sorry that no one was there to video the look on our faces when the big gulp-sized tagine was placed on our table and the top dramatically removed to reveal-a whole lamb! Even the carnivores among us (and half are vegans) nearly jumped from our seats. Good thing there was more wine and dessert to consume!

Chez-Ali-7.jpg

Then it’s outside for the show. The Fantasia was, well, fantastic. Handsome men on gorgeous horses performing acrobatic feats at breakneck speeds. What’s not to like? Then there was the charging *army*, firing their weapons to get the adrenaline going.

Chez-Ali-6.jpg

After some belly dancing and a magic carpet ride it was time to go backstage to try and get some autographs. Mr. Camel was having none of us, however. I think that the celebrity has gone to his head.

Chez-Ali-5.jpg

*Some* among us were not so secretly hoping to get kidnapped by the handsome horseman and ridden off into the desert night. Alas, we all made it safely back to the bus….

May 29th, 2008

A Tale of Ten Painters

We arrived in Marrakech with a song in our hearts and brushes in our suitcases.

Arrival.jpg

We were on a mission to make magical patterns appear at Peacock Pavilions under the watchful eyes of this special woman.

Maryam.jpg

We planned our strategy

Preparations1.jpg

to paint from here

From-here.jpg

to there.

To-there.jpg

We put up large patterns

Put-up-patterns.jpg

and promptly pulled them down (with some painting in between, of course).

Pattern-off.jpg

We painted stripes

Stripes.jpg

and worked on top secret projects.

Top-Secret.jpg

We made Maryam very, very happy.

Maryam-flowers1.jpg

And we clean up nicely too!

Marrakech-group.jpg

The Peacock Painters from left to right: Jackie Wiggens, Melanie Royals (me), Kari Caldwell, Debbie Hayes, Sandra Barron, Barbara Skivington, Todd Oberndorfer, April Long, Heather Mueller and Becky Roth (kneeling). Thanks for the hard work and wonderful memories guys!!

PS Check this post on decor8-simply the best design blog in cyberspace. Woohoo!

 

We’re ba-a-a-a-a-a-ck, and missing Marrakech terribly I might add! The paint has dried, no one fell off the scaffolding and the husband was happy-complete success! Maryam treated us to fabulous shopping and even more fabulous food and in return we left her with hope, piles of painter’s trash and beautifully painted surfaces. I have SO much to share and am waiting for everyone’s photos so I can show you the very bestest. In the meantime here are some of my shots from the Dar Si Said Museum. WARNING! This may cause sensory overload. These photos are not for the faint of heart or non-lovers of decorative art.

Marrakech
Marrakech
Marrakech
IMG_1257.jpg
Marrakech
Marrakech
Marrakech

 

May 14th, 2008

Two More for the Shelf

Two-new-books.jpg

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.Art-of-Living.jpg
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-X.jpg
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.

May 13th, 2008

Artisans on the Water

Get your sea legs and Dramamine ready, we’re going for a cruise! My lovely friends Susan and Todd Allemand from Out of This World Finishes in Seattle are hosting the first annual Artisan’s on the Water August evening dinner cruise.

Artisans-on-Water.jpg

Mix dining, dancing and imbibing with artistic demonstrations from namey “name” artisans and HUGE prize giveaways and what do you get? One rockin evening, that’s what! Oh, but hurry, you must get your tickets before May 20th to take advantage of discounted registraton.

May 12th, 2008

Holy Tabouleh!

I am leaving for Marrakech this Friday! EEK! I am SO excited and SO stressed with SO many things to do before I go I can’t stop capitalizing my words! OK, calm down. Breath. Breath again. That’s better. After exchanging about a million plus 6 emails with the famous and fabulous Maryam, we think we have all the details nailed down and MAN we are going to do some pretty fabulous things at Peacock Pavilions! There will be stenciled concrete floors

Concrete-Floor-Options.jpg

Suzani-inspired ceilings

Suzani-Ceiling-Layout-full.jpg

Painted desks

Desk-Layouts.jpg

Wonderful woven patterns inspired by camel-bone furniture inlays

Weave-colorways.jpg

and some other VERY cool things that I CAN’T share because they are special patterns that are secrets that will be used on equally special secret surfaces at Peacock Pavilions for a super secret project that I’ve been sworn to secrecy about. BUT if you pull the decoder ring out of your Lucky Charms cereal box and put on your special 3D glasses you MIGHT be able to figure it out. If not, I’m sorry, you must wait along with the rest of the world.

May 9th, 2008

Floor Focus

Well, I just have finished up my first Floor Focus class today and the class and boards turned out so well I decided I MUST share before heading home! I turned everyone a little loose this time and gave them each a different mix of patterns, some instruction and suggestions and had them plan out their own color selections. There were so many “winners” I decided to get a photo of each board along with the “recipe” so we can print them off and share them among the whole class. In no particular order, here’s Andreas…

Andreas.jpg

Kim…

Kim.jpg

Jamey…

Jamey.jpg

Sharman…

Sharman.jpg

Kersteen…

Kersteen.jpg

Brent…

Brent.jpg

Julie…

Julie.jpg

Some assorted boards that deserve to be seen headless…..

Assortment.jpg

and to be totally fair, a seriously bad shot of me.

Bad-of-me.jpg

Aren’t they cool?? The next Floor Focus class is scheduled for November 10-11. I can’t wait to see what develops then….