Painting decorative flowers on artex ceiling

The way we do it is try to remove the stains with some sugar soap first. Normally the stains are quite bad so this is a fast effective way to do it. If that fails use some zinser it’s a solvent stain blocking paint or there is a water based version, simply paint on and leave to dry and once you repaint the stain or black marks will cover and not bleed through your emulsion. Hope this helps.

You will need to be careful regarding artex. Though recent applications are safe, for the largest part of Artex's history it has been made using asbestos as a fire retardant. Any chipping or removing should be avoided at all costs and instead have a professional abatement team, that you can google online, come in and professionally remove the artex. However, since you are simply wanting to paint flowers on the ceiling - it depends on what colour the previous paintwork is and also regarding any stains they will, as previously mentioned, need to be covered with a coat of Zinsser BIN which is a shellac based product, which in itself has a high amount of volatile organic compounds, so be safe when using it by wearing the appropriate health and safety equipment - my recommendation would be at least gloves, long sleeves top and since it is on the ceiling - goggles/glasses and a FFP2 mask, which you can buy in places like Wickes. The shellac will act as a good blocker for any colour you would wish to apply and cover any previous stains. BIN does dry off white, so presuming your ceiling is white you will need to then apply an emulsion, my advice would be vinyl matt for it's high polymer/plastic content that allows it to stretch over the individual nibs of the artex. As I mentioned earlier though, these nibs and the overall structure of the artex is likely to contain asbestos. My advice would be to use a professional if in doubt such as myself, or if you do attempt yourself, please be very careful.