Great Lakes Air Raid
July 11th & 12th
Mid Michigan Community College
Mount Pleasant, MI
4 artists will be teaching - Craig Fraser, Steve Driscoll,Jason Doll and Bob Soroka
2 day, hands on workshop
$275.00
Lunch and all materials provided
Killer Affair
July 19th & 20th
Killer Paint-Mike Lavallee’s studio in Snohomish, Washington
4 artists will be teaching - Steve Vandemon, Mike Lavallee, Deborah Mahan, Bob Soroka
2 day hands on workshop
$275.00
Lunch and all materials provided
To register for either of these events, contact ASET or call them at 800-628-5449 USA Only.
Saturday June 21, 2008 - 8am - 5pm — Red Rock Harley-Davidson pulled no punches in putting on the a great bike and car show! These guys put on an event featuring custom cars and a plethora of beautiful bikes - along with great complimentary hamburgers, hot dogs, other assorted menu items, plenty of cold water, and a friendly staff, who seemed to be having a great time too. As hot as it was outside (a whopping 107 degrees - give or take), this show more than made up for in ‘cool’. What more could you want on a… ahem… warm summer’s day?
This show was so packed with kewl rods that we’re sharing a preview post here - a sampler platter of kustom kewl and bike stuff too. Over the next few posts we’ll bring you these rides, and more - up close and personal. But for now, we can definitely tell you, this is our kind of show. So, with that, we bring you this; a few ‘tease’ shots starting with…
…this ferocious beast - one of the kewlest we’ve seen anywhere. It’s all about the details, and this rad rat rod of primer and custom personal touches is especially unique. We’re looking forward to sharing more with you soon, and…
…this sweet flatbed Ford Model T pickup truck, holding her own among an impressive display of classically old, but not forgotten iron.
Lead sleds everywhere. It’s like stepping back in time.
What’s not to like about this asphalt scraping, spark making, rolling iron? Add the bike and you have a winning set.
And hey, it’s a Harley shop, so there had to be bikes. This show featured plenty beautiful two-wheeled wonders, including this trick Dyna with lots of murals of beautiful ladies…
…and this graphic outrageously Softail.
WUTITDU? This 2004 Harley-Davidson Electra Glide, owned by Pierre Hudson is pristine. Builder: Pierre Hudson/Bobb Dron HD. Painted by Mike Taylor Designs.
Check out this camouflaged and customized 2002 Harley-Davidson Softail® with wicked exhaust. Yah, fooled us too
Nice airbrush work on this fired up Chevy SS, masterfully applied by SaltyPaint.com.
Creamsicle Delight. We thought we’d leave you with something cool on a hot day. We loved this lowriding ‘50 Merc sled. Slammed and featuring way too many features for this post alone. Check back for more on this beast - we got lots of great pics, and this rolling art has way too much to share for a fly-by post.
All-in-all, we took tons of great shots from this event. Wanna see more? You know you do. Stay tuned.
Thanks to Red Rock Harley-Davidson, 7100 W. Sahara (located west of Rainbow), Las Vegas, Nevada, for putting together this great event.
This week’s Pic of the Week features Mark Hebbeler from Anest Iwata with the great Marilyn Monroe (or a in this case Jami as Marilyn), offering him some encouragement over his broken foot at SEMA 2007 in Las Vegas.
Last week, airbrush artists came from all over the continent to learn from the best, participating in Air Affair East at the Pennsylvania College of Art. Here are just a few pics from that event…
If you haven’t had a chance to get in on the fun yet, it’s not too late. The next Air Affair takes place soon. Sign up at ASET USA.
In this seventh installment of INNOVATIONS, we will describe ANEST IWATA
Corporation’s World Marketing Conference. Also presented:
• Steven Craig’s LPH-400 LVX eXtreme experience
• The ADG-1 “Aquadry” waterborne drying system
• Specialty Automatic Spray Guns
• Technical discussion with “Mitz”
• More creativity from Iwata-Medea and Artool
• Information on the 2008 Air Affairs
Gerald Menendez captured by a student at the Air Affair East last weekend. If you missed Air Affair East, you’ll want to secure your place at the upcoming Air Canada…
2 day, hands-on workshop
$275.00
Lunch and all materials provided
Killer Affair
July 19th and 20th, 2008
Killer Paint - Mike Lavallee’s studio
Snohomish, Washington
4 artists will be teaching:
Steve Vandemon, Mike Lavallee, Deborah Mahan and Bob Soroka
2 day hands-on workshop
$275.00
Lunch and all materials provided
Sign up by calling ASET Toll Free: 1-800-628-5449 (USA Only).
I just got off the phone with Donn Shanteau. Regular AirbrushTour readers know of Donn’s recent accident. I actually called to get an update from Pamela and was pleasantly surprised to hear Donn answer the phone. Sounding coherent, Donn assured us that he’s feeling much better - still sore - but better. He asked us to express that he is humbled and grateful for all support, including cards and flowers, that he has received from the airbrush community. Anyone who knows Donn, knows he is one tough guy. Despite his recent incident, he’s already looking forward to fixing the Dragon Stomper and logging some miles. Stay tuned. We’ll keep you informed.
