Portrait From a WWII Photo

After seeing the sepia portrait I did of my client Julie’s grandmother, my client Jim got the idea to do something special with a treasured picture of his grandfather.

Growing up, Jim and his siblings and cousins all loved to look at the collection of old, yellowing black-and-white photographs from WWII their grandfather had displayed in his house.  The pictures show airplanes, jeeps, amazing landscapes and, of course, Jim’s grandfather and fellow soldiers.  Of these, the following shot of his grandfather on a military Harley-Davidson was a favorite of Jim’s:

Unfortunately, Jim’s grandfather passed away and when cleaning out his house, Jim made sure the pictures were kept safe.  He is considering having the collection scanned to be able to share digital versions with his entire family, but with Father’s Day coming, Jim wanted to do something more for his dad.

To really honor the picture on the Harley, Jim asked me to use the old 5”x3.5” photo to paint a 10”x8” portrait.  He wanted to keep pretty true to the original, but to focus more on his grandfather, we decided to crop in a bit on his grandfather and the bike while also taking out his friend sitting on the back.  I also decided to subdue the background a bit to make the focus more about the foreground.  Finally, I decided to make the lessen the contrast in the painting so I could get more focus on the details you can see in the larger version, while also keeping the old-time feel of the original.

Jim is thrilled with the result and can't wait to see his father's reaction!  

Enjoy,

Jason

How Can a Mural Make Plumbing and HVAC "Beautiful and Calming"?

That was my latest challenge! 

My clients at Seaman Engineering in Auburn, MA have recently done a fantastic redesign of their office space, and wanted a statement piece for their conference room to cap it off. Thanks to Linda Sbrogna at Sbrogna's Artistic Promotions, I was brought in to make this happen! When we talked about goals for the mural, their priorities were to create a dynamic representation of their business for client meetings that would also be engaging and soothing for high-pressure internal meetings.

My contact Deb (who started the company with her husband Kevin) had a collage in mind, which she described as a “Where’s Waldo?” of plumbing, HVAC and fire protection engineering.  Her idea was for people to see more in the mural as they spent more time looking at it.  She brainstormed everything from toilets and sinks to water heaters and HVAC ducts.  When Deb talked about the pride her engineers take in their work- seeing their plumbing as art- I started to put together a vision for the piece.  Deb also mentioned that her team focuses on the importance of balance in their designs, which became important in my final design.

Other priorities for the mural were to include the psychrometric chart (which is also part of their logo) and the U.S. Green Building logo (they are LEED certified).  As I looked around the office, I also took inspiration from their color scheme of warm grays together with the blue of their logo.  Finally, Deb shared that she and Kevin love the ocean - and that they hatched the idea of starting Seaman Engineering while they were at the sea! Measuring the wall, we decided on 48” x 32” as the perfect size for the space. Below are some of these images:

Seaman company logo

U.S. Green Building logo

Shot of Seaman plumbing job

Shot of Seaman HVAC job

Seaman engineering drawing

My first step was to put together what I call a concept “sketch” – which is a scale painting (in this case ¼ scale) of what I propose for the final piece.  In this, I try to get all of the elements, color and proportions as close as possible to what I envision for the final, larger mural.  My concept was to play with the “balance” idea between air/HVAC and water/plumbing, using the psychrometric chart as the dividing line between the 2 parts.  I then played with the idea of plumbing and ducts as art and intertwined them with nature to emphasize the water and air elements while creating a calming scene and incorporating the importance of the ocean for Deb and Kevin. I also wanted to include aspects from the engineering drawings, with the fan symbol and other call-outs from the drawings they shared. Below is the concept:

Concept "sketch"

After reviewing this concept sketch, the only change the Seaman team wanted was to include a sprinkler head to include the fire protection part of their business.  Below is the image I used for this:

With this in hand, I moved forward to painting the final piece.  When I delivered it, Deb was thrilled, sharing that it was so much more than she had envisioned!  I’m happy that it will be enjoyed during many meetings to come.

Enjoy,

Jason

Final 48"x32" mural panel

Re-painting Decorative Cabinets

Sometimes doing touch-ups can go a long way toward freshening a space, which was definitely the case on a few recent projects.  With all of the daily use, kitchen and bathroom cabinets can take a beating and show wear that drags down the appearance of otherwise perfectly good cabinets!

