I know, it seems strange to be writing about a kitchen appliance on speedonthewater.com, but when a company like KitchenAid teams up with one of the best boat painters in the business, it’s newsworthy.
Of course, who else would the artist featured in KitchenAid’s new CustomMade stand mixers be but the distinguished owner of The Art of Design and Dean’s Place Fine Art Gallery, Dean Loucks?
From motorhomes and helicopters to furniture and fine art, Loucks has expressed his creativity on a variety of canvases over the years. Obviously we know him from the dozens of Outerlimits, Skaters and other performance boats he and his talented crew have painted over the years, but now Loucks will be known among chefs and foodies around the world.
“This whole thing is really neat,” Loucks said. “We’ve been painting a lot of custom toasters and we’ve done some other appliances. Whenever we do things like that we send it off to show the manufacturers. Well, for KitchenAid, they loved the concept. I guess, from the president down, the company mindset is that the mixers needed to be customized. That’s the next level.
“Did you know they sold two million of these things in one year?” he added. “You can only change the colors so many times, so the next level is to do some in cheetah print or with flowers on them.”
To celebrate the holidays, KitchenAid is offering—for the first time—a selection of exclusive hand-painted stand mixers (pictured) in very limited quantities. Each is individually numbered and signed by Loucks. The Indiana-based artist painted six designs for the launch: Golden Petals with his signature flower series, Leopard, Shimmer, Noir Leopard, Snow Leopard and Serengeti. You can view them all by clicking here.
Loucks said the first run includes numbers 1-100 of the first six designs. In all, he said he’s completed more than 30 different designs, which will slowly be released by KitchenAid. Each special edition stand mixer costs $1,899. That’s about four to five times the cost of a standard mixer, but for a piece of custom art—a showpiece for your kitchen—that’s pretty good.
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