PETALUMA, Calif., June 2 /PRNewswire/ — Legendary artist Alton Kelley created a graphic style that rocked the world beginning in the psychedelic Sixties. His concert posters, logo designs, LP album covers, and fine art have forevermore defined that time. Kelley, born June 17, 1940, passed away peacefully at home on Sunday, June 1st 2008 of complications from a long illness.
He is survived by the true love of his life, Marguerite Trousdale Kelley. He also leaves his mother Annie, sister Kathy, and beloved children Patty, Yossarian, and China, and beautiful grandchildren Life and Lacoda.
Through his mind-expanding creativity and over several decades, Kelley gave rock music new colors, shapes, and themes expressing the optimism and enthusiasm of young people around the globe. His graphics defined youth culture as much as the music itself — in effect his art was a break-through collaboration with musicians and bands such as the Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix. As Joel Selvin, rock critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, put it, “Kelley and Mouse drew the first face on rock music.”
Kelley and his life-long collaborator Stanley Mouse are best known for their posters for “San Francisco style” dance-concerts at the Fillmore Auditorium, Winterland arena, the Fillmore West, the Avalon Ballroom, and a host of other Bay Area theaters and amphitheaters. They also created world-renowned posters and album covers for the Grateful Dead, Journey, Steve Miller, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, and others.
The two artists historically worked as a team, in their words “riffing off each other’s giggle.” They joyfully appropriated from historic sources, in one instance re-working an obscure nineteenth-century etching to create their iconic Grateful Dead “skeleton and roses” design. They combined vibrant Sixties color with French poster-making joi de vivre enthusiasm, and their own adapted technique, to generate compelling pieces often issued on a weekly basis, ultimately dazzling millions worldwide. Thus, they changed advertising art forever, as their posters were key examples of what became one of the most important art movements of the latter part of the twentieth century.
When Kelley (a native of Maine) met Mouse (a native of Detroit, MI) in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district in late 1965 (the “Haight” was the epicenter of the hippie movement, culminating in the “Summer of Love” in 1967), they instantly recognized they were kindred spirits in what Mouse describes as “one of the juiciest scenes of all time.” Their concert posters, commissioned by Fillmore promoter Bill Graham and Graham’s rival, the Avalon’s Family Dog collective, were eagerly snapped up by bands and fans alike.
In the decades since, Mouse and Kelley’s classics have established even greater popularity, rivaling the interest long shown by collectors of French turn-of-the-century Belle Epoque art made famous by Toulouse-Lautrec and others.
“There is one word for Alton Kelley’s lifelong contribution, and that is ‘iconic.’” said Dell Furano, CEO of Signatures Network. “Kelley’s artwork, designs, posters, album covers, tour logos set a standard of inspired creativity that has remained as influential as the great San Francisco Rock Scene of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s.”
In his later years, Kelley joyfully turned to illustrating hot rods and custom cars, as fine art paintings, and for t-shirts and other merchandise.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made at the Washington Mutual Western Street branch in Petaluma, CA for a memorial bench in a Sonoma County Park. A memorial event will be announced shortly.
Our condolences to his friends and family.
• • • • •
Thanks to Rapheal Schnepf, long time friend to Alton Kelley, for his help with this post.
Amsterdam has always been a city of mystery to me. Is it true the things they say about this historic place? On most of the cliché items - yes. Lots of tulips, windmills, wood shoes, bicycles and cheese.
But I can’t go without mentioning the pot smoke-filled coffee houses, red light districts where girls are lined up in the windows for sale - Amsterdam is a land filled with much freedom. Where pot is legal and the drinking age is 16, you would think this place would be a constant party. It’s not though, as the local law runs a pretty tight ship on all these issues so it’s quite separated from the main stream. Though these lifestyle choices are not mine it was still interesting to see.
This is the Land of Van Gogh and the flying Dutchman the local talent was up to world speed when it came to airbrushing and custom painting. All welcomed my Island and tiki style. I held a two-day workshop at the Emprix/ALSA Netherlands facility in Deventer which is about an hour outside of Amsterdam.
This Historic city was amazing and beautiful. My hosts Iwata Europe and travel companion Alberto Ferrero hooked up with Robbert van Steenwijk and his wife Irene who run the ALSA Europe facility and training center. Having all the cool stuff I need made it easy to do my magic.
Lunch was a kick with Holland’s own sushi raw herring (my style for sure) - had to try it, “yumpin yiminee”!
My good friend Stef and his wife Sandy even drove up from Belgium for the weekend making it fun event. We tried lots of cool custom painting tricks as well as many demos. I also shared many stories and tried to give some inspiration for making a living doing this stuff. I shared with them some tips on marketing their talent.
I even purchased a couple leather belts locally and airbrushed and striped them showing a quick easy way to make some money doing this stuff. Local Deventer super talent Marky even showed up to share the fun.
I finished up the weekend with a Pin striped Tiki on the back of the ALSA van.
Europe is very different than the U.S. when it comes to this art but I see big changes happening right in front of me. I plan to return in a few months to U.K. and other location is Europe, ‘I’ll keep you posted.
