This is my own dining room. The mural objective was to add visual depth to a small dining space while complimenting the French country-style of the room. The result is an inviting and positive atmosphere for casual family dining. The vineyard scene is based on landscape studies of orchards and vineyards in western Washington's beautiful Yakima Valley.

As the closeup below shows, I used large expressive brush strokes and a vibrant palette to create this lively impressionistic image. This was an experimental wall mural. Rather than use a earthy realistic palette that would have evoked a Tuscan landscape, I choose to drop black altogether, following the practice of Monet, and instead use only blue in the shadows. The same blue is used for the remaining walls of the room. This gives the mural a more decorative quality.