Author: Eric

Orders for Half Moon Bay were almost always painted by Leonard Pollikof, even after we had many painters on staff. Leonard was six-foot-six and had a very long reach, enabling him to draw the large curved strokes across our 60 inch wide tables.

The ground color was scrubbed solid with a large sponge.

Ciccolini was Leonard Pollikof’s favorite design. Named after pianist Aldo Ciccolini, the pattern is a light spattering of multicolored paints which reminded Leonard of delicate piano notes.

We created this pattern with a toilet brush dipped in thin paint. The bristles were then stroked with a paint stir-stick to cause an aerosol effect, resulting in small dots uniformly coating the canvas.

Ambrose features one of our primary techniques: dry-brush application with a wallpaper brush. We used Ameritone brand latex house paint, thinned to the consistency of milk. After dipping the brush we wiped it several times on scrap fabric until the right dryness was achieved before making a stroke. If the brush was too wet the yardage would be ruined. Too dry and it would take multiple passes, which ruined the texture.

Sand and Shells was one of our most popular patterns. We first painted the curved strokes with a foam brush, bleeding two colors together. Then, with a wallpaper brush, we dry-brushed the background color. The final touch was to splatter some of the background color over the entire piece, creating the “sand” on top of the shells.