Collections · Process

The Story Behind Painted Objects

By Cindy Trestman  ·  May 20, 2026  ·  5 min read

It started almost by accident. Cindy was in the studio one afternoon when she picked up an old ceramic vase that had been sitting in the corner collecting dust. She looked at it for a moment — and then she started painting it. By the time she put her brush down, something had shifted. The vase wasn't just decorated. It was transformed.

"Why should art only live on walls? I wanted to make things you could hold, use, live with — art that moves through your life."

There's something fundamentally different about art you can hold in your hands. A painting on a wall asks you to stand back and look. A painted object asks you to pick it up, turn it over, feel its weight. The relationship is more intimate — more physical.

Cindy's painted objects range from ceramic vessels to sculptural chains, from found furniture to everyday items reimagined through her bold, expressive palette. Each one is unique — there are no multiples, no editions. Just the object and the paint and the moment they came together.

Working on three-dimensional forms requires a completely different approach than painting on canvas. The surface curves and recedes. The light hits differently from every angle. You have to think about how the piece will look from the front, the side, the back — and from above.

Cindy approaches each object the same way she approaches a canvas — intuitively, without a predetermined plan. She responds to the form, letting the shape of the object guide where the paint wants to go. The result is always a surprise, even to her.

Collectors who own Cindy's painted objects describe a different kind of connection than they have with her canvases. The objects move through their homes — from shelf to table to mantelpiece — finding new contexts and catching new light as the seasons change.

There's also something wonderful about the way painted objects work as gifts. They're personal in a way that a print or a decorative item rarely is — clearly made by hand, clearly one of a kind, clearly thought about. They say something that words don't quite manage.

Cindy is constantly expanding the painted objects collection — finding new forms to work with, new surfaces to explore. Upcoming additions include painted furniture pieces, large-scale ceramic works, and a series of painted wearable objects that blur the line between art and fashion. Sign up to the journal to be the first to know when new pieces drop.

"A painted object doesn't hang on your wall — it lives in your home. That's a completely different kind of intimacy."

— Cindy Trestman

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Each piece is one of a kind, hand-painted by Cindy, and available for collectors worldwide. Ships with a signed certificate of authenticity.