Jelena Pticek, Canada's First Painter in Residence!

Last year I established my Painters in Residence programme as a way to showcase the wonderful things that people are doing with my paints. Every three months, I invite a new set of painters, from all over the world, to work with my products in inspiring and innovative ways. The results are then presented on my social media pages. My current residents are Tim Gould from the UK and Jelena Pticek – my first ever Painter in Residence from Canada!

Jelena Pticek grew up in Croatia and now lives and works in Toronto. Six years ago she moved into her new home and decided to decorate on a budget – using hand-me-down furniture that she made her own with a touch of paint. After finding the process so rewarding she turned her hobby for painted furniture into a business and left her office job to pursue her own, independent career under the name Poppyseed Creative Living.

I came across Jelena’s work online – I think via Etsy or possibly Pinterest, and admired the way she used colour and pattern. The techniques that Jelena uses are simple, but the results are exciting and inspiring – her work is a brilliant example of just how easy it is to achieve great results with my paint, Chalk Paint™.

The first project from Jelena is this fun, contemporary cabinet. The cabinet came from a friend of Jelena’s, who asked her to give the tired piece of furniture a make-over – the cabinet was scratched and beaten, and didn’t suit the style of her house. Jelena was given free-reign to work with any technique or style she wanted, but her friend wanted the cabinet to use green as a base colour.

Jelena chose to work with a traditional and sophisticated palette of Olive, Versailles and Country Grey. She created a gradient of colour by applying the darkest colour (Olive) to the top section of the cabinet, working down to Versailles and then Country Grey. To add a modern touch, she used scallop-shaped masking tape and created an interesting border where two colours met.

Inside the cabinet, Jelena used Graphite, which is both neutral and dramatic. She then finished the piece with my Clear Soft Wax.

Follow the hashtag #PaintersInResidence on Instagram and Facebook to see projects from Jelena over the coming weeks and head to my ‘Painters in Residence’ Pinterest board too

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