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Its been a busy winter since my last e-mail update, with several new exciting developments both professional and personal.
I have been fortunate to have had some fantastic contracting opportunities creating some unique faux finishes in a few gorgeous homes here in San Diego, with a couple of fun mural projects coming this summer.
If you haven't been to my site in a while, check out the new streamlined www.john-scenic.com (launched a few weeks ago) featuring some of this new work as well as regular RSS updates from my blog handpaintedmuralsfauxfinishwalls.blogspot.com.
I started the blog in order to write more easily about different aspects of what I'm doing with custom handpainted murals, faux finishes, and my fine and applied art projects as well post pictures of different projects and processes that don't fit anywhere on my site. Its also allowed me to answer questions I've received via e-mail at greater length and in more detail and share both questions and responses with a larger audience.
Today I want to invite everyone to this weekend's ArtWalk event in Little Italy, where I will have a booth (#786) for the third year. This year I'll be showing all new fine art paintings I've been developing with my agent, Tom Pergola. Signing with Tom is one of the past winter's events I am really excited about, especially since Tom recently secured my first art publishing contract for the new paintings. I will write about the details later, but here is the most recent version of the first painting in the series that started it all:
I will be showing this painting and two others from this series this weekend at ArtWalk, as well as some smaller skyscapes, one really large painting, and the beginnings of a new series of mixed media paintings that have evolved out of some of the more elaborate faux finish projects I have been doing.
There is a lot more news on the professional side that will have to wait until later posts (I have to get down to the studio now....), but I do want to share one more important event in our creative development here, which is the confirmed arrrival of our second child, a little girl, due this September 21st (yes, the day after Hunter's birthday). This is the first official announcement now that Heather has cleared the first trimester with flying colors. I have also started a MySpace page, muralssandiego, to write and post pictures of more personal stuff for friends and family (like pics from our recent vacation in Kauai, coming soon). Check it out if you have a chance, and check the blog for further updates about my fine art, prints when they become available, custom mural and faux finish work.
Today I'm getting ready to start a new series of jobs onsite after some time devoted just to Heather and Hunter and our house. One of the things I love about my business model is that every week is different (unless the job is very large).
Frequent change is good for me on many levels. Today I was able to appreciate a wider perspective on things (one I have to put on hold when doing specific tasks), which let me know that in the face of growing demand for my services, I've spread myself a little thin.
So I've decided, despite a very successful first six months that saw 6 new students study at the School and built two new partnerships with local painting contractors, in fact, due to overwhelming demand for my services, that I will not be accepting any more students until this fall.
There are a few reasons for this.
One is business growth: when I began booking contract mural and faux finish job two months (and more) in advance, it occurred to me that splitting the studio into two functions (both teaching and contracting) might be tough. After doing a couple of refinishing projects in the studio as well, I decided it was almost impossible.
Along the same lines, I have had some exciting developments with my fine art recently, which I hope to announce "officially" by this month's ArtWalk event in San Diego's Little Italy, Booth #786.
The other big thing that happened is that I learned a lot: about what people are really looking for in a learning experience, about what people need to succeed in the business of faux finishing and mural painting, and how I can improve the design of my offerings at the San Diego Finishing School to be able to help people even more effectively
So of course I want to make all these improvments now, and if you've been checking in on the Finishing School web site recently, you'll have noticed I got started on the upgrade and then stalled; there is just too much going on right now. The new ideas for class organization and collaboration services for contractors will have to wait to develop until the summer, as will the planned scheduled workshops in trompe l'oeil drawing and mural painting at the heart of a third local business partnership I look forward to announcing soon as well.
I posted a condensed version of these thoughts on the site today and want to repeat here the most important part of the message: THANK YOU to everyone who made the first six months of the San Diego Finishing School such a success and such an exciting time. (and please stay in touch through this blog for most current updates!)
While flipping through travel pictures this past week in research for more new fine art paintings (which I hope to be ready for ArtWalk at the end of April), I came across a couple of classic examples pertinent to my last entry about the differences between "faux" and "trompe l'oeil" and how they can me mixed.
