A Special Car Portrait | Stanley Mt. Wagon
1905 Stanley Model CX in front of Marshall Steam Museum during blowdown.
My first “real job” was working at the Marshall Steam Museum in Yorklyn, Delaware. I was fresh out of graduate school at the University of Delaware and I was full of enthusiasm for a real paycheck and an opportunity to put what I learned to use. I loved that job. When I was hired, the staff went from one to two people, and I was tasked with growing the museum’s educational programs, which I did over the next four-ish years. I grew up in that place and it was such a great experience.
What is unique about the museum’s collection is that they have the world’s largest operation collection of Stanley steam cars. When I say operating, I mean it. The cars in the collection are road registered and are often taken on public roads. I even got to experience riding over the Delaware Memorial Bridge with a police escort once! To say I turned into a bit of a car enthusiast during my time there is probably an understatement. I can still tell you more about the Stanley Motor Car Company than is probably relevant in general conversation, but I loved it. I was also lucky enough to work there when Tom Marshall, the museum’s founder, was still stopping by every day (despite being in his 90s!) to tinker away and answer what I imagine was my exhaustive list of questions.
I moved to Colorado in 2016, but I still have a relationship with the museum and the volunteers and staff who were my mentors and friends when I was there. Once I became better at watercolor painting, I decided to try my skills at painting a car portrait. If you think a house portrait seems detailed (read more about that in my post Steps to Paint a House Portrait), a car portrait is next level, especially if we are talking about very early cars, think 1890s to 1940s.
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Early automobiles may not be as sophisticated as our modern vehicles, but aesthetically they are complex. You have to identify and consider:
The defining details of the automobile such as the front end of the vehicle and company emblems.
The often extensive brasswork of the lights and the frame.
The shape of the often wooden wheels.
The texture of the leather cover use for car roofs and seats.
The hand painted details throughout the car.
At the same time, you do not want to get too bogged down with too many details, such as the car's mechanics, which are often on display rather than hidden behind the frame of the car. You want to give enough details to indicate complexity, but not so much that the viewer is trying to identify where each panel, pipe, or tube goes. In a painting, even a larger 9 by 12 inch size, it’s nearly impossible to render a totally realistic portrait. I think that is part of their character though. They are an illustrative representation of a real thing and you get to highlight the best parts for the painting.
My first car portraits were for the Marshall Steam Museum’s annual fundraiser the Auburn Heights Invitational Classic Car Show & Garden Party in 2021. I chose to submit two car portrait paintings for their silent auction: a 1912 Ford Model T Torpedo, which was a car invited for that year’s theme, and a 1907 Stanley Semi-Racer Model K, which is from the museum’s permanent collection. These paintings were a challenge, but such fun to paint. And they both sold at the event (phew).
1907 Stanley Semi-Racer Model K, Car Portrait 2021
1912 Ford Model T Torpedo, Car Portrait 2021
This year, I decided to take on a more ambitious portrait for the museum’s annual event: painting the museum’s 1915 Stanley Mountain Wagon Model 820. This is a fifteen passenger vehicle, the largest that the Stanley company ever built. I took many rides in this vehicle while working at the museum and it is near and dear to the staff and the museum’s many volunteers. You can learn more about the vehicle's history on the museum’s website collection pages.
The most challenging aspects of this car portrait were:
The size. The vehicle is larger than most automobiles, which meant that fitting the vehicle on a standard 9 by 12 inch piece of paper meant that I was going to have to make some decisions about what the most important details were and what needed to be eliminated.
The limited color palette. There are two dominant colors for this car: red and black. The black is especially challenging because there are so many shades of it. There is the black of the tires, the black of the seats, the black of the running board and toolboxes, and all of the black metal.
The highlights. Most early automobiles are a combination of shiny metal, shiny paint, and shiny leather. The key is to add just enough highlights to convey that something is shiny.
Preliminary sketch of 1915 Stanley Mountain Wagon Model 820
My first step was to simplify the overall composition. Historic automobiles, and I think steam cars especially, have a lot of pieces and parts. I used my light table to create my basic sketch and to pick out the most important details of the car. To me these are the wheels, tires, body, lights, seats, and leather top. I included hints to the complex mechanics of the car, but just enough to demonstrate that they are there.
Once I have a sketch, then I spend some time mixing up the colors to find what I think is the closest match. Then it is just a matter of patience as I build up the layers slowly. With car portraits, I like to take a lot of breaks from painting, sometimes for a couple days at a time. It is really easy to overwork the painting or to get frustrated and lost in the details. I also take a lot of photographs so that I have different perspectives of the painting. For example, I can see in a photograph that a wheel is looking a little wonky, which I might not notice when I’m looking at a painting from a few inches away while painting. At the very end, I add final highlights using my bleedproof white paint and some final embellishments with metallic gold paint.
Overall, I am really pleased with the result and the painting has made its way safely all the way to Yorklyn, Delaware in time for the the Auburn Heights Invitational on September, 24, 2023.
