Alex Russell Flint's Bedroom

In December, I shared Alex Russell Flint's Chalk Paint® mural with you. Now I can show you a bit more from this, his final Painter in Residence project. Working around the rest of the room with Chalk Paint®, Alex transformed his bedroom (once part of an old schoolhouse) into a sumptuous haven.

Artist Alex brings a romantic and rustic tinge to his French elegance – he juxtaposes a finely panelled door with a distressed and weathered Aubusson washed wall. He has painted the bedroom door in Olive, picking out lines of the panel frames using a complementary colour – Primer Red. He then also painted the antique wardrobe and ladder in Primer Red. The floor is painted in Paris Grey.

I love the way he has carefully composed his collection of found objects and paintings (all in frames painted in Chalk Paint®). Everything has been very well spaced to avoid any sense of overcrowding or cluttering.

This is the final project from Alex's Residency. I hope you've found his work as inspiring as I have. I still have three more projects to share from my first set of Residents: Beau Ford and Janice Issitt. And then I will be able to introduce you to my next set of Painters in Residence. Watch this space!

Yours, Annie

Follow Alex on Instagram, Facebook, and his website:http://www.alexrussellflint.com

And remember to follow #PaintersInResidence on Instagram and Facebook, as well as my Painters in Residence board on Pinterest.

Alex Russell Flint's Japanese Mural

Painter in Residence, Alex Russell Flint, is a realist oil painter known for his paintings of the female form. It's a real pleasure to see him experiment with Chalk Paint® to reproduce this stunning Japanese mural on his bedroom wall.

Alex took a classic Hiroshige print, Netting Wild Geese on the Hill at Okoshi, as inspiration for this stunning mural. An original woodblock print of the image hangs above his bed on the adjoining wall.

He painted the mural with a range of colours from the Chalk Paint® palette, some straight out of the tin and some mixed together. I love the way he used my paint like an artist's paint, mixing the colours together as he went.

In the rest of the bedroom, Alex echoed colours from the mural to create a cohesive look. He diluted Chalk Paint® in Aubusson Blue to make a wash for the remaining bedroom walls. For the floors, he created a wash with Old White. He painted the chest of drawers next to the bed in Coco and finished them with my Clear Soft Wax.

What do you think? Have you ever used Chalk Paint® to create a mural?

Keep your eyes peeled for the next project from Alex, as I show you the rest of this room.

Yours, Annie

Follow this blog for exclusive pics from Alex's residency and follow him on Instagram, Facebook, and his website:http://www.alexrussellflint.com

And remember to follow #PaintersInResidence on Instagram and Facebook, as well as my Painters in Residence board on Pinterest.

Alex Russell Flint's Rustic Entrance Hall

For his second project, Painter in Residence Alex Russell Flint updated his entrance hall using my paint, Chalk Paint®, to transform the furniture, floors and walls in a rustic French style.

Alex scored diamond shapes on to the concrete floor and painted them in Graphite and Original to make them look like black and white tiles. Original is a warm off-white which works beautifully with the purple tones in Old Violet – the colour that Alex has diluted and used on the lime plaster wall. 

He painted the shoe rack in Old White, an off-white with a cooler tone, and finished with a coat of wax to protect the surface.

How have you used Chalk Paint® to revamp your entrance hall?

Yours, Annie

Follow this blog for exclusive pics from Alex's residency and follow him on Instagram, Facebook, and his website:http://www.alexrussellflint.com

And remember to follow #PaintersInResidence on Instagram and Facebook, as well as my Painters in Residence board on Pinterest.

Alex Russell Flint's Painterly Bathroom

The first project from Painter in Residence, Alex Russell Flint, is this gorgeous bathroom painted in my paint, Chalk Paint®.

Alex has updated his 19th century zinc bath tub using a mixture of Aubusson Blue, Antibes Green and Burgundy. He then finished the bath tub with Annie Sloan Clear Wax and a coat of Annie Sloan Dark Wax to deepen the intensity of the colour.

The lampshade in the room has also been painted with very diluted Chalk Paint® in Burgundy; the side table has been painted in Primer Red and then finished with Clear Wax. I feel the colours used really tie the gorgeous rich textures and tones of the room together. Alex's walls really set off the luscious reds in the room – to achieve a look like this you can use Duck Egg Blue and Clear Wax.

