Painting

Old Bay is painting Baltimore blue and gold. The Summer of Baytriotism, a season-long celebration of the distinctive blend of 18 herbs and spices, kicked off at a Thursday morning press conference at Miss Shirley's. The Summer of Baytriotism will celebrate Old Bay and its Baltimore roots with a gigantic Old Bay can downtown, Baltimore-centric billboards, a restaurant promotion, the launch of Old Bay radio and a new application for smartphones and tablets. The promotion's visual highlight sits on the corner of Pratt and President streets, where the PMI garage has been crowned with the world's largest Old Bay can. The oversized can of Old Bay is set to stay on display for one year according to Old Bay's vice president of marketing Jill Pratt.

A Baltimore landlord with a long history of violating lead-paint poisoning laws was sentenced Wednesday to a year and a day in prison by a federal judge, who called the now-bankrupt businessman a "scofflaw. " Cephus Murrell, 69, of Catonsville sat impassively in U.S. District Court as Judge Benson E. Legg imposed the sentence, which included six months' home detention after release from prison. Murrell owned and managed 175 rental units in Baltimore, officials said, all built before lead paint was banned.

Gaia - a young artist who's the brains behind a massive mural project around Baltimore's Station North neighborhood - likes to say the work isn't a traditional political statement. Yet listen to him talk, and he sounds a little bit like a community organizer with an awful lot of spray paint. "What were doing here is creating a social bridge, connecting different socioeconomic backgrounds," Gaia said of the more than 20 murals and sculpture pieces scattered through the arts district and the nearby Greenmount West neighborhood.

Tanger Outlets is celebrating its grand re-opening after renovations with today's Summer Savings Bash. The daylong event at the former Ocean City Factory Outlets includes a concert at 7:30 p.m. featuring Kris Allen, the winner of American Idol's 8th season, along with games, face-painting, rock-climbing, prizes and special savings for shoppers. Fireworks will top off the evening. Go to http://www.tangeroutlet.com/oceancity/events for more info.

A Baltimore jury on Wednesday awarded $1.3 million in damages to a 17-year-old girl, finding that negligence by the Housing Authority of Baltimore City was a substantial factor in lead-paint poisoning she suffered as a young girl. Amafica Woodland lived in a now-demolished house in the Flag House Courts housing project in East Baltimore until she was nearly 3. Her attorney, Scott Nevin, said he expected the award to be reduced to $690,000 because of a state cap on non-economic damages.

Timothy S. Reuwer, an artist who was the co-owner of the Happy Hollow plant nursery, died of cancer Friday at St. Joseph Medical Center. The Cockeysville resident was 59. Born in Baltimore and raised in Hunt Valley, he attended the Boys' Latin School and Baltimore County public schools. Nearly 30 years ago, he and Sue Bloodgood, who would become his wife, founded Happy Hollow Nursery in Cockeysville. They cultivated and sold numerous varieties of day lilies and hostas, among other perennials.

The question had been nagging for almost the entire half-hour spent seated at the kitchen table of Mary Veiga and Jeff Lipkin's home in Baltimore. Just as the urge to know the cost of a thick, pure slab of marble on the kitchen counter is about to trump politeness, the answer is freely given. "The counter is painted to look like white marble," explained Veiga, 44, a decorative painter and muralist who also dabbles in trompe l'oeil , the painting style designed to trick the eye. "I like to keep with the style of a house; otherwise it doesn't make sense.

The Baltimore housing department received a $2.9 million federal grant Friday to clean up poisonous lead paint found in the walls of thousands of city buildings. Baltimore will receive $2.9 million from the federal government to fix lead-paint hazards in more than 200 homes, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced Friday — a vote of confidence in the city's efforts to resolve past problems with its abatement program. "It's a tremendous boost to our work in protecting children from lead-paint poisoning," said Ken Strong, an assistant city housing commissioner who began overseeing the program last year after Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake moved it from the health department to the housing agency.

Lutherville resident David Kressin, a professional house painter for nearly 20 years, recently released a new DVD "Take a Professional Painter Home with You," designed to teach the average person how to paint an interior room in several concise steps. "The paint industry assumes everyone knows the basic painting fundamentals or recommends taping everything in the room," Kressin said. "If I painted the way most online videos teach, I would be out of business. " He said the video, "illustrates the fundamentals and tricks of the trade, which aren't hard.

With some paint and glazes, a few tools and a little time, a plain, functional front door can become a home's welcoming statement, with the rich colors and grains of oak or mahogany. A concrete column can look like marble, a ceiling can become a cloud-dappled sky and old cabinets can get new life. To get those looks and more, all homeowners have to do is go to school. The Faux School, founded in Frederick by artist Ron Layman, 41, offers classes on decorative painting techniques to amateurs and professionals alike.