One Horse Studio

Portland, OR-based Lorie Wolff of One Horse Studio creates incredible spaces for residences, hospitality projects, and commercial exhibits. We recently spied a very large 8′ x 8′ canvas piece she created for a restaurant, and thought this was a beautiful share as our March 2020 Featured Project. She says, “This client contacted me about creating a feature piece of art in their new restaurant called “The Barberry” in McMinville Oregon, the heart of Oregon’s wine country. The Barberry plant is a weedy thorny native plant that the owners identified with as they felt their style was thorny and native as well! I presented a small mock up to show my idea and they loved it, except wanted to go in a different color direction.

I had an 8’ x 8’ panel made from OSB board and a 2×4 gallery style frame. I used composition silver leaf and a frisket technique to block out the abstract style branch and leaves. I then used many different plaster textures and mediums, including Metallic Textures, Soapstone, Glazing Medium, Slow Dry Fluid Acrylics and a little Glass Bead Gel. I tinted the products in the direction of the desired color scheme. Layers were built up over the protected silver leaf using a trowel. I removed the plastic frisket and added shading to the leaves. I was able to deliver this large and heavy art piece by strapping to the back of my open truck bed, and it look 6 guys to install it. I still get compliments on this piece!

What do you love most about this type of creative work?
Commissioned art pieces are unique as the client has to have a high degree of faith in you! What I love is the relationship of client to artist and the respectful back and forth of the process. I also love thinking outside the box, for example in this case it was our idea to do this piece BIG! And the abstract nature of the way I represented the Barberry plant was appreciated, also, being familiar with the plant due to my mother’s love of native plants was a plus. I appreciated that I received feedback that the sunshine through the windows of the restaurant reflected beautifully on the silver leaf of the piece and helped tell the story of this new restaurant. Both client and artist got to make a true statement piece.

What is your fave Golden Paintworks product?
This is a tie between the Slow Dry Fluid Acrylics and the entire acrylic plaster line. The slow dry product can be used to tint glazes or plasters but straight out of the bottle it acts like an oil paint with its open time and color variety with excellent clarity and saturation. I feel as I can use the slow dry as a transparent or an opaque as well. I’ve been using the Golden Paintworks plaster line since its beginning! I love that I can mix the different textures and I appreciate the dependability of 100% acrylic with excellent tintability, due to no titanium white in the line. One of my favorite mixtures is Soapstone with Metallic Texture, there is a beautiful body to the plaster with a”nap” when it is troweled on the wall, emphasized with a lovely metallic sheen.