Return to the Sky Paintings

In addition to my teaching projects and a surge in new phone calls for custom painting and faux finishing work, I've been busy working on my own paintings for the first time in almost two years!

If you've been following along you know I've been working in art marketing, picture framing and a few other creative niches in San Diego in that time, and to be honest, I wasn't even looking for a show this summer, or really anytime.

Studio mate Jen Guerin introduced me to furniture designer Joseph Bedford, who needed a show for the July 10 opening of "NoLi Notte" ("North Little Italy Nights") in San Diego's newest art & design district, (you guessed it) Little Italy, conveniently located down the street from my house and studio.

I've been doing chalk art and ArtWalk in Little Italy since 2002 and a fan of Little Italy art galleries Seminal Projects and Noel Baza since last year, so its will be fun to see my own stuff in a gallery for a different perspective.

Anyway, more coming on these paintings soon, but here's a quick pictures of the two "Colisseum" paintings that have been sitting, moving and getting stacked over and over while taped and masked for all that time, here getting work on a sunny afternoon in the 5th Avenue studio (time that was a Father's Day gift from my family!)

SDFS partner and HGTV celeb Jen Guerin!

I am thrilled for my studio mate Jen Guerin whose participation in this summer's new edition of DesignStar on HGTV was just announced-- congratulations, Jen!

Here's a screenshot of HGTV page featuring Jen, click the image to check it out directly.



Check out Jen's first video from the show here.

And if you're in San Diego, come by Tin Can Ale House four doors up from our studio this Friday night to see Jen's newest fine art pieces, and meet Jen in person before you have to go through her publicist (Design Star premiere is July 18).

Back to murals and faux finishes here....

If you've been following this blog, you'll know that I've ranged all over my different activities here despite the very specific title "hand painted murals, faux finish walls".

Well, now that I've decided to follow my own advice an develop my primary online catalog with WordPress software (sorry, Google), I'm going to get this blog dialed back down to specifics of my mural and faux jobs only, and talk about the rest of my various work on johnhiemstra.com, a new WordPress blog which will cover my fine art projects, promotional and marketing work for my clients, updates on my teaching project for artists and small creative business at the San Diego Finishing School and all the other bits that don't really belong here under the current title.

So check out johnhiemstra.com when you have a chance, even though its brand new, for updates on other projects, back catalog pictures of jobs in process, and what will eventually be a truly comprehensive portfolio of my work, including old furniture design from San Francisco, stage work from North Carolina School of the Arts, and my web and print work for my marketing clients.

The first posts will be about my upcoming show of original paintings here in San Diego's Little Italy at Bedford Designs with furniture designer Joe Bedford. The show opens July 10 in conjunction with NoLi Notte, the latest incarnation of the Kettner Nights evening art walk in Little Italy.

I hope to see you there!

adapting, painting, teaching & following my own advice

What happens when you learn enough new stuff to radically alter your current opinions about running a business?

I've always preferred the word "adapt" when it comes to my creative endeavors, art, business or fun, and so over the last few weeks I've been adapting to a few new circumstances and "ah-ha" moments that have required some serious consideration.

I haven't tried to keep up with my posts and updates, which some of you have noticed since keeping up with kids and your own business is already more than enough for one person to do when combined with any kind of serious soul searching.

Fortunately, I have continuing demand for my various services, and more than one "ah-ha" had to do with delivering these services in better ways to the wider audience I've been developing through my online portfolio, this blog, and on Twitter, one of the many social media tools I teach other artists, contractors and small businesses to survive in the new economy.

So look for some changes and and new info over the summer with what I'm doing online as I respond to what's going on around us using the same theories and strategies about online marketing and social media integration that I teach my students.

Of course I'm still running a mural and faux finish business, and even though my marketing tools need tweaking, they've been running solid in bringing the work to me even in this economy. So here are some pictures of a little mural job I fit into my schedule this week at the new Broken Yolk Cafe in the Gaslamp, for everyone who wants to hear about hand painted murals and faux finish walls.

Per my usual, this painting project includes multiple elements of scale drawing, faux painting and aging techniques, and brand continuity-- everyone in San Diego probably recognizes their graphic from the flagship cafe in Pacific Beach.



The desired aged style of this piece was based on another San Diego restaurant mural project I did last year at the now all-new Lucky D's Bar & Grill.