In the News
From the Hampstead & Highgate Express 7 January 2005
Decorator carves out a name in imitations
ONE in four working people would like to leave their current jobs in 2005, according to a survey conducted recently by YouGov.
Some may want a more radical change of lifestyle.
Harry Levinson of Hampstead Decorative Arts has found that becoming a decorative artist has special appeal for computer programmers and City bankers, although he says that students young and old come to study with him from all walks of life.
He understands what it is to switch direction in your working life because 25 years ago he left behind a media career as a director of documentaries and a lecturer in film to study at the London College of Furniture.
He founded his own business in 1981, to teach and practise skills in decorative painting techniques.
His expertise in imitating arabascato white marble and tortoiseshell at Philip King's South Hampstead house so impressed the sculptor that he asked Levinson to decorate parts of his sculpture for the Royal Academy's summer exhibition.
Samples of Levinson's work abound on the walls and shelves of his own studio workshop in The Old Stables off Archway Road in Highgate.
In Victorian times, when the premises were built, some decorative artists had a dubious reputation as cheats but now there is good reason to imitate stones and woods that are extinct or endangered.
Siena marble with black chips and honey tones,has apparently all but run out, so copying it makes sense.
Luxurious black and gold Portora marble, and hardwoods like walnut and mahogany are now prohibitively expensive in large expanses and copying is the only legal way to have a tortoiseshell finish.
Levinson's sample of bird's eye maple with a painted bird motif is a covetable thing in its own right.
More of Harry Levinson's skills in exotic finishes, marbling, distressing and trompe l'oeuil can be seen in his book The Pleasures of Home: Paint and Paper, published by Cassell in 1998.
His website www.hampstead-decorativearts.co.uk gives details of his full and part-time courses, ranging from 5 days to a year.
Phone 0208 348 2811 to arrange a visit to the workshop.
Tel : (44) 20 8348 2811 Fax : (44) 20 8348 4293 hda@cesmail.net
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