I painted this little powder room (approx 2 x 3 m) with trompe l’oeil bookshelves of faux bois, in an acrylic base & oil finish. Above, three walls pieced together in a single two-dimensional image.
View from the door. The stained glass window was designed & built for the mural by the fine artist Rudy Bellemans. I had a halogen focal light installed outside the window so that whenever the room lights were lit, the leaded glass shone as if with sunlight.
Some details of the mural: the first on the left are two photographs, above, with Greek plate, the shelf that lies below & to the left of the window. Beneath it, some letters of personal significance to the home’s owner as well as a note with the logotype of his club.
A shot looking above & below a top shelf with books from the Penguin Classics series & a vase holding feathers.
Two samples (above & below) of faux bois with painted moulding & drawer handle.
At the top a copy of a beautiful little Russian St George, next to Winnie the Pooh. Below, a variety of details including a Roman statuette, a drawing by Rafael Sanzio & a bullfighting postcard between the books.
Above, art books & an antique postcard advertising Carribean coffee. Below, The Mona Lisa in a perspective I found difficult to emulate (to give it a convincing sense of receding into the depths of the imaginary shelf). At the top of the stack, a book I invented with my girlfriend’s name & a likeness done from a photograph of her dancing Flamenco.
Above, a close-up of the shelves at bottom left & threatening to burn the whole illusion down, a painted cigarette burning on the shelf below.
The Baron & Barroness Bettina & Cristoff von Pfetten’s formal dining room in a beautiful house they built in Marbella, in part with large architectural pieces of carved stone that once belonged to a seventeenth century Dutch cathedral. On the walls, Bettina’s collection of antique menus from famous places at times of celebrated events. Above the long table & hanging from the painted sky another bit of Holland’s golden age, the chandelier.
Some details added to break up the symmetry of the discreet mural, (meant to open the room up vertically more than draw the eye) a pensive monkey sits in one of the painted stone openings.
Another detail, a lizard warms himself on a stone shelf.
Two details: dog & seagulls
In this room, which houses a sauna & Jacuzzi, I painted a continuous mural around all four walls of the Grand National steeplechase. Acrylics with a tough waterproof varnish to survive the humid atmosphere.
Two large canvases designed to hang in adjacent niches as one continuous view. Oils on canvas each section is approximately 2 m tall by 2 & a half wide
Two large canvases designed to hang in adjacent niches as one continuous view. Oils on canvas each section is approximately 2 m tall by 2 & a half wide
Detail of the lemon tree & Spanish landscape in the distance
Details, a portrait of the Siamese cat that belonged to the house
The band
Two walls in a modern wine cellar painted to look like an antique one.
The second wall creates the illusion of a deep series of rooms filled with wine barrels. The painted floor imitates the real floor as a continuation of it.
A painted Flamenco poster at the tasting table
Cat among the barrels
The door in the distance at the back of the bodega
Grotesqueries painted with acrylics on the ceiling above a Jacuzzi that looked out from its bay window over the Mediterranean about three & a half meters by one & a half. To the right, two details
Grotesqueries painted with acrylics on the ceiling above a Jacuzzi that looked out from its bay window over the Mediterranean about three & a half meters by one & a half. To the right, two details
Above & below, some terrible photographs of two painted windows with still lifes on their sills
Above & below, some terrible photographs of two painted windows with still lifes on their sills
Above & below, some terrible photographs of two painted windows with still lifes on their sills
Details
These two paintings, above & below, are painted on canvas mounted on board & installed in two adjacent niches on one side of the MRI room at USC hospital, L.A. California. They make up one continuous landscape with the one above hanging to the left of the one below
The two canvases below also hang in contiguous niches & make up a single landscape. They were installed on the facing wall of the same room
details
Two views of the big room with interior swimming pool & Jacuzzi where we painted every surface but the floor, below, some details
Two views of the big room with interior swimming pool & Jacuzzi where we painted every surface but the floor, below, some details
Two views of the big room with interior swimming pool & Jacuzzi where we painted every surface but the floor, below, some details
Two views of the big room with interior swimming pool & Jacuzzi where we painted every surface but the floor, below, some details
Detail
In a tiny detail in the big park, Monet paints plein air
A vine breaks through an old wall with faux tiles in the Andaluz style. The arches above the stairs are from a balcony of the Alhambra but look out on an imaginary desert
A vine breaks through an old wall with faux tiles in the Andaluz style. The arches above the stairs are from a balcony of the Alhambra but look out on an imaginary desert
A vine breaks through an old wall with faux tiles in the Andaluz style. The arches above the stairs are from a balcony of the Alhambra but look out on an imaginary desert
A vine breaks through an old wall with faux tiles in the Andaluz style. The arches above the stairs are from a balcony of the Alhambra but look out on an imaginary desert
Ceiling mural for the Southern California home of the Thompsons, founders of Herbalife
Mural on canvas installed with plaster moulding as headboard for the bed in the master bedroom. Composition made up of elements of both Boucher & Fragonard’s paintings
The caveman mural, acrylics & oils on a corner wall.
Sky with cherubs on a cupola of a bathroom ceiling
A small detail of a large faux bois mural, the moulding is painted & in this corner: a trompe l’oeil note with painted Scotch tape holds the signature
Egyptian mural. Oil painting on a kitchen wall.
A bachanal painted in acrylics in six exterior arhes
Small mural above fireplace. Model agency Marbella
Wall beside an exterior swimming pool
Detail of a wall beside an exterior swimming pool
Fruit & vegetable garland with parrot to decorate a curved wall behind a bar in a client’s home. Oil paints.
One of two walls with an entirely hand-painted faux bois mural (designed to match the genuine hardwood doors) with trompe l’oeil painted niches for the client’s prize Pit Bulls
A trompe l’oeil stone wall with view of the Mediterranean
Detail, Canaletto
Details: on the left boats & figures on the steps under the tall tower to the left in the big picture above
The gentleman admiring an equestrian statue can be found to the right of the door, behind the big Gondola
Bridge to the left of the Horse statue
Hidden in an alley in the distance, at the right, a man urinates against a wall
Seagull at the far right
This woman walks up behind the equestrian monument
Hidden in an alley in the distance, at the right, a man urinates against a wall
An indoor swimming pool (covered, bottom center) painted on three windowless walls to brighten the room up.
A big mural, 14 m long. Charlie Parker & band in a park overlooking the Mediterranean. Acrylics
On the right, a little table I decorated with a trompe l’oeil still life including stationary with the homeowner’s horse club logo, drawings of horses by Leonardo & a pencil
Two walls painted with the view as seen through the windows, of Gibraltar. Acrylics & oil paints
Two walls painted with the view as seen through the windows, of Gibraltar. Acrylics & oil paints
Sky with cherubs on a cupola of a bathroom ceiling
