"the home vera was born in"

18x24 deep edge panel....after i stenciled vera's room jolie had mentioned how much she liked this design and asked me if i ever did any collage style paintings...i have and was commissioned once to do one and enjoyed the process of putting the images together to form a story. so this got me thinking.......vera was born in the home  hmmmm...so i used her stencil for her bedroom with the image of the house then a vase of peonies flowers that jolie very much likes...then i wanted stephen (the dad) to be connected as well , i have painted here before and i new stephen was teaching his son about the different birds that come to there bird feeder outside the kitchen window...both of the children smile and enjoy this and so stephen told me one bird that comes is the tufted titmouse which i have painted lower right. i did not do any sketches i played around with the images in my head and just went for it, had fun will be doing more of this.

vera's room

jolie had found the stencil for her daughter( i did not make it) and then we did a sample, then jolie just wanted one wall done, painted the little table as well.

joanna's room

my niece joanna nowack......painted this for her in  ninety something...i was working on or had finished designing and painting murals in campo de fiori (aspen restaurant) and was home for the holiday, she has kept it all this time, decided to add it here.

"i see the montauk lighthouse"

18x24 oil on deep edge panel...i have been playing off of the designs you can see in a cow's hide.I remember doing this as a child when looking at cloud formations,still do.

Risa and Noah's bath

risa....i paint through her mind her vision, the house is one of my favorites and is very personal to me. it is a farm style house and here risa had me wash the walls with umber to antique it, though very light no strong faux finish here and the wood beams that cross the ceiling i antiqued to fit in with the rest of the room...risa is still in the process of putting the details together here.this room looks out onto a old mill on the water,wonderful.

tracee and oscar's garden

for tracee and oscar bosch....24x30 oil on canvas.....early morning in the back garden late summer, i was working on the kitchen and they have big windows that look out on the back garden with amazing colors that line the fencing with the pool house in the background. would like to paint the front garden next summer.

Amanda's room(india theme)

Amanda's room....sarah and james wanted a india theme to go with sarah's heritage, so we did the taj mahal,peacock(the bird of india) it has kind of a feeling of living in a jungle as if amanda moved in to the environment with a scarf ,hat and chalk board(hand painted with chalk board paint and then i painted a faux frame around it) hanging from tree branches...the room connects to her sister ava's room which has a jungle theme as well(you can also see this on this blog) i painted /added more images as we went along.

lynn and joe's kitchen ceiling / new jersey

just got back from new jersey.....lynn is a childhood friend of mine( we have been having a great time catching up and creating together) and although i went to work on her daughter mia's room and come up with ideas for her daughter tess's room somehow we started painting the kitchen ceiling !!...just happened naturally,it ended up warming up the area and making it more intimate.i worked with modeling paste to give  some of the vines a three dementional feel then worked with the green tones on leaves,then painted the shadows and used some bronze as highlights....lynn liked the organic way it seemed to be growing .I like the way it changes in the different lighting ....will be going back to finish mia's room which im very proud of and start with tess's room soon.

"and the cow sailed into the harbor" "holy cow harbor day"

for cow harbor day...made two original paintings(then prints on wood) to sell in northport at the firefly gallery. Cow harbor day (so im told) came about when the farmers brought the cows on boats across the harbor for them to graze up and around the hills of northport. later it became a day to celebrate by having a parade then later the cow harbor race for runner's which many people have flew in to be apart of accross the country.

painted dresser for jolie

the dresser i painted in a distressed/old age look that jolie likes and i like to do it (this was march when i took the photo)...i enjoy objects that have a story to tell ,the barn painting above i did of their family barn..jolie has a way of making everything soft,warm and comfortable and that is why i took a photo of austin in the chair . ..everthing is like this with her.today i was doing some less creative painting at the house and the hydrangeas in the back garden were a dark blue purple and we were all admiring them. nice summer weather today.

Ava's room

I painted this about a year ago,ava is now eleven months and walking and starting to talk.Now i am painting her sister's room which connects to this room and i am continuing the jungle theme with the taj mahal and more should be finished this week.

kitchen cabinets(for jolie and stephen)

they went with two off whites' with a weathered look that has charactor and could last with small children,they were originally to dark for their taste and made the kitchen seem bigger/lighter,it took a week to complete.

james and jack(bedrooms)

james wanted the yankee symbol in his room(jackie their mother and i decided to leave out the white lines in the symbol we felt it had more of a softness to what was going on in the room and james was ok with it,i also learned aboffs paint store has the exact color called yankee blue) and jack wanted the mets....i took a photo of jack while i was painting,it was his birthday at the time.

faux wood beams in den (for lisa and francis)

the wood beams were dark and dated,so after a few samples we decided on lighter tone because they wanted to bring more light into the room,i used three different colors to achieve this look.I only used paint,no stain was used for this project.