Celee’s “Four Seasons” Tuscany Mural
(hand- painted and multi-fired porcelain tiles)

This Italian-inspired mural is a commission for Wahlberg Designs in Morgan Hill, California. Their client requested an outdoor venue in which to continue the rich, Italianate interiors created by designer Kristine Wahlberg. Each of the four panels is mounted on lattice framework that is arched, while the entire pergola and built-in structures are beautifully curved to echo that as well. The painting is in the fresco style, purposely having bits of paint worn off or missing as if they had been weathering in the Italian sun and exposed to other elements for centuries. The vines encircling each panel bring a lushness to the exposed paintings and highlight their time-worn, ageless beauty.

Click on the thumbnail photos below to view larger images.
Please return to this site in a few weeks for some wonderful close-ups from each of the four panels to show the detail.

Each of the four seasons is represented by different plants and objects set within a faux plasterwork façade of carved finials, heavy scrolls and architectural base. Standing guard, or sometimes in repose, are two “puttis” (traditional Italian cherubs) flanking each of the season’s treasures gathered in the center. These murals enhance the well-traveled style of the home owner’s interior, and exude the feeling of timelessness a traveler might have rounding a hillside in Tuscany and being the first to discover these panoramic murals….. though right here in California!

(Each of the four panels is 3' by 2½' , 30 tiles each, and installed, span a distance of over 40’)

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