Wine Label Illustration

As I have mentioned in this blog before, I love the diversity of doing different types of projects – so I was excited to get started on this illustration for a wine label!

I was contacted by two couples who had worked with an outfit to make their own wine.  They are now getting close to the bottling part of the process and needed to come up with a label for their creation. Rather than taking the usual path of using stock images for their label, however, they wanted to do something to reflect the fact that their wine was hand-crafted by friends. They were looking for something distinctive and special that would make the fruits of their labor more enjoyable from the moment they pull each bottle off the rack.

 As a first step, they needed a name…

The group made their wine through the winter, so they wanted the name to reference the historic weather this year.  Being from Connecticut, however, they decided to go more tongue-in-cheek with the name and reference the fact that in their area, they saw more hype and warnings than actual blizzards!

 After talking with them about the wine and what they wanted, I came back with 2 concepts.  The first was all about the hype they reference with the wine name, while with the second I wanted to create a much quieter image and focus on the look and feel of a winter day before a storm hits.

 After looking at the different ideas, the couples chose to go with the second concept.  To complement their wine, they liked the quiet beauty of the scene with the hint of something stronger in the background.  With this decision in hand, I created the final piece below and will be working with a local printer to deliver the final touch for this wine project!

Decorative painting projects

If you are looking decorating ideas to add some character to a space, decorative painting is a great option.  The term “decorative painting” can cover a lot of ground – but here are some recent projects that give some idea of what can be done.

The first example is a painted kitchen backsplash.  The goal with this project was to add more interest to the counter area and create a better visual flow between this open kitchen and the adjacent rooms.  To do this, we worked with the colors of the kitchen itself, but we also pulled in some of the warmer reds and a touch of mustard yellow from the dining room and living room on either end of this space.  The pattern also ties to the graphic feel of the living room carpet, and the staggering of the colors is purposely random to give it a looser, less formal look.  Working with paint saves money vs. tile, but also gives all the flexibility to do whatever you need to get the exact look you are going for – like we were able to do with this project.  Below are the before and after shots:

Before

After

Decorative painting can also be used with furniture or even an accent piece.  For another recent project, I applied a painted and antiqued look to a small wooden stand.  The original stand was not in great shape and was finished in a standard mahogany-color stain that blended into the background of the room.  To transition this piece from bland to dynamic, we decided on this paint finish.  We wanted the end result to be a brighter color for some pop, so we went with a lighter blue color with a touch of grey to tone it down just a bit.  Part of the antique look was to do a “crackle” finish, which shows the color under the final coat.  To maximize this , we used an antique yellow color to contrast with blue while enhancing the aged effect.  I also did a little surface standing at the end to show some wear, so there is a coat of off-white under the yellow for a little more depth in those few places where this color shows through.  Finally, I used some stain that I quickly buffed off to replicate the affect of age and use.  The end result now adds the pop to the room that we were looking for, and is just a fun piece to look at!

Finally, decorative painting can be a great way to add some texture, depth and even color variation to a room.  The first example below is a wall opposite the backsplash.  Our goal was to keep the overall color in the same family as the other walls which we did not faux finish, but to also bring in some of the blue from the counter as well as some of the warm dark tan from the living room.  Adding texture enhances the warm feel of this nook and goes perfectly with the distressed look of the chairs. 

I also used similar finish technique for this bathroom project.  In this case, we wanted make this small, previously dull bathroom feel like a special place.  To do this, we pulled in some of the gray of the tiles together with two shades of green to create this rich but fun feel:

The last project was another bathroom, but in this case we were going for a different look. Here, we went with a glazing technique to add texture and give the room a subtle old-world feel:

Happy painting!

Commissioned 3'x4' Tuscan window scene

When I first met with Cathie, it was to look at a challenging space in her home that she wanted to do something with, but she was not sure exactly what. 

Cathie’s house has an addition with a vaulted roof, and the area where the addition meets the original house features a large triangle shape wall that starts at ceiling height and continues up the peak of the roof.  The result is a big blank wall that is 17’ wide at the bottom and about 15’ high at the point of the triangle.  Below is a snapshot of the wall:

 In looking through the room and the rest of the house, I was able to get a sense of Cathie’s tastes color scheme.  From other paintings, I could see that Cathie prefers realism, but also paintings with a looser, almost impressionist style.  The color scheme includes yellows, gold, reds, browns and sage/olive green.  I also talked to Cathie about her interests, and things she might like in a painting.  In this conversation, we talked about Italian/Tuscan scenes, the French countryside, vines/flowers, adobe buildings and the painter Pino.

