End of Year Pillow Commissions

Customized pillows - acrylic on raw linen, 2010

Here are a few examples of my pillow commissions of recent. My wife will take the painted fronts (shown above) and turn them into pillows. They look awesome! Thought y'all would like to see these before the new year. These pillows look great in any contemporary living room setting. Contact me for prices if you're interested. - Jared

War Eagle!!!!!!!

War Eagle sign, approx. 20x4", SOLD
(scroll below to purchase)

Here's a sign just in time for the greatest season of the year - Auburn football. I honestly think that I love Auburn football more than the Christmas season, though Santa pulls a very close second. At least my power bill doesn't spike by $200 during the football season. This sign was painted on reclaimed pressure treated wood. The weathering seen on the surface was largely done by hand, though I did leave the finished product outside for a while. I drilled two holes in the top corners for your choice of hanging material. I've used fine hemp rope in the past and it goes very well with the aged nature of the artwork. This would look absolutely awesome above a front door walkway or porch. Enjoy - Jared

My Own Mercantile Pillows

LEDBTR lobster, painted pillow, approx 14x14", $30 (purchase below)

For the last few years, I've nearly abandoned the use of canvas in my art completely. Thus, small mounds of canvas lye dormant on my studio floor, in cabinets, and tucked away in corners. Once again I turned to Restoration Hardware to dig for ideas and saw these faux-mercantile throw pillows. I decided to make my own in the same vane.

I took raw canvas and taped it to the studio wall. Next I mixed up a wash of acrylic paint - steamed milk and a touch of medium gray. After a couple coats of this mixture, I let it dry and then used a latex taupe hue to paint the lettering and logo. The taupe came from the hardware store's miss-matched paints in the clearance aisle. I think I got a quart for $1 - Gotta love that!!

I placed a few letter stencils on the pillow and arranged them until I was satisfied with the arch, leaving plenty of room to paint the lobster logo. I liked the idea of the letters closely approaching the edge of the pillow, perhaps even being cut short in the sewing. However in the end everything remained completely visible.

If you like relaxing on the sofa and rubbing your face on a 220 grade pillow surface, possibly removing half your 5 o'clock shadow in the process, then this material is for you. However, I have invested a little money in softer, more appropriate fabrics which make the texture of the pillow much more pleasurable. If you'd like to have a custom pillow made just contact me. Hope you enjoy - Jared

Do-it-Myself Restoration Hardware

Before image

Finished Product

Details of clock frame

This was my relaxation for the weekend. After a hard week of work and not enough time to paint in the studio I came home on Friday and saw that I had received my Restoration Hardware catalog. I have been drawn to vintage, antique items for the last several years, namely due to my beautiful bride who has always been shrewd enough to see the value in the vintage. Often I see items that I'd love to own in these catalogs but don't have thousands to spend on a lamp! The thought that goes through my head is "I could duplicate that!" So to get the creative juices flowing and to find some solace I decided to paint my ubiquitously commercial wall clock so that it resembled the more awesome $300 wall clock in the summer catalog. I started by drawing in a few essential measurements and then based the clock in a mix of slate grey and black. The numbers were then painted in two tones and the dividing lines and typography were rendered in white charcoal. The hands of the clock were neck-tie in shape and I decided to base them in the same dark base color of the clock face. This camouflaged the hands and gave me the opportunity to used metallic paints to create a more ornate hand design. The end product is a very tromp l'eoil effect. Lastly, I aged the clock frame which was originally silver in color. Now, a $3 clock looks like a $100 design element. I hope this inspires you to make your own treasures. Enjoy - Jared