This
24"x36" Acrylic-on-canvas painting was created specifically
for the creation of the 2008 Grand National event posters. I
unveiled the original painting at the January 2008 Grand National
committee meeting where it received rave reviews. The concept for
the poster design was also approved that evening.
Because of the limited GN capital budget the
VFR-CLC committee members and myself agreed that I would have to
invest all of the time and money involved with creating the
original painting as well as the design and printing costs of the
event posters. I have had a long standing tradition of donating
ten percent of my proceeds from commissions from VFR-CLC members
back to the club, so regarding the auctioning of the original
painting at the GN banquet, I also agreed to donate ten percent
from the sale of the original painting. My hope was to recoup all
of my expenses involved with the painting and posters, which
thankfully I did.
The painting itself was nearly a year in the
making. It was July of 2007 that I began conceptual sketches to
formulate my ideas for the painting. By August 2007 I had settled
on the background being Independence Hall in Philadelphia along
with the feature car. Also in August I performed the photo shoot
with the 1931 Cadillac V-12 370-A Roadster which I picked for its
color scheme and its spectacular design features. It was in
October 2007 that I had the opportunity to drive to Philadelphia
to gather all of the required photo references of Independence
Hall. In December 2007 I tweaked and finalized the concept and
sketches of the overall composition of the painting. The actual
painting process began right after the holidays and continued
through most of January 2008.
Once the painting was completed and digital high
resolution images were created, I had Trevor Reed at Direct Impact
Marketing design the posters and create print-ready files for
reproduction. In March 2008 two separate qualifying printing
companies quoted on the task of printing the 250 posters. Each
company supplied a proof for review and the highest quality
printer was contracted for the job. Posters were completed in
April 2008.