Touching them up can be a challenge, however – particularly when they have a decorative finish.  Typically, you see this with a glazed, “old-world” look where a second color is rubbed into the base paint color to give the surface a nice patina.  Doing repair work in these cases requires not only a perfect match of the base color, but also the second “rubbed” color and the technique used to make it all blend seamlessly.

In some cases, I needed to sand down and completely re-paint select doors/drawers, while others needed just certain areas to be re-worked.  In the end, the homeowners ended up with new-looking cabinets at a fraction of the time and cost to replace them!

Below are some before and after pictures

Enjoy,

Jason

before

after

before

before close-up

after

after close-up

Mural Panel for a Granddaughter's "Room"

When I do my mural work, a big part of the process is understanding my client’s vision for the piece – which was a treat with my latest client Sarah.  Sarah is a proud and loving grandmother who wanted a mural panel to surprise her granddaughter Rachel!

Sarah recently moved to a condo, and when her 23-year old granddaughter visited, she immediately fell in love with the beautiful craftsman-style porch, exclaiming “can this be my room?!”  Of course, a screen porch couldn’t be a dedicated “room” per se, but Sarah took note of Rachel’s enthusiasm.

While Rachel is traveling abroad, Sarah reached out to her interior designer Nancy Elacqua (http://www.nancyelacquainteriors.com) with the idea to create a sign for the porch which would say “Rachel’s Room” and incorporate Rachel’s love for ducks.  Nancy reached out to me, and we started by looking at the craftsman style of the porch and Sarah’s affinity for Asian prints.  Below is my first concept sketch, which was intended to be simple, clean and calming, while incorporating some of the Asian influence of Sarah’s prints and the Craftsman style of the porch.

When we met with Sarah to review this, she loved the story about capturing the drama of the moment the duck takes off while still making a piece that is beautiful and serene.  To add to a narrative that Sarah envisioned to go along with the piece, she asked that I add a second duck.

Below is the final 30”x20” mural panel and a shot of it installed on the porch.  Sarah is absolutely thrilled with it and is anxious for Rachel to return to see her surprise!

Enjoy,

Jason

Stenciled Floor

So far, I have had the opportunity to do my decorative painting on walls, ceilings and stairs… so I was excited to jump at the opportunity to do a decorative floor!

For this project, I worked with a designer and another decorative painter on a home in Newton.  As a component of his overall remake of these two rooms, the designer wanted a roman key pattern stained into the floors. The floors were in rough shape to begin with, so they were sanded down and re-stained – but before they were coated, we came in with our stencils!

Raw floor with stenciled loosely placed

The biggest challenge was laying out the pattern to get a clean, symmetrical look in rooms that were not necessarily symmetrical (or square!). To help in the corner transitions, we used a separate square pattern – but the hearth was particularly challenging (and fun!) because we needed to match up the rectangular pattern to “turn” in a way that looked natural without using the squares.   After some intensive problem-solving, this ended up being a highlight of the room.

Stencil with square corner applied

Stencil wrapped around hearth with corner "turns"

Once the stencils were down, it was a matter of careful staining to make sure the stain didn’t creep underneath the stencil.  Here we figured out an approach to use a lighter application with 2 coats to give a nice crisp edge.

The result drew many “wow’s” (!) from other people working on the house – and from the designer!

Enjoy,

Jason

A Portrait From an 82 Year-Old Photograph

I love that I become part of a special moment through some of my commissioned art work.  This was definitely the case with my most recent portrait.  My client Julie’s grandmother unfortunately passed away recently at the age of 95, and Julie wanted something special to remember her with as a gift for her mother.

To start the process, Julie came to me with a fantastic old 2”x3” sepia photograph of her grandmother back when she was only about 13 years old. Her grandmother grew up in Alaska, and you can really get a sense of the rugged Alaskan terrain in the background of the 82-year old photo

The original photograph

For the gift, Julie wanted to go larger – but still small enough that her mother could easily put the painting on her desk.  We settled on a 5”x7” final size, and then cropped the image to enlarge her grandmother and cut out some of the overhanging eaves at the top of the photo.