We then traded pictures and talked about different ideas for images that would work.  We both looked at Italian landscapes, but ultimately decided that a landscape might look out of place at the height at which the painting would be hung.  In these exchanges, Cathie shared the idea of doing a window – which was the perfect approach for the space while also capturing all of the colors and interests we had discussed.

 Once we settled on the idea of a window, we looked at various source images to get a sense of exactly what the painting should look like.  In the end, we found a few different images and I compiled different elements (plus a few from my imagination) to come up with the final composition.

Before starting work on the final 3 foot by 4 foot canvas, I did a painting sketch to review with Cathie and get her input. Below is a picture of this sketch:

Cathie was happy with it, but wanted to do only one background window to clean up the composition a bit, and she wanted a little more color in the foreground flowers.  Below is the final painting and a picture of it hanging in the challenging spot where our conversations started:

Best of all, Cathie was thrilled with the painting, how it looked in her house and how it ended up being exactly what she needed for this previously big blank space!

Commissioned Dog Portrait

A little while back in this blog, I talked about how much I love the diversity of projects I get to work on – and my most recent project is another great example!

Pam has a portrait of her own dog and had the idea to have me paint her sister’s dog Gus as a birthday gift.  The process started with the picture below, but I also met with Pam to talk about what she wanted to see in the painting.  Her sister likes this particular picture, so including the rug and the chair were going to be important, but we also wanted to make sure Gus was the hero of the final piece.  In addition to capturing the appearance of Gus, we also talked about his personality to make sure I could show that as much as possible – so understanding Gus is a sweet, feisty, playful and mischievous dog was essential.

Pam did not want to include the red kerchief, and we talked about cropping out the hardwood floor and pillow and deleting the chair leg to clean up the composition.  I also simplified the chair and pulled it in closer to overlap with Gus so that were not too many lines to pull the viewer’s eye away from the dog.

Finally, I shifted Gus’ gaze slightly upward to make him look more at the viewer.  I also accentuated his crouch slightly to make it look like he is ready to spring into action!

The best part is when I delivered the painting to Pam and her first words were “You nailed it!  That’s Gus!!”

 Enjoy,

Jason

A Collaborative Mural Panel Landscape

Adam is a contractor who had the unique idea to turn a reclaimed 52” x 50” window into an unforgettable Christmas gift for his wife Sarah.  When Adam first reached out, his thought was to have me paint a scene on the 35 glass panes to give the effect of looking at the scene through the window.  After our initial collaboration, we decided instead to paint a mural panel to attach to the window in order to create the same effect, but avoid the challenges of how easily paint chips off of glass.

The first step was to meet with Adam and Sarah to see the space where this mural panel would be installed and to get their thoughts on what they would like to see in the final scene.  Sarah started with the idea of a field of red poppies.  As we talked further, she shared that she liked the bold patterns of Marimekko and also the paintings of Karen Tusinski.  In looking through my work, she also enjoyed to the folk-style I used on some of the furniture and fine art pieces.  She talked about how she was drawn to the pattern-like approach of Marimekko and Tusinski, but also liked the detail of my work.  In the end, she felt the best approach for this piece would to be somewhere between these two looks, with a focus on colors and textures.  For the color palette, we had the reds of the poppies to work with, but also looked at the colors in their house and decided to incorporate the wall color this piece would hang on (a pale grey-purple) as well as an adjacent hallway (pale grey-green) and room (grey-blue).  When we talked about the feel of the scene, she liked the idea of staying away from an overly bright/cheery mid-day scene and instead focus on the colors and light of a sunset.  As a final element, Sarah wanted to include her mother’s barn, for which both she and Adam have a sentimental attachment.

After this meeting, I put together 3 different concepts – which are basically painting “sketches”- to show different approaches to how we could look at combining these elements.  I also created a template of the window to lay over these concepts to show how the final installation would look.  When I did the first 2 concepts, I did not yet have pictures of the actual barn, so I used a “generic” structure as a placeholder.  In the first sketch, I leaned more in the direction of the folk style, while in the second, I went more in the bold/pattern-like direction.  With the third concept, I tried to incorporate both – with the clean look of folk but keeping with Sarah’s idea of focusing patterns, colors and textures.

Concept #1

Concept #2

Concept #3

Concept #3 with window template

The next meeting was to review these concepts with Sarah, and number 3 was a clear winner for her.  To make sure I transferred what Sarah liked about the concept to the final piece, I asked for specifics of what she liked.  She shared that she liked the asymmetry of the poppies on the left, the “blotchy” painting style, the accentuated highlights on the petals, the consistency of the red between the poppies and the small accents in the barn and the combination of the patterned/Marimekko look with the folk style.

