Art-Faux.com

Archive for February, 2009

Hello everyone,

Today I am announcing a new website called “The Art Faux World” where I have an Online Store that I am working on where I am going to be producing eBooks for some of my basic faux techniques along with some  ”How To’s” for basic painting as well.

My first eBook has to do with wallpaper removal that should help out the “Do it yourself” kind of homeowners who would like to try and save some money by removing the paper themselves.

With the economy the way it is I know there are clients out there who are wanting to still have some decorative painting done but when half the costs involve preparing the walls for the finish they are heart broken because its just not in the budget that they are trying to stay within. So why not try it yourself?

Removing wall paper is not a difficult task if it is done correctly. I have ran across many jobs where I have had to do all the wall prep before completing my finish. Almost everytime for wherever the paper exists it quickly turns into the biggest expense of the whole job.

I have been doing this same process for many years and with a little patience and guidence it can be a rather easy process and save you hundreds of dollars which could make your “Dream” finish more affordable.

I also have in my How to Gallery some finishes that I will have available as I complete the eBooks. You can go to my Photo Account to view more finishes. and if there is one in particular that you like just opt in at the site and let me know what you would like to see

My plan is to release some foil sample packs which should be hitting the store soon I know there are others who are doing the same promotions online and I don’t aim to compete with them on just price alone so they will be competitive but they come with a special bonus you can’t get anywhere else. ME! I’m here to answer questions and guide you in your foil application from afar. I’m just an email or a comment away.

My goal with these foils is I just want to make them available so my customers can pick up what they need as a one stop shop than having to go to several different online places to get what they need to complete some samples for what I will be teaching. I can’t wait to start teaching people the amazing power of these foils, your imagination and these foils can produce STUNNING results!

I plan on making that store site an informative site as well so I have an  Online Forum where some can post their ideas and questions they might have after purchasing the eBooks and other tutorial products that I plan on adding as time goes on. But you must Register first in order to gain access.  I belong to several different forums that I participate on and have found myself posting helpful information to my friends there. The problem is most of it never gets to the majority of my colleagues that need this vital information.

So in response to this need I am going to take what I have learned over the past years and make it available to homeowners, designers, builders painters and  who ever else that are having difficulty or need a second opinion with certain scenarios. I’ll publish the information here on the blog and copy it to my other site as well.

Believe me I have seen some of the strangest things happen with paint in my 30 plus years of experience and have remedies for most of them, but by no means do I claim to know everything, BUT I do have alot of resources and technical people that I have grown to know, to assist with their expertise.

As both sites grow , which I know they will, I will be adding more trade experts that I do business with personally, especially to the forum under different categories, to help everyone. This will be my way of giving back to the local community for which I have lived for over 20 years in Naples, Florida.

Thanks everyone for your continued support and your comments and feedback.

I would like to take this time and announce that photographer John Brady
he will be having a grand opening and showing of his new gallery today Feb 12th, between 5:00 and 9:00 with a lot of beautiful originals of his work along with renown artist Clyde Butcher at his location  Brady’s Mowhawk Floorz 15505 Tamiami Tr North Naples, just south of Bonita Beach Rd.

  John has worked very hard to bring this event together so I would encourage all to come and pay him a visit

  Come see two of the best in the area I garauntee you wont be disappointed

This is a painting that I have done from a series of photographs that I have taken while studying sunrises at Vero Beach Florida. Each day I was up waiting with my camera in hand to capture the right shot and after a few mornings of about 30 or 40 photos this morning was something special or should I say perfect so I took several shots as the sun was rising.

Out of the 20 or so shots I decided on three and began painting the one that I thought was best. Funny thing about it though is every time I went back to the others I had an urge to start over because I thought the others looked better , so rather than fight my creative side I decided to paint this sunrise at three different time periods to show how quick the beauty of nature can change.

We never seem to notice how awesome nature really is and I hope my work captures at least some of the realism for which I strive for in my landscape painting. You can order a print of this by Clicking Here or on the image above. If you are interested in the original you can contact me through this website or calling me direct. Each of the three paintings will only be sold for a limited time here.

The clients and I really loved the look my crew and I were able to achieve with this particular plaster medium. This is a game room where the owner wanted a southwestern kind of atmosphere but also with a traditional look to work with the rest of the home. I can’t stress enough that the use of color with texture is an important aspect of a decorative finish.

To get this look there were many layers of texture applied to build depth and authenticity into the room. I don’t know if I would call this a faux finish because the texture here is very real, but for the sake of argument, the crown molding and doors are wood grained to match the existing wainscoting.

At the very top of the wall between the crown and the panel molding we included some gilding to pick up some of the color from the ceiling fans and fixtures which were done in a antique look to tie in everything to finish off the look.

Hi Folks,

I am posting this under the Trompe L’oeil section because it  falls within this category. Let me begin with the term.

Trompe L’oeil (Fr., trick the eye) a method of painting for reproducing through fine detail the illusion of three dimensional depth and photographic realism.

This is one of my favorite techniques that I love to incorporate into the many things that I have in my bag of decorative painting tricks.  I believe in order to be a successful artist in this field you must have an diverse array of techniques in order to keep up with your clients demands and I think that learning this style is just as important as know how to perform a simple wall glazing.

The finish above is what’s called a “break away” in decorative painting which I’ve performed several times in commercial as well as residential applications. The part that looks like a plaster is actually an existing paint that a client of mine had on her walls . What she was wanting was to create a European kind of atmosphere without having to go to the extremes and expense of using an actual plaster.

This finish was all done with glaze and paint by knowing how to use color light and shadow to achieve a sense of depth.