Dad Had One...

Yep, Dad had one of these!  This is painting based on one of the several photos I took at the Good Guys Car Show this last summer in DesMoines.  I was drawn to paint this one because I remember my Dad had one of these Pontiac's.  It was a faded green too but had a great deal of rust.  We ended up getting rid of it because a passenger side door that would never stay shut.  I remember hanging on for dear life to my little brother, who hung on to my mom as she would take the left turns.  These were before the days of safety belts.  The final straw was the time Mom took a left turn on 1st Ave Cedar Rapids, I forgot to hold on, and I thankfully rolled over to the curb missing the on-coming traffic.  That was it and it was traded in for a newer Ford LTD.

Photo: "Dad Had One"; Watercolor and Ink on 8" x 10" Paper.

Thanks for stopping by, and I welcome any comments you may have!

Arts Festival This Saturday!

I will have a booth at the Lincoln Highway Arts Festival this Saturday from 9AM to 4PM.  If you happen to be near Mount Vernon, Iowa; swing on by and say "Hi!"  The weather promises to be beautiful for a late September day.  It's going to be sunny and in the upper 70's to low 80's.  So come on out for art, food, music, shopping... make a day of it!  Sounds like FUN to me! :)

Photo: A photo of the one of the billboards about the Lincoln Highway Arts Festival.

A Doggie Break!

So I felt like I needed a bit of a break from bikes and cars.  I happened to spot his adorable shot on Face Book of a friend's dog.  It was just too adorable and I thought that might be a fun break to paint a dog.  So here's a painting that I call ," Scruffy Dog"....

Photo: "Scruffy Dog", Watercolor and Ink on 12" x 12" Paper.

I sent a picture of the painting to my friend.  She was VERY please with it and said it was the cleanliest that she had ever seen her dog.  LOL!  I guess he likes to play in the dirt.  I will say it was quite a FUN break to paint this Cutie.  Here's a copy of the photo that inspired me...

Thanks for stopping and by and I welcome any feedback or comments you may have!

Comings and Going of a Black Hearst...

I saw this black Hearst a couple of months ago at a car cruise in Coralville, IA.  It immediately grabbed my attention because of the spider web detail on the head light.  It was SO "Halloween" and being one of my favorite holidays I took quite a few pictures of it.  It's a 1940's vehicle and I'm really unsure as to anything more than that.  I just thought it was rather neat and not of the "norm"; if you know what I mean.

Then, the idea of painting it came to me when I was looking through some of the car photos that I had.  But I didn't want to do it in a normal type of way.  So I played with a bit of drawing and came up with a cropped view of it coming towards you and another that's going away.  I call it the "Comings and Goings of a Black Hearst" and here it is...

Photo: "Comings and Goings of a Black Hearst"; Watercolor and Ink on 11" x 17" paper.

I welcome any feedback you may have.  Thanks for stopping by!

Old Chevy Pickup

I had a friend that teasingly challenged me to paint an old Chevy Pickup Truck.  I found a picture among some of the car shows and cruises that I've gone to with Mr. Motorhead.  I found this old Chevy Pickup among them.  I believe this truck is from the late to mid-1940's by the styling of it.  It was a copper colored on the top of it and black on the bottom.  I call this painting the "Black Bottomed Truck". Enjoy, here it is...

"Black Bottomed Truck"; Watercolor and Ink on 9" x 12" Paper.

So, Sal... What do you think of my version of an old Chevy truck?  Let me know! :) Thanks for stopping by and I welcome any comments you may have!

Pink Mercury 9...

Here's a cute little one that I worked on this last week.  It's based on a car I saw at a local Cedar Rapids car cruise night some while back and I was enamored with a pink car that was not a "Mary Kay" car. LOL!  I tried to just focus on the unique tail lights and the back end of this vehicle.  I also decided to play with a bit of cropping view of the car for something a bit different and new.  Here it is...

"Pink Mercury 9"; a watercolor and ink on 8" x 8" paper

 I believe it is a 1964 Mercury Monterey that I based the painting off of.  Thanks for stopping by and I welcome any feedback you may have!

