About Painted Walls

The Story of Painted Walls in New Mexico

Painted Walls was born out of sheer amazement and fascination with our new home in the southwestern high desert of New Mexico. I’ve never been to a place that has such intensly clear blue skies, vibrant red, white and black rocks, and luscious colors that occur on an absolute daily basis. Yes, this is a desert, but the range of colors year round is stunning! So amazing, in fact, that it awakend in me an old dream and love of painting watercolors.

My name is Debbie Fowler and Painted Walls is the company I created to help people welcome and acquire the vibrant hues and colors of the southwest into their homes. Not just with an accent wall of orange or gold, but to help folks choose color and decorative painted finishes for their homes, that reflect their soul and desire. It’s all about bringing color into your life and home in a comfortable reflection of your personal style.

I graduated as a art teacher in 1976 when art teachers were being done away with as being superfluous, so my carreer path took me in a different direction. After being blessed with working at Walt Disney World for several years, (that’a whole ‘nother story!) I entered the world of retail jewelry. With lots of practice and study, I became a bench jeweler and a graduate gemologist, taking my final exams in the GIA labratories in New York City.
Over the years I moved into management, both at the store and multi store level. In the 20+ years in the jewelry industry, my love of color was kept alive and grew with great appreciation to the multi faceted (no pun intended) arena of gemstones.

All of my life at this point was spent either in Pennsylvania or Florida. I had never been west, but always had a wish to go to the southwest. Really don’t know why, maybe it was all those John Wayne, Bonanza and Sky King adventure movies! As luck would have it, we moved to New Mexico by way of Utah in 1993. I could not believe the skies and the rocks! All through school and college, living in Pennsylvania with grey skies most of the time, this was an unbelievable concept. I was relatively familiar with Georgia O’Keefe and all those artists that were in Taos, New Mexico at the turn of the century, but I just thought they were on really good drugs, as “everyone” knows skies are not that blue, and rocks are NOT red!! How wrong I was!! That’s when it happened, I had to figure out some way to get back to painting. It would simply be impossible to live here in New Mexico and not try to express this landscape in watercolors. I now totally understand the mindset of the “Taos artists” and those that have painted here since. The light is clear, almost sparkleing, and really fantastic. New Mexico is truely the Land Of Enchantment!

So, Painted Walls was born. Once again I went to school to learn a trade. I studied with two of the premier faux artists working in Las Vegas NV. So much to learn! Not only the techniques, but with the vast array of products that are currently flooding the market, it’s prudent to know which ones are good and which ones are a waste of time and money. Along with learning my new craft, I started painting watercolors again. Using a combination of color knowledge from both disciplines, I was able to sharply hone my color skills and put them to work with Painted Walls.

Painted Walls is growing to bring added advantages to it’s valued clients. We now publish a monthly newsletter that discusses color trends, decorating tips and hints, lifestyles, and also with sections on gemstones, astrology and feng shui. “Brushstrokes,” the newsletter, shows you how to make color work for you.

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