Hot Sauce Kitchen with Hand Painted Cabinet Doors

Our last house was a full-on showcase for my decorative painting (murals, faux finishing, faux stone, etc). My wife, Sarah, and I would take every person who visited for the first time on a twenty minute tour of it; showing off the various painting projects I had completed.





One of the projects that never failed to impress people was our "Hot Sauce" themed kitchen...
This project featured our kitchen cabinet doors; upon each of which I had painted different hot sauce label designs that I had found in a book. I just loved the off-the-wall names and images that were used on some of these labels and they provided plenty of inspiration me. It took me about three weeks to complete the project which even included installing matching ceramic tiles on the kitchen floor.



As for the doors themselves, I first prepared them for paint by sanding and applying primer to each one. I chose a dark green as a base color as I felt it was bright and colorful without being too overpowering.
Next I laid out each one of the label designs with a pencil. I had to alter some of the designs in order to get them to fit onto the doors.
I used acrylic paints for the door designs and then sealed all the cabinets with a satin clearcoat.

After I had completed the doors, I continued following through with the hot sauce theme by then painting the pantry door to match...

I then painted "faux" or fake tiles around the recessed ceiling onto which I added images of various "chile peppers"....
I finished off the painting by applying a simple faux finish to the ceiling to give it a slight "aged" appearance. As a final touch, I hung a few chile pepper photographs and some brightly colored curtains.
In retrospect, I feel the kitchen ended up being nice and bright and colorful - just like the hot sauce labels themselves.


And here's a video slide show of the completed kitchen in all it's glory. Enjoy.

Here's a another sketch I came up with. I don't know where these ideas come from - I just try to see something in the graphite and then work to bring it out. I guess the interest in scary images comes from my childhood. I always loved scary movies and would try to draw the covers of horror magazines like "Creepy" and "Famous Monsters of Hollywood." Artists like Boris Vallejo and Frank Frazetta are still my idols.

Soon I will be taking some of these sketches and use the computer to colorize them.

Life

This is a small canvas landscape I painted in acrylics. I composed it without using any references - which is great practice and makes you really pay attention to the overall design while working.
I wanted to create a lush tropical paradise that anyone viewing would like to want to jump into and I'm happy with the results.

Here's another photo showing some progress on the bathroom mural. I've put in about 10 hours or so on it. I'll post some more detailed photos soon. I'm still

Graphite Drawing "Castle in the Mist"

Here's a graphite drawing I did recently. For this piece, I didn't use any reference photos. It all just kind of worked itself out as I manipulated the graphite with a kneaded eraser. It was very labor intensive though. In order to get the pencil on the paper smoothly I had to apply it several times while also going over it with the eraser. I'll bet I went over every bit of it four or five times until I was satisfied with the smoothness and contrast. Looks great though and I plan on doing more of these in the future.

Mural in Progress - "Tropical Beach Island"

Here's a photo of a mural in progress. I'm painting this tropical beach scene on the walls of our bathroom. The real challenge here will be trying to photograph it when it's finished. It will eventually cover all the walls and the ceiling in the bathroom although lots of the wall space is taken up by shower stall, storage unit, sink and mirror, etc.. I will post photos as it develops.

For this mural, I really don't have it all planned out ahead of time (as I would have to do for a client) and enjoy the freedom to create as I go.

Colored Pencil Drawing - "The Hottest Band in the World - KISS!!!"

Here's a drawing I completed. It's a colored pencil drawing of one of my all time favorite groups; KISS.

WELCOME TO MY BLOG!

Welcome to all those who are visiting this blog! I'm excited about it and I have great plans to make it an interesting and informative place to learn more about me and my artwork. I plan on talking about lots of different things such as what I'm presently working on, past art projects and how they were created, stories about past experiences (good and bad), my take on various artists and their works, creativity and what it means to me, and all sorts of other things I feel you might enjoy reading about.
I'm assuming that you arrived here after seeing my artwork at one of the sites I've posted on. Or maybe you've arrived here after viewing my website - which is presently being built.
I hope you will be interested enough to turn this blog into a regular place to visit. And because I enjoy talking about the things I create and just about art and creativity in general, I hope you will not be afraid to jump on in with any questions or comments.
In time, I will start a second blog to discuss another facet of my life but I'll explain more about that later.
So relax and come on in...