Small Budgets…Big Results

I realized I was having the same conversation with three different clients this past month. Hellloooo!

Yes, I was listening to the universe trying to send me a message. The comment that came up was almost verbatim each time. “I went to your website. I love your work! I thought you might not be interested in my project because it was too small.”

While I’m working on making the answer clear on my website, let me state it as clearly as this. Yes, there are a lot of photos on my website that are big and bold. They were intensive projects.   And they found their way to my website because they just photograph so well. I was always concerned that small and subtle might not get your attention.   So, I’m using this month’s newsletter to show you four such projects that illustrate skills you may not even know I have.

First up, a collage of born and bred in Texas cowboy images was painted on this guitar.

Musically, its days are long gone, but it is now part of this warm and inviting guest bedroom at The Whispering Pines in Grapeland Texas.

Here it is in it’s new home.

Next, here is a pencil sketch on textured watercolor paper.

I’ve been doing quite a few of these.  They are great gifts and affordably priced. (This piece was $150.)  I work only from photographs. Do you think I “captured” the wonderful expression of this new father with his three week old son?

I had a call to create a limestone finish on these columns.  Here’s the start and the results.

The last piece in a completely new skill set I’ve been hard at work developing. It’s a niche skill I don’t think I’ll use it often, but the challenge to go “old school”, back to medieval methods, was more than I could ignore. I was asked to do tracery on stained glass. Tracery is the hand-painted detailing on stained glass. It’s not quite as simple as just pouring the paint out of a jar and painting the design. The paint is made by the artist for each use. It’s a combination of ground glass, minerals, gum Arabic ( to bind it together) and a variety of mediums to make it fluid, including water, vinegar or clove oil. It takes about 15 minutes to make a small amount of color, and patience. A lot of it. When the painting of a color is finished, the work is “fired”, heated in a kiln, so that paint becomes part of the glass surface.  It’s been satisfying to start embracing a method of painting that is centuries old.

I have nothing to do with the actual cutting and construction of the stained glass. This piece was designed and made by Paul Petrushonis in Milford, CT. To learn more about his work, visit his site at www.paulstainedglass.com.

Here are the results of working on an exquisite piece of milky glass in blue and black, with silver stain gold for accents.

That’s it for now. While I have to admit the prospect of a full wraparound mural in a dining room, or a fabulous Victorian ornament confection for a ceiling is music to my ears, these little gems I shared with you this month hit just the right note!

Please don’t wonder if your project is too small. Shoot me an email or call me.
Special comes in all size packages