When I painted it, I wanted to capture the feel of the time and place as well as the likeness and expression of her grandmother.  After some time focusing on these things, I feel like I can sense the place and even get a sense of the person - which I try to infuse into the painting. Focusing on these details was worth it when I delivered the painting to Julie.  She was overjoyed, and marveled that the painting was better than the photo!  She can’t wait to give the painting to her mother – and I can’t wait to hear the story!

To see more of my portraits and other commissioned work, check out: http://www.blackbeakstudios.com/commissioned-art/

Enjoy,

Jason

Planning an Interior Space? The Benefits of Starting With Art

Whether you are choosing a painting for your living room, a mural for your kid’s room or a print for your office, decisions about art usually happen at the very end of the decorating process.  As a result, art is often an after-thought in the budget or an item that is the first to get squeezed when money runs short. In terms of priorities, though, this makes sense – right?

Maybe not. 

When planning a space, consider your goals for that space and then consider the impact art has on people who view it every day.  Intuitively, we know that art can be a source for creative inspiration and even an escape from the realities of our everyday challenges.  Beyond this, though, studies have shown that the benefits of viewing art are more far-reaching and even include improved mental health and physical wellbeing.

To explain why viewing art is so beneficial, author Gabe Bergado is his article “Science Shows Art can do Incredible Things for Your Mind and Body” recaps studies that used fMRI scans to suggest that viewing art activates the sectors of the brain which are responsible for pleasant emotions and the experience of reward.  Want to reduce your stress levels? As Bergado points out, in one study viewing art reduced levels of self-reported stress as well as levels of cortisol, the stress hormone.

In “The Art of Stress Relief”, author Jacinta Francis Ph.D also lists stress reduction among the many benefits of viewing art.  Francis’ article points to the power of nature scenes in particular; she highlights findings that suggest that viewing nature scenes not only decreases stress but also increases job satisfaction for workers. Beyond the mental health benefits, there are also physical benefits – as Francis points to faster recovery times for patients surrounded by art.  Similarly, Barbara MacRobie reports in “Hospitals Embrace the Healing Balm of Visual Art” that this restorative power of art is not lost on hospitals, which have been steadily increasing their investment in art – to the point where nearly 50 percent of U.S. hospitals have arts programs.

Not enough to convince you? Yet another study, discussed on PsyBlog in the article “Art Elevates the Mind by Increasing Empathy, Critical Thinking and Tolerance”, revealed that just a “one-hour tour of an art museum can increase empathy, tolerance and critical thinking skills.”

So now re-consider the space you are planning.  Do you want your family, your employees, your clients, or your patients to feel less stressed, to recover faster, to feel more satisfied, to be more empathetic or have enhanced critical thinking skills?  Perhaps art should be the first consideration instead of the last.

About the author:

Jason Sawtelle is Artist and Owner at BlackBeak Studios, specializing in custom murals and commissioned art. Jason is also a fine artist, actively showing work in the greater Boston area (http://www.sawtelleart.com)

"Dreamscape" Commissioned Art Painting

Unlike my fine art painting, my role when doing commissioned art work is often to be a conduit for my client’s vision…  and my most recent project was a great example of this!

Linda first came to me with the intention of creating the “ideal” landscape painting as a surprise gift for her husband Doug.  Linda and Doug have a home in New Hampshire and they love being out in nature, spending much of their time hiking in the White Mountains to enjoy the fresh air and exercise, but also to fulfill their passion for botany.  As a close observer of nature, Linda could casually rattle off tens of plants and trees she would see on a typical hike.

After some preliminary conversations, Linda decided to forego the surprise nature of the gift so Doug could participate in the collaboration.  As a next step, Linda and Doug compiled notes about their dream hike – listing all the things they would love to see in one special outing.  The fun and the challenge of this was that the landscape they wanted doesn’t actually exist – including things like the eastern view of Mt. Chocorua, Glen Ellis Falls (which are in different parts of the Whites), and a spring-time river rushing over rocks.  While we were including a vista of the mountain and the falls, Linda and Doug also wanted it to feel like you are in the woods, climbing up to the falls.   Surrounding you would be a "bluebird" sky, a rock worthy of picnicking on, the greens of early spring and some of the plants they cherish seeing along the way – like lady slippers and wild rhododendron.

