Santa Ana College Portrait Show

Curator Phil Marquez has announced a portrait exhibition to be shown in the Santora Building near the end of the 2010 summer. He is planning on having all sorts of media in the show from traditional to abstract. The show will be in the Santa Ana College Gallery on the second floor of the Santora (207 N. Broadway).I will have four pieces in the exhibit and encourage you to come to one or both of the receptions. They are on Saturday August 7 & Saturday Sept. 4 from 7-10 pm.The Santora is in the heart of Santa Ana's art scene. On the first Saturday of each month all the studios and galleries have an open house. If you haven't been, you need to. If you have, you know to come early to get a table in any of the cool restaurants in the area before they fill up.

Here are three of the four entries (the forth will make it's debut at the show):

Deb

Junior

Torn Circus

Orange County Fair Art Competition

I've been encouraged to enter the Art Exhibit at the Orange County Fair. They allow up to three entries per artist and all fortunately all three of mine were accepted. The fair runs through August 15th. If you're in the neighborhood stop in and check it out.

These are my entries:

Parts is Parts
The Happening

Access

P.S. On August 5th the painting "Part Is Parts" was awarded the 2nd place ribbon.

Junior

This is Hershel "Junior" Conway. He is one of the pioneers of custom car painting, getting his start with George Barris in the 1950s. His mastery of paint finishes has become legendary and owes much of his success to labor intensive hand finishing. His client list is a who's who of car enthusiasts. His work has expanded to complete restoration of classic and exotic cars, including the complex assembly of these hand made cars. We met a few years ago while restoring a Duesenberg. The car won Pebble Beach, the most prestigious classic car event in the world, and we became friends.

I had decided to do a series of paintings of people behind the scenes in vintage car preservation and restoration and Junior is included in the series. I spent a couple days with him shooting pictures and talking about how to best represent him. One of the things he is very proud of is a spiral staircase he painted for a San Franciscan client. The staircase is carbon fiber, designed by Swift Engineering and presented a variety of challenges for him and his crew. Since Junior is already firmly established in the automotive community I thought I'd include the staircase in his portrait. Although it is outside his normal range of interest, his attitude and work ethic delivered another world class finish.

The oil painting is 18" x 24".