With that, I was back to my studio with a 52”x50” piece of plywood.  I started by laying a grid over the concept to proportionally correspond with a grid I drew on the prepped final board.  Since Sarah liked the concept, this approach helped insure that the sized-up version has the same layout.  In painting this panel, I used a lot of layers to build depth, richness and interest.  For example, the poppy petals use 4 different colors of red.  The first layers used smooth blending of the darkest and next lighter shade to create shape, while the last 2 layers of lighter shades were applied in looser and more abstract patterns to create the final look.  The background uses the same approach, with 13 different shades of green making up the field.

The final result was a hit and captured exactly what Sarah and Adam were looking for!  They are excited to mount it with the window so they can start to enjoy the new view.

The final panel

Putting a Home Under the Christmas Tree

When Meg began thinking of Christmas presents for her husband Dan, she decided she wanted to do something that he would cherish for years to come.

Both Meg and Dan had seen my paintings online and in person, and when Meg saw my painting of Martha’s backyard shed she got the idea to have me do a painting of their home.  The key word here is “home” instead of “house”.  What makes the house special to Meg and Dan is the life they have built together there with their two sons.  When Meg saw the final painting, she thought about not only how special it would be for Dan, but also how it would be something that her sons would always have and cherish as well. 

One of the challenges in this painting is the season.  Taking pictures now gave me a lot of the information I needed, but in talking with Meg, we decided that showing the house in spring would be the best way to capture the picture she was looking for. Below is the picture I worked from and the final painting, showing the educated guesses I needed to make on the surrounding landscape!

As we looked at pictures and walked around the house, Meg wanted to make sure the lawn in the painting was a lush green to honor all the work Dan puts into it.  She also wanted to make sure I captured the flag out front.

We then talked about the painting style she preferred and what would work best to achieve her goals.  We looked at my primitive trunk, the folk-style Nantucket sailboat and the painting of Martha’s shed.  Ultimately, we decided something between the clean and precise look of the Nantucket sailboat and the feel of Martha’s shed would fit the bill.

Meg can’t wait to give the painting to Dan and to hang it in the front hallway as people enter the door so their family and friends can enjoy it right as they enter the house.

Painting a Memory

Coming up with the perfect Christmas gift is often a challenge, and when it comes to that perfect gift for dads – it seems like it is always a challenge. The process of pondering this dilemma is how my most recent client came to me.  Matt had seen my other paintings online and got the idea for making this year’s gift a memorable one.

Rather than getting something his dad may be able to use, Matt decided to go with something he definitely would cherish.  Digging back into the photo archives, Matt found this special shot of he and his father from over 20 years ago when Matt was about 9 years old.  Matt’s dad loved his boat and loved his times on this boat with family even more. 

As I have the opportunity to work with more clients, I am struck by the precious memories I am trusted to capture in a painting.  I always want people to love the paintings I do for them, but in cases like this painting for my client Matt, I also feel a responsibility to honor that trust.  I also love the picture and could immediately see why it is special to Matt and his father.

Since this is a portrait, my first goal was to make sure I captured the faces.  Beyond that, it was important to keep a little of the “old” look to the picture to maintain some of the charm while still brightening it a bit to bring out the details and the summer-day feeling.  In talking with Matt, the only other enhancements we wanted to make were to subdue the trees a bit to push them further into the background and of course drop the date stamp.  Finally, I wanted to balance the importance of being accurate to the photo while still having a touch of the paintbrush apparent to add a little something to the final piece that is more than the photo itself.

I delivered the painting to Matt this morning and am looking forward to hearing his father’s reaction!

“Thanksgiving Sky”

George Winston’s album “December” is a long-time favorite of mine.  There is a somber but still joyful feeling about this collection of songs that makes me pull it back out every year as the holidays approach. 

There was something about this scene that had the same kind of appeal for me.  I love patterns, so a big part of the draw was the shapes these trees make.  What made it a subject worthy of painting, though, was more the mood of the view.  It has a peaceful feel that, together with the obvious ‘November in the Northeast’ look, brought me to the same quiet but joyful place that George Winston’s album does. 

Painting this made me think about the drive to see family on Thanksgiving, which inspired the title “Thanksgiving Sky”. I hope you enjoy some of the same feelings looking at it here!

It is now on display at the New England Artisan Gallery on Route 1A in Wrentham, MA for anyone local who is interested in checking it out.   

