Title: Miranda’s Obsession
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Size: 22″ x 28″
Buy Print: ($345)
Buy Original: N/A
Number 11 in the series “My Favorite Tequilas,” Miranda’s Obsession features beautiful tattoos with an Alice In Wonderland theme, complimented by a hand painted bottle of Los Azulejos Anejo. The tatoos were a challenge, but worth every minute.
Thank you to Miranda for serving as the inspiration for this work.
Title: Tribute to Tom
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Size: 16″ x 20″
Buy Print: ($225)
Buy Original: N/A
This is the painting that actually got me started on the series “My Favorite Tequilas.” This painting was done for Jennifer Finnerty and her kids as a tribute for their dad, my friend Tom, who loved Don Julio.
Still working on the series, “My Favorite Tequilas…” I just finished two commission pieces for some special friends, one of which is titled “The Perfect Pair” now displayed in my Acrylic Gallery. The companion piece (not shown) is of the KAH añejo, and is a black-and-white, hand-painted, ceramic bottle. Both symbolize the Mexican tradition of celebrating the dead, or “Dia de Los Muertos.” These paintings were especially significant to me, as I had the great privilege of performing these folks’ wedding. The black bottle painting includes the book of the ceremony and their vows. The title “The Perfect Pair” really refers to these friends, but has multiple meanings: the two paintings, the two tequiilas, and the two shots of blanco Tequila in “The Perfect Pair.”
I continue to be amazed and impressed with the uniqueness of tequila bottles, the stories they tell, and the beautiful hand painting that many of them possess. Each one is a new challenge in a different way, and keeps me striving to improve my work. Hope you enjoy them.
Title: The Perfect Pair
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Size: 12″ x 16″
Buy Print: ($150)
Buy Original: N/A
KAH Blanco is a wonderful clear Tequila, and the beautiful hand-painted bottles are a perpetual celebration of “dia de los muertos” (Day of the Dead).
I’m still grinding out new pieces of art in the after-hours, and I’ve been focusing on “My Favorite Tequilas” for some time now. I’m trying to get to a dozen or more to have a good selection for those who have the same affinity that I do for the bottles and the stories many of them tell. (Not to mention the wonderful juice that lives inside!) My goal is to improve my technique with every painting, and the details and working with acrylics are an obsession for me. I still love painting glass, and reflections.
The Cohiba cigar in my latest piece “1942” was great fun to paint, and the smoke was a first time adventure. This is the first painting I’ve done in a LONG while that did not come from a staged still-life photo, but rather from a group of about five or six different photos: one of the bottle and the glass, one of the Dos Equis bottle, one of the cigar and ashtray, and several of cigar ashes and smoke that I used as reference. Of course I altered all of the objects to fit what I had in my head to paint, and it came out pretty much as I had pictured it in my mind.
My cousin Linda gave me the inspiration of a totally black background and foreground, which gives 1942 a dark but dramatic look, that this tequila deserves. And the 24″ x 36″ size makes everything “larger than life.” I hope you enjoy it as much as I did painting it.
Check out my Acrylic Gallery to see more samples of my work. I welcome commission work, so if there is anything you’d like me to paint for you, let me know. Most pieces take 4-6 weeks to complete.
Title: 1942
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Size: 24″ x 36″
Buy Print: ($395)
Buy Original: N/A
Don Julio 1942 is a wonderful tequila, in a very elegant bottle. That’s why I chose to do it on a totally black background–rather than a table top or other setting–to highlight the objects. These are a few of my favorite things!
