Tuesday, August 12, 2008

A 23 Window VW Bus at Rest

15" x 20" Watercolor (In progress)

When driving through rural America I notice that the coolest cars (and vans in this case) are always parked out in a field behind a barn or under a tree and have obviously been there a while. After driving a vehicle for upwards of 20 or 30 years any car needs a certain amount of attention and maintenance. Most guys just don't have the heart to get rid of a classic if they don't have the time or inclination to do the required work to make it run and look like a true classic should. And so out to the back field, behind the barn or under the tree the once beautiful piece of art on wheels goes to take up residence for the next decade or two until its owner gets around to giving the beloved automobile the attention it deserves.

Every now and again some other guy will catch a glimpse of this once glorious ride in its current state of neglect, sitting under a tree, and long to have it for his own. Sure it is now rather dirty, somewhat rusty and over-grown by weeds. Three of the windows have been broken by young boys practicing their fastball with rocks and the sheet metal under the battery has rusted through to the point that the battery is now sitting on the ground, yet this guy still sees the potential of restoring this car to its original form. The current owner, however, still dreams of one day restoring it himself and turns down any offer of selling it. And so the classic remains under the tree for the next decade, an unattainable prize of rusting metal of rotting seat cushions to all passerbys.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh this is beautiful...I love it!

Michael said...

Thanks Kelly! :-)

Anonymous said...

Came to see if you painted anything new :) You should come to the desert and paint a sunset sky!! Waitin on your next piece!!! Hows the coast??!

Anonymous said...

Great picture. I gave you a shout out at www.61dc.com

Adem Miller said...

Wow, I really like your color choices and theme. It looks like the bus is having a very relaxing siesta :)

Diantha said...

I saw this painting on another website and it literally took my breath away. it is so beautiful.

Michael said...

Thanks Diantha! It was fun to paint. You can see my inspiration for the painting on my work's website here: http://www.averysaircooled.com/shop/buses_in_the_woods.cfm

There were 14 derelict old VWs on the property there. I wish I had longer to photograph them.

Britton Yerger said...

Love love this!! I have a volkswagon beetle, love the van!

Casey Betcher said...

what an incredible picture... I love the contrasting colors against the sky and the bright vw below. Do you sell prints? it would be an incredible gift to someone in my family. we were raised in vw vans with a big apple tree in our front yard. it looks like a beautiful vision of home.