The Project:
The Bronco at the Beach was was a privately commissioned painting for a couple in Southern, California.
The Process:
This painting was the brainchild of my client as a surprise, personalized gift to his wife for her birthday. We started by combing through an assortment of beautiful and crisp photos. These photos were taken by he and his wife in their home town of San Clemente, California. His hope for the painting was to have a vintage Ford Bronco parked at the beach, in addition to the iconic San Clemente Pier and palm trees in the background. We chose one of the sunset set photos and combined it with one of the landscape photos he took to create the inspiration for the background. To paint him and his wife into the foreground, we used a combination of family photos and drew them next to my client’s dream car, a 70’s era Ford Bronco.
When the sketch was complete, we had created an entire personalized scene with a unique combination of all the clients favorite things!
The Final:
The final ärtəˈmō-tiv painting was created in automotive enamel paint on a gallery wrap canvas.
The vibrant enamel medium gave the colors in the sunset, in particular, a warm glow that set the lazy-days-of-summer feeling for the overall painting. I used a somewhat limited palette of colors throughout the work. This means that the avocado hues found in the paint scheme of the Bronco at the beach can also be found in certain areas of the sky and sand. Using only a few colors to make a wide variety of light and dark shades tied each element in the artwork together, making this entirely made up illustration that much more realistic.
The wide edge canvas was professionally framed with a hand made, walnut, float frame by my friends at Agave Print in Austin, Texas.
Artist Comments:
I shipped the Bronco at the Beach along with two very special coordinating pieces to California in time for Christmas morning.
When I create paintings like this, I use the same magazine pages over and over again to mix paint colors on. When those pages dry, they turn into the most beautiful works of abstract art that coordinate perfectly with the final commissioned painting, due to the nature of the way they were organically created.
In addition to having that piece framed, this couple also wished to have the original sketch as a keepsake. I worked with my framer to take the see-through, ripped, and stained sketch and turn it into a unique, complimentary piece of framed art that acts as a roadmap when placed next to the original painting.
I’m always excited when a client opts to have the paint pallet and sketch framed to go along with the original work, because I believe these two pieces elevate the experience of commissioning an artist by telling the visual story of how the work was made.
I was so happy to receive a video and pictures on Christmas Day of my client’s wife opening and admiring the painting. It’s an honor to be a small part of a family’s Christmas morning. I’m thankful to be a joint author in the joy that someone feels admiring such a thoughtful and personalized piece of art that is the Bronco at the Beach.
I so enjoyed the whole process and completeness of your talent… You captured Cheri and I, while making a story come to canvas. Wonderful.– Keith
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