Ann Arbor muralist Martin Soo Hoo brings a piece the European master artists into the Michigan’s finest homes.

Soo Hoo paints elaborate ceiling and wall murals in Ann Arbor and around Michigan, giving life to hovering angels, fiery dragons, flocking doves and more. His work appears in private residences and in businesses.

Looking at his work, Soo Hoo said, “is like having a daydream with your eyes open.”

Drawing inspiration from the classics -- he hopes to begin work on a mural that will borrow elements from Russian artist Karl Briullov’s “The Last Day of Pompeii” -- most of Soo Hoo’s murals are in the Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo traditions.

Soo Hoo spent six months working on the domed ceiling in a master bedroom suite west of Ann Arbor, near Pleasant Lake and Zeeb roads. The ceiling mural included more than 40 angels clustered around ropes of garland and was done in a tea-wash linen to give it subtle and muted tones.

“When you wake up you don’t need strong and boisterous colors and figures to greet you,” Soo Hoo said.

The work was inspired by a turn of the century black-and-white print the homeowner had found in a Parisian flea market, Soo Hoo said. While the angels float in the shallow dome, paintings of doves, bows and arrows, stylistic bouquets of flowers and other wildlife border them.

A chandelier, selected to coordinate with the painted dome, hangs in the center. The angels were inspired by 19th Century painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau’s “Birth of Venus.”

Like most of Soo Hoo’s residential customers, the owner of the house admired classical art.

“She traveled to Europe a lot and to a number of European museums. She loved classical art and wished to have something of museum quality work done in her home,” he said.

Soo Hoo said he works for families who have a combination of “eclecticism and appreciation,” with appreciation including the budget for his art.

The cost of projects varies with the detail, but Soo Hoo said his hourly charge is similar to that of a skilled plumber or electrician. The Ann Arbor master suite dome cost about $80,000, he said.

While Soo Hoo said his work reflects the taste of his customers, sometime it reflects the customers, literally: A Grosse Pointe couple commissioned a ceiling mural with angels for their French Provencal-style. Soo Hoo painted more than three-dozen angels in the dome. Two of them look like the couple.

“The husband and wife wanted to be included, so I asked to see their baby pictures,” Soo Hoo said.

And some of his customers want to meld the classics with present day: He has a proposal to paint a wall mural in the home of a Barton Hills family that would borrow from “The Destruction of Pompeii,” only pitting the University of Michigan against Ohio State University football teams, Soo Hoo said.

The husband, he said, is a U-M football fan. The wife, he said, was leaning toward a Chicago skyline.

Soo Hoo said he also works outside of the classics.

An Ann Arbor homeowner wanted to combine the classics with the abstract as a way to tie her antique and modern furnishings together. She commissioned Soo Hoo to paint classic looking corner frames around the dining area chandelier but a modern abstract of the Portofino coastline of northern Italy on the ceiling above the kitchen island.

“She wanted to show that modern and classic can live in harmony,” Soo Hoo said.

Soo Hoo said his murals are meant to last at least a hundred years and his methods will allow for restoration after that. While he uses water-based artists paints for the mural, they are on top of a masonry primer that will make the painting last.

Soo Hoo has worked for some the state’s most notable families, although confidentiality agreements prohibit him from talking about some of them. He painted a domed ceiling in a conservatory in Grosse Pointe, the former home of the Stroh brewery family. He also painted a wall mural in the powder room of the home of the DeVos (the family that founded Amway) in Grand Rapids.

Soo Hoo -- who has also worked on public projects such as the Michigan Theater entryway and organ and the Detroit Opera House -- says his work adds a page to history.

“My customers want to make their estates worthy of historic designation,” he said.

To see more of his work, go to gallery.me.com/martinsoohoo1.