It’s been said that “the job of an artist is to offer a sanctuary of beauty,” and Brett Chigoy takes great pleasure in doing just that. His masterfully-designed murals have graced powder rooms and bedrooms, dining rooms, foyers, and ceilings of homes throughout Lafayette and Baton Rouge.

Chigoy’s experience with murals dates back to his post-college

days, when he worked for 10 years with famed muralist Robert Dafford. “Working with Robert I learned how to compose large-scale paintings, of course, but it also taught me that I have to get up and make stuff every day,” he says.

If Chigoy’s gift is revealed in his murals, his imagination is best reflected in his paintings. An accomplished fine artist, his work is similar to the Masters – a mix of realism, Baroque style and un-Warholian pop culture.

Admittedly a practical person, he has most recently suspended his traditional painting, as well as four-year stint painting movie set designs (which included work on “Deep-Water Horizon,” “Fantastic Four” and “Maze Runner”), to concentrate on his bread and

butter: commissioned hand-painted walls and wall canvases. “I love decorating homes,” he says, sitting comfortably in his paint-splattered pants, grey t-shirt and a houndstooth pub cap.

While many of his wall paintings depict Louisiana landscapes or French-motif patterns, he takes creative expression when allowed to by the client. “I like works of art to be an experience for me and the client.” Passing his phone to show a small mural with an agate design, he adds, “A powder room is a great place to have fun with art.”

Perhaps the crown jewel of his portfolio, to date, is a mural painted on a 26-foot-wide domed ceiling of a home that looks more like the ceiling of a church. “Everything was completely drawn and painted by hand while I was thirty-five feet up in a boom lift. The border is a hand-cut, custom stencil with twenty-two karat moon gold leaf,” he recounts.

For other clients whose homes were being constructed, large murals have been painted on canvas in his studio then applied like wallpaper. Often working with interior decorators, Chigoy uses customized colors that tie in with the home’s décor, so that the artwork is a natural fit within the environment. In his most recent mural project, he is tasked with incorporating cultural elements of India and Louisiana.

Over the past several years, his hand-painted designs have earned him a devoted following of clients who want a sense of tradition and craftsmanship not easily found, and a backstory they’ll never tire of telling. In one home Chigoy spent two years painting 15 different murals. “I’m happy when people fall in love with the product. I get personal satisfaction from that. I won’t leave a house unless they’re one hundred percent happy,” he says adamantly.

At the heart of his creativity is music – of all kinds. “It’s a huge driver of my mood and attitude. My work often takes me ten to twelve hours a day, and music allows me to block out the real environment. It’s actually hard to get started until I find the right music.”

Like many artists Chigoy is obsessed with details – but of random things, like magpies, bagpipes, weird patterns and, most recently, kimonos. “I love a lot of things and I like to be eclectic,” says the artist, who is also a decorative furniture painter and who recently added leather to his mediums. To illustrate he displays a roll of fine-grain leather and says “I take

a single piece, tool it, dye it with an alcohol-based dye used specifically for leather, then etch and paint it.” Here again, expect the unexpected from Chigoy: a blue heron, a roseate spoonbill and a fox (another fascination) are painted on the leather, all with a unique gold or silver-leaf overlay of an etched network design inspired by, according to the artist, photos of brain cells.

Showing other samples of his work, Chigoy reflects, “I’m using my creativity constantly. In whatever I do, but I take a seriousness in how I craft things.” In the last year, Chigoy has been busy as customers have learned, during COVID isolation, the importance of a home as a sanctuary and the effects its beauty has on their moods. “Making clients happy is a valuable thing for an artist,” he says.

Pictures of Chigoy’s work online are telling of the soul and character his murals bring to a room. And if walls (and ceilings) could talk, they would say, “We are honored you chose us.”

Chigoy’s work and contact information can be found at instagram.com/brett.chigoy.