Talk of the Town: Green Valley artist brings garden to life

Creative people always interest me. One Green Valley artist has transformed her neighbor’s back desert garden into a colorful floral oasis that can be enjoyed all year round.

I received a telephone call recently from area resident Leoma Wittenberg-Love, known to her friends simply as “Lee,” about an amazing mural that was painted by local artist Sally Richards. Sally’s bold and colorful art work at the rear of Lee’s townhouse on Esperanza Boulevard is now a beautiful landscape with trees, flowers and animals such as baby chicks and hens.

Lee and her husband Robert have an exquisite home with a collection of eclectic art objects and antiques. Lee also has a collection of hens and chickens—very fun! She loves color, too, and Sally grabbed onto her style and just ran with it.

Lee, who hails from Ohio originally, misses the green plants and flowers from her home state.

“I just love chickens, but you aren’t allowed to have real live ones in Green Valley, of course,” she said. “Robert and I can sit here now and look out the window and escape the desert, even if it’s just looking through the window.”

Lee said she was talking to local real estate agent Cathy Kreutz about wanting something to “liven up” her backyard walls when Cathy suggested contacting Sally. The rest is Lee’s dream come true.

Sally is an expert painter, specializing in decorative art and faux finishing.

Sally first started decorative painting in 1972, later teaching the craft.

“Toll painting was the big thing back in the 70s,” she said. “After I got good at it, I started instructing and have remained interested ever since, keeping up on the trends.”

Soon Sally was getting commissioned work and was adding her artistic flare to homes and businesses. She also worked as a flight attendant flying all over the states for part of the month and working in her painting profession the rest of the time, balancing the two careers.

In the mid-1990s, she really honed her faux finishing talents. In the late 90s, she moved to Green Valley and began teaching faux finish techniques in The Great Indoors, a Scottsdale-based store that specializes in unique home furnishings and decor.

Sally was then asked by the company to work in their stores across the country with a team of artists focusing on painting and decorating speciality walls within the stores.

“In fact, just recently I was watching HGTV (Home & Garden Television) and they were featuring one of the kitchens from a Great Indoors store in California and I recognized the handmade wallpaper in the room. It was mine and I was excited to see that it was still creative enough to be one of the featured topics,” Sally said.

After relaxing for the past couple of years, Sally says, she is wanting to paint again and Lee gave her the inspiration to do so.

Sally’s work is all done “freehand” and she mixes and blends her own custom acrylic paints.

“My art background lends to making my faux finishes very artistic,” she said. “I don’t draw, but I just pick up a paint brush and get to it. I have a large variety of styles to offer those who like hand-painted enhancements to their homes.”

Sally has created faux finishes in custom homes built by Brasher and Dorn in Tubac, including the builder’s model homes, as well doing faux finishing in houses in the new Alamos community, another Dorn development in Green Valley. Her talents have been commissioned in Quail Creek, too.

“It’s all very unique and one-of-a-kind,” she said. “When I meet with the customer, we go over their favorite colors and designs and then I go to work on a sample board so they know what it is they are getting and can make changes if necessary.”

Lee and Sally discussed Lee’s favorite flowers and colors before the actual paint went on the outside walls.

So realistic are Sally’s flowers in Lee’s back garden, even the hummingbirds and bumble bees have been fooled by the realistic flowers on the back walls, the women said.

In less than 10 days, Lee had an incredible backyard that will be in bloom all year, even during Southern Arizona’s driest weather.

Sally Richards’ Decorative Art & Faux Finishing can be reached at 520-648-3518.

Local actors Char and Bruce Purrington are performing this summer in the Top Hat Theatre Club’s latest show, “The Biggest Thief in Town,” by Dalton Trumbo, a famous Hollywood writer during the 40s.

Directed by Bruce Bieski, the show runs Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. from July 6-20. Top Hat Theatre is at 3110 E. Fort Lowell Rd. and Country Club in Tucson.

Cast members including the Purringtons from Green Valley are: Rebecca Neisen, John Mc Rostie. Tony Eckstat, Ed Fuller, Frank Solis, Sean O’Connell, Cory Kuehn and Bruce Beski.

rford@gvnews.com