Happy Thanksgiving!

A View Back

Sometimes a painting is about a feeling as much as it is about the subject - which is what I tried to capture with my latest painting. 

Martha wanted to refresh her kitchen with a special painting, and asked me to capture the view out of the back of her house. The spot itself is beautiful, but I know it means much more to Martha than a nice vista. It is also about family and memories and the peaceful, quiet feeling of the place.  It is this peaceful, quiet feeling that I focused on.

When painting a scene like this, picking the right composition is key.  I wanted to get the full view but also wanted to make it so that no one part of the painting overwhelms everything else.  Certainly, the shed should stand out, but setting it off to the side and subduing the colors helps it blend more into the whole painting and allows your eye to move around to the other elements of the scene.  Editing is also important.  While a painting like this needs to be accurate, there are things like a corner of a fence and another much larger wood pile that I omitted because they would have detracted from the overall composition.

Another key focus of this painting was the colors.  To create the quiet mood, I needed to avoid vivid colors.  Using an overcast fall day helped, but I greyed back the colors even further than the original photo to make a final piece that doesn’t reach out and grab the viewer so much as it subtlety pulls the viewer in.

The small, digital version I have here doesn’t quite have the same impact as the 18”x24” original, but I hope you enjoy spending some time taking in the feeling of the painting as much as I enjoyed painting it.

The original photo

The final painting

Completed Illustrations and Story for Children’s Book!

As I had mentioned in an earlier blog post, my wife Gwynne had written a children’s book a while back that has been waiting for illustrations – which are now complete! 

As you can hopefully see from the story and pictures below, this book is meant to be interactive.  We want each of these little mini-stories to be a jumping off place for the reader to make up different possibilities of where the story can go from there.  This was inspired by our experience reading to our own kids, and the endless number of nights we could read books like this and have fun telling stories every time.

With these illustrations, my goal was to capture the scene and the mood of the story, but also give the tools and inspiration for kids to be engaged.  In the scenes with the little girl, you will see hints of images that then appear in the next “story” image.  And with these “story” images, I wanted to give just enough to spark kids’ imaginations without limiting options for where the story can go. 

Our next step is to try to get this published – but in the meantime, enjoy!

"And So Our Story Goes..."

In the quite light of a Saturday spring morning, you sit on the stone front stoop to have a simple picnic.

"Daddy, bring your coffee." You say, and we look out at the brown and muddy garden waking up.

"Once upon a time there was a butterfly and a balloon and a flower as fragile as glass," you begin.  And so our story goes...

Under the hazy heat of a midday summer sun, you dangle all ten toes in our pintsized plastic pool.

"Daddy, bring your towel." You say, and we look at the ripples our dancing cold toes make.

"Once upon a time there was a white perch and a willow and a shell as black as night," you begin.  And so our story goes...

Wrapped inside a blanket keeping out the late day wind of fall, you sit on our back porch while a pumpkin waits for carving.

"Daddy, bring your scooping spoon." You say, and we try to hold the slimy seeds as they slip between our fingers.

"Once upon a time there was a crow and a candle and a leaf as bright as gold," you begin.  And so our story goes...

Beside a hungry fire, while snow falls beneath cold stars, you snuggle under blankets and curl your toes inside wool socks.

"Daddy, bring your coco." You say, and we stare at the wild flames as they snap against red brick.

"Once upon a time there was a deer and a drum and a tree as brave as you", you begin.  And so our story goes...

Watching by your bedside as the moonlight bathes your skin, I think of the fine stories your once upon a times always make.

"Good night sweet heart, I love you." I say, and I notice your quiet shape hidden happily beneath the sheets.

"Once upon a time there was a girl and her father and a world as wide as wonder," I begin.  And so our story goes.

Masking a Cell Tower with Faux Brick Painting

Have you ever seen those not-so-convincing cell towers made to look like pine trees?  I recently learned there is an entire industry of companies who provide ways to hide cell towers – and unlike the pine trees, the results can be extremely convincing.

My experience in this space started when an old colleague from the print world forwarded me an email from a friend of hers who was looking for scenic painters.  While my actual “scenic” work is limited to a few small projects I did for the drama group in college, I reached out to see if my mural/artist/house-painter skills would be applicable.

After an introductory phone-call, I made a trip up to visit Atlantic Concealment in Maine where they produce many different styles of enclosures.  The project they were working on at the time was a brick enclosure that was going on the roof of a building in Connecticut.  They do this by creating panels out of special dense foam and then stamp a brick pattern on the surface that gets painted uniform “mortar” and “brick” colors.  In this case, the building was older and had a lot of variation in the brick colors, so the uniform brick color was not a natural enough match to blend with the existing structure.

