- Becky is
nationally renowned for her work documenting and recreating historic painted decoration. A
graduate of Washington University School of Fine Arts in St. Louis, Missouri, her painting
and printmaking talents have shifted from the canvas to restoring 100 year old brush marks
left behind by unknown craftsmen in historic buildings. Many days I begin my
restoration work with the question, "just how did I get here?"
How I got here is testimony to the multi-discipline preservation movement that can awaken
the wonder and curiosity of even a contemporary artist. It may be the inventiveness and
quality of work hidden on historic walls, ceilings, floors, doors and moldings that has
lured me to this calling. More specifically it began when my husband and I bought an old
house in Little Rock, Arkansas.
The home, known as the Hanger House, was built in the 1870's and remodeled in 1889 into a
Queen Anne's style house. When we moved in, it was incredibly cold (heated on with space
heaters) and incredibly dark (most of the lighting systems still burned gas). Wallpaper
hung in shreds from the ceilings and walls. Our parents stopped coming to see us.
In an effort to make
order of this mess, we tore loose pieces of wallpaper from the walls of the stairwells we
walked by. On one trip down the stairs, I grabbed a piece of loose paper and noticed a
long drip of blue paint on the wall. I threw my head upward to the ceiling paper. In a
frenzy of excitement we got ladders and began systematically removing the paper. I soon
had my first encounter with 1880's stenciling. Tracings, color documentation, cutting and
stenciling were to follow.
When the project was completed, the stained glass seemed to extend onto the wall and
ceiling in one celebration of color, pattern , and light and I had begun my apprenticeship
as a decorative painter.
It is the joy of this 25 year apprenticeship with the many craftsmen whose work I have
uncovered, documented and recreated that I want to share with you on the pages to follow.
Becky Witsell
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About
Becky Rogers Witsell |
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