Saskia Huning - ‘Garlands of Flowers’ - recreating the Savile Club ballroom ceiling decoration’
An archive image of the ballroom at the Savile Club in London showed a faint outline of a trompe l’oeil decorative border on the ceiling. Saskia will talk about the project to recreate this decoration, describing the historical paint research and the uncovering of parts of the original that was carried out, to the drawing of full size cartoons and the month long project of painting the ceiling that took place in 2017.
Saskia Huning is an artist and specialist decorator working on restoring and recreating historic decorative schemes and murals. Saskia joined the family business, Huning Decorations twenty years ago and since then has developed a great interest in traditional paints and different methods of applying paint. The application of the paint in the appropriate way to sit with the appearance and handwriting of the original painting is particularly important in her work. Working for the National Trust, English Heritage, churches and private houses around the country, recent projects include recreating the polychrome decoration at Abbey Mills Pumping Station, recreating lost areas of decoration in the David Parr House in Cambridge and recreating parts of the Annunciation mural painted in 1947 at St Martin’s Church in Bilborough, Nottingham.