My task was to go on-site in Connecticut so I could see the existing brick first hand and mix colors to match.  After some challenges with rain (of course), I was able to dig in.  It turned out to be a fun challenge not only to match all of the colors, but also to figure out how to replicate the patterns of color variation, stains and wear that were on the building itself.   

Following are some pictures from the job – including the “before” shot of the pre-painted panels, an “after” shot of a panel, and the final installed result.  For more on this – Google images for “cell tower concealment” to see some of the ways cell towers all around you are hidden!

An example of the panels before my retouching

After the matching process!

The panels installed

Sneak Peak at Illustrations for Up-Coming Children’s Book

A while ago, my wife Gwynne wrote a children’s book that has been waiting for me to do the illustrations.  I was able to get a start this week, and I have been thoroughly enjoying it!

At this point, I have about half of them done – so I will follow up in my blog with the full text of the story along with the illustrations when it is all complete.  For now, I have posted the illustrations I have done below.  The basic story is about a girl and her father experiencing everyday life while the girl starts to tell fanciful stories.  For example, in the first illustration, the father and daughter are having a picnic on their front stone stoop looking at the garden when the little girl starts her story with: “Once upon a time there was a butterfly, and a balloon, and a flower as fragile as glass”. The idea of the book is to open up the rest of each story for the readers to make up on their own.

Enjoy!

A Painting of a Special Place

In addition to finding new people to collaborate with through BlackBeak studios, I have also been fortunate enough to do some work with friends and family.

My latest piece is for my brother Matt, who asked me to honor a special place with a painting.  As I had mentioned in a previous post, my brothers and I do an annual camping trip in the Adirondacks. Every year we camp on a little lake called Huntley Pond and every year we hike to a spot on the Hudson River called the Blue Ledge.  Depending on the time of year and weather, we may jump in – but usually, we just enjoy the beauty of the place and throw sticks for Matt and/or Ian’s dogs to fetch.

This tradition started 20 years ago with my father and my older brother Matt (my younger brothers Danny and Ian were too young to join back then).  20 years ago we camped on Huntley Pond and hiked to the Blue Ledge.  The first time we made the trek to the Blue Ledge, we didn’t come prepared for the swim – but it was a hot day and the river was calling us in.  Since nobody was around (we were in the middle of nowhere, after all), we stripped down to our underwear and started to head in to the water with our dad in the lead. 

Which leads us to the first of many memories of this trip and this spot.  As our dad waded in to his waist, a raft full of about 15 people came around the bend.  Matt and I had not jumped into the water yet, so we quickly retrieved our shorts.  Our dad was in deep though, and – all while giggling – he made for the shore, soaking wet in his underwear.  Making it a funnier scene (particularly for Matt and me), the raft turned to pull up on our beach and unintentionally chased our dad all the way up where his shorts were!

This year was overcast and much colder than that first trip, so there were no swimming antics.  Instead, I took some photos and talked with my brothers about our memories of the place.  In this painting, I wanted to capture the bend in the river (around which the raft came), the rocks we often play on, a bit of the beach we hang out on – and of course the ledge itself.

Four New Pieces for Gallery Open House

On October 18th, I will be one of about 25 local artists participating in an open house at the New England Artisan Gallery on Route 1A in Wrentham, MA.  I just dropped of my pieces today and they will be there for a month – but I will be there on the 18th to join the Open House from noon to 8:00pm. If you are not familiar with the New England Artisan Gallery, it is where Stephen Staples shows his (amazing) furniture crafted from reclaimed wood.  Check them out at http://www.staplescabinetmakers.com/

To prepare for this, I put together four new pieces that I am showing along with two older ones.  The last piece I finished is this 16”x20” oil painting of a small lake in the Adirondacks called Huntley Pond.  I do a camping trip there every year with my brothers, and this is from a photo I took on the last day of our trip at the end of September.  The weather was amazing, and we were basking in the beauty of the place before we had to pack up.  I have done paintings of the surface of water before, but I couldn’t resist capturing this one in paint.

Also new and at the show is this 9”x12” painting, which is a view from the Olson house in Port Clyde, Maine.  You may remember from an earlier post that the Olson house was made famous by Andrew Wyeth (this is where he painted “Christina’s World”).  The path in the background actually leads to Wyeth’s grave.  In addition to the power of the place (I am a huge Wyeth fan), I loved this tree and the patterns of light through the branches together with the “V” pattern of the trees and ocean in the background.