Happy Birthday wishes to Will Naemura, President of Iwata Medea Airbrush Products.
Pictured above - left-to-right: A.D. Cook, Dennis Mathewson of Cosmic Airbrush, Gary Glass and Will Naemura of Iwata Medea (the birthday boy), and Gabe McCubbin of Artool.
I have the pleasure to see some special far away places in the world teaching and one of the great things about that is the opportunity to meet some of the best talent in the airbrush world. Luca Pagan made his way to Hawaii last year to paint at my Cosmic Airbrush shop in Honolulu. Since then, Luca and I have become very good friends.
During my recent trip through Europe I made a stop to see Luca. He lives in a city called Chioggia just outside he beautiful city of Venice. Funny thing was how in such a small, historic city like Chioggia airbrush has grown. Here is a selection of Luca’s work…
Luca’s style of art is phenomenal and his photo-realism is amazing. He can create some of the tightest airbrush work I’ve ever seen.
Not only is his commercial work top notch but also his fine art is world class. We took Luca’s painting to the top of Italy in the mountains where his work will show during a national bike tour event finish. Check out this guy’s Hawaiian flowers in snow - Hawaii’s impact is pretty strong in Luca’s work. Man it was cold up there, not to mention breathtakingly beautiful.
Luca’s touches of talent are seen everywhere there from Gelato and espresso shops to the beach amusement parks and scooters all over town. He feels at home there and everybody loves him.
I recently traveled to Barcelona Spain where I had a one-day invitation only event at the facility of Anest-Iwata Iberica S.L.U. on Saturday May 17th. A total of over 20 local Iwata equipment retailers and distributors and their selected guest artists attended an 8 hour demonstration using all the cool new stuff Iwata has to offer. Plus I shared some of my tricks of the trade and carried my Tiki mania yet to another location in the world. Only thing is they already knew all about it from my last trip to Europe last year. (TrackBack to that post here)
My island style has truly been accepted worldwide and nothing could make me happier. I also carried with some classic skulls and fire demonstrations but MAN they really go for the Tiki stuff.
Not only was the local talent in Spain top notch but the city of Barcelona was amazing as well. The architecture and history is breath taking as for the food I was some of the best in the world. I could spend much more time there but as usual I must move on. The Anest Iwata folks were more than accommodating showing me some sites and setting up a world-class training atmosphere for a day.
The Spanish Tiki.
My Europe travel companion was Alberto Ferrero of Anest Iwata Europe. He was very helpful making sure everything goes as planned. Also attending was Iwata Japan’s top man Satoru Iwata himself.
Special thanks go to Cesare, Juan, Patrizia & Manuel for running the show and David Naylor a local Barcelona top class airbrush artist for dropping by at the end and presenting me a piece of his incredible artwork. Stay tuned as I travel more through Europe spreading the Tiki and airbrush fever.
Good news! I just spoke with Pam; she says the doctors agreed that Donn would be best served at this point to recover at home. His skull is cracked but won’t require surgery; it should just heal in place. So Donn is going home today with Pam. Unfortunately Donn has some severe restrictions regarding do’s and dont’s during the next few weeks. So Pam will NOT be attending the Bike Week or East Coast Air Affair she had previously planned to attend. At this point I’m not certain of her participation in Chicago for the Art Methods Show, but keep in touch for updates as they happen.
Flowers and get well cards can be sent to their address at home:
Donn Shanteau
13810 Co. Rd. 4-1
Swanton, OH 43558
Pam and Donn wanted me to pass on her sincere thanks for everyone’s thoughts and prayers during this time. She feels that this has helped her greatly in coping with the situation. Donn’s a tough guy and he’s determined to make a full recovery!
This week Donn “Too Tall” Shanteau, husband of airbrush artist and instructor Pamela Shanteau, was involved in a motorcycle accident while riding his custom Harley, The Dragon Stomper.
Apparently, Donn was following a truck pulling a small boat on a trailer. The truck was stopping and the trailer had no tail lights or brake lights. Donn, in his attempt to avoid collision with the trailer, ended up flying of the road, and both he and bike went airborne. Donn was lifelined to the hospital. This happened a couple days ago and Donn is now in the hospital, in ICU, with a cracked skull, and no shortage of bruises. He also had some fluid or blood build up on his brain, but they have it under control. Thankfully, no other broken bones though, and in time Donn should heal. In the interim, Pamela apologizes to any students scheduled for her upcoming appearance at the forthcoming ASET Air Affair East this May 30th-31st at Williams, PA, as she’ll be keeping Donn humble for a while. Knowing Donn, he’ll be riding before we all know he was down.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Donn for a speedy recovery, and for Pam’s strength through the healing process.
AirbrushTour showcases all types of airbrush talent, along with other creative and artistic disciplines. We also share fun events and the latest happenings in the airbrush community and paint industries. As we travel, we bring talented artists' work and the events of Las Vegas-based artist and photographer A.D. Cook to you.
AirbrushTour also features posts about motorcycles and hot rods, and the events that surround them, and some great travel pics of exciting places from all over the USA, so come along and share with us in America's passion for airbrush art.
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