the murals of skip dyrda
More Monkey Business
For a home in Lakewood Ranch, Florida, I created a large canvas mural for the second‑story wall of the great room. Painted in two sections totaling about nine feet high and forty feet long, the piece draws inspiration from 17th‑century scenic wallpaper. To make it uniquely mine, I added Trompe L’oeil details throughout the landscape, including a few playful monkeys tucked into the scene. The entire mural was painted in my studio using high‑quality artist acrylics before being installed on site.
In Progress and Detail Images
One of the few monkeys I added, this one holding one end of the red string and one of my paint brushes.
I painted what appears to be wear and tear in the ‘wallpaper’ seams to give it an aged look.
I added this coffee mug, which was sitting in the client’s kitchen. The clients were originally from Chicago and so had connections there and this was a TV station they liked.
Here’s a view of part of the mural from just off the great room.
Here you see a small part of one half of the canvas mural, drapped over my drawing table in my studio.