Note the detailed marble treatment of the painted column ("faux") to match the real marble column on the right. Then notice how the painted light and shadows convince you of the three dimensionality of the column ("trompe l'oeil").
I received a couple of inquiries about the Point Loma project I did with Chism Brothers Painting that I described as both "trompe l'oeil" and "faux stone" and what the difference is between trompe l'oeil painting and faux finishing and how one project could be both. So here's a clarification (I hope):
Typically, "faux finish" describes the process of making a surface look like something it really isn't using paint, stain and the like. There are several examples of this in the painted finishessection of my portfolio site www.john-scenic.com, but the most recent and convenient example is in my last post about the Olivenhain project I did with Chism Brothers.
One of the finishes for that project was done on the baseboards and mouldings surrounding the windows and doors in the family room. Using a five step process, I painted these paint-grade white mouldings to look like the honey colored wood used on the fireplace mantel and crown mouldings.
In this picture, the crown moulding at the ceiling is real wood with a honey colored stain. The mouldings around the windows were originally painted white, and I painted them to look like the same wood as the crown. This is a "faux finish": the mouldings are real, but they are painted to look like something (stained hardwood) they really are not.
"Trompe l'oeil" is a French expression that translates as "to fool the eye", and while a faux finish like the one above fools the eye, "trompe l'oeil" is typically reserved for painting that convinces the viewer that something is there that really is not there, like a window or doorway drawn in accurate perspective so that it seems three dimensional. The accuracy of the drawing and the faithfulness of the painting to how the subject matter would look in reality is critical to being "trompe l'oeil" rather than merely decorative painting.
Here is an example of architectural trompe l'oeil from the custom murals section of my site.
The window is "built" like the real windows in the rest of the room, i.e., with the same proportions, same mouldings, etc. but it is drawn and painted on a wall that has no real window. The "view" mimics the real trees, fence, etc. that are outside the house and that you would see if the window was real. And it is drawn in a mechanically accurate perspective, so that it appears to the eye three dimensionally just as it would if it were really there.
Getting back to the Point Loma project then, I use both terms to describe that finish because I used both techniques to create the stone blocks on a blank wall.
Each block was measured and taped off and made to look like stone with paint, i.e., "faux painted". Then highlight and shadows were painted to correlate to how the blocks would look in the light of the room (both natural (daytime) & artificial (at night)) if they were three dimensional, in this case, with a 1/4" bevel on all four sides of each block. This is the "trompe l'oeil" component: look again at the picture and remember that the light fixture is mounted to a wall that is completely flat in reality. The stone blocks you see are rendered entirely in paint, both the stone texture (faux) and the three dimensional block (trompe l'oeil).
The Olivenhain project I just worked on with Chism Brothers Painting wasn't the same kind of collaboration as our Point Loma faux stone project, but I was reminded once again how nice it is to work with fellow professionals who have the same eye and understanding for detail.
Project manager James Becker and his crew prepared the family room where I did a suite of painted faux finishes on the walls and mouldings (as well as a large freestanding cabinet), and I was near ecstatic that they took the time to properly caulk all the gaps between wall and moulding, thoroughly prime and paint so that my finishes came out clean and even from edge to edge.
Its an old saying that a great paint job is 80% preparation, but it is especially true when it comes to faux finish painting. As an experienced licensed painting contractor, I can do all of this prep work myself, and in past jobs I have done most of it so it would be done to my specifications-- even when working with other painting contractors, I've run into hassles where someone else's standards are not up to mine, and what someone else calls "ready" I call "insufficient".
Now if you have never worked with glazed finishes (the basis of most "faux" finishes), you wouldn't have the same need for the same level of preparation. I teach this to all of my beginners at the San Diego Finishing School, because insufficient prep can ruin the most perfect faux finishing technique, especially at the edges (where one surface/finish stops and another begins). The edge is always where a faux finish gives up the power of its illusion if not done right-- I liken it to the follow through of your golf or tennis swing. Imagine how frustrating it is to follow through properly (after years of practice!) only to have your work fall short because of poor preparation that someone else was paid to take care of for you. It has happened to me more than once, which is why for a period of time, I did all my own prep.
