The Coconut Tree
Since opening their Cheltenham Restaurant in 2017, the company has opened two new premises in Bristol and one each in Cardiff, Bournemouth, Bath, Reading and Birmingham.
Each venue is different and, after starting out with stencil work, the company now mainly employ me to paint beach scenes in each one.
These walls were created for the Cardiff branch to have a plant themed entrance. Upon arriving onsite I realised just how much rougher the walls were than they looked in the photo's! With no background colour to rectify any mistakes, very careful painting ensued!
Whilst I enjoy the challenge of different shaped walls, nook and crannies, one drawback of painting for the Coconut Tree is their passion for naked lightbulbs in every restaurant. This harsh lighting, often from orange bulbs, results in washed out and tinged photographs of the finished works unfortunately.
These walls are an interior wall for the Cardiff branch and was one of my favourites to paint.
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When I arrived, the wall had a wooden moulding across the wall to stop the tables scratching the wall which they offered to remove. Instead, I turned this into the edge of the balcony, supported by twisted branches. This made it look like the you were sat in a big bay window looking out across the beach. Unfortunately, with no natural light and bare orange bulbs, the pictures do not do this wall justice.
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Each work for their restaurants is signed very subtly somewhere and in the left image you can just see a figure carving my signature into the sand
The wall above was for their Birmingham branch and had a column through the centre of the wall. I turned this into a coconut tree trunk which was complemented in the finished project with real coconut leaves across the entire ceiling.
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The picture on the right is one of the tuk-tuks common in Sri Lanka that I paint for each restaurant.
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The lion is a revered symbol in Sri Lanka and features on their flag. The lion below is one of many I have painted for their restaurants and owners homes.
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The images below are from the Cheltenham branch. This time too much natural light prevented me from taking decent photographs so please excuse the bin liners in the windows!
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A small room, barely wide enough for one table and bench seats around, the image was designed to increase the feeling of space with its carefully placed horizon giving viewers the opportunity to gaze into the distance.
The birds are detailed images of the birds sitting on the window sill.