Below are some shots of the process.  First is one example of the input I got from Linda and Doug.  Following is my first sketch, which they liked, but wanted more woods and less clearing.  Then is my sketch Linda chose followed by the final result!

Linda's notes

My first sketch

The final sketch

The final painting!

In the end, Linda was thrilled with the final painting and she can’t wait to hang it so she and Doug can start enjoying their ideal view of spring in the White Mountains all year round.

Enjoy,
Jason

Five Faux Painted Finishes in Blackstone, MA

My most recent client unfortunately experienced serious damage to their house from a fire this summer.  Fortunately, nobody was hurt and their insurance covered a comprehensive rehab to bring their house back to how it was before the fire.

Part of their “before the fire” state included five different faux-painted finishes in five rooms and three hallways, so the homeowners contractor reached out to me to match all of these finishes!

It was a fun challenge to reverse-engineer how the finishes had been originally done and what colors were used.  While some of the finishes were more “standard” in terms of the technique used, others needed more ingenuity to figure out. 

After a trip to the house with my books of paint swatches, I also spent some time in my studio testing the more tricky finishes to make sure they looked like my client was expecting when I got the paint up on the walls of their house.  I found ways to make my finishes look like the original, while in some cases making them have an even more appealing look.

Once in the house, it was time to see if my prep work was successful.  Because the painter had already come in to do the base coat in each room, I was able to complete roughly a room per day – so it worked out perfectly when the homeowner stopped by at the end of each day and I could make sure I hit the mark!

In the end, both the homeowner and the contractor were thrilled with faux painting I did for them, and after almost 7 months, the homeowner is back in their house to enjoy it!

Below are some pictures of the different faux finishes.  Enjoy!

Copley Society of Art "New Member Show"

As I had posted a few months ago, I was recently accepted into the prestigious Copley Society of Art, and for the next month I am part of the "New Members Show"!  The piece showing is my 30"x40" oil painting "Reflection and Transparency" (below), which is hung along with works from the other 21 members of this year's Copley Society class.

"Reflection and Transparency" (30"x40" oil on canvas)

The opening was last Thursday, Jan 14 and the show is on display until February 19.  The opening had a good showing of people, and the work on display is truly impressive.  Most of all, I love meeting the other artists!

Seeing the art in person (158 Newbury Street in Boston... Tues-Sat 11-6, Sun 12-5) is absolutely the best way to experience it, but you can get a glimpse of the art in this show on the Copley Society's website: https://www.copleysociety.org/exhibitions/current/upper.html

If you couldn't make it to the opening, below are some shots from the event!

Enjoy, Jason

The banner outside the gallery announcing the show and the artists

List of the artists as you enter the show

Mug-shot of me with my painting... It gives a good sense of the scale of the piece!

A Commissioned Portrait

When doing portraits, I like to capture something about the person I am painting as much as capturing their likeness – so I had a lot of questions when my client Asher approached me with the idea of giving a portrait as a gift to his friend Jack.

First and foremost, Jack is a proud grandfather to his grandson Jackie – so Asher made a point of getting his hands on a picture that showed a window into this special relationship (see below).  Of course, like many snapshots, the background and composition of the shot weren’t necessarily ideal for a painting – which is where my process began

The original snapshot of Jack and Jackie

My first step was to work with the cropping of the image to get a good composition and bring the focus in to Jack and Jackie’s faces.  From there, I worked with Asher’s input about Jack.  As it turns out Jack is an art enthusiast (making this an extra-special gift!), so I wanted to make sure my final piece was as much a painting as it was a portrait.  I also wanted to make sure my work was in line with what Jack likes.

The crop I used for the portrait

Jack’s favorite artists are Willem de Kooning and a Maine artist named Bill Irvine.  My first challenge was that neither of these two painters are realists, so I decided to use a looser style than I usually do to capture a little of the feel of these artists while still making sure the portrait looked like Jack and his grandson.  I also used some of the minimal palette of neutral earth-tones together with primary and secondary colors that de Kooning had used in several of his portraits.  To create some interest in the background while still keeping the painting minimal, I blocked out a primary yellow field and then used a Bill Irvine painting to balance it out with red.

