Vacation

Sometimes you just need to get away by yourself.



6x6 inches, oil on board.  Available on Daily Paintworks.

Aerial Weirdos #2

"Okay, so how do I land this thing?"

It cuts through the air like a 2x4 through butter, luggage space is minimal, and it burns fuel faster than a tanker fire.  But imagine the look on peoples' faces when you buzz them in a truck cab!  Plus, it's recycled, which is good for the environment.

6x12 inches, painted in oil.  Sold.

Aerial Weirdos #1

I can only try to blame this on too much Monty Python and Top Gear.  How else do you explain a 1940 Ford C.O.E. cab attached to a hot air balloon?  Radical recycling?

6x6 inches, oil on panel.  Sold.

More Aerial Weirdos on the way.

Bad Belvedere

Alternate title - Batman's Daily Driver.  Because he's not going to use his work car to go get milk and bread at the Qwik-Mart.  Tax implications and stuff.

Another piece from the lomo project.

The Little Trailer

The heartwarming tale of a mermaid and her Vacation Of Adventure!

This painting represents what happens when I try to do more "postcardy" subject matter.  I get a couple seascapes or barns done, then a mermaid finds her way in while I'm not looking.  Before I know what's going on, she's got herself a vintage aluminum trailer.  And now she and her friends are ganging up on me.  I'm completely surrounded!  They're corrupting everything!

Painted in oil on panel, 8x8 inches. 

Sold.

The Primitive 2

The Amazing Sequel to The Primitive!

In the far flung future, long after the collapse of governments, infrastructure, and fast food joints, Amazons roam the earth.  They have developed a nomadic culture, scouring the shattered remnants of civilization in ancient survivors in their endless search for food and octane.

Watercolor, 14x26 inches.  The original is available on my website.

Robin's Egg

Presenting something a little different this week.  A photograph.


This is part of a project I started earlier in the year, the aim of which is to improve standard digital photos by making them a bit worse.  I was inspired by my discovery of the toy camera movement.  Basically, you take pictures with a cheap plastic camera with a plastic lens and loaded with expired film which you may develop in the wrong mixture afterward.  All this adds up to an unpredictability and texture you just can't get with point and shoot digital equipment.

But I'm trying.

This piece represents several layers of color adjustment, blurring, light leaks, and blotchy texture.  I create my own blotchiness with watercolor paper in various stages of distress painted with browns or grays.  I then scan the result into the computer and scale as needed.  I added the red streak on the right partly to add some color contrast, and partly to help obscure the license plate.

This is one of my favorite pieces from the project so far.

Photo © 2011 Matt Yost, all rights reserved.

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.

The Hammerhead

A mermaid with a sponsor.  And a trophy.



Watercolor, 14x21 inches.  The original painting can be purchased here.

Twang!

Even a siren has to keep up with the world.  Tastes in music change, and these days an a cappella performance just won't cut it. You need to grab your victim's attention and keep it until it's too late.  That's not easy to do with competition like Aguilera to deal with.  Perhaps some guitar lessons and a homemade amplifier are just what the doctor ordered.  Surfers beware!

Painted in watercolor, 14x27 inches.  The original is available here.  Prints are available here.

The Coffee Break

This is one of those pieces that sort of evolved by itself.

I had already done a version of this car in green, but I was not happy with it.  The whole thing was just blah.  The car was too clean, the background was plain and flat, and the girl was waaaay too goofy. 

So I started over, taking the car out of town and putting it in the middle of nowhere, changing the color and adding some patina.  Now the car needed a new driver, someone less cheerfully creepy and with better fashion sense.  I found a girl who fit the bill waiting in a pile of sketches, minus the wings, which eventually became black.

  So why is she stretching in the middle of nowhere?  Well, she's been driving for 300 or so miles, traveling to point b, wherever that is.  And what might you need after driving 300 miles in a buggy-sprung bathtub, besides a good stretch?  That's right, coffee.  So... thermos.

Who is this winged woman?  Is she an angel or a devil?  Where is she going? Why has she traveled such a great distance, and why didn't she choose a more comfortable mode of transportation?  Like a Cadillac, maybe?  I mean, isn't it cramped in there with those wings?

I cannot answer these questions.  All I know for certain is that she's not drinking decaf.

As usual, painted in watercolor.  14x21 inches.  Prints available on ebay.  The original is available, contact me for details.

The 7th Annual Great Mars Internal Combustion Cruise-In

This was spawned from a poster idea for a cruise-in hosted on the red planet.

I love old hotrods like this.  Basic point a to point b as fast as possible transportation.  Get in, grab the wheel and hang on for dear life.  Helmet optional.

13x29 inches, painted in watercolor.  The original painting is available here.

I Said It's Not For Sale!

No profound message here.  I just wanted an excuse to paint a pumpkin head.

 Painted in watercolor. 14x21 inches.

Sophisticated

No fiberglass, billet, or carbon fiber here.  Just tons of chrome, steel, cast iron, and leather.  Ten seconds in the quarter mile may be too much to hope for, but no one at the track will be looking at anything else.

10x29 inches, painted in watercolor.

