craftygal porch - Hand-painting with the Wallflowers

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Dylan’s Wallflowers

A Lazy Afternoon with the Wallflowers

by Christy

Just a puddle jump from Rochester, NY, you’ll find the quaint village of Bemus Point nestled in the narrows of Chautauqua Lake. A couple miles outside of the village is the Wallflowers studio. You won’t find a listing for it in the local phone book, and even if you get on the right road, it’s likely you’d drive right by it for lack of a sign. The Wallflowers’ studio is in the basement of one co-owner’s home, Margie Johnson. The other co-owner, Linda Richner, lives just a few doors down the street.

About 10 years ago, Linda and Margie decided that the wallpapering they were doing for friends and family all over town could turn itself into a nice little business. Wallflowers was born (far before young Jakob Dylan arrived on the scene with his similarly named band). Margie and Linda reminisce about the first job they bid as real businesswomen. Nothing had changed, really. They knew just as much about wallpapering and painting the day they went to bid that first job as they did the week before when they wrapped their last job as women who papered and painted but didn’t have business cards and fancy bid sheets with a Wallflowers letterhead. Much to their amazement, the woman accepted their bid, and the rest is, well, you know…

If one thing can be said of the Wallflowers, it’s that they never stop learning new techniques and pushing themselves beyond their current limits. No job is too big, or too small, and if they had stopped saying these five little words years ago, their careers wouldn’t be where they are today: "Oh, we can do that!" Linda said this of Donna Dewberry’s One Stroke painting method four years ago, and now hand-painted rooms and furniture is the bulk of their business today. They are also both certified to teach the method, and do on a regular basis.

It was my pleasure to spend an afternoon with Linda and Margie in early September, and the following is a sampling of the things we talked about. I asked the ladies to keep their answers focused on the hand-painting, since it’s what they spend most of their time working on these days.

CG: How did you pick the name Wallflowers?

WF: Well, we obviously wanted the name to reflect what we do, so in that regard the name is a fit. We had a couple other names we were toying with, but when we thought of The Wallflowers, we both just knew that was it. Not only is it fitting in the wallpapering, and now hand-painting sense, but we also chose it because it’s a little tongue in cheek. If you know us, you know we are anything but wallflowers. We are not shy, we do not hang back in the wings, so we both thought it was pretty funny. Our husbands got a kick out of the name, and jokingly call themselves the "Wallstuds."

CG: How did you get started with the hand-painting?

WF: We had already started to branch out from the strict papering and painting we were doing by using different painting techniques. We were striping, marbleizing, ragging, and then we started to see some whimsical, hand-painted furniture. It started to pop up at different art shows, and in magazines. The more we looked at it, the more we thought, "We could do that." We bought some oil paints, and found an old changing table to paint. It took so long with the oil paints, that we were very discouraged. Then one day on QVC, they were featuring Donna Dewberry and a One Stroke instructional video. We ordered it, watched it, and have been using the technique since. That was about four years ago.

CG: What was better or faster about her technique than your first attempt?

WF: She uses all acrylic paints, which dry very fast, and the method only takes one stroke per petal or leaf. You actually put two colors on your brush at once, say green and yellow, and then following her instruction, paint your leaf in two passes.

Here’s a good example of a One
Stroke leaf.

CG: Do either of you have any formal art training?

WF: No. Unless you count high school art as "formal training." We both just started off by using Donna’s method from the video, and then a couple years ago, we went to get our One Stroke certification. We can now teach the method ourselves, and we got to spend a great weekend in Columbus under the instruction of Donna Dewberry herself.

CG: What’s an average day as a Wallflower like?

WF: (Laughing, eyes rolling.) We’re not sure there is an average day, but we’ll try to give you a general overview of what our job entails. The process begins by either visiting a customer’s home if it’s a room we’re painting, or having them bring the piece of furniture to our studio. We first try to determine the personality of the piece or room. For example: is it youthful, formal, fun? Does it lend itself to a real whimsical motif? The customer is always a part of this process. We need to know what kind of outcome they’re looking for, and the colors they have in mind. Then, the prep-work begins. We sand and prime the piece or wall, and then put on our base coat. Then, we finalize the design, apply any whimsy colors around spindles or legs, and then do the hand-painting. The final step, after signing each piece, is to polyurethane to withstand use. If we’re preparing for a show, we’ve found the best way to work is by economy of motion. We sand and prime every single piece first, get all the base coats on, and then hand-paint the designs.

Children’s chairs at different stages.

CG: Are you involved in any art shows that you’re particularly fond of?

WF: We do the Bemus art show every summer; it’s called Art in the Park. It’s held early in July over a weekend. We actually took a second place ribbon in the three-dimensional work category this year. A new show for us this year, and one we’re really excited about, is the Arts and Crafts Festival for a Cure to benefit the Buonicoti Fund. The proceeds from the show go to find a cure for paralysis. That show was September 23^rd and 24^th at the Rose Garden on Baker Street in Jamestown. And finally, we’ve had great fun painting a chair for the Take a Seat auction each July since 1998. The proceeds from that sale go to the local arts community here, in and around Chautauqua Lake. We’ve received nice publicity from the local paper the past two years of that event as well.

Here’s the second place winner from
Art in the Park.

CG: Where do you find your pieces?

WF: We find them everywhere. We pick them up off the side of the road, we scour antique shops and garage sales, friends and family are always on the lookout for us, and then of course customers have existing pieces they want us to paint as well.

CG: All right, now that we know where you get your furniture, where do you find your inspiration and encouragement to keep painting?

WF: (Margie starts this one off.) Well, I’ll speak for myself here and say that it’s definitely a spiritual inspiration. Granted, the actual painting that we do is inspired by the piece itself; its shape, the room it’s going to sit in, the customer’s vision. I’ve always felt that our third partner in this business is God, and He has orchestrated the business from the beginning. (Linda takes over.) God has been our silent partner, and He has guided us. We both feel strongly about that. Since we have been working together for so long, and we’ve been friends much longer, we also get inspired by one another. When Margie’s not feeling right about a piece, I can make suggestions and vice versa.

This tree climbs up the corner
of one client’s powder room.

CG: You mentioned earlier that you’re certified to teach the One Stroke method, are you doing that? And if so, how do you like that in comparison to actually doing the painting?

WF: (Linda continues.) Teaching is definitely fun, and it’s exciting to see people learn and be surprised by their accomplishments. It is not quite as much fun as doing it myself (for me) because it is not as relaxing, nor do I get to try new things in class. I love both things in different ways I guess! (Margie finishes.) The feeling is very different. I can’t say that I prefer one over the other, because there’s nothing like taking an old run-down piece of furniture and making it entirely new and vibrant. But, helping a student in one of our classes unlock their creativity is pretty exciting too. It has been so rewarding, in a very new way, to watch a person in a class progress to a mastery of the paints and the method. One thing we love about the One Stroke method is that everyone we’ve taught has success in using the technique, men and women alike.

A sample of smaller items in the Wallflower’s studio.

And with that, I left the Wallflowers to their irises and dragonflies, china closets and buffet tables. If you’re interested in getting in touch with the Wallflowers, they plan on getting a Web site up soon (URL to be determined). Feel free to check back here, we’ll be sure to post a link to their home on the Web. You can also find them listed at the One Stroke Web site on the Find an Instructor page. Once there, simply click on the New York link and you’ll find them listed. If you don’t live in the Western New York area, simply click on your state to see if there are any certified One Stroke teachers in your area.

That’s Linda on the left, and Margie to the right.