But if you have ever investigated hiring a quality faux finish artist, you know we're not cheap, and in terms of business, it is difficult sometimes to explain to a client why they're paying top dollar for what appears to be entry level work. Which brings me back to why I am so happy to have established a professional relationship with Chism Brothers Painting. While they aren't cheap either, they are more cost effective when it comes to preparatory work than I am and they do it as well (or better) than I do because they understand why it is important and necessary to do it right the first time. Which means that our clients get the best value available in San Diego when it comes to truly artistic custom painting and faux finishing, from the very beginning of a job through to the very end.
Its been a busy winter of production since I last updated this blog, with a couple of excellent faux finish projects recently completed in addition to new painting students at the San Diego Finishing School, new working alliances with some fellow San Diego custom painting contractors-- there's been so much going on I haven't had time to write.
So I'm going to get caught up a little this month while people get interested in this year's Artwalk here in San Diego's Little Italy, usually the beginning of my "season" for meeting new people, showing new work, and seeking out new opportunities.
This year I'm not sure what art to show or how much portfolio of recent custom mural & faux finish painting to display, and I would also like to share some of what's been going on with the first class of students at the San Diego Finishing School, though technically I'm supposed to be showing and selling my fine art only, which leads me to the idea of doing prints (for the first time) of one of my fine art paintings, so as to have more accessible prices for the Artwalk audience....
This at least gives me a good place to start then with the new work. This is one of the new paintngs I'm developing with my agent, Tom Pergola, entitled "Firenze #2". The original is 30" wide x 40" tall, painted in acrylic on canvas. You can see the full size image on the fine art page of my portfolio site, john-scenic.com
(Tom is only representing my fine art; if you are interested in commissioning a custom mural project or set of unique faux finishes, please contact me directly.)
This paintng is part of a series based on the last twenty years of rigorous investigation into light, shade and shadow as the revealers of form, and rooted in my aesthetic homeland of (and travels in) Italy. Its also the first painting I think might make a quality image in reproduction (i.e., giclee, lithograph, etc.)
I would welcome any opinions (pro or con) about making prints of this, or any comments or opinions about printmaking in general. Please e-mail me directly at muralssandiego@john-scenic.com if you have something to contribute; I'm always very grateful for your honest opinions.
Last weekend's San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival was a blast for me as "official" festival artist, beginning when we attended the Friday night wine tasting event and found every exhibitor wearing the image I created for the festival on their ID tags. Every attendee carried the image around on the cover of the festival program as well. It was great fun to chat with everyone while catching a pleasant buzz from fantastic wines and enjoying terrfic food.
Ken and Michelle also printed gorgeous posters of the painting they commissioned me to do, and when I arrived on Saturday to set up my display for the outdoor Grand Event, I got a stack to sign and give away. Its very gratifying to see an image of your own creation everywhere around you-- thank you Ken and Michelle for choosing me to create this painting for the festival this year, and thanks to everyone who stopped to chat about the art and take a poster home. Check out the festival "swag":
I showed a few new fine art pieces for the first time in my booth, but spent most of the afternoon chatting with people about my custom art contracting services, from murals and architectural finishes to commissioned paintings like the one I did for the festival. Most people are familiar with the idea of commissioning a portrait, but not as many realize you can commission a landscape or abstract painting as well. I talked with several people about doing paintings of favorite places, working from travel photos, etc. and also customizing colors and textures in my abstracts to coordinate with existing decor, furniture, flooring, etc. The festival was a greatr venue for these discussions, with wine flowing on a gorgeous afternoon by the water's edge. Here's one shot of my booth:
It was a fabulous afternoon, but my favorite moments of the day came as we were taking down the booth at the end:
I'll be posting some more info and pics on the new fine art paintings soon, along with some pics of my current contracting project in a historic home in Point Loma and an update on my first class of students at the San Diego Finishing School.
