Hawaiian & Tropical Murals

I paint custom murals for individuals who want to enhance their offices, hospital suroundings, and residences. My specialty is custom work and I work closely with the client to determine exactly what they want their surroundings to look like. My subject matter includes people, animals, tropical settings, rain forests, landscapes, surfing and underwater scenes. I paint any size indoor mural using acrylic or oil depending on the client’s preference. Much of my work is through architects and interior designers as well as individual clients. Available styles include realism, impressionism, and abstract.

Queens Hospital, Honolulu Family services center
Water sports theme for children's Sun room. 12'x7', acrylic. Painted directly on wall. We decided on a positive, active hawaiiana theme that with which the children could relate. All the people in the scene are employees on the Kam II Floor and they were a delight to work with.

Queens Hospital, Honolulu Family services center
Jungle scene for Acute care area. 13'x8.5', acrylic. Painted directly on wall. As with all five murals in this area I wanted to portray aquatic life in this jungle scene along with other jungle wildlife. I felt an importance for educational value along with esthetics.

Queens Hospital, Honolulu Family services center
[Closeup]

Queens Hospital, Honolulu Family services center
Arctic scene for Residential area. 10'x5', acrylic. Painted directly on wall. Scene includes animals that live in cold areas. I thought it was important for the children to be exposed to wildlife in climates very different than ours.

Queens Hospital, Honolulu Family services center
Surfing scene in children's activity room. 14'x10', acrylic. Surfing is such an important part of Hawaii's culture. I thought this was a perfect theme for the exercise area. All the surfers are actually employees on the Kam II floor.

Queens Hospital, Honolulu Family services center
Marine life scene in psychiatric offices area. 10'x5', acrylic. This mural is in the central area of kam II. It portrays the beauty of Hawaiian marine life and hopefully has a soothing effect on the residents and employees.

Queens Hospital, Honolulu Family services center
[Different View]

Queens Hospital, Honolulu MRI room
Rainbow shower trees in new MRI room. 12'x22', acrylic. Working with the Imagining manager and the architect we created a friendly and calming atmosphere for this room by softening the edges with warm colors and paintings of Rainbow shower trees. My brother assisted me with laying out a portion of the trees.

Queens Hospital, Honolulu MRI room
This view shows subtle clouds in the sky and birds gliding overhead. Painting while the new MRI machine was being calibrated was a new experience. Everyday the staff made sure I was metal free by running a magnet over my supplies and body.

Queens Hospital, Honolulu POB 1 Cafe
Abstract in cafe. 51'x varying heights, acrylics. I worked closely to two excellent architects/designers on this project. They came up with a color scheme and design for the cafe. They were looking for an abstract painting to cover four walls incorporating their color choices and my expression of the elements of design.

Queens Hospital, Honolulu POB 1 Cafe
[Different View]

Straub Clinic & Hospital, Honolulu Cardio stress test room
Room 1. 9'x9', acrylics. The client was looking for a more interesting and calming effect in this room. I decided that if the patient is walking/running on the treadmill they should have the experience that they're actually going somewhere.

Straub Clinic & Hospital, Honolulu Cardio stress test room
Room 2. 10'x9', acrylics. This painting gives hope to the patient that they might be able to jump the wall and run through the Hawaiian landscape.

Straub Clinic & Hospital, Honolulu Cardiac care unit
Hawaiian palms and plants above recovery room beds. Seven 6'x varying widths. The director and the architect strived to make a more comfortable and attractive recovery room for heart patients. What's better than recovering under a beautiful palm tree?

Straub Clinic & Hospital, Honolulu Cardiac care unit
[Same Room]

Straub Clinic & Hospital, Honolulu Cardiac care unit
Recovery room for children heart patients. 30'x6', acrylics. I felt that it was really important to create a fun and interesting room for children recovering from surgery by keeping them visually stimulated. My mother's name is on my Akasha's dog tag.

Straub Clinic & Hospital, Honolulu Cardiac care unit
Same Room

Straub Clinic & Hospital, Honolulu Cardiac care unit
[Different View]

Hawaii Kai, Honolulu Guest powder room
This project was both fascinating and exciting from the beginning. The client is an established and talented interior designer and the mural was designed for her personal home. She was attracted to the style painting on the French Zuber wallpaper but not the subject matter or the price of $3,000 per roll. We worked together to find ancient trees, ferns and other plants from Hawaii and combined them with the desired painting style and depth of field to create a beautiful room with an illusion of a larger space. All the birds are from her backyard. Now she can't get her guests to leave the powder room. Her home was part of the 2004 kitchen and bath show.

Hawaii Kai, Honolulu Guest powder room
[Same Room]

Waikiki, Honolulu Homeless Solutions Hawaii
The client came across my abstract painting at Queens Hospital and was looking for a mural with Hawaii earth tones and designs that would reflect meaning for the Hawaii residents staying there. This is an extra special painting because the owner's daughter of the construction management team helped finish the project off with a final brushstroke. There are two hidden names in the mural.