Finally, I painted 2 antique sleds that are also at the Artisan Gallery.  The sleds themselves are great, and they gave me the idea for these 2 scenes.

Also at the show is an 8”x10” oil painting I did on Monhegan Island and the primitive trunk I painted back in August.  Below are some shots of these pieces at the gallery.  

"Night Sledding" sled and trunk - with Huntley Pond painting in the background

I hope to see you at the Open House!

A Painting as a Christmas Gift - Bringing Summer Vacation to the Mantlepiece

I have come to thoroughly enjoy the challenges of working in different styles and painting on everything from walls to furniture to canvas.  Even more than this though, some of the most fun I have had painting is from working with client’s ideas.

Deb is a recent client who saw my mural panel at The Sweatshop gym in Medfield and then checked out my website.  When she saw my primitive trunk, she got the idea to have me do a primitive-style oil painting of a photo she took on her family’s vacation this past August.  This is going to be a Christmas present for her husband (since her husband is not yet aware of BlackBeak studios, it is safe to write this post without ruining the surprise!).  Deb and her husband love the shot, feeling that it captures the magic of their Nantucket vacation while also having a great patriotic feel to it. 

When Deb sent the photo (see below), I did a little research to get ideas of how I could work a little more realistic than my previous primitive painting to address the challenges of this image. This is when I discovered James Bard, who was a painter in the 1800’s.  James Bard is known for his paintings of boats, which are beautiful – and a perfect fit for what I wanted to accomplish with this painting!  To make sure I was on the right track, I had Deb look at James Bard’s works and her response was that it was “spot on!”

My first focus was the drawing itself.  Often times, my pre-painting drawings are loose sketches that really just map out the subject on the canvas.  For this painting, though – I knew I needed to be precise.  If anything in my drawing wasn’t exactly right, the painting would look off.

As soon as I had the drawing done, I was excited to jump into painting the water – as Bard’s treatment of water is a big part of what drew me to his work. I then worked on the sky, focusing on making the clouds more dramatic and picturesque than realistic (as with James Bard’s work).  With the need to be precise on the boats, I also needed the sky and water to dry before I could start creating all the details of the boats.

With a lot of referencing the photo for accuracy and some deep breaths while painting the many straight lines, I got the boats complete and let Deb know her painting was ready.  I always like to know what the final recipient thinks of their painting – and with Deb’s excitement to hang the final piece, she shared that I may not have to wait until Christmas to find out!

The gift of a painting… Bringing a piece of “old home” into a new home

Kelley is an avid outdoorsman who grew up in Dover, MA.  After college and a few years in Washington DC, Kelley and his wife Amy settled back in Massachusetts in nearby Needham. Together with their 2 daughters, they lived in Needham for many years – until Kelley was offered a fantastic career opportunity in Georgia.

Always up for an adventure, Amy and the girls were in full support and off to Georgia they went!  They have been in Georgia for about a year now and are settled in a beautiful home in Augusta. 

Fast-forward to today, Kelley’s birthday is just around the corner and Amy wanted something special for Kelley and their new home – which is when she reached out to me.  This was a fantastic project.  Knowing Kelley, I was thrilled to come up with the perfect painting for him!

Starting with direction from Amy – who likes my outdoors paintings of water and trees – it didn’t take long to come up with my subject.  I started with a trip to Kelley’s hometown of Dover with my camera.  Knowing that Kelley is an outdoorsman, I decided to focus on the Charles River, which winds right through the heart of Dover.  My goal was to create something beautiful for Kelley and Amy’s home, but also to give Kelley a little piece of “home”.  After taking my study photos (making sure to incorporate some fall foliage), I was off to the studio.

The composition I chose was aimed at giving the feel of the Charles.  The lily pads and the stream of floating moss are common sites on this section of the Charles, and I also wanted to get the full view of the river – from rocky bottom to the growth and foliage on the other side.  Finally, Amy had shared pictures of rooms in their home, so I also made sure to pick a scene that would work well to the colors in their house.

The painting arrived in Georgia earlier this week.  While Kelley’s birthday is not for another 2 weeks, it is already on the wall – giving both Kelley and Amy a little bit of Massachusetts for their Georgia home.

Adding an Ocean-Side View with a Mural in Cape Cod Home

Bob and Marylou’s house in West Barnstable, MA is just a few miles from Sandy Neck beach, but it still requires a drive to enjoy a view of the ocean.  Or at least it used to!

