Children's Trompe l'Oeil Mural 'Calm before the storm - Noah's Ark'. A commission for a trompe l'oeil panel for children. The painting needed to be both transportable and realistic so I designed a shaped MDF panel to create a trompe l'oeil window which could be hung in a variety of locations. I commissioned Douglas Griffin, a local furniture designer, to make the panel including the recessed hanging plates on the back to enable the panel to be displayed flat against the wall as if it is a real window. Then came the designing and painting.

The panel was destined to be sold on by the client, in aid of a charity event, so the purchaser would be unknown to me. The brief was for a generic childrens trompe l'oeil so it needed to be suitable for a wide age range and either gender. I decided on Noah's Ark as a broad concept due to its wide appeal and the scope for artist interrupation - depending on your view point it is an adventure story, a moral tale, or an historical / religious event and a wide range of animals could be included from the domestic, farm to the exotic.

One of my ideas for this panel included a cat sat on the window sill watching the scene - while researching Noah's ark and looking for inspiration, I read a related story about Mrs Noah's cat and why cats sun themselves and so the cats place was confirmed. While designing and painting this trompe l'oeil the problem was not what to include but what to leave out!