Dr Seuss Fire Truck - Art Car for Sale

This Dr. Seuss Fire truck was for sale on ebay so I hope there is someone out there driving this really cool and fun art car.If you are the new owner, we would love to hear from you.

Duke - Art Car with 23 Steamer Trunks piled on top!!!

Duke is a salvaged 79 Ford Granada created by maverick, artist, writer, poet and blogger Rick McKinney a.k.a "Gonzo". Its covered 23 steamer trunks, 3 TVs, 2 typewriters, a train set, bones, beads, a brass ships portals and basically a ton of stuff in addition to all this. Rick says on his postcard that "Duke is a rolling museum, a monument, the Holy Grail of the American Road". Nice work and sorry about the coffee stains on your scanned postcard you signed for me at the last Art Car Fest we met.

Duke Art Car by Rick McKinney

Inside Duke Art Car by Rick McKinney

Duke Art Car Video by Rick McKinney

Art Car Covered in Tires - Tirezilla

The Tirezilla Art Car was the Peoples Choice winner at this years Omaha, Nebraska Art Car Show. It was made by an art class at The University of Kansas in Lawrence and completely covered with tires. Its has a very "Mad Max" "end of the world" feel to it and it's a car you definitely dont want to cut off in traffic, you never know what will pop out and get you. Nice work, Mel Gibson would be proud to drive this baby around town.

Omaha Art Car Show 2008

This video of the Omaha Art Car Show 2008 was taken by Dave from Kansas City and creator of Aerocar. There are definitely some weird and strange art cars including this years peoples choice winner called Tirezella, thanks Dave.

LIGHT THROUGH PLASTIC RAINCOATS

The great French impressionists did not have plastic raincoats, so when Monet or Renoir wanted to study the reflections of light on translucent surfaces, they had to visit La Grenouillere, a local riverside spot, and paint the surface of the water.

By the 1950s, plastic had been invented and clear plastic raincoats became a fashion trend. Many illustrators were drawn to the challenge of capturing light reflecting on this new, translucent material:

Austin Briggs


Al Parker


Robert Fawcett

Monet brilliantly captured the essence of light on water by using bold daubs of fresh paint, rather than painstakingly blending and smoothing the colors.

Briggs brilliantly captured the essence of light on plastic using the same bold approach.

Briggs and Monet each realized that carefully blending with smooth brush strokes would have stripped the painting of its vitality without improving its accuracy. You have to be very, very good to get away with painting this loosely.

One other point about the illustrators who chose to paint translucent raincoats when it would have been far easier to paint a nice wool overcoat: Artists who produce art in exchange for food and shelter always develop tricks to be more efficient, save time, and (most of all) conceal any gaps or shortcomings in their skills. For example, artists who are not good at drawing hands tend to draw people holding their hands behind their backs. Artists who have trouble with perspective tend to draw pictures with a narrow depth of field. And of course, heavy shadows have long been a favorite technique for concealing a multitude of artistic weaknesses.

So I have special admiration for artists who, while working under a deadline, look for tough and interesting new artistic challenges. The centerpiece of the Al Parker illustration above is clearly the plastic raincoat. The same with the Austin Briggs illustration. These were not commercial choices, they were aesthetic decisions motivated by the same artistic ambition, pride and curiosity about the world that motivated Monet.

Knitting Centaur

I wanted to do something different for a change, and this was what came to mind. Many thanks to davi and yoitisi for critique that helped me along. This piece was quite a learning experience since it's made up of almost everything i rarely draw :P

My messy WIPs:

Mermaid Mobile VW Van Art Car

The Mermaid Mobile

Is an ’82 VW Westfalia Vanagon, the last year VW made the air-cooled engine. I originally purchased the van in California and drove it to my new home in Florida . Since then I have driven the Mermaid Mobile from California to Florida and back 5 times, West Coast to West Coast. As the years went on and the Florida Sun started to take a toll on the finish I was trying to figure out how to restore the van. It just really seemed like you needed a lot of money. I found a copy of Harrod Blank's art car book that my sister in law had given me a couple years earlier and that got the wheels of my new life and my mind rolling.

Mermaidsdontcook.com is my website and my art work is all about Mermaids so the name of the van became the Mermaid Mobile. Living between Florida and California what else would your theme be. After looking at all the types of art cars, I decided I loved the look of a painted art car and I wanted all of my art friends in Panama City , Florida and Los Osos, Ca (and some points in between) to paint on the van. That way I could carry all this different artwork around the country as I sold my own whimsical mermaid artwork.

It was a really hot Aug day in Florida ; I asked fifteen friends if they wanted to show up on Sunday and help me paint the van, I would buy the pizza and beer. When they asked what the theme was, I said nautical without a word everyone was off and running to paint their favorite spot. Word got around and people starting dropping by to paint on the Mermaid Mobile. To date the Mermaid Mobile has become a roving art gallery and represents about 48 different artists.

My art car is my weekend driver. Most people in town don’t know my name, but they all know the Mermaid Mobile.

Happy Tails
Paulette and the Mermaid Mobile :-}