'52 Chevy Truck Commission

 

"Wall of Wheels" with April Rimpo's Paintings

 I'm delighted to have three of my paintings hanging in this beautiful home in Arizona. These three paintings were collected starting in 2012 with the center painting titled Department Store. Cycles came along second and the latest addition is '52 Chevy Truck, a commission of their truck resurrected from old family photos.

"Wall of Wheels" in situ

The set is displayed in their dining room which is visible from the front door due to the open floor plan of their beautiful Arizona home. I love that they decided to name their display The Wall of Wheels.  

The new '52 Chevrolet Truck painting started when these friends asked if I would be interested in painting the old family truck. They had been inspired when they saw an image of my painting More Beautiful with Age, which is shown below.

Since I really love painting old rusted cars I thought this project would be right up my alley so I asked them to provide some images of the truck. I received several photos of the truck plus an image of the family brand for me to add to the truck. 

I like to create "sketches" by modifying the images in Photoshop® to create a plan for the painting. It also helps with communications when the client does not live near me, as was the case here.  

There were some features of the truck that were not quite as clear as I like when I am painting, so I searched for 1952 Chevrolet trucks on the Internet. I used the images I found to get a clearer image of the Chevrolet logo on the side, to see the headlights (since they were broken in the family's photos), and to research the mirror which was lying on the hood. I also located a 1952 Chevrolet Truck color chart and asked which was the original color and whether they would like a bit of that color added back into the painting. 

All this research resulted in a few more discussions and images from the family of the truck with the mirror in its upright position and other views that better showed the front grill. I created a sketch with the mirror in place, but the family felt it was distracting and I agreed. Additional adjustments were made to the surroundings; for example, one less silo and the removal of some farming equipment that they thought might also be distracting.

Wyoming license plates were the last thing I researched to see some of the details. Although I found the version of license plate shown in their photos, I also found a 1952 vintage Wyoming truck plate. I shared my discovery and the family liked the idea of using the vintage plate. So I integrated this longer and narrower plate on the truck using Photoshop to position it properly on the grill and change the numbers to match those in the original photograph. With these revisions the family was happy and I was authorized to proceed. 

More Beautiful with Age by April M Rimpo

With a completed design I could then relax and enjoy the painting. I did add back into the truck some of the original Cherry Red paint which really helped make the image pop. This commission was a real joy to create and I'm happy to report their reaction to the delivered painting could not have made me happier. And here's what they said about the commission process, "You made this process so easy for us and we knew we could trust you with the details. Perfect is the word that describes the whole process."

Contact April and see more of her art on her website  

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