We are proud to announce that Martin Alan Hirsch's faux finish works have been published in a book entitled: "Sophisticated Surfaces" available now!

From the inside cover......

Home is more than a simple shelter; home is a sanctuary. "Sophisticated Surfaces" illustrates how to enhance simple shelters by applying paint imaginatively to create aesthetically pleasing home environments. Rooted in traditions that date to the Italian Renaissance in seventeenth-century Europe, decorative artists use contemporary tools and materials to interpret age-old techniques - marbleizing, graining, and glazing furniture, walls, and ceilings. Inspired by early masters, these same artists go on to create new finishes - cracked linens and textured wall surfaces among them.

The book is divided into three sections: "Faux and Fantasy Finishes"; "Painted Surfaces"; and "Murals and Trompe l'oeil". Each section focuses on works by decorative artists who excel in translating precisely executed techniques into exquisitely painted surfaces.

Beauty and harmony are vital to our psychological health and well-being. "Sophisticated Surfaces" is designed to inspire readers to view ordinary living space in new, innovative, and creative ways.

About the Author

Karen Aude is an arts writer and collage artist. Her articles have been published in several regional and national magazines and newspapers, and she is the author of "Heather Braginton-Smith", a monograph on the work of the trompe l'oeil artist. Aude lives in Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts with her two feline companions, Bohditree and Sami.

Excerpted from Sophisticated Surfaces : Ideas and Inspirations from Eighteen Professional Surface Painters by Karen Aude. Copyright © 1999. All rights reserved

"Sophisticated Surfaces" is designed to inspire readers to view their own homes as more than mere protections from the elements. It is about applying paint imaginatively to create aesthetically pleasing environments. "Sophisticated Surfaces" is about beauty and harmony. It is about encouraging readers to view ordinary living space in new, extraordinary ways. Home, then, is a nest with an eye toward aesthetics, a shelter uniquely composed to satisfy practical needs while, at the same time, nourishing the soul.

Sophisticated Surfaces is divided into three sections: "Faux and Fantasy Finishes"; "Painted Surfaces"; and "Murals and Trompe l'oeil". Each section focuses on work by decorative artists who excel in what we call the "art of transformation". Using readily available materials, each artist translates the ordinary into the extraordinary. Approaches vary with each artist and range from deceptively simple applications of paint to complex multi-layered techniques.