Dark Sky Paradise for Academy Award Winner Hannah Beachler

by Sydney McGinnis May 25, 2023

The stunning home of Academy Award-winning production designer, Hannah Beachler, is a work of art, to which I am proud to have contributed greatly. Recently, Hannah’s home was featured on NBC’s Open House television show. In the video below, Hannah leads us through a tour of her home, including a lush, colorful mural I painted in her kitchen.

 

You may be familiar with the paintings on black paper that I have done over the past two years or so - colorful silhouettes dramatically contrasted against black backgrounds. The whimsical kitchen mural I created for Hannah Beachler was actually my foray into painting on a black background.

 Hannah posing with her Oscar in her living room

A talented creative in her own right, Hannah's filmography includes Fruitvale Station, Creed, Moonlight, and Beyonce’s Lemonade. She is best known for her work in Marvel’s Black Panther. Through her work in the 2018 blockbuster, she became the first female film production designer in Marvel history as well as the first African American to be nominated and win an Oscar for production design.

 

     

Stills of Hannah's open kitchen via NBC's Open House TV

This mural was a fun challenge for me to create because it was unlike any of the other scenic murals I had done previously. After being introduced to one another through a personal connection, Hannah and I met in 2019 to talk art over coffee. When I mentioned that I paint interior murals, Hannah immediately got excited, sharing her vision of cranes adorning her kitchen walls and a fantastical jungle scene to anchor her bedroom design. As a nature lover herself, Hannah knew what she wanted and drew lots of inspiration from our southern climate as well as Africa, the stimulus of much of her work. I soon got to work creating preliminary designs for both rooms. Eventually, Hannah decided she wanted to combine the two ideas into one for the kitchen, leaving the bedroom more understated. I worked on cohesively tying all her ideas together and executing them along the span of two walls. The animated fantasy was elegantly brought to life the following spring.

 

   

Close-up of each wall and a detail shot with Sugarhill Crane

The 103-year-old home is completely black on the outside, yet the interior feels lively and vibrant, similar to the homeowner. That aesthetic holds true in the mural. Grey crowned and red crowned cranes, okapi, creeping avens and traveler's palm are just a few of the animals and plants that brightly decorate the black walls in Hannah’s open kitchen space - along with a few fantasy species from my imagination!

 

       

       

 

The kitchen mural is not the only Annie Moran piece in Ms. Beachler's home. Her space is filled with “protective species” aka birds, which are original watercolor and gouache paintings by yours truly. I am currently working on a large commissioned blue heron piece, on a black canvas of course, for the production designer as we speak, and I look forward to sharing soon! 

Share:

---

---

Also in News