Mural, Mural On The Wall
Brenda Councill Tackles Large Scale Murals, Domes & Theme Rooms

By Scott Nicholson

Blowing Rock artist Brenda Mauney Councill’s job is to make art look larger than life.

 

Brenda Councill’s dome paintings are often 15 to 17 feet wide. Brenda Mauney Councill.

 Councill currently specializes in large-scale murals, dome ceilings and theme rooms, tackling projects that often put her high in the world of art: her last project involved scaffolding five stories high. That project was a dome ceiling at St. Mary’s Hospital in Athens, Ga., where she used trompe l’oeil (French for “fool the eye”) techniques to make the dome appear to be open sky with clouds, with wooden support beams and doves flying into the building.

Councill has been doing such large-scale projects for the past 11 years, the latest phase in her 30-year, award-winning career. Projects usually take about six weeks, though she sometimes spends more than a half a year on a single project.

Councill first gained attention for her artwork at age 7, when she won an art competition at a local museum. She described herself as a shy, unusual child whose parents were sometimes concerned about her dark subject matter but who supported her artwork.

“I was encouraged by my parents, who saw the creative side of me early on,” she said of her Florida childhood. “My drawings and paintings as a child were really grotesque, monsters and Martians. My parents were worried about me. A second-grade teacher recognized my early talent and believed I had a future in the arts. There’s a lot of great talent out there, but if it doesn’t get nurtured, it gets lost.”

After that early award, more recognition followed. At age 12, she was selected for a statewide grant and commissioned to design a sculpture for her local elementary school. She described that as a key turning point in her career, when she was making the decision to pursue an art career.

“I was a painfully shy girl, and each of these steps helped me come out of my shell,” she said. “The recognition served to inspire me.”

A high school art teacher provided additional encouragement, and she stayed busy designing bulletin boards, banners and stage sets in addition to painting and drawing. She briefly considered marine biology as a career because she loved scuba diving, but art won out in the end. “I wanted to lead a creative life,” she said. “I never really considered anything else.”

She briefly studied art in college, but because she was already having success selling her work, both original paintings and limited-edition prints, a professor advised her that she didn’t need an education if she was already able to launch a career.

One important series that is still being reprinted is a set of line drawings based on historic buildings around Jacksonville, Fla. In a statement on her work of that period, she said, “Drawing is an elemental force that, combined with inspiration and boundless feeling, generates beauty of itself; transcending and enhancing the subject. It is, quite simply, the basis of all art.”

In 1987, Councill opened her first gallery, then moved it to New York a year later.

She also had a mixed-metal sculpture series with the theme “Victim of Love” that spanned 11 years and resulted in the purchase of her work for corporate collections. She describes her sculptural work as “highly narrative.” “Although I’m very much a romantic, it’s always laced with bittersweet sorrow,” she said.

Her works on paper led to requests to do larger-scale pieces, particularly murals. She quickly developed a reputation that had architects and interior designers contacting her for jobs.

“Not many people will climb up four or five stories and do ceiling work,” she said. “I don’t mind heights, but it’s a test of endurance. It’s very hot and very claustrophobic and confining.”

Her dome paintings are often 15 to 17 feet wide, and her challenge is to keep the viewer’s distant perspective in mind while working close-up. “I constantly check it to make sure of perspective, creating the illusion of three dimensions,” she said.

Since she has always been able to support herself through her work, she puts the artistic struggle above the financial struggle in an occupation known for its starving, and sometimes insane, practitioners. “Money is secondary,” she said. “It’s about creating and having the will to create. There’s an old quote I live by: ‘Possessing the will to create is the artist’s greatest possession.’”

Since she wanted to live the life of an artist, she decided to devote all her time to it, making the decision early on that she wasn’t going to have a husband or children. Instead, art would fill those roles in her life.

“It was a purposeful intent,” she said. “I need to focus, and I like being a free spirit. I’ve lived in big cities and traveled all over the world. Now I’m calming down a little bit. I feel real grounded here.”

Councill has a deep connection with the High Country, as she is a descendent of the Councill family that helped found Boone. Her family spent summers in Blowing Rock beginning in the 1960s, so Councill has many memories of the area and is still in awe of the scenic beauty.

“I feel like I’m home again,” she said. “I feel distinct roots and such a connection with the mountains.”

Though she’s never had formal architectural training, she has designed several “signature homes,” styled after the cottage style of the 1920s. Historic preservation and the past are important to her, as she lent her talents to a local restoration project, sketching out a version of painter Elliott Daingerfield’s Edgewood Cottage in Blowing Rock, which is near a planned historical museum. Councill also wants to do a series of drawings based on Boone and Blowing Rock from the 1850s to the 1930s, based on letters from her great-great-grandmother.

For now, she is content to take on 10 or 12 large commission projects a year. She recognizes that her murals and domes are only within reach of the wealthy, but she adds, “the arts are a luxury, period.” She does regret not having as much time to pursue small-scale painting and drawing, though she has been able to be a little more selective in her projects. She now limits herself to jobs in the southeast, and her next commission is to paint a mural 25 by 65 feet at a Palm Beach, Fla., estate.

As an art admirer, she prefers the classics to contemporary or surrealist art, and has visited many of the world’s most famous art museums. She is also a poet and still writes letters by hand, elements she often incorporates into her work. However, she doesn’t keep much of her artwork, preferring to have it scattered around the world where other people can see it.

She enjoys knowing that when her work is in a public place, it will be seen by thousands of people.

“My work is out there, and that’s where I want it to be,” she said. It doesn’t have to be in my possession. I’ll keep busy as long as I can physically climb scaffolds.”

Councill has been nominated for the 2005 ARTV Awards, the “Academy Awards of multimedia.” The Oct. 28 event will be nationally televised, and Councill will be competing in the murals category with the top artists in her field. Win or lose, she has no plans for retirement.

Though she sometimes longs to just stand in a field with an easel and palette, she also enjoys the niche market of large-scale work.

“I continue to strive for perfection,” she said. “I’m never satisfied. That’s what, in part, keeps me going. It’s something you can’t control, either. It’s the challenge as an artist and designer.”