I’m not usually so thrilled over the all the great free Wordpress themes out there.

They almost all require hacking up to do what I want them to do and to match options and capabilities with clients’ specifc needs and requests.

So given that I’m my own most critical client, I’m writing again today about this theme and the nice results it gives for my three portfolios I’m in the process of reassembling on this site. I’ve now posted seven entries/pictures on each of the three– a mural gallery, a selection of faux painting and custom textured, embedded and polished plaster finishes, and a portfolio of custom art projects, which includes scenic painting, chalk painting, public art and custom/commissioned paintings.

Here’s a screenshot of the navigation page for the custom art gallery, only the actual page is twice as big- I did hardly any customizing to make this blog perfect for me. It has a big beautiful pictures-first look on the single post/picture pages that I love, too.

Custom art portfolio screenshot

I’ve been keeping track of the mural project at Cafe Mundo here in Banker’s Hill with my iPhone and some instant real time publishing through my pages on Facebook and Twitter, so I thought I’d catch up some our progress here before heading over to for this morning’s session.

I’ve been very pleased to work with artist Jessica Siemens, who you may remember I mentored earlier this spring in marketing her excellent work via blogging and social media on the way to her first “art fair” appearance in April at Little Italy’s ArtWalk. (For more detail on that, search for articles on Jessica over on the San Diego Finishing School site.)

Anyway, we’ve been having a blast getting to paint together (rather than working on marketing paintings together:) and we’ve been accompanied off and on by my babies, Hunter (4) and Logan (2)– no, they don’t have their own websites yet– so I hope you enjoy these pictures.

Cafe Mundo mural progress

Cafe Mundo mural painting

Mural details

Jessica paints, Hunter and Logan supervise!

Hunter practices his craft

• My paintings at Little Italy "NoLi Notte" this Friday July 10! http://aweber.com/b/1lsAQ #

• getting a head start on a busy week with show of paintings opening Friday night in Little Italy #SanDiego http://bit.ly/10QtT1 #ly #

Here’s a quick video I made about my new show of original paintings at Joseph Bedford’s gallery and furniture shop in Little Italy on July 1 as part of the new NoLi Nights.

I started these paintings in 2007, part of a series that actually started itself in 2003, and haven’t worked on any of these paintings in over two years until now.