Tuesday, September 01, 2015

It all started with a pink Cadillac... An Artfull Life, Harold Cleworth


Well, a painting of a pink Cadillac, and album covers of for the Rolling Stones and the Who.


And then as often happens in life, a bit of havoc occurred and a chain of events was set in motion that led Harold Cleworth to become the most famous automotive painter in fine arts.

In 1972, frustrated with the London scene, a trip to California convinced him to stay and begin his career as a fine artist, the Chase Manhattan Bank of Zurich bought his first original, and private collectors began to commission him to paint portraits of their million dollar cars.

 Galleries invited him to exhibit in San Francisco, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, and Carmel.

The press discovered him, stories appeared in all the automotive journals, AutoWeek dubbed him "the painter laureate of the car", and the LA. Times ran his life story.

And now his life's work and masterpieces are collected in one coffee table book,

the above image doesn't do justice to the multiple textured book cover, soft matte with some type of shiny material for the signature, and the impressed title in 1980's art gallery pastel tones

http://www.amazon.com/CLEWORTH-ARTFULLlife-Harold-James-Cleworth/dp/1624650163  is selling them for about 35 plus shipping, and considering the lithos go for between 500 and 3000, it's a reminder why we buy coffee table books of our favorite artists works instead of prints

Forward by the famous Syd Mead, 167 pages, 172 paintings, plus sketches.

All color, 2 fold outs, which were a surprise to me.

The remarkable variety in his paintings is that is can be photorealistic, to obviously a painting of large brush strokes, and a soft sense of materials to chrome. But the sensational rain drops sliding off a waxed hood in "E Type" and the incredible reflections... wow.


"Oasis" and "Interstate 5" are as vivid as your clearest memory, and just nail the impression you have when looking out on the freeways. Incredible.


seriously, click on these and look at them full size.. I really love them, the bottom one the most


"Orbit Inn" completely captures the sun only minutes before setting on Vegas. Seriously will have yo wondering if it's a photo.


"Roscoe's Gilmore Lion" has the amazing sepia tones of a photograph taken in the 1930s


(black and white images of the Gilmore airplane at http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2013/06/have-you-seen-gilmore-airplane.html)

Remarkable pieces of pop art of the Niki Lauda Marlboro and Kar2n Kaddy, posters, magazine covers, Concours de Elegance advertisment posters, lowriders, airplanes, busses, trains, musclecars, chopped 50 Mercs, and even the Batmobile (Barris original version) have been memorialized...

because as the murals in Pompeii, and the cave paintings in Chauvet have proven, is that art remains with us longer than civilizations.

I'm not smitten with every single painting, just most of them... the B 25, the Grand Sport Corvette!

What's more, so many of the paintings are accompanied by a note giving you insight about the vehicle or why it was painted.

http://designstudiopress.com/ put this book together, and I thank them, especially Teena!

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