Monsarrat Artisan Group - Faux painting, glazing, Knoxville, Tn Tennessee, Cabinetry refinishing, textured finishes and plastering

The Impact of Travel

Combining architectural training, a career in pottery and a love of European travel, Allen Monsarrat finds that executing decorative wall finishes is a perfect marriage of his skills and interests. In 2000 he traveled for three weeks in Italy. “Before that trip I’d had a minimalist design approach. No superfluous details, no decorative enhancements. Building materials had to be true to what they were. I’d even gone so far as to insist that linoleum flooring look like linoleum in a house I’d built in Friendsville. Now when I see that sort of design approach I find it very boring and sterile.” All that changed after a the trip to Italy.

“I fell in love with Italy! I reveled in the visual richness of their architecture and landscape and by the visual richness of building surfaces. These surfaces were so complex. The plasters used had texture which was accentuated by the patina from aging. Even that surface would have flaked away in areas revealing brick or plaster from another era.”

“The colors were from a palette of natural earth tones ranging from subtle to saturated. And none of the surfaces were perfectly flat. Even in new construction walls were built of ceramic block then covered with plasters in multiple layers. Each layer was less coarse then the previous. The final plaster on interior walls in the best construction was an application of a plaster made with fine marble dust which could be polished and waxed, known here as Venetian Plaster.

Subsequent trips to Spain, Morocco, Portugal and Croatia have further inspired Mr. Monsarrat. “We always visit cathedrals. Not only for the incredible space that these stone buildings enclose but also for the real and faux marbles which are used in the numerous alters built around the central nave. Depending on the wealth of the donor they often use either real or faux marble. The faux marbles from up close are often technically not that good but are effective when viewed from a greater distance as they were meant to be in these cathedrals. Another favorite was the Palace in Madrid where the baseboards and door mouldings were faux painted to look like highly patterned marbles.

One church we specifically sought out in Venice used real marble carved to look like drapery. This was a wonderful example of the playfulness of tromp l’oeil which means “to fool the eye.” Tromp l’oeil acts as a decorative element, but it also plays with you when you have the realization of having been fooled for a moment.

In 2003 he attended the Faux Academy in Las Vegas, Nevada, the faux capital of the U.S. where he attended workshops with some of the best faux finishers in the country. “I came back with lots of new recipes and spent several months processing and practicing what I’d learned: marbling from Pierre Finkelstein, using elaborate stencils from Melanie Royals, painting skies and clouds with the group who did the skies for the Venetian Hotel and Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.”

“I love the adventure of travel and see it as a means of continuing to add to my knowledge of faux and decorative techniques.

Allen Monsarrat is a faux and decorative finisher who works in Knox, Blount and surrounding counties. He may be reached at (865) 363-2722.