Royal Moroccan Palace Stencil

 I think I mentioned I booked the decorator, I won’t say exactly when he’s due to start because I don’t want to freak myself out.  It’s going to stressful because he’s doing three rooms and I want paper on two walls, which will need perpendicular lining paper first. 

Here is the Moroccan stencil that I absolutely adore.... it cost me a hundred Dollars and arrived quickly.

The Design Studio produces a video how-to which is very comprehensive.  I’m going to use a roller to apply the gold.  The gold paint I’m going with is runny, so it will need to be worked over paper first to make sure it’s quite dry to use.  To my mind this means it will have create a very handmade slightly uneven finish, which is what I want.  Personally, I don’t want it to look like wallpaper.  I want it to look handmade, slightly imperfect and hopefully a little ‘aged’ in the process.  

When the decorator saw it we debated which way up to use it. Thankfully it is clearly marked with laser cut Registration Marks, so there is no chance of errors.

The day job is a little bit of a problem now and I’m kind of stressed about by this and that, so to take my mind off it, I’ve started bringing all my stuff together to produce this canvas painting of Marrakesh.

So here is my colour palette ( you just head over to TripAdvisor and swatch up some photos). The thing to remember about Moroccan is those massive skies and what all that gorgeous light does to colours.  

I cheated and bought tester pots. Hats off to Howard Hodgkin who said ‘I don’t mix my own colours, I’ve got far more important things to worry about in a painting than to stand there wasting time mixing colours’.  I completely agree. 

New colours happen in Morocco because of so much reflected light. It’s that colour I want in the painting, the colour of the shade juxtaposed to the light. 

So this painting is going to be ‘the colour experience’ of Marrakesh.  I haven’t been to Marrakesh but I’ve been to Morocco lots of times: dry heat, sand in the streets blown over from Sahara, arches, lace like geometric patterns on walls, palm trees, buildings of immense elegance and style.  Also shade, much needed shade and the colour of the shade and the buildings.  

I also want a variety of textures, in painting that equates to ‘variety of matk-making’.  So for that I want....

Well I’ll stop there and put the genie back in the bottle...