Just For Fun...!

Well, really, ALL my paintings are 'just for fun' in the sense that they are never done for any other reason than the personal satisfaction and the learning experience.  A couple of weeks ago I was going through old digital photos (wow, do those things mount up in numbers after awhile!  Time for some spring cleaning of the hard drive.) and I came across a group of pictures I'd taken at a car show in Carmichael Park last summer.   One in particular struck me because of the aggressive in-your-face stance that the photo captured.  Some of it was probably the result of camera distortion, but that was OK with me.  I loved it.

And there was one other aspect I liked...the gray haired owner in the background.  My FatBoy friends and I often remark that all of the cool hot rods and customs are owned and driven by ol' 'gray beards' like us.  We all grew up in the 50's and 60's when cars were king and we never got over it.  My own adventures began in a metal flake blue '52 Chevvy, raked, scavenger pipes (If you have to ask, you wouldn't understand), dual strombergs, Dodge flipper hub caps and a white naugahyde interior.   Later craziness included a '66 GTO tripower and my first ever new car, a 70 1/2 Camaro Z28. (yes there was such a thing.  Not the classic '69 which has become legendary, but in my opinion, the best looking Camaro ever made.)

But I digress.  Those days are long gone, but the feeling that the cars of that era invoke certainly aren't.  I had an unusually large canvas panel sitting around in the studio, so I started in.  I had in mind that I wanted to paint a 'portrait' of the car, rather than a highly detailed rendering of every chrome reflection.  I also wanted that aggressive stance to come through.  I think it did...and with an almost 3-D effect.  The results are fun and a little different for me.  I call it, "The Price of Their Toys".   I'll bet that ol' graybeard loved driving that car home that beautiful, hot summer day. 

The Price of Their Toys    16" x 20" Oil on canvas panel

 

The block in stage...first session