Reclaimed character, reimagined as functional art.
Painting with Patina is a technique I’ve developed to preserve the history embedded in reclaimed materials—especially wood—harvested directly from the homes where my artwork will live. These pieces are more than decorative; they’re narratives, crafted from textures that have sheltered families for generations and transformed into bespoke design elements meant to last another hundred years.
The process begins with making the “paint”—sorting, cleaning, and preparing old-growth boards, often full of nails and debris, to reveal their true color and texture. Then comes the design phase, where I draw inspiration from the home’s architecture and story—like the stained glass windows artist Betty Guy once gazed through in the house that inspired my piece, A Look in My Eye.
Each canvas is custom-built, sometimes reinforced with steel and inlaid with stainless framing, to blend modern structure with aged surfaces. Once the design is finalized, I cut and place every veneer by hand, sometimes working for days to ensure perfect alignment and color harmony. The end result is deeply personal: a custom art piece that lives in harmony with its space, sparking conversation, memory, and connection.
Painting with Patina is labor-intensive—but the results speak volumes. These works have been featured in press and play a role in multi-million-dollar real estate transactions, proving that storytelling and design can—and should—go hand in hand.