Example of de Kooning portrait

Bill Irvine's "Red Nightfall"

When I gave the final 18”x18” painting to Asher, his immediate reaction was “wow, that’s Jack!”.  Better yet, when I asked Asher about how Jack liked it, Asher told me that Jack gave him a big hug when he presented it – and shared that Jack is not a “hugger”!

 Enjoy!

-Jason

The final painting!

A Gym Mural in Rhode Island

I had a blast working with Ryan at Laid Back Fitness on my latest mural.  Laid Back Fitness (LbF) is a gym in Warwick, RI that follows the “MovNat” system of fitness, which focuses on training around fundamental human movements.  Their classes range from more traditional weight training and kettlebell to OCR (Obstacle Course Racing), Ninja Warrior and parkour. 

Recently, LbF expanded their space, more than doubling their original footprint to create a room dedicated to obstacle work that they are aptly calling “The Jungle”.  As part of this expansion, Ryan reached out to me to help round out the environment LbF is creating in this new space.  In addition to helping to establish the theme for the new room, the mural would also serve as a backdrop for photos at birthday parties the gym hosts.

To start the process, I took a trip down to Warwick to meet with Ryan.  We walked around his gym and talked about his thoughts for the space and the mural.  He explained that he liked the bright colors they have painted in the interior spaces – including the light blue on the wall of the mural, plus a bright lime-green (which is one of their brand colors) and a yellow called “Pecan Cream”.  They also use black, grey and white in their colors, but not any red.

From there, we talked about subject matter.  The main focus is the fact that this space is called “The Jungle”.  To go with this, Ryan wanted to include the palm tree from their logo and also possibly a monkey (but not a cartoon-y monkey).  There is also an older mural on the outside back wall of the gym that has a monkey as part of an evolution-themed design.  Finally, Ryan wanted to include the silhouette of a boy jumping that is part of their logo for a sub-brand called “Laid Back Ninjas”

Working from this, I put together the following concept.  The idea with the hole in the wall was a way to bring the inside and outside together.  The monkey coming into the gym is there to keep with the “jungle” theme, showing the jungle coming inside --  but is also a nod to the mural on the outside (hinting that it is the monkey from outside coming in).  Conversely, the silhouette of the boy jumping shows the people going out into the jungle.  The idea for the criss-crossing vines came from criss-crossing ropes hanging from the ceiling, and showing the palm tree coming into the gym was a way to dramatically incorporate the logo.  For the colors, the yellow in the sky is the same as the yellow in parts of the gym, and the bright green in the palm tree, the plants and the logo are all the LbF brand color.

Concept sketch

Ryan loved the concept and it was on to getting my design up on the wall in the final 10-foot by 10-foot dimensions.  To keep this consistent with the concept, I did the original painting to scale, so I could blow it up and have it align perfectly with the actual cinder blocks.  The process started with sanding and priming to make sure the mural is there to stay, and then step by step adding to the dimensions of the final painting as you can see from the photos below:

After sanding, priming and drawing

Detail of drawing

Beginning of painting process

A couple of steps further...

The end result hit the mark that Laid Back Fitness was looking for and will hopefully inspire current and future “Ninjas” !

The final mural!

Detail of monkey

A Painted Runner to make a Unique Staircase

So far, I have done murals on interior and exterior walls, signs and even a table – but this is my first mural on stairs!

My clients Jen and Mick have a finished basement, and they wanted to dress up the stairs to go along with the living spaces she has set up.  Initially, Jen was looking at traditional carpet runners, but she wanted something more unique and dramatic and came up with the idea of doing a painted runner – which is when she contacted me!

Because Jen’s goal was to do something special, I worked with her to design a custom pattern.  She sent me pictures to give me a sense of colors she might like, but otherwise left it up to me to create something she could never buy at a carpet store.

