Painted Kitchen
Terracotta and Cobalt

I wanted the warm, sunny tiles of a Mexican kitchen: a terracotta glaze with a bold cobalt and white flower at the heart of each tile and small leaves in the corners.

Where four tiles meet, their corner leaves close into a little rosette, so the lower wall reads as one tiled surface. The brushstrokes are confident, the glaze slightly uneven, a touch of mustard lifts the blue, and the grout lines are thin and even, all seen flat with no shine or shadow. The wainscot dresses the wall below the dado rail: the strips are cut at wainscot height and set side by side, and because their edges fall through the middle of the tiles, they join into whole tiles. I see it behind a dollhouse stove, or along the lower wall of a little cantina.