Metal Wall Arts Gallery

Contemporary Metal Wall Art Originals in Heat-Colored Steel

Decorative metal wall art in the dining room. Heat-colored steel engraving is one of the more unique metal wall arts.
There's nothing like finding the perfect metal wall art original for your project and hanging it in its new home.

Decorating with metal wall art creates a world of possibilities for collectors and interior designers. Metal wall art offers visual effects impossible to achieve using other materials, changing its character with variations in light and viewing angle to bring a range of moods to any room. 

The colors you see in my metal wall art originals are heat colors. Because they patina the steel without obscuring its unique metallic qualities, heat colors enhance the decorative grinding textures, which bring the artwork to life. 

In essence, my grinder is my paintbrush. I use it to create texture and effects like transparency, movement, form, and depth as a base for the heat colors I apply to the steel.

As you will see, I make much of my metal wall art with wood as a contrast. I love incorporating wooden elements in my wall art. The character of the carved and textured wood provides a perfect complement to the metal.  

As the metal wall arts encompass works made using various techniques, patina methods, and a range of artistic styles, choosing the perfect original begins with finding an artist with whom you resonate.

I often blend figurative and abstract forms in my metal art. Many pieces are pictorial and could be considered paintings on metal, though I use heat colors rather than pigments for my artistic palette.

There’s nothing like seeing them in person, but this video will give you a feel for the dynamic effects possible with these heat-colored metal or metal and wood artworks.

The Dynamic Effects of Heat Colored Steel Metal Wall Art

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Though I spend most of my studio time working on commissioned metal art for individuals, businesses, and public art projects, I also find time to create my unique ‘metal paintings’ for The Dean Gallery here at our place in Homer, Alaska, and have them available here in my online metal art gallery.

My heat-colored steel wall art, metal and wood wall sculptures, and larger metal murals are available as one-of-a-kind or limited edition originals.

They are not inexpensive, and I make a limited number each year, so I also reproduce images of them as sheer satin metal photo prints to make them available in different sizes to a broader audience.

And if you don’t see the perfect piece for your setting, with 40+ years of experience as a professional metal artist, I can create original metal wall art that complements your setting and aesthetic vision.

Though you’ll find other metal wall artists using heat colors in their work, few combine advanced heat-coloring methods with decorative grinding techniques to make metalwork paintings as I do.

The metal artworks on this page are currently in stock or available by custom order sized to fit your space.

A view across the Dean Gallery in Homer Alaska to my heat-colored metal wall art, 'The Way of the Mammoth.' The Dean Gallery features art by Alaska metal artist, Jeff Dean, my wife Ranja, and our daughter M'fanwy.

If you live in Alaska and are looking for Alaska metal art, you can view my work in person at The Dean Gallery here in Homer, AK.

One of a Kind and Limited Edition Original Metal Wall Art

Timelapse video of heat coloring ‘The Last Mammoth’ metal wall art.

I’ve been making metal and wood wall art since the early ’80s. My article, ‘Colored Metal Wall Art, Four Decades in the Studio,’ has many examples if you’re wondering about ways to decorate with metal wall art.

Commissioning Custom Metal Art

Don’t see what you’re looking for or need a design in a different size to fit your space? Look over my commission’s page to discover the benefits of ordering custom metal wall art and sculpture.

As a metal artist, I make my heat-colored steel wall art and wood and metal wall art using techniques I’ve developed over the last few decades to create single and multi-layered steel wall art.

I engrave and grind designs into sheet steel using carefully chosen abrasives to define and model forms, create a sense of depth and suggest movement. My grinder is my paintbrush, while my color palette consists of heat colors made by heating the steel artwork with a large torch.

I use this innovative technique to produce pieces with a dynamic visual effect that changes with the light and viewing angle.

Variations in natural and artificial lighting highlight the metallic effects, giving each work an extensive range of characteristics unique to the medium.

You can read about how I got started working as a metal artist, see more examples of the various types of wall-hung metal art I make, and get ideas for the places you might consider displaying metal wall art in this article.

Working in the studio on a large metal wall art commission for a hospital titled, Seal Moon Rising.

Although I make most of my metal art as wall pieces, much of it is also suited for display horizontally. The colors and grinding textures catch the light beautifully in this orientation.

I’ve made a number of decorative tables over the years, which you can read about in this article. If you’re short of wall space, a decorative table is a great way to enjoy heat-colored steel engravings.

"My family and I have come to treasure this work not only for its beauty but for what it has evolved over time to represent in our Alaskan home. "

• Denali Table

"My family and I have enjoyed the beautiful creativity of Jeff Dean's artistic production in our home for nearly 20 years. This has been in the form of the "Denali Table" which depicts various Alaskan wildlife pictured on iron set over a gorgeous wood table with metal coasters set around the table's periphery depicting the "foot prints" of all the pictured wildlife. This piece has been the topic of so many joyful conversations and memories and truly has forged lifetime memories for so many.

I value this piece more than any other work of art in our home. My family and I have come to treasure this work not only for its beauty but for what it has evolved over time to represent in our Alaskan home. Thank you so much Jeff for sharing your gift with all of us!"

Metal wall art used as a decorative coffee tabletop. Denali National Park; the mountains, rivers, animals and animal tracks. Engraved steel saw blade with heat tints.
Wire brushing around a ghostly mammoth in one of the grinding and heat coloring sequences making The Way of the Mammoth.
At work on 'The Way of the Mammoth' wall piece.

Many of these designs are available in a variety of sizes as affordable sheer matte, metal prints. You’ll find them in my Metal Photo Print Gallery.

Engraved and heat tinted steel metal wall art of a fishing bear and raven in an Appalachian rhododendron thicket.
"You captured their likenesses and their spirits perfectly and forever."

• Sir Baily and Gator

"I receive more pleasure from your two magnificent bronze portraits of my beloved dogs than from all my other art combined. You captured their likenesses and their spirits perfectly and forever.

Thank you."

A lone polar bear and arctic fox watch silently as a seal rises to it's breathing hole in this layered metal and wood wall art..
"When the time came for us to sell that home, the new owners told us it was the eagle that sealed the deal for them."

• Golden Eagle with Fish

"We were the very proud owners of the eagle carving that Jeff (we called him Hannum back then) did on the center support log of our hand-built log home in Knoxville, TN.

When the house was built the log was a lot taller than it finally ended up and looked totally out of balance with the rest of the log structure. In fact, it detracted from the open design and was kind of overpowering.

We knew it was meant to be a focal point but weren’t sure exactly what to do to make it what we wanted. I don’t remember just how we met Hannum, I think it was at a show of some kind. Whatever it was, we immediately knew that this guy could make something special out of our log.

He came to see what we had to work with and completely charmed us with his vision. Jeff wasn’t very well known at that time and all our friends thought we were out of our minds to let this unknown person take a chainsaw into the middle of our wonderful new house and just let him “go at it”.

We never had a doubt. I forget how long it took, but it was a terrific experience to watch him bring that log to life and not a day went by that we didn’t admire our eagle. It was perfect. It still is.

When the time came for us to sell that home the new owners told us it was the eagle that sealed the deal for them. It gives us great pleasure to know that eagle will be admired there for many generations."

An example of the effects made possible by combining decorative metal grinding and heat coloring. This design aspires to convey the age-old patience of the hunter and the elusiveness of the seal. A man kneels near his kayak on a barren ice flow, patiently watching the water through a well-worn breathing hole. Made through the art of heat colored steel engraving.

If you are a metal artist and want to learn to make heat-colored steel engravings or level up your decorative grinding and heat-coloring skills, check out my online course.

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