Painter credits mother-in-law with making it work

Emily Stewart
Lowell
Mother of Miles, 7, and Margot, 4
Burchill Interiors
Interior decorative painting

If she had to identify one person to credit most with the success of her career as an interior decorative painter, Emily Stewart would not pick any of her instructors at art school or the clients who provided her with big breaks early on.

She would name her mother-in-law, Janice Kissinger.

"She always takes the children when I need to go on-site with a client," Stewart said. "Without her help, I don't think I could run my business."

At Rhode Island School of Design, Stewart majored first in printmaking, then switched to illustrating. She studied for a time in Florence, and returned to the United States to work for an interior designer. There, she narrowed her specialty to interior painting and eventually went into business for herself, setting up a studio in her Lowell home.

"When my son, Miles, was a baby, he'd play in a playpen in my studio," she said. "Once he got a little older, I had to wait until he was napping to work. Fortunately, my mother-in-law does a lot of child care for us now. Having good child care when you're working makes all the difference; it gives you peace of mind so you can concentrate."

The focus of Stewart's business is faux finishes and design painting. Working with clients who want a customized look in their homes or businesses, she layers paints using rags, sponges, and cheesecloth to create differently textured appearances. She also hand-paints designs, from tiny prints to wall-size murals. Stewart has completed around 300 jobs since first going into business.

"One of my most interesting projects was a copy of a Monet for a client who wanted a mural to cover the panel that went over his flat-screen TV," she said. "Another fun one was for a couple who had a second kitchen in their home dedicated to wine-making. I painted a Tuscan landscape on the wall."

Among her largest jobs are the murals she has done on the walls and ceilings of local restaurants. In one particularly memorable assignment, Stewart had to paint from a ladder balanced on scaffolding. But being a contortionist is all in a day's work for a mural artist, she said.

"I have also straddled ladders over staircases and painted behind cramped toilets and under stairways. I keep in shape by doing triathlons, but I suppose it's partly the painting that keeps me in shape as well," she said.

Stewart is not complaining, though.

"For mothers like me, this is a wonderful way to work," she said. "Scheduling my own time means it's not a big problem if I have to take a child to a doctor's appointment in the middle of the day. It allows me to keep my hand in my professional realm while my children are young, and then once they're off in school I'll still have all the connections and resources in place to get back to work on a more full-time basis. I also think working part time makes me a better mother, because concentrating on work helps keep me a little more sane on a day-to-day basis, and then I come back to my kids and I'm always happy to see them."