Remember and Inspire.

I’ve always admired the almost airbrushed quality in the backgrounds of some realist painters. I’ve sought to emulate it, but it has eluded me until now. It seems it’s all about patience. Who knew?! In any case, I’m slowly getting better at it. I hope to finish this painting before Thanksgiving.

This commissioned piece, far far from finished, is coming along well. The buyer is a skilled quilt artist and she likes my “fat little birds.” So when she called to commission a painting, we combined her grandmother’s antique sewing machine with her favorite birdie, a chickadee. I haven’t decided if I want the bird holding a thread in its beak or not. There will be a great deal of detail in the gold pattern that will overlay the blue machine and in the fabric, so I don’t want to get bogged down by introducing yet another detail…but then again…it might help draw attention to the bird more.

We shall see what we shall see.

I love it when a client becomes more than a client. In this case, it was the result of painting a mural for a very appreciative client. Sheryl (left) recently commissioned me to paint a Detroit skyline in very subtle shades of grey and lavender on the soffet above her 23^rd floor condo. I haven’t posted many pictures of it because it’s so wide and so soft..hard to photograph well. When I gave Sheryl a thank you gift (as I often do) of a small poured acrylic painting, she gasped and said she had hoped to try her hand at it for a long time and asked if I would consider teaching her. So we arranged a time for Sheryl and her friend Connie (right) to come to my studio, learn a few basics, and experiment to their hearts’ content. When we were done we decided to use the leftover mixed paints and take turns pouring them over a 3D piece that was lying around in my studio waiting to be re-imagined. When it's ready,  it'll be a cool conversation piece, or a functional piece used to hold necklaces. We are now ready to resin. What a fun time that was. And I now have two new pouring friends to boot!

It can be a little scary to commit to a project when it requires learning a new skill or has elements to it that I’ve never done before. Sometimes I will even turn down a project or refer it to another contractor if it’s too far beyond my skill set. You might be surprised to hear that I do not take every mural project that people request. But it’s just the right thing to do sometimes if you’re honest and if making people happy with the final results is the goal. And it always is! In the case of the project shown here, it hit the sweet spot where experience balanced my willingness to tackle a big learning curve. I had no idea how big that learning curve would prove to be.

While I’ve painted on metal before, I’ve never painted the whole housing for a light fixture, let alone three huge ones. But I started with what I did know; that it needed to be cleaned thoroughly and the right primer applied before I could do the decorative work which was to match the range hood I’d just finished. Finding the right shade of metallic paint to match the pale gold dining room fixture proved rather daunting, but we nailed it after some research online and a couple of trial-error cycles. I purchased a small sprayer system and followed directions precisely for thinning the paint. I knew enough to try out the sprayer on a test surface. Glad I did! The paint spit and splotted randomly, not with the nice even coverage I expected. When I called the store where I got it, they waved it off with an

“Oh, that happens sometimes when there’s a high metallic content. It just comes out that way. Can’t be helped.”

Couldn’t they have told me this when I asked if the sprayer could be used with metallic paint? I’d already put out $40 just for that one specialized quart of paint and another $8 for the sprayer, and we were running up against a deadline. I had little choice but to brush it on. That’s great for the flat surfaces, but what about the chains holding the fixtures, or the half-inch and eighth-inch cylindrical hanger parts and finials? I had to make it work. That, or tell the client he’d need to wait until I found the right sprayer or settle for Rustoleum’s limited color choices, none of which would come even close to the beautiful color promised. Kind of a bummer right before you plan to host Thanksgiving dinner, eh? I was determined to make this happen, and without involving or stressing him if possible. So I went with what I knew; that a very soft brush and some Floetrol will help any latex paint to self-level. Several coats later, sanding between each coat, and you’d have to look mighty close to know that it wasn’t sprayed on.

The struggle was worth every hour and dollar invested when I stood back and looked at the result. The goal was to brighten up a dark and imposing kitchen. I believe we nailed it!

Should I have charged extra because it took longer? Nah! I still made a profit. I see it as an investment in my own education as a professional. Unless he reads this blog post, he’ll never know about the all-nighters I pulled or the extra $$ I spent making it just right. He and his wife, and their Thanksgiving guests will simply get to relax and enjoy the beautiful bright kitchen. That is exactly as it should be.

I just discovered a new feature built into my website for viewing artwork and I am thoroughly and officially GEEKED about it! When you click on an image and then click “More Info” (bottom right), it allows you to view the work in different room settings and with different wall colors. I was amazed at how crisp and polished my work looked in someone else’s uncluttered living room. Since most of my works are 12” square or smaller, they look best in the "Livingroom 3" setting. Most of them also look best on the darkest wall color because any light colors in the paintings stand out more. It’s as though my birds are in a spotlight. I’ve had such fun playing around with it. This inspires me to consider doing some larger works that would go nicely over a sofa.

Check out the “Room” feature on your favorite Jan Dale painting. Here are a couple of examples:

Steambath

The Gleaner 

Enjoy!