TUNNEL VISION

High atop Browne Mountain in south Spokane, in a most unlikely place, there is an under-the-sea fantasy.

Black and white orcas swim with a 35-foot humpback whale, and a sea tortoise paddles calmly through the water. A school of vivid yellow fish dart out of the way as a hammerhead shark moves silently past.

When Spokane dentist Michael Condon and wife Sharon purchased their home almost a year ago, its most unusual feature was the 125-foot-long tunnel that had been installed by the previous owner to connect the house to the large barn on the property.

The tunnel was well lighted and had a radiant heat system in the cement floor, but the stark white walls made the space feel cold and sterile. Sharon Condon wasn’t sure what to do to warm it up.

When their painter, Mike Becker, mentioned that he had lived in Hawaii and had worked as an artist selling canvasses and painting murals, Condon was intrigued. Becker showed her photos of his paintings of whales and underwater scenes, and Condon had the solution for the tunnel. She commissioned Becker to bring the deep seas to her home.

Nationally — and increasingly in the Inland Northwest — decorative painting has become a popular trend. Artists are adding architectural interest to plain contemporary structures, bringing boring spaces to life with hand-painted murals, faux finishes and trompe l’oeil (French for “fool the eye”) accents.

Becker, a self-taught artist with no formal training, spent more than 120 hours on the tunnel mural. His wife, Julie, helped by painting the blue background and filling in the images he sketched.

Becker, who also painted the outdoor mural of flying geese at the former Outlaw Decoys business on North Fancher Road in Spokane, was concerned that the corrugated metal walls of the tunnel would prove too difficult to paint or distort the image. But when the mural was completed, the ribbed metal gave the mural a rippled underwater look. Dappled light and deep shadows, cast on what appears to be the wall of a sea cave, make the scene eerily real.

Becker paints ordinary walls and specializes in faux treatments, but his passion is murals. “I love the way it comes to life on the wall,” Becker says.

Kelly Boyle also specializes in creating faux finishes and elaborate murals for homeowners. But his approach is more classical.

Boyle, who is also a sculptor and musician, studied art at the Seattle Art Institute. After graduation he moved to Phoenix and worked on the restoration of the Arizona Biltmore and other custom painting projects. When his wife inherited land in Chattaroy, the couple moved their family to Spokane.

Before that move five years ago, Boyle asked the interior designers he worked with in Phoenix for references. Soon designers in Spokane and Coeur d’Alene were calling.

“The market was pretty untapped here,” Boyle says. “My work comes entirely through word-of-mouth references, and I have been lucky enough to stay busy.”

Boyle worked for Spokane homeowners Allan and Robyn Holms for nearly two years. “There wasn’t anything he couldn’t do or wouldn’t try,” Robin Holms says. “He was very imaginative and interested in new ways to do things.”

When they asked him to do a room using their antique lacquered Chinese screen as inspiration, Boyle applied a rich gold-leaf treatment to the dining room ceiling. “It is the most amazing thing you can imagine,” Holms says.

When Boyle told Holmes that his first love was sculpting, she commissioned him to sculpt the image of the North Wind on the face of one of the fireplaces. The effect is striking. “It’s not something people expect to see,” Holms says.

Boyle predicts the metallic paint treatments will eventually be popular in Spokane. “The new gold leaf and pewter treatments look incredible on walls,” Boyle says. “I love to do it.”

Like Boyle, Spokane artist Lynne Proudfoot studied art in Seattle. She was a student at the Cornish College of the Arts. After college Proudfoot married and moved to Sequim, Wash., where she was asked to help establish a small natural history museum. Boyle traveled to Victoria, B.C. and studied at the Provincial Natural History Museum to learn the art of decorating and installing dioramas. She returned to Sequim and put her skill to use at the new museum.

Proudfoot moved to Spokane eight years ago and has been painting murals and faux finishes ever since.

One of Proudfoot’s favorite projects was a large painting of King Ludwig’s Castle on the wall of dentist Evan Schafer’s office. “There is a little surprise in one of the windows of the castle,” Proudfoot says. “People tell me sometimes that they’ve seen it.”

Proudfoot is a member of the Inland Northwest Decorative Artisans, a local group of decorative painting professionals that meets monthly to network. INDA is affiliated with the national Stencil Artisans League Inc. and was formed by area artist and instructor Nancy Jones.

Jones has been painting walls and murals in Spokane for 30 years. She trained at classes and seminars across the country and teaches faux finishes, stenciling and mural painting at her Spokane Valley studio, called Artworks. She also teaches through the Spokane Community College and North Idaho College.

Jones sees a lot of local interest in decorative painting. “Spokane is a do-it-yourself town,” Jones says. “People want to do something right because they can’t always afford to redecorate every two or three years.”

She finds that the national trends toward metallic treatments and adding texture to walls before glazing haven’t gone mainstream in Spokane yet. “I find the vast majority of people are still interested in sponging or ragging techniques, using negative applications,” Jones says. “That’s where you add the glaze and then take some of it off with a sponge or rag.”

Although the effect in the Condon tunnel is more playful than elegant, Sharon Condon loves it. Now, the tunnel is where her young children can ride their bikes or simply run off extra energy.

When the Condons entertain at large family gatherings, which can include as many as 35 people, the children all move down to the tunnel to play. “I can’t imagine not having it now,” she says.

As Becker worked on the mural, the Condons two youngest children watched him. Becker added their names to the mural as his assistants. “Mike even added Darcy and Nemo from the movie ‘Finding Nemo’ just for them,” Condon says.

In addition to the mural, Becker painted a small elephant on the wall of the children’s playroom. “He just did it because my son wanted an elephant,” Sharon Condon says. “That’s the way he is. He just likes to paint and to make people happy.”