The original is available here.

Damn Sea Monsters

This is sort of a sequel to That Was My Favorite Board,  which can be seen here.

It's the old two monster con.  Monster one accosts the mark, usually a helpless looking femme, and distracts her.  Meanwhile, monster two sneaks into the target vehicle, hotwires it, and drives away scot free. 

Of course, things don't always go according to the plan.

Painted in watercolor, as usual, 14x21 inches. 

This painting is available on my website.

Skeleton

A color study for the paintng Godiva 2.

The idea is simple.  Basic point A to point B transportation. No air conditioning.  No traction control.  No ABS or EFI.  No radio. No paint or hubcaps, even!  Just an engine, wheels, and a cockpit.  The only "luxuries" are a rearview mirror and a pumpkin face shift knob.

7x9 inch pencil drawing with digital color.

Cactus Migration

One of my stranger ideas.

The idea is that there's a species of cactus that uproot and stampede every few generations or so.  When they do, people go out and try to catch them.  Why?  Curiosity, rumors of magical powers, the pure adrenaline rush of chasing a 40 mph cactus, other unknown reasons. 

I wish I could remember what sparked the idea.  Who thinks of stampeding cacti?

This image has been desaturated slightly, the original is a bit brighter.

10x29 inches, painted in watercolor.  Original available here.

The Grouper

If you look at my work over the last twenty years, you may notice my early work depicts fairly everyday scenes.  The night before a race.  Relaxing with a beer after a hard day on the farm.  Lunchtime.

But as time passes, you'd notice strange, incongruous and just weird elements worming their way in.  Mechanical sea monsters.  A space rocket in line at a gas station.  Pickups with tentacles.  And mermaids.

So many mermaids.

"But why, Matt, why paint weird stuff instead of the sort of Americana themed work you see printed on coffee mugs?"

It's simple.  I like weird and ridiculously unlikely stuff.  I like the idea of taking a '53 Caddy ambulance and making an altered gasser out of it.  I like the thought of a Dodge Power Wagon modified to do a 10 second quarter mile straight up a vertical rock face.  Everybody makes a gasser out of a Willys coupe, but has anyone tried it with a stock Willys woody body (no fiberglass, thank you)?  Or a 1965 International Travelall?  I want to see that, and if I have to do it myself in the form of a painting, so be it.

I might even throw in a mermaid or two.

Because who doesn't love mermaids? 

Anyway, this piece is a mild expression of this idea of weird.  A sort of  not too pretty grandma's car, in grandma colors, done up for the dragstrip by a mermaid with a toolkit.

Put that on your coffee mug!

Gathering Ballast

The idea being that if you're going to make a dragstrip gasser out of a pickup, you'll need to put a bit of extra weight over the rear end to improve traction.  Otherwise, you'll just be spinning the tires at go.  Hay bales push the tires down onto the tarmac, which translates into a better quarter mile.

15x25 inches, watercolor.  Available for purchase here.

p.s. I'm currently working on Ballast 2, featuring a mid-60's Dodge truck.

The Impossible

The idea here is to take a short, boxy, 60's 4x4 SUV, and drop the body right to the ground, while preserving the 4WD drivetrain.  Read that last sentence again.  That's right, the finished product must scrape the ground and have a functioning four-wheel drive.

Maybe it can't be done.  Maybe it's a ridiculous and unfeasible idea.  But how cool would it be to have a low rider that can climb a vertical rock face?

People have contacted me with plenty of pictures of SUV lowriders, but they've all been 2WD, so no cigar.

I've seen some pretty wacky custom cars out there, including a Caddy camouflaged as a tank and an aluminum fishing boat fitted with a drivetrain.  How many Batmobiles are there?  There's got to be at least one of these somewhere in the world.

Watercolor, 10x22 inches.  This painting is available on Etsy.

The Primitive

One of my post-apocalyptic pieces.  Civilization has been swept away, and there's not much  left except some amazons and a few old cars, like this Chevy rat.  This particular car was found upside-down in a swamp, slowly decomposing.  Fortunately, all the amazons are expert mechanics and machinists, and the Chevy was back on her wheels in a matter of days.

Watercolor, 14x21 inches.  Click for purchse information.  Prints available here.

Monster Truck

Or maybe it's a Truck Monster.  No one who's gotten close enough to find out has lived long enough to tell anyone.

Originally, the idea was to have the truck on the edge of a cliff, with the tentacles coming from below, not connected to the truck at all.  I was never happy with the composition,  so it stayed in limbo, eventually fermenting into the 180 proof monster you see here.

Watercolor, 15x21 inches.  Available for purchase here.

5744

I got this idea from a photo on deviantart.  The original vehicle was a '57 Chevy sedan that had been radically shortened to fit a short wheelbase SUV frame.  I believe a wagon is a better idea.  It just looks better, and you have room for fishing tackle and beer.

I plan to color this as soon as I can get a decent scan.

About 6x8 inches, painted in watercolor.

Blog Post Number One

Well, I have to start somewhere, might as well be here.  An expression of briny avarice titled "Ambush".

Watercolor, 10x21 inches.  Available for purchase on my website.