Sunday Driver

Driven by a little old lady who only used it to go to church on Sunday, bought for cheap, and transmogrified into a fire belching, track burning monstrosity.  It's still driven on Sunday, only much, much faster.

This is part of my search for the unusual. 

When you see a gasser style hot rod, most often it's either a '40'sWillys or a tri-five Chevy.  Why not a Cadillac, or a Packard?  You're pretty much guaranteed to stand out from the crowd wherever you are.  What are the odds that there's going to be another 1955 Packard Gasser at any event you go to?  Think of it this way; according to my crude math there were twice as many Chevrolet Del Ray club coupes produced in 1955 as there were Packards.  That's the entire Packard line versus one lowly Chevy model.  And how many of each survive today to be converted into gassers?  I don't have figures on this, but I can only recall seeing one fifties Packard in 20 years of car shows, versus many hundreds of Chevys.  Admittedly, I live in the sticks, but I don't imagine the ratio changes much in Los Angeles or New Jersey.  As for the Willys, you can pretty much make your own from scratch these days.  How exclusive is that?

Painted in watercolor, 14x21 inches. 

The original painting is available here.  Prints are available on ebay.

Lucifer's Hot Trophy Wife

Sometimes, you get a lot of little ideas, and all by themselves, the ideas are a little weird.  Then you start putting the little ideas together.  The weirdness multiplies.  Sometimes it multiplies exponentially, and you end up with a painting depicting a woman with wings and horns posing next to a Dodge Power Wagon set up for a ten second quarter mile up a vertical rock face.  It's sort of like a photo you might snap on a road trip, only with a hefty scoop of "what the...?".

Painted in watercolor, 14x21 inches.  The original painting is available here.  Prints are available in my ebay store.

Early Evening

We're presenting something a little different this week, a change of pace.  Something without merfolk or disguised tentacle-y mind control beasties.  No, today we present a perfectly ordinary, everyday scene.

This truck's been floating in my reference pile for about eight years.  She almost made it into my Space Hitchhiker painting, but I decided to go another way.  Now she's here, for your viewing pleasure, basking in the early evening sun.

Painted in Glorious Watercolor, 9.75x22 inches.  The original painting is available here.  Prints will be available soon.

V-Sub

Introducing the Busmarine!  The ideal transportation solution for hardcore surfers and marine biologists.

This is the second painting that Meriwether has appeared in.  He's the shark in the foreground, clearly amazed by the V-Sub's deep sea maneuverability.  The shark in the background is Daedalus, and this is his first appearance in a painting.  Don't ask him about his eye patch, he's a bit sensitive about it.

Painted in watercolor, 9x12 inches.  The original painting is available here.

Invasion of the Squid Hats - The Victorian Age

This piece is part of a series featuring the many disguises the Squid Hats utilize in their quest for world domination. There are many varieties of Squid Hat, and they are specially evolved to keep pace with wildly fluctuating fashion trends.  No hat is safe, from the top hat to the propeller beanie.

Learn to recognize the signs of Squid Hat possession and be wary of neighbors and friends who suddenly take to wearing a hat, or change hats for no reason.  Be aware of any hat stores that suddenly pop up in your neighborhood, offering free samples.  Report anyone who starts talking about "crushing the puny hairless monkeys", or engages in other antisocial behavior while wearing a hat.

Above all, DO NOT confront a Squid Hat directly.  Leave them to the professionals.

Painted in watercolor on sinister paper stock.  10x14 spooky inches.

Copyright 2011 Matt Yost, all hats reserved.

Edit:  They're Spreading!  Limited edition prints now available on ebay.

Finders Keepers

This is where the madness begins.  This is Genesis for the whole cars and mermaids thing.

Up to this point the bulk of my work concentrated on scenes of so-called "real life", or my interpretation of it, anyway.  But I was becoming bored with hayfields with tractors and combines and thermoses of sweetened powdered grape drink, or beach scenes with surfers running toward the water.  I needed a change of scenery.

So... mermaid.

But not just any mermaid.  I believe every painting needs a good back story, so I created a thieving, avaricious, possibly schizophrenic mermaid with a taste for vintage trucks and cowboy hats.  Oh, she's also carnivorous, that's important. In fact, someone should tell the approaching surfer dude not to get too close.

Thus was born the delightfully weird Finders Keepers series.

FK is done in watercolor, and measures about 10x17 inches.  The original painting and prints are available in my ebay store.

That was My Favorite Board

I've chosen another shark for this post, though this one is not so victorious.

He's gonna get it, now.  That was an $800 board.

14x21 inches, watercolor.  The original painting is available here.  Prints can be purchases in my ebay store.