My challenge was to transition a 7’ x 8’ wall of Bob and Marylou’s kitchen into an ocean-scape (below is the "before" picture). To do this right, I started with a trip to the beach with my camera.  The key here is that I wanted to make sure my mural not only captured the beauty of the ocean, but that it also looked specifically like the view at Sandy Neck beach. 

With pictures in hand, my next challenge was to choose the right colors.  One of the things I love about painting the ocean is the colors you see under the surface of the water, and how these colors change with distance and with waves.  Below is a shot of the “under-painting” that shows these colors. A couple of days after this stage was done, Marylou shared that she and Bob went to the ocean the night before (which is a nightly ritual of theirs) and the colors were identical to the ones in my painting!

The next step was to paint the surface of the water – which is really just a reflection of the sky in the pattern of the waves and ripples.  For this part, I chose to use my airbrush, which nicely handles the soft quality of the reflected light while still letting some of the under-color show through. 

To add a Sandy Neck finishing touch, I chose to show detailed rocks in the foreground.  For anyone who has not been to Sandy Neck beach – the name is misleading as it is a particularly rocky beach!

Now that the mural is complete, Bob is looking for a perfect recording of the sounds of the ocean, with plans of setting up chairs in their kitchen in front of their new ocean view when bad weather gets in the way of their nightly beach trip!

A Dynamic Mural for a Dynamic Business

I recently had the challenge and pleasure of creating a piece that was as dynamic as the business owner I was working with – which in this case was a tall order!

The project was an 8.5 foot by 4 foot mural on a panel that is hanging on a wall facing customers when they first walk in the door of The Sweatshop gym in Medfield, MA (www.thesweatshop.fitness).  The gym is owned by Robin Shean, who is a dynamic 54 year-old instructor who makes her students work extremely hard and feel good doing it.  Robin is incredibly fit (that is her back featured in the mural), but the most important thing about Robin’s approach is her focus on overall strength.  To Robin, strength isn’t just about the physical part, but also the emotional component as well.  Her classes will make your muscles ache and leave you gasping for breath (I have experienced this first-hand!), but they also build confidence and determination.

My goal was to capture all of this in an image while maintaining The Sweatshop’s branding.  I met with Robin and talked through a couple of concepts I had put together (pictured below).  The physical strength I thought was captured well in the image of Robin’s back – which is also featured on her homepage.  To create a feeling of dynamic energy, I chose to use an “exploding” look of fading and splattering colors out from the core of the torso.  In the first concept, I used one of Robin’s key messages of “Strength”, where in the second concept I focused more on Robin’s heart logo (which is also a tattoo on her back).  Both of these were intended to represent the concept of overall strength that is so central to Robin’s approach. 

In discussing these two concepts, Robin liked the approach with the logo because it is consistently used in all of her materials and it is a great way of portraying the “heart” behind what she does.  We decided to emphasize the yellow more since that is one of her main colors (used in her marketing but also one of the walls in the gym) and Robin suggested we include “THE SWEATSHOP” at the bottom.  In looking around her space, I also decided to eliminate the greens and use more of the blues as they better matched her space and worked better to contrast with the flesh tones and red of the heart logo.  We really wanted the mural to have a strong visual impact as people come in to work out.

Following are some pictures showing the process of painting this mural.  Starting with the yellow, I then painted the expanding/fading blue using an airbrush:

Using this expanding/fading blue as my base, I then did the exploding/splatter look using various blues and some black (to tie in with the black lettering) spraying out from the center, while also splashing yellow to make the blend work better and create more drama:

Once this background was done, I could focus on painting Robin’s back.  My goal here was to make it realistic and detailed, but to not make it too detailed or with too much contrast so that it would still work with the logo over the top of it:

With this complete, I then put in the logo and lettering:

While I don’t know if it is possible to capture all of Robin’s dynamism and heart in one image, she did e-mail me with my favorite reaction to date: “OMG. It is bad ass!”

Happy painting,

Jason

Plein air painting in Port Clyde, Maine

So, when starting a new business, what is the logical thing to do?  Spend four days taking a plein air painting class in PortClyde, Maine of course…

While I doubted my decision on the long drive up, I soon realized that Todd Bonita’s class (toddbonitaworkshops.blogspot.com) was going to be fantastic.  Great instruction, beautiful views and an incredibly warm and talented group of people made 4 days of painting (already a blissful proposition) just amazing.

