Over the last four weeks, a significant transformation has been taking place in some of the school’s downstairs classrooms. Beginning in the Blue Room, and working their way down through middle school, a crew of dedicated people have been painting the walls, ceilings, ceiling paneling, cabinets, doors, and a surprisingly large amount of wainscoting in an effort to bring new life our school’s learning environment. It took the work of many hands to get this job up and running, and as the initiator of the project, I (Ms. Parrilli) would like to acknowledge the efforts of everyone involved and share a little bit about this unique painting process called lazure.
The word lazure comes from the German word lasur, to glaze, and the English term eventually became the standard within Waldorf and anthroposophical communities here in the US. Lazure uses many layers of overlapping transparent paint, carefully mixed and vigorously brushed onto the surface of specially prepared walls. The color is absorbed and worked into the wall, yielding a cloud-like, color-filled environment with a notably breathable quality. It catches the light in ever-changing ways and invites your eye to be drawn throughout the space. Ordinary house paint is much flatter in appearance and does not encourage the eye to travel in the same way around the room.
Lazured color lends a particular quality or mood to a space, supporting the people and activities that happen within it. In some cases, it can highlight the architecture or accentuate the way people enter and exit a space. Much consideration goes into the colors chosen for each room in an effort to support all of the activities that will be taking place therein. In the case of these particular classrooms, the focus was on the stages of child development and the directional orientation of the work (student to teacher). The amount of natural lighting in each space, the variety of surfaces (lots of ceiling paneling), overly textured walls, etc., were also taken into account.
Although our lazure team primarily consisted of a small group of three, HVS alum Nika Dubnansky ’10, current 12th grader Evlyn Pilgrim, and myself, Sara Parrilli, it took the work of many hands to get this project off the ground. Josh Wise coordinated all of the moving parts and additionally helped with the white painting prep and varnishing to keep the project up to speed. Dave Kisselburgh was a constant support and voluntarily popped in to keep tabs on the student painters. He even stepped outside of his regularly responsibilities to varnish the final protective coat onto the walls and painted the trim alongside Kashia Tranchita. Kristen Daley and Scarlet Sansone also supported the lazure on a couple of days. Additional support with white painting, the varnishing, moving heavy objects, and more, came from HV staff AJ Melino and Jay Hayman.
The majority of the white painting prep was completed by three students, senior brothers Amir and Idris Evans, and ninth grader Owen Beck. They took on the less glamorous job of moving the entire contents of four rooms (every piece of heavy furniture, stacks of books, plant pots, etc.) down the hallway into the music room, which became a maze of school supplies. They then prepped the majority of the spaces ahead of us, often needing to paint three layers on many surfaces.
Lazure jobs are infamous for going quickly south the moment the color hits an improperly prepared white wall. Any areas missing the full layers of paint will turn into dark splotches that are impossible to incorporate with the same transparent watercolor effect. These three students put up with my constant reminders and questioning (“are you sure you put on two coats of paint?”) and worked steadily to keep the white painting always one step ahead of the lazure. Owen walked away knowing how to properly use and clean a cut brush, thanks to Nika’s master brush cleaning techniques. Although we did have a few accidental paint splatters and a case of someone’s hair getting coated in white paint after hitting a freshly painted ceiling, I’m happy to say that the end results are looking top notch!
Lazure is a very temperamental medium that is easily affected by temperature, humidity, and the proper ratios of paint to acrylic medium, which are altered with each new layer. Every surface must be painted in one go without stopping and it takes a team effort to continuously paint together in an even manner. You need to be comfortable enough with your team to (over) communicate regularly, often be in each other’s way, and learn to anticipate each other’s movements.
Evlyn stepped in as our “lazurist-in-training,” and her willingness to learn and refine watercolor painting skills were a strong asset. Lazure has a particularly steep learning curve and requires not only an intuitive sense for how to move around the room but also technical knowledge of wall paint, lazure technique, and an understanding for the fluid nature of watercolor. You will never notice Evy's touch-ups on accidental drips because they’re that expertly filled in. As a bonus part of the job, both she and Nika color-matched and filled in most, if not all of the chips and dings in the Music Room, while I was working on the next batch of painting mix.
The lazure itself could not have happened at this professional level without my amazing co-pilot Nika. An HVS alum from the Class of 2010, Nika chose lazure as her senior project and then never stopped doing it. She has well more than a decade of professional painting experience, and she trained extensively with our late lazure painting master, Robert Logsdon. The two of us met around 12 years ago while working on a job with Robert. Nika joined me for our first job together after Robert’s passing when I decided to take on the School Assembly Hall last summer. Neither of these monumental jobs would have been possible without her level of expertise and support.
Together the three of us created a strong and supportive team. To hear either one of them step back from a newly completed wall and say, “that looks amazing,” was the most reassuring sign of a job well done.
My endless thanks to everyone involved and to those who will continue touching up all of the doors and trim after we have completed the lazure part of the project. I’m happy to say I won’t be saying the word “wainscoting” on repeat for the rest of the year, until we take on future rooms in the summers to come!
- Sara Parrilli
