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Lending an artist’s touch to the home Personalized decorating: Former school teacher Marcy Yerkes had parlayed her sideline of painting murals in homes and businesses into a full-tine venture. When Marcy Yerkes gets through with a room, stone paths lie underfoot, brides fly overhead, steams meander through rock beds, and boats sail on the blue, blue waters of Winnipesaukee. It’s all done through the eyes of a talented artiest and former school teacher who has devoted her full attention to painting the interiors of homes and businesses around the Lakes Region. Yerkes had been painting for other people since she was 16, when her mother, a South Carolina real estate agent, gladly volunteered her services to clients who needed help decorating. Over the years, Yerkes has painted for others, but it wasn’t until this past summer, at age 46, that she decided to try it full time with her Southern Accent Designs business. She has been teaching art for 10 years, most recently in the Shaker Regional School District at Canterbury Elementary School. She has an extensive background as an illustrator, which she says has been most helpful to her work as a mural painter. In many instances, she will prepare a preliminary sketch to show a client before she begins her work. “If you observe will, you can paint,” she said. Her most recent work-in-progress is a new restaurant at Weirs Beach called the Willows, which has become somewhat of a canvas for the many tricks of her trade—from frottage to ragging, glazing, crackling and more. Being a former teacher, she said her object in painting the restaurant is to get people interested in the techniques so that they ask questions. She has taken on projects as ambitious as painting trees in the forest outside a family’s lakeside home on a 30-by-18-foot mural in their large living room. She has designed large murals showing the Inn at Bay Point in Meredith Bay for a local furniture store, as well as a wild west scene with cowboys on a cattle drive (for leather department, of course.) The latter wasn’t too difficult since Yerkes grew up on a horse farm and cattle ranch near Greenwood, S.C. Her work includes faux Italian gardens, fireworks, boats, birds of all sorts, stonework, flowers, vines and trees. To give her work the personal touch for clients, she will use photographs to capture images such as boats and personal possessions. The use of Color Recently, Yerkes explained why she uses some of the colors and techniques, as well as how those techniques are applied. First off, color has a definite effect on emotions, and in the restaurant’s bar at The Willow’s, Yerkes used a shade of red paint, applied with a roll-rag application that “creates energy.” She said studies have shown people tend to eat and drink more when surrounded by warm colors, such as red. In a nearby conference room used for private parties, Yerkes painted the room a light green whish she called a neutral color “good for where people congregate.” Even hospitals use this color for its calming effect, she said. Eventually, the room will have artwork hanging on the walls. In an entrance foyer, she also used a shade of red, whish was then dappled with gold metallic paint on a rag, wiped quickly, leaving what she called an “inviting” area due to warm color and technique. Special techniques For a stone pattern on a floor, Yerkes employed a good quality, latex floor painted applied right over the rough surface, then finished with three coats of polyurethane, which she said should stand up to high traffic. In a small bathroom, the wall texture was created by frottage, a method of painting using paper on paper, applied with glazes. After the paint is applied, then that glaze, crinkled paper is pressed against the finish to create the effect. One of the work-saving aspects of applying paint techniques is that in many cases the old wallpaper doesn’t have to be stripped from the walls. Yerkes points out that in some rooms with high ceilings, she used stencils to make the space appear more intimate. To paint the clouds on the restaurant’s ceiling, she was able to squeeze a Genie lift through the front doors and raised herself just high enough to be able to reach upwards from a standing position to paint. Unlike Michelangelo, who painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling on his back, Yerkes prefers to stand. The clouds were created using a trowel, stiple brush and roller. And unlike Michelangelo, who took years to paint the chapel ceiling, it took Yerkes about a week and a half. Yerkes has attended many workshops over the years and said, “I’m not a traditional painter. I use whatever is on hand to paint with, whatever works.” She has done cracking—special paint applied over a gold-painted finish—and other faux finishes using combing, ragging and sponging. The mother of two daughters said that surprisingly, her services aren’t that expensive. She said to hire her to do a room would be in line with the cost of hiring someone to wallpaper the same room. Besides, wallpaper can’t supply that personal touch, she said. “People might say, ‘She’s really good. I can’t afford her.’ But I want to stay in this area. I don’t want to out price myself,” she said. Yerkes considers herself lucky to be doing what she does and said what she provides “gives more warmth to a home. It’s more inviting and personal and adds a person’s tastes to their home.” | ||||||||||
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