Half of Green Machine...

I've recently been house shopping.  And while I'm going through all of these houses, I've been dragging Mr. Motorhead along with me to look at things.  It always comes in handy when you have know someone that is a maintenance man to take a look at things.  It gives me an idea of what's fixable and what's not so fixable. Poor Mr. Motorhead putting up with all of this and never once complaining.  I decided that he little a extra Thank You for all that he's putting up with.  So, I did another painting of the Meen Green Machine for him.  The Meen Green is a 1971 Dodge Scamp that Mr. Motorhead owns and pampers.

I had Mr. Motorhead close his eyes while I put it out the painting in front of him and then had him open his eyes.  He liked it; I could tell!  But the first thing out of his mouth was: "Where's the other half?"  Yep, he has a bit of a smart-alack streak in him.  I told him if he continued to be nice to me, I MIGHT paint the other half of the car! Course, I told him it would be a smaller version if I did.  LOL!  Take that one buddy; got to keep him on his toes!  Here's the half I did paint...

"Half of Green Machine"; Watercolor and Ink on 8" x 16" paper.

   So hopefully, in the near future I will be sharing some good news about a house in the Cedar Rapids area that has become my home.  I would like to have a permanent place to call my studio.  I'll keep you posted as the process goes on.  Thanks for stopping by and always feel free to leave a comment!

A Bit of a Rorschach Version....

Here's the latest of my of the "Live, Laugh, and Ride" Bike Series.  This one has a bit of a Rorschach Ink Block effect.  I had a bit of fun in putting this one together and figured a bicycle crank as a dominate center piece to the artwork.  Then, the symmetry of the two bikes off to the side, a true cyclist will see the bicycles in this Rorschach test! LOL  Here it is... (Please forgive my lousy photographing skills.  It's darker in one corner and I couldn't quite get the lighting right.)

"Live, Laugh, and Ride 3": Watercolor on 15" x 20" paper.

I may play with using different colors on this same type of lay out.  Who knows?! :)  I welcome any feedback you may have and thanks for stopping by!

Red Chevy at Duffy's...

Here's a quick little painting that I did a couple of nights ago.  It's a 1950's red Chevy that I saw when I was at one of the Thursday night car cruise nights at Duffy's in Cedar Rapids.  I thought that the Duffy's building in the back gave it a vintage feel to the painting.  Duffy's is a local place that specializes in selling collectible cars.  They usually have the business open so you can go in and view the cars inside during the car cruise nights; otherwise the hours are just during the days.  These are the type of cars that you wouldn't leave out on a car lot.  They are more of the pampered type.:)  Course, don't let Mr. Motorhead, my boyfriend, hear me say he pampers his car.  That's not very man-ly! LOL!  Here's my latest painting... Enjoy!

"Red Chevy at Duffy's"; Watercolor and Ink on 8" x 8" paper.

I welcome any comment you may have and thank you for stopping by!

Shawn's 1970 Camaro...

Shawn is a friend of Mr. Motorhead, my boyfriend, and I was rather excited when he asked if I would do a painting of his car.  Shawn has a 1970 Z28 Camaro that is a beauty.  It is a Sea-green color with black striping with a bit of pin striping.  It's in mint condition and I just jumped at the opportunity to paint it.  Here's the finished painting...

The challenge with this painting was narrowing down on a layout.  The front grill and the split bumper is very unique to this car.  I wanted to do it justice.  But at the same time, I wanted to do a view of the whole car.  Mr. Motorhead and Shawn were playing with a few ideas one night over dinner and the idea of a two shot of the car came into being.

I did three different lay out drawings for Shawn, but he had a hard time visualizing it.  So I took the one that he seemed to like the most and did an ink shading drawing of it.  That seemed to help him out with what it would look like.  Here's the ink shading drawing that I did...

This really was a fun project to do and it went relatively quick once the layout was figured out.

Thanks for stopping by and I would love to hear any comments or feedback you may have!