Safehaven Estates

This was a mural that I did with a bit of a challenge.I  had to plan around a pot filler that going to be in the mural. The location of the filler was in the tile just above and to the left of the bread- pretty much in the middle area of the mural. But with carefull measuring and a little planning  -it went in with no problems.

Manifolds on Main Street

This is a trophy for best Sportscar  for the Manifolds on Main Street Car Show in Irving, TX.  I painted the trophy last year for this same event-just changed the car to last year's winner- a birdcage Maserati. Last year's trophy is on my website- page 6 of my stone gallery photos. I'll probably change that to this years  some time. This is a nice car show to go to and is tomorrow-should be fun-if it doesn't get rained out!

New England covered bridge

This is a  painting I created for a lady that brought several pictures from a trip to New England. In her photos were lots of beautiful trees turning in the fall. The covered bridge was one they had seen and really loved. There were trees that had fallen that I also included for her. Lots of color and a fun painting to create. Enjoy.

Bluebonnets and Triumphs

A few years ago, I received a call from a lady that was wanting to have a mural  with bluebonnets in her new home.As we were talking, we were discussing the build. They were mainly building to upgrade the garage area. Laughing, I said I understood as we had old cars and in fact, had recently joined a car club for that type car. She said ,"Oh really-what type of car?"  I said ,"Triumph". And she laughed-They had  a Triumph TR7 and a Stag-we had a Spitfire and a TR6.They also had been in the club for a long time-so I do believe we were destined to meet!
This painting is mainly a landscape with trees and lots of bluebonnets, If you look at it closely you will see Jim driving  his pageant blue TR7.  It is such a small world:)

Ahhhh...

This is a mural that I recently finished for a customer for a condo on the gulf coast. This was designed after looking at some photos from the New England area. Needing a southern feel to the landscape, I went with palms and made it a place I would like to go.  I'm pleased with the finished painting-and I hope you enjoy it.

Margaritaville

I had a lady call that loved my wine paintings on my website,but they didn't like wine. She laughed and said,  "My husband likes beer!"  I told her about a mural that I had painted of National Bohemian beer. I said I could do something with pretzels and beer. She said that was fine -but she didn't really like beer either-she like margaritas. I said let's go with salsa  & chips with all the ingredients to make the salsa and the margarita for her and beer and pretzels for her husband. I hope you enjoy it.

Margaritaville

Triumphs

I'm a big fan of Triumph cars and belong to a car club with my husband, Rick. For the 2008 Regional meeting, I had the opportunity to design the trophy for the event as our club was hosting the event. We had a friend who had recently purchased a 1949 Tr2000. It is a beautiful car that has a different look than a lot of the Triunphs-a look that is one, I personally, love. I love the old '40 Fords,Chevrolets, Willys,etc
It also was a car that was going to be featured at the Nationals that year. So, to me it was the perfect choice to paint for the trophy.The event was going to be in Tyler, Texas, a city that is known for it's roses.
Keeping all this in mind,plus the fact that I wanted to see if I would like making tile as part of my business. I painted the following picture. This painting of the car is in the original color -which is a soft green metallic-almost a seafoam green. This  color I thought was pretty unique for a 1949 car. I painted the car with a British flag background, combining the Triumph logo and the Tyler city logo.  I later had to change the car color for the trophy-as it would be impossibe to match it in ceramic glaze and the cost for putting it on a t-shirt was another story.
I  made a relief of the painting-with a space for the metal plaques that  would describe the event the trophy was awarded underneath the relief. Then, the insanity started. From a mother mold, we poured well over 140 trophies. Members from the club would come over for painting parties-each trophy was painted 3 times in underglazes fired and then painted with clear glaze and fired again. This was a lot of work -not to mention pressing clay in the mold in the first place-and then pulling the piece-hoping it came out well and dried without cracking. This took weeks to accomplish-sometimes only to have the piece break in the firing process.
Needless to say, I decided I was not going to get into making tile! It was a learning experience and I was happy with the final outcome. Here is a link to the event-

http://www.redrivertriumphclub.org/regional2008_photos.html

Triumphs and roses

Cowtown

This is a mural I did as a display for a large tile store in Ft. Worth. We discussed about painting  Cowtown and the Stockyards so that would represent the city. We talked about all the things that could fulfill that goal-Bass Hall, The "Tarantula" train, the Stockyards, the cattle drive mural in downtown Ft. Worth, and of course,the beautiful courthouse. This was painted on 16" tumbled marble. I painted it like you would see a  sports posters-fading from one scene to the next. I loved the way it all worked out. After installing it in the front of the store-where it was the first thing you saw,the manager called and asked if I could add to it to spread it out a little more.

My daughter and I went to the store to add to it-thinking two artists would be faster than one. But it had to be a funny sight as my daughter was quite pregnant with her son and the mural was low and hard to get to paint. We added a windmill and the Texas flag,an armadillo,etc. We were happy with the finished product. Unfortunately, the tile store  recently closed that location and moved to a Dallas store. The good news is that they did call and told me that they saved the mural and I now have it-I'll probably end up putting it in another Ft. Worth store. I have sold several variations of the mural-enjoy:)

Lizzard Nest Ranch

I had a customer call that loved lizzards, and was building a new home on the family's farm. On the farm were some old buildings that were falling down and a cissern that she wanted to include in the painting. She also had pictures of her iguana that she had for years. Going from pictures of the farm and the iguana, I came up with this landscape The dog was a neighbor's that was in one of her photos-she thought it would look nice in the picture-and of course it is looking a a lizzard:) The  other picture is the deco tiles that I painted for the rest of  the kitchen. This was painted on tumbled stone. After painting it, I sent her pictures,asking if I need to change anything. She said the only thing would be to make the buildings even more run down- which I did. Enjoy:)

Lizzard Nest Ranch

National Bohemian Beer

This is a mural that I did for a lady in the New England area. She had call asking if I could do one for her bar area. There was a beer company that her father in law had worked for that was no longer in business. They had collected items from the company and thought it was perfect to put something in honor of this wonderful man. They also ate crabs and clams that they caught and wanted items to go with that. So in the picture is Old Bay and vinegar that they liked with the crabs, a mallet,clams, and a piece of seaweed in the crab's claw-along with the National Bohemian bottle and and glass.

National Bohemian Beer

Welcome to LHJ Painting Away.


First, I would like to explain the title of my blog. It's very simple I love Jethro Tull music and there is a song that says something like "skating away on the thin ice of a new day". So, I'm painting away ...on the tile of a new day.

A lot of times as I work with customers, I meet people who want something a little unusual that they don't want to be really all that noticeable to the outsider. Little things in their mural that makes it special to them and to them alone.

I had a sweet older man call one day wanting to do a mural like I had on my website(Lhjdesigns.com) that was wine,grapes, and some other fruit. Then he said ,"I would like to have this date on the wine label, also,Santa Barbara, California"(where met his wife of 50 years) -all perfectly normal requests.Then he told me that they really didn't care for wine and could I put Cherry coke on the label instead-that's what they had to drink on their first date. And he was more of a Miller Lite man-could I put that in there some how-in a can - not a bottle- cause that is how he liked them. I said,"Sure whatever you want I think I can work in the painting" He was so nice-He also wanted -4k-5gk on the label(for kids and grandkids) and the Sea bee logo-a bumble bee- not just any bumblebee-but a gun toting one! LOL It all sounded like a lot -I was more worried about making the can look metallic -as all this was on a porcelain tile and I wanted it to come out right the first time.

It was fired on the tile using China Paints. Here is the finished product.