Start Your Engines!

Collector's Focus: Automotive Art

By John O’Hern

Ford and Chevy pickups have long been essential vehicles for ranchers and farmers across the country. Lovingly maintained, they can last for generations. Here in Santa Fe, New Mexico, they’re carefully restored and used to run around town or to sit proudly in a driveway. Sometimes, however, they give out altogether or are abandoned in the fields when the economy or climate turns against productivity.George Billis Gallery, Airport Service, oil on canvas, 18 x 24", by Danny Heller.

Z.Z. Wei often depicts abandoned vehicles in fields and derelict farmyards, slowly returning to the earth as they rust away. Educated in Beijing, China, he came to the U.S. in 1989 to be a resident artist in Seattle. Now living permanently in Washington State, he continues to travel the country’s back roads, still inspired by the forms of the landscape and the colors that captured him when he first arrived.Patricia Rovzar Gallery, Monuments of Humanity, oil on canvas, 60 x 48", by Z.Z. Wei.

In Monuments of Humanity, he pays homage to a time past, when abundant harvests were stored in grain elevators and sturdy trucks made working on the vast farms easier. A grain elevator sits abandoned at the top of hill and a pickup, robbed of its engine, rusts away in the foreground. Light and color are important to Wei, adding weight and volume to his compositions. Although this painting is essentially monochromatic, the subtle variations in color create the undulating forms of the landscape and the structure of the manmade elements. He builds his paintings with layer after layer of paint, often simplifying his forms (he says “simplicity is power”) but adding detail as in the dented and rusting body of the truck.Abend Gallery, 1970 Ford Bronco Grill – Reef Aqua, acrylic on cotton canvas, 40 x 60", by Shannon Fannin.

Robert LaDuke’s Adobe depicts a 1940s pickup in its heyday with its spiffy two-toned paint job, parked in front of an adobe house of indeterminate vintage. It could easily be a contemporary scene with both truck and casita restored to their original condition. The timelessness is accentuated by the romantic colors of the desert soil and the Maxfield Parrish-like sky with its full moon that has observed the locale for millennia. As a boy, LaDuke drew cars depicted in Life Magazine ads, with their sinuous forms and what he calls “happy” colors. The mystery of the time period of the image is intentional. He says, “For some paintings I’m creating places from different eras that look authentic but never really existed. Others have structures that do exist, but not in the setting they are placed. They feel to me to be a little like the way I see places in my dreams. I swear I’ve been to these places but can’t quite place them.”Meyer Gallery, Adobe, acrylic, 18 x 18", by Robert LaDuke.

Danny Heller paints real places, most often Southern California scenes with mid-century modern architecture and vintage cars—again being either historic or contemporary scenes. In Airport Service, he is in New York with its hodgepodge of styles both original and reimagined. A yellow 1963 Chevy Impala taxi is parked just off Madison Avenue in the early evening light. The avenue had long ago lost its mansions and is a street of apartment buildings and businesses including the 1933 Bank of the Manhattan Trust Company burdensomely embellished to resemble an 18th century town house. Behind it is a surviving 19th century town house. Heller likes the hodgepodge. “The great thing about New York is that you see so much great stuff. You don’t plan for it; it just hits you. There’s inspiration around every corner.”

As you continue reading this section dedicated to the genre of automotive art, you’ll hear additional insights and stories from galleries and artists, along with advice on collecting.RJD Gallery, Gust, acrylic on canvas, 18 x 14", by Andrea Kowch

RJD Gallery represents a variety of fine art, some with automotive elements. “The automobile has captivated our attention since it’s invention, and can symbolize a transporting of one’s feelings and bring an air of mystery, often providing the viewer with more questions than answers—Where are they going? Where are they coming from? Who are they? The spinning of wheels is a terrific analogy for the revolutions of our minds when we are inspired, encouraged and challenged by the meaning of an artwork,” says gallery director Joi Jackson Perle. Abend Gallery, Sully’s Royal Enfield, acrylic on cotton canvas, 24 x 36", by Shannon Fannin

In this section, Andrea Kowch, an RJD Gallery artist, showcases her automotive-inspired acrylic painting Reunion—featuring a female figure traveling solo on a passenger train, with her pet dog by her side. “The presence of the moon brings a cosmic charge to the dreamy mystery that permeates the scene,” the gallery notes. “Where or who is she traveling to? Who is anticipating her arrival....Who is the automobile that races to meet the train’s arrival? Or is it simply passing by, like a thought in her mind, going on its own way? The painting carries a profound air of mystery not unlike a cinematic moving picture. Like the twists and turns of a story weaving towards an eagerly awaited outcome, this painting is meant to evoke feelings that transcend the boundaries of time and space.”Abend Gallery, 1990 Ferrari F40, acrylic on linen canvas, 48 x 36", by Shannon Fannin.

Traveling the world to take vehicle reference photos, artist Shannon Fannin, represented by Abend Gallery, paints aspects that are often overlooked—the distorted reflection in a car's grill, the play of light in chrome, the bend of a fender, years of patina, etc. “All are of interest to me, and inspire my vibrant, visually energetic paintings,” she explains. “My style is to portray the vehicle realistically, while using my hands and brushes to blur the background. When a work resonates with a viewer, I discover the joy of shared appreciation in the subject matter with them.” RJD Gallery, Reunion, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 36", by Andrea Kowch.

Fannin sees vehicles not as machinery whose sole purpose is to get us from point A to B but, instead, she sees them as rolling sculptures that personify our imagination, ingenuity and pursuit of individuality. “No matter our age, gender or location, vehicles have made an impression on our lives. Our love for them is universal, and brings us together,” says Fannin.

About collecting art of the genre, she says, “it’s not only a financial investment, but one of emotion. Seek out art that compliments your environment and lifestyle. Find pieces that evoke nostalgia, enthusiasm or spark conversation. If you find all that in an artwork, then the artist has done their job right.” —