Thunderstorm Blue Ridge Jharokha Wall Art – Opening Doors, 20x16

What you are looking at

The finish is the point of this one. The blue ground is worked over with gold in a dry brush, dragged rather than laid, so the gold catches only on the raised grain and the blue stays visible underneath. From across a room it reads as a single weathered blue-green. From two feet away it separates into two colours. It is the same distressing technique that makes old painted shutters look the way they do, done deliberately.

At the centre, a pair of gold doors cut as a pointed jharokha arch and pierced with quatrefoil and teardrop openings, hung on brass hinges over a glass mirror.

Why Blue Ridge

One of five panels, each named for an American landscape and painted in its colours. The Blue Ridge takes its name from the haze that sits on those mountains, and that is what this finish is after: blue that is not quite blue, seen through weather. The others are Emerald Yosemite, Amber Bryce Canyon, Yellowstone Mist and the White House.

Where it goes

Against wood, brick or warm plaster, where the blue has something to push against. It has been hung over a mantel, in a hotel-style formal room and at an apartment entrance between planters — all three are in the photographs. Because it can be displayed closed, it also works where a mirror facing the bed or the front door is unwanted for Vastu reasons.

Hanging it

A bracket is fitted to the back. At 1.8 kg, with doors that swing, use a screw into a stud or a rated drywall anchor. Screws and wall anchors are not supplied.

Care

Dust with a dry, soft brush. Glass cleaner on the centre mirror only, applied to the cloth, never sprayed at the distressed finish. Do not oil the hinges.