Plein air comes from the French phrase “en plein air”, which means “in the open air." Rather than painting in a studio, plein air painters literally haul their easel, canvas and gear out to their location of choice to paint in the elements. Doing a little research, I found that the popularity of plein air painting started to take off in the 1870’s because of the introduction of paint in tubes.  Before this, painters would mix their own paints with ground pigments and linseed oil – which would be difficult to pull off when hiking to your painting destination (trust me, it’s tricky enough with tubed paint).  French impressionists Monet and Renoir are a couple of the more well-known plein air painters, and Monet’s studies of wheat stacks in different seasons and times of day are a great example of what plein air painting offers that you can’t replicate in the studio.

The class started on the docks of fisherman’s cove right in Port Clyde.  Todd gave us pointers on everything from “studio habits” like how to arrange your paint on the palette for efficient color mixing (very helpful for me) to setting up gear for dealing with the challenges of outdoor painting to the basics of creating a good painting.   When planning a painting, Todd focused on the importance of first creating a good composition and then mapping out the values to make sure you include highlights, midtones and shadows.

Day 2 brought us to the Olson house where Andrew Wyeth (one of my favorite painters) painted the famous “Christina’s World” in addition to many of his other well-known works.  The painting was great, but for this part of the trip, the house itself was the highlight.  Walking through the house in the late afternoon made it clear why this house was such an inspiration to him.  This may sound like an over-statement, but it was just magical.  Below are a couple of shots that scratch the surface of the amazing light in this house:

Day 3 brought us to Monhegan island, which was beautiful.  Monhegan is a throw-back, with dirt paths instead of roads (the only cars are local pick-up trucks you can rent rides in) and a charm that screams New England.  Below are a few pictures: 

On Monhegan, I spent the day on the rocks painting a tidal pool and some great seaweed draped over the rocks.  I was completely absorbed in painting and realized when I was done that I was hungry (I forgot to eat lunch) and very sun-burned – but I was thrilled to be doing what I was doing.  Below is this painting:

To wrap it all up on the third day, we went to the Marshall Point lighthouse in Port Clyde.  Below is my last painting of the trip:

As the day wound down, we all packed up and said warm farewells with hopes we would run into each other again.  It’s hard to imagine all of Todd’s classes are filled with such great people, but I’m sure they all have the amazing views and excellent instruction.  If you have an itch to go outside and paint for 4 days, I highly recommend it!

Happy painting,

Jason

Recent Projects: Primitive Painted Trunk

Working in different spaces and with different people can mean painting in different styles — which was the case with my most recent project!

The room I was working with was a bedroom decorated in a clean, country style featuring a beautiful hand-made quilt.  At the foot of the bed was my project — a cedar trunk with a lid that was in rough shape (beyond the “added character” stage of wear). 

So - the challenge was to create something with the trunk that would add interest and beauty to the room while fitting with the overall country feel.  I also wanted to make sure that my painting on the lid of the trunk would “blend” with the sides of the piece - which has great character in the wood grain and signs of many years of use.

To accomplish all of this, I decided to do a primitive-style landscape and then “age” the finish to match the rest of the trunk. I had not done any primitive painting before, so I decided to do a good amount of online research to find a style that would capture the primitive look, but still go with the room.

Since I knew I would be “aging” my painting at the end, I started with an under-coating of different colors that I would paint over and then later reveal through a light sanding.  The first coat was a light tan, followed by a darker grey-blue.  Then for the sky, I chose a lighter blue that picked up on some of the blues in the quilt.

To complete the sky, I blended in a lighter yellow-tan color to create a feel of early morning/late afternoon and to add an antique feel to the painting.

Once this was complete, I started on the foreground.  My base-coat here was a darker grey, and then I used a brown paint to finalize my sketch of all the layers and details. These darker colors work well when they remain un-painted in detail areas of the final piece.

With the ground-work all done, I was ready to start painting the landscape itself.  Here, I worked in layers - starting with the grass, then the wheat field (to capture the yellows in the quilt), then the trees and finally the buildings.  When building out these layers, I approached the whole piece like I was creating a quilt, focusing more on the pattern and colors than on the details (in keeping with the primitive style).  I also focused on maintaining the late afternoon/early morning light that I began with to blend in the sky.

Finally, I “aged” the piece by sanding lightly across the painting, and harder in areas that would naturally get more wear (around the edges and corners).  This brought out a little of the wood of the trunk, in addition to the colors of my under-coats that I first applied.  To complete this look, I rubbed in stain leaving more at the edges to create an antique look.

After protecting it with a few coats of shellac, it was ready to go back to its final home.  The end result accomplished the goal of adding a whole new element of interest and beauty to the room - while really enhancing the comfortable, cheery feel of the space.

Happy painting,

Jason