Western fine artist combined with a love of vintage cars

[maxglitz]

I've had a love for vintage cars since my youth. After retirement as a magazine art director, though, I plunged into full-time fine art with a focus on the southwest US (Though I'm in the Atlanta area). I began carving wooden vintage cars that became part of the frames for my small western landscape canvases. To get a better look at cars I'd seen in photos online, I started buying diecast models for reference and my collection is growing. Two years ago I was asked to create a large piece by the Booth Western Art Museum, largest such museum in the US, to take my small one-car/one-landscape pieces to a new level and created "Red Butte With Tourists," a six-foot-wide takeoff on a 17-foot painting by Maynard Dixon, called "Red Butte With Mountain Men." I replaced his string of Kit Carson's horsemen in the foreground with a line of vintage vehicles heading west in front of a painted butte that I photographed in NM. It was later shown in the Tucson Museum of Art. One of my two dimensional auto pieces has been purchased and is the first art bought for a new car museum in the area that has yet to break ground. 

[Spex84]

Well that's just darned cool! Love the way the vehicles have been painted to create the illusion of reflections in the paint and chrome. I enjoy the takeoff on Maynard Dixon too-- just yesterday I was admiring a bunch of his work, wondering if I could steal some technique for an unrelated project of mine.  To me, this piece represents a tongue-in-cheek melding of three distinct varieties of classic americana: western landscape painting, automotive culture, and folk art/craft work.

What a colossal amount of time, effort, and creative output must have gone into this. I'm glad it will be displayed where many people can appreciate it, and thanks for sharing it here!

 

[afx]

Love the colors.  The painting without the cars would be a great piece by itself.

[D. Battista]

Great Work...!    Welcome to the forum...!

[Ramfins59]

Welcome to our plastic playground Michael.

[Rider]

Very interesting art, congrats on the sale. Welcome aboard.

[misterNNL]

A very clever and well done way to enhance a piece of art. Thanks for sharing your unique talent with us.