Jen is an artist herself and she lives in upstate New York, so I wanted to give her something that would appeal to her artistic side while also tying in the more rural setting of her area.  I started with the idea of a silhouette of a leafless tree, and then played with the idea of mirroring it at the top and bottom so there would be symmetry whether you are going up or down the stairs.  By connected the two mirrored trees at the top, it ended up creating great shapes that became the centerpiece of the runner.  I sent Jen an initial concept with the trees and a border of leaves, and she had the idea of going with a darker background behind the trees and adding “old-timey” stars.

We ended up with the concept below and Jen was ready to have me come out to New York to do the painting.  I have included a “before” picture as well as a few pictures of the project in progress so you can see how it all came together.  I am thrilled to say that Jen and Mick love their new stairs!

Enjoy,

Jason

The concept sketch

The stairs before the project

The beginning of the process

In progress...

The final product!

Faux Painting Finish in Lexington

In addition to my recent faux finish repair work, I also enjoy doing new faux painting jobs like the one I just finished in Lexington!

This job is in a new-construction home, where the designer specified a “polished patina” finish for the top of the walls and ceiling in an otherwise wood-paneled library. In the “before” pictures below, you can see that the dark wood created a rich and warm feeling when the walls and ceiling were just plaster white – and this was nicely enhanced by the faux paint finish the designer chose.

The “polished “patina” look required a few base coats, plus 2 coats of the patina finish, which is an extra thick paint that is rubbed across the surface with a tool that resembles a plastic dough scraper (as I remember them from my teenage years working in a Dunkin’ Donuts!).  This creates a hand-rubbed look and a smooth finish that looks like old parchment with a little bit of shimmer.  The choice of the gold color even looks a bit like gold leaf!

Whether you think it looks like parchment or gold leaf, the result is really spectacular.  The contractor and realtor are thrilled, and I’m sure the buyer of this home will enjoy it for years to come!

 Enjoy,

Jason

Before

Before

After

After

Faux Painting Repair in Winchester

Similar to a few of my Faux painting repairs in the past, my most recent project all started with a small leak that created a bigger problem…

My client Steve called after having damage from a just such a leak patched.  When it came to re-painting the patched area, though, the challenge in this case was that the damage was in a large room with vaulted ceilings that are open to several hallways – and all of this space is painted with the same faux finish.  To repaint all of this would be way more time and cost consuming than was necessary, but painting only the damaged area proved to be a significant challenge.  Steve is the second owner of the house, and he had no information about how the finish was created, or what colors were used.

When Steve had the room repaired, they asked their painter to take a stab at painting over the patched areas, with the result pictured below as “before”.  In fairness to the painter, he did openly share with Steve that he was not an expert in faux painting but gave it a shot to try to help out his client.

And this is when Steve reached out to me.  After a quick trip to take a look at the room with my color swatches, I had a good idea of the colors I needed to use, and I created 2 test boards with options for colors I would use in the final repair.  After comparing the boards to the wall when I was back on-site, we chose one that was close, but I still needed to do some mixing on-site to get the colors even closer in hopes of making the transition from the old finish to the new as seamless as possible.

Below are some pictures of the result.  Steve and his wife are happy to have their beautiful room back to its original state!

 Enjoy,

-Jason

Before

Before

After!

After

Faux Painting Brick Repair

I love it when people reach out to me with a project and start with “I don’t know if you can do this, but…”.  This was the scenario when one of my contractor friends recently reached out to me with a unique challenge.

They were re-doing a room in a Brookline home that included sanding and refinishing the floors.  Unfortunately, when the floors were sanded the edge of the fireplace hearth was nicked by the sander.  The hearthstones had a great patina of browns, reds, yellows, dark greys and black that was completely ground away – leaving obvious blemishes of of bright, light gray.

The homeowner was very understanding, but the contractor wanted to make it right.  Of course, he also knew this could be a challenge – as these hearthstones were many decades old.  Finding something to match exactly would be extremely difficult if not impossible – not to mention the additional disruption of pulling out and replacing bricks in an otherwise perfectly good hearth.

This is when I got the call: “I don’t know if you can do this, but…”.  The contractor sent me some pictures and I jumped right on the project.  For this one, I used my artist's acrylic paints for the durability, sheen and mix-ability.  I knew that matching all of these various shades and replicating surface pitting that was ground flat and smooth would take more of a fine-art approach.

