There’s something rare and beautiful about decay, especially on old vehicles in their final parking spot. Al can’t resist poking through vintage car lots and junk yards taking photos of the old used up cars and trucks, and I usually find things to photograph too- anything rusty and well worn usually catches my eye. Looking through all of our photos, I decided to create what I call ‘Old Cars Art’.

I grabbed three small canvases last week and a few photos of ancient cars and trucks to play around with. I wanted to capture the variety of colors found in the rusted through paint on the bodies and trim, the reflections on the flaking old chrome and dirty windshields.

Using a deep warm brown- almost black- I laid in the deep shadows of the composition.

Starting to take shape a little better, I wanted these to be fast and loose, very painterly with not a lot of detail. I used some bold brush strokes and bigger brushes and exaggerated the color a bit just for fun.

They are starting to take shape, but still need more color and more rust for the look I’m going for.

This is a great old Chevy Al photographed somewhere out west. Love the patina of the paint and rust on her.

This is one I photographed down south. I liked the grill on her, and the reflections of the grass and other vehicles on the decaying chrome.

Al is partial to this one, he had a ’61 pick-up a while back. His was silver and black, but I like this red and white variation.

These three will be entered in an upcoming show and will be for sale there (or beforehand) for a reasonable price as soon as I find or create the perfect frames for them. Each is 12 x 12 , a nice size painting that could be the perfect gift for your car guy’s “Man Cave”!