About This Project

SAILFISH POINT

One of my favorite rooms in this home is the Conservatory (5th from top). I did a fresco wall that gives you the feeling it has been there since the 16th Century… so it merges a feeling of age with a selection of furnishings that evoke what a conservatory should be. The beautiful wicker, the lanterns, everything has a feeling of a casualness, yet it’s compelling in its final analysis. It just draws you in – a place for quiet reflection or meditation…

One of the most memorable projects I have worked on was depicting the history of the home and the family through a series of dramatic ceiling murals done in the style of Lorenzo Tiepolo (see photos 1-3 from top), who was a famous painter in the Renaissance style. I wanted to keep the color palette pastel, even though the home is very much classic Palladio Tuscan architecture. I wanted the pastel shades to complement the tropical surroundings, while delivering a message about the past. While Tiepolo was painting his ceilings in pastels, most of the Renaissance painters were using darker, more somber colors, but Tiepolo had a lighter touch, so I chose him as my inspiration for that reason. I studied his artwork and incorporated his colors into the biographical depiction of the life of the family and the home, which was really quite dramatic in itself (the home had been completely destroyed in a hurricane and rebuilt). ~Joan Simonsen-Hickok