I loved the challenge!  Crouching on the floor with a wide variety of brushes, I thought of the ground-down areas as a canvas where I was creating a painting of old, patinaed hearthstones.

When I sent a picture of the completed project to the contractor, it was fun to receive his response of “WOW!”.

Below are the before and after shots of this project... Enjoy!

BEFORE

AFTER!

Two Articles About my Fine Art Paintings!

For me, painting is a 3-step process:

1)    Come up with an idea for a painting and find the image to go along with that idea. 

2)    Create the painting (!)

3)    Find an audience for the painting

The first 2 steps are typically what is considered the “art” – but finding an audience is an art in itself!  Between social media, website posts and showing in galleries, the challenge is always figuring out how to get the work in front of the largest number of people who may be interested in my paintings.

Most recently, I am excited to say I have a couple of new avenues to find this audience!  Two different web sites have posted articles about my “Canoe Paintings”.  The first is Canoe & Kayak Magazine, which caters to paddling enthusiasts and hopefully will reach a new crowd of people who will enjoy this series of paintings:

http://www.canoekayak.com/canoe/the-paddle-and-the-paintbrush/#2iRwqz3bq2DBv88D.97

The second article is in a blog about artists on the Judson’s Art Outfitter site.  This blog focuses on plein air painters (artists who work outdoors, painting directly from nature) and will hopefully reach some fellow plein air painters and plein air enthusiasts who otherwise would not have seen my work:

http://www.judsonsart.com/blog/uncategorized/jason-sawtelle-canoe-paintings/

I hope you enjoy these articles!  Please share them with anyone who may be interested!!

Faux Painting Repairs

What happens when there is damage to a faux painted wall?  Re-finishing the whole wall (or worse yet the entire room!) can be an expensive solution.  Instead, I have been called in to do a number of faux painting repair projects where I need to match and blend colors, textures and techniques with the original finish to make a seamless end result.

The first project was a repair to a surface I had originally painted.  After the project was complete, the restaurant owner needed to move a thermostat, which left a big square white patch in the middle of a rustic orange faux-painted wall.  Since I had done the original painting for this one, matching the color and technique was not difficult – but the challenge didn’t stop there.  The orange is a semi-transparent layer over a yellow base, so I had to match the pattern of the surrounding wall without overlapping any of the existing orange, since overlapping would make the area around the patch darker than the rest of the wall – creating a dark “halo” effect around my patched square.  To get the patch to blend seamlessly, I had to bring the texture right up to the edge of the patch in a way that didn’t create a seam.  The end result is below.  The patch is an 8” square immediately below the sconce lighting:

The next project came as a result of water damage from this winter (faux walls were not spared!).  This was a large foyer in a home in Dover that features a vaulted ceiling in a circular space.  Water had damaged the seams at the corners of the doorways and the sill where the wall met the section of ceiling at the first level.  The contractor had patched the cracks – leaving white plaster streaks and patches throughout a large faux-painted space. In this case, I needed to match the colors, technique and texture to blend these areas into the rest of the space so nobody would know that all of this faux painting had ever been damaged!   Below are pictures of this finished space, showing a couple of the seams and the sill that were patched and now blend seamlessly:

The final project was a bathroom in Newton that, thanks to more winter damage, needed a new ceiling.  Unfortunately, the faux paint job on the walls was not spared from some damage as well.  In this case, there were a number of chips out of the top edge of the unique metallic stripes that needed to be patched.  In this case, I needed to match the colors, but because the copper striped texture was damaged in such small spots, I replicated this with my fine artists brushes.  Here is a shot that used to have roughly 2” semi-circular chips missing from the tops of the copper and metallic green stripes:

Who knew that being an artist would be so helpful in home repairs?! 

Painting for a Red Sox Photo-Shoot Pillow

I enjoy the challenge of being asked to paint anything and everything – and my recent project with an interior designer was no exception!

Kristen DiBella from Blue Door Designs called me in a pinch.  She was doing a photo shoot in 2 days and she needed a prop quickly!  The shoot was for the Red Sox and Airbnb promoting a sleepover at Fenway Park, and she needed a 2 foot square pillow of the “Green Monster Seats” sign for the set.  The actual sign is painted on old brick and has a great, uneven texture to it that she wanted to capture.  She explored online resources and even looked into having it printed, but there were no options to capture the look she wanted on such short notice – until she called me!

