George Zaffle
From PDPA
Born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, George Zaffle completed degrees in journalism and foreign language at Ohio University before coming upon his true calling as a decorative painter. Following graduation in 1981 he headed west for California on his bicycle. En route, he met Larry Boyce, a fellow bicyclist and one of the world’s top decorative painters. Joining what later became Larry Boyce & Associates, Zaffle cycled throughout the western states, learning the trade from Boyce as they ornamented and stenciled grand rooms along the way, hearkening back to the itinerant decorative painters of the 19th century. Becoming passionate about decorative painting, Zaffle went on to study other techniques; such as trompe l’oeil, murals, faux finishes, painted marbles, true fresco, wood graining, gold leaf, old world cabinetry and furniture finishes, etc. He served apprenticeships with several master painters and worked on the restoration of many churches, hotels, grand private homes and government spaces through the '80s and '90s. Eventually, he attended the Van der Kellen School in Brussels, Belgium. Larry Boyce & Associates, reknowned for their travels, as well as for the extreme quality and beauty of their work, garnered a great deal of national publicity, appearing on the Today Show and Evening Magazine, as well as in the New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine, and Old House Journal. This publicity led to many commissions with the rich and famous including Bette Midler, Jessica McClintock, Danny Glover, and the Office of the Vice President in Washington, D.C. Zaffle began teaching in 1986, and started his own decorative painting company in 1987. He has taught at the Joanne Day Studio in San Francisco and is currently an instructor of decorative painting at the University of California, Berkeley, is an instructor/lecturer with the Stencil Artisans League, Inc. and teaches at various private schools throughout the U.S. and Europe, as well as in his own school at Lake Tahoe, California.
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Other PDPA board members
Pierre Finkelstein • Nicola Vigini • Pascal Amblard • Andre Martinez • Mark Cole • Sean Crosby • Dean Sickler • Gary Lord • Janie Ellis • Ilia Anossov • Aaron Cohen • Lucretia Moroni • Cathy Connor • Barth White • George Zaffle
