Aukes completed this mural, copied from a Thomas Kincaid picture, last week on the wall in the prayer room at the New Life Celebration Church office in Luverne. By Jolene FarleySteen artist Marlene Aukes transforms drab spaces and common items into works of art with a little paint and a lot of talent.Her business, Granny’s Plum Purdy’s has grown steadily as more and more people notice her work and want samples for themselves. Aukes is certified in decorative hand painting. She paints murals, mailboxes, glassware, ceramics, fabrics and other items."If it stands still it can be painted on," Aukes said.Aukes decided to learn how to paint after watching advertisements for how-to videos and books on the home-shopping network QVC. "You see some of these paintings and you say, ‘Oh, I wish I could do this,’" she said. "I kept watching and thought, it can’t be that easy…" She decided to order the material and found out it really was easy.By practicing and breaking the process down into steps, it isn’t so overwhelming, according to Aukes. She enjoys painting so much the time flies. "I love it," she said. "It is very relaxing." Aukes’ business took off after she gave one of her hand-painted items to a friend and co-worker as a gift. She painted a winter scene on a canning jar and topped it with a votive candle. Other co-workers at Luverne Community Hospital, where Aukes works as a nursery aide, saw the item and orders poured in. She painted 111 jars for Christmas that year.After the success of her winter designs, Aukes branched out into mailboxes. "Everybody saw the mailboxes and they wanted one," she said.Aukes experimented with different designs on the walls in her home. "People saw that, they wanted it and it just kind of blossomed," she said.Aukes just completed a mural in the prayer room at the New Life Celebration Church office in Luverne. The group wanted to replicate a Thomas Kincaid print. Aukes reproduced the original scene, adding around the perimeter with extra landscape to fill the wall space.There is one design that is requested frequently that Aukes hasn’t mastered."People ask me to do a John Deere tractor and I haven’t got that down yet," she said.Her next project is painting murals on the walls for her daughter, Ginger Schomacker, at her daycare center. Aukes said they are considering a Winnie the Pooh theme. She is also working on a design for the nursery in the new hospital currently under construction in Luverne. She doesn’t know what the theme will be yet.Aukes would some day like to teach others how to paint. "It’s such a joy and they say the good Lord blesses you with things he wants you to share," she said. One of the first lessons she would teach is how to paint a rose. "It’s very simple," She said. "When you look at the whole rose, it looks complicated."Painting the flower involves blending, shading and highlighting all in one step, according to Aukes. All the steps for creating other flowers are there."It is such a sense of accomplishment you figure, if I could do a rose, I could do any flower," she said.Aukes finds inspiration in magazines and books. She said all she needs is a picture or an example of what a customer wants painted and she can copy the design. A teddy bear design Aukes painted in her daughter’s nursery came from a coloring book.She painted cherubs on the walls of a bedroom, copying a bedspread made from cherub print fabric. In her own bathroom, she painted a huge tree that sprouts up the wall with branches that overhang on the ceiling. A birdbath with a bird in it is painted on the wall under the tree, next to the toilet. Above the tile around the tub, are baskets with flowers in them. One basket has a cat lying inside. The design possibilities are endless when you have some paint and brushes and know what to do with them.