Have you used Chalk Paint® on a bath tub?

Yours, Annie

Follow this blog for exclusive pics from Alex's residency and follow him on Instagram, Facebook, and his website:http://www.alexrussellflint.com

And remember to follow #PaintersInResidence on Instagram and Facebook, as well as my Painters in Residence board on Pinterest.

Introducing Painter in Residence Alex Russell Flint

“Hi I’m Alex Russell Flint and I call myself a contemporary realist painter in oils and I came here to west central France when I was 20 to study with an American artist who has his studio nearby and that’s how I ended up here. I live in a former school house in Argenton-Chateau, about 300 km southwest of Paris in the Deux-Sevres (Poitou-Charentes region). It’s a very beautiful village with a river, the Argenton, running through it in a valley. The big old building is perched on a hillside and commands great views and is the first home I’ve ever owned and I’ve fallen in love with interior decoration and Chalk Paint®.

One of Alex's oil paintings - his home and studio provides
 the backdrop to many of his paintings.

And Annie's paint? 

It was the paint I’d been looking for but didn’t know existed. As an artist I was only too aware that when you paint on a specific wall on a building it’s very different to how it looks from a colour chart; but with Chalk Paint® this was never an issue.

It’s just been great being able to slap the paint on stone, wood and metal and create a bespoke finish and colour to fit each room. I love the matte finish on a paint for a wall especially if the walls are quite badly damaged. It’s very forgiving, it doesn’t get highlights on every crack so the very chalky finish is great.

As soon as I met Annie I knew we were on the same page in terms of decorating and trying things out. Annie is passionate about what she does, very down to earth – and as an artist it was nice to ask her how she developed the paint and what inspired her.

What you’ll see from me

My first project is going to be an outdoor bathroom using a 19th century zinc bathtub which I shall make more luxurious adding decking with old oak floorboards and old shutters and create an area overlooking the trees of this valley.

I source all my décor from vide-greniers (boot fairs), brocantes and salons d’antiquaires. I’ve also got some very nice quality curtains but in the wrong colour so I’m going to paint and wax them. That’s just for starters.”

Here’s a sneak peek of projects to come from Alex:

Chalking up bold ideas

‘Endless possibilities’, I really feel those two words totally underpin what I’m trying to achieve with my paint, Chalk Paint®. It’s been my mantra ever since I started painting interiors in the 1980s.

And it’s inspired me now to set up my ‘Painters in Residence’ programme. Why Painters in Residence? Well, in the course of running my business for over 25 years, I’ve met and seen many wonderful people doing creative things with my paints. And I’ve been wanting to find a way to collaborate with so many like-minded people and showcase the high-quality, innovative, and sometimes ‘leftfield’ things they are doing with Chalk Paint® and other Annie Sloan products. Painters in Residence seems such a neat answer.

Painters in Residence 

The concept is very loosely based on the way an art gallery or museum will, from time to time, have an ‘artist in residence’ to inhabit those places as a way to get inspired to create their own works inside or outside the venue. 

My first three talented PIRs already use Chalk Paint® (that’s part of the remit), and I’ve chosen them because they are bold with my paint and prepared to ‘give it a go’. They won’t be taking up residence at Annie Sloan HQ, but they will be exploring the boundaries of decorative painting – the ‘what if?’ and ‘why not?’ when using my paint – as well as showing how easy it is to use my products.

As you’ll see in future posts – and if you look on their websites (see below) – they are all different in approach, colour, tone and textures and their styles range from French elegance to funky Bohemian to quirky rustic country fused with loud fabrics. 

The first three Painters in Residence are:

Janice Issitt:

Website | Facebook | Instagram

Alex Russell Flint:

Website | Facebook | Instagram

  

Beau Ford:

Website | Facebook | Instagram

 


Follow the hashtag #PaintersInResidence on Instagram and Facebook to see more projects. Or follow my new 'Painters in Residence' Pinterest board. It’s going to be eye-catching and attention grabbing and all about thinking outside the box (or paint pot)!

Yours, Annie

P.S. I'll be announcing the next set of Painters in Residence in a few weeks time. The PIR programme is by invitation only (we will not be accepting applications at this stage).