Using fabric that Kristen got to me and a picture of the sign as a guide, I shifted things around to start on her painting right away.  I decided not to gesso the fabric (gesso is a clay-based paint that preps the surface for painting)- which created a challenge with the paint soaking into (instead of sitting on top of) the fabric, but it also kept the fabric from being too stiff since it was being made into a pillow.

I was able to turn the painting around and get it off to a seamstress (Jen) who also jumped in to get the pillow done on time.  The exchange was like a baton hand-off in a relay race as Jen ran off to get her “leg” of the process done.  The end result was exactly what Kristen was looking for thanks to a clear vision and some fun team effort!

Below are pictures of the painting, the pillow and the photo-shoot set.

Enjoy!

Jason

The painting

The pillow

The set

5 Things to Consider When Planning a Kid's Room Mural

When decorating children’s rooms, there are so many things to consider with all the great furniture, bedding and accessory options out there – but will a nice wall color and sheet pattern combination truly transform your kid’s bedroom into a magical space he or she will cherish? You know you want to do something special and create a room that will inspire your kid’s imagination (and maybe make them hang out in their room a little longer on weekend mornings before waking you up), but how?

Ditching the traditional flat wall color and going with a custom kid’s room mural is a great option.  It is easy to see how surrounding your child with a painted scene on his or her walls can engage their creative side, but there have also been scientific studies that show how viewing art actually makes us feel better, with other benefits ranging from improved health to reduced stress to increased empathy (one of the articles talking about the benefits of art can be found here:  https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/in-the-neighborhood/201303/the-art-stress-relief ).

This is all well and good, but particularly with young kids (or babies on the way!), how do we know what kind of mural to paint?  Collaborating with a mural artist is your best bet, but the following list of things to consider should give you a good place to start:

1)    Avoid popular cartoon characters.  From Elsa of “Frozen” to Blue of “Blues Clues”, these types of characters are sure to evoke a squeal of delight from your kids at the first unveiling, but the effect will soon wear off.  One problem with the approach of using a known character is that it limits the extent to which it will engage your kid’s imagination.  More problematic, however, is how short-lived the appeal is likely to be.  Let’s face it, kids only love Elsa or Blue for so long – and after that year or so is up, you are back to square one in the process of figuring out how to re-invent a great space for your kids who now love SpongeBob SquarePants.

2)    Avoid going too “cutesy.”  Smiling suns and floating hearts can certainly create a happy-feeling space, but they won’t go far in terms of inspiring your kid’s creativity.  Similar to the trap of #1 above, it is also important to remember that while your son or daughter may be three when you have the mural painted, it’s best to avoid the rosy-cheeked train they will lose interest in when they are five.

3)    Avoid letting your own interests hijack the planning process.  You may be an avid football fan, but turning your infant son’s room into a gridiron may not necessarily have the desired effect of giving him a space that he really loves and cherishes.

4)    For younger (or expected) kids, do stick to bigger, more universal themes when planning the room.  Kids room murals based on nature and/or or animals tend to be the most successful and long-lasting.  Think about how your child will engage with the images on the wall… keeping it open for them to find patterns in clouds, or create adventures for animals or put themselves into another space and story is what makes a mural successful.  It can also be fun and meaningful to incorporate something specific to your family in these larger-themed murals (for example, a sea scene if you love to vacation on the ocean every year, or including an eagle because it is their grandfather’s favorite animal).  I have also been surprised to see how these types of murals can be cherished by kids from infancy all the way into their teens. 

5)    For older kids, do incorporate things they love.  If your son or daughter has developed a passion for music, or sports, or dance, or owls, or cats (you get the idea) – using these interests as part of the overall mural or even as the central theme can be a great way to give your son or daughter a room they can’t wait to spend time in and share with their friends.

Most importantly, focus on the warm feelings you want your child to have for (and in) their room and have fun with it!  With a little bit of planning and a good dash of art, you will be able to create a space that is more than just a bedroom.