Waikiki, Honolulu Homeless Solutions Hawaii
[Same Room]

Lanikai, Hawaii Residential Guest Home
The client wanted a painting in his next door guest home in a 6'x9' alcove at the top of the stairs. He was looking for a very full Hawaiian landscape painting. The room was large and cream colored with a sky light above so the area could balance a busy mural. He was very fond of Hawaii's birds so I added 11 different kinds throughout the painting. The client is an avid swimmer and is represented in the water on the right of the waterfall.

Hawaii Kai, Honolulu Esplanade Residential PH
13'x16', acrylic. These clients had a lot to contribute to this mural. Between them, the couple had education backgrounds in science including biology, photography and collecting many kinds of art. They chose many of the plants, trees, and birds that went into the painting. Combined with great hospitality and wonderful senses of humor, it was a great project and a pleasure working with them.

Hawaii Kai, Honolulu Esplanade Residential PH
[Closeup]

Diamond Head
When we moved into our condo all the walls were white. Perfect! The owners agreed to let me paint anything I wanted as long as it is white when we leave. They came into town to visit and now it's in our contract not to paint the condo white. I faux finished the walls and painted spot murals throughout the space.

Diamond Head
Same Condo

Royal Kunia Model Homes
I worked with a very talented interior designer in Honolulu on 5 model homes including different spot murals for various themes in each home such as The America home with this pair of deer in Colorado painted in glazes. Other themes included a dragon and castle in the Harry Potter room, Powder Puff Girls, Aviation room, entemologists room with giant beetles, and large palm trees.

Royal Kunia Model Homes
Another Home

Waialai Iki Ridge
40'x8' wall including spiral staircase and continuing through dining room wall. The ceilings and walls were all painted with bamboo forest and sky glazes. The technique is great for subtle designs that enhance a room by supporting the decorators work.

Amfac PH offices
40'x9',acrylic. The client wanted a background mural in her renovated PH office area. I chose a landscape painting of a misty rainforest. The mural was designed without wildlife because the client had plans of her own! She applied rubber frogs, fish, and lizards to the finished piece for a 3D effect and encouraged her own clients to interact with the squeak toy animals.

Residential ceiling mural
7' diameter. The idea for this mural was to create a sense of depth by looking up through a lush tropical garden to coconut palms and Hawaii sky. I took many photos of the underside of plants, palms and birds for this painting. I not only looked forward to working on this painting everyday but talking with the client and learning about her interesting life. It's wonderful to meet fascinating and exciting people through my work.

Residential ceiling mural
[Another View]

Residential ceiling mural
[Closeup]

Hawaii Kai, Ceiling Mural
7’ diameter. The client saw my work from other ceiling murals and wanted something similar with her own personal style. It was great working with her because her family was there while I was working and I got to learn a lot about her culture.

Hawaii Kai, Top of Stairway Mural
8’ x 9’. The client wanted something dramatic at the top of her stairs. We decided to paint a Travelers palm on top of a 3 layer faux finish. She added her own potted plants for depth.

Kaneohe, HI
Master bedroom closet doors. 8’X7’ Acryic on wood. The client was interested in having her closet doors painted with a scene of Kaneohe Bay on them. I compiled many photos to create the painting she was looking for and increased the visual size of the room by using a great depth of field.

Kaneohe, HI
Close up of foreground of Master bedroom doors.

Kaneohe, HI
Master bedroom closet doors. 5’X7’ Acrylic on wood. The continuing scene of Kaneohe Bay.

Kaneohe, HI
Closet doors in master bedroom. 8’X6.5’ Bamboo forest scene in acrylics and washes. The clients were interested in visually increasing the bedroom space. I worked with them by using the mural and faux finishes to achieve the desired effect.

Kailua Beach, Master bath.
6’ x 10’. The client wanted the serene feeling of being on the beach in her newly renovated bathroom.

Kaneohe, Ka-malama Care Home
12’ x 17’. The owners of this care home really wanted to represent the feeling of Hawaii inside because many of the residents could not go outside. They added a fountain for the realistic sounds of the waterfall in the mural. It was absolutely a joy to work for them for the month I was there and spend time with the residents and the staff.

Kaneohe, Ka-malama Care Home
[Another View]

Honolulu Office Mural, "Hanalei Valley"
5’ x 15’. The office of Judy Bishop & Co. Judy Bishop was really impressed with the view of Hanalei valley and wanted a mural on canvas in her Honolulu office so she and her clients could enjoy the view while they worked.

Honolulu Office Mural, "Hanalei Valley"
She wanted to continue the painting on the wall for a 3 dimensional look.

Robin Burton Studios
2801 Coconut Avenue 5-E
Honolulu, HI 96815
Tel. (808) 221-2179
Email: robin@robinburton.com