First steps in the Art Truck "Belle Mariposa"

I've been working on creating an "Art Truck" in my mind for months! I love to visualize my creative ideas and, when they're solid in my mind, drawing them out on my sketch pad. So, I've been playing with this idea for quite a while. In earnest over the last few months but, in truth, I've loved the idea for years!

At first I started visualizing a car, then a vw bug. When I started bringing art to galleries and doing street fairs, I was led to the idea of an art truck. I'll have a shell to put over the bed so that I can put my art back there and not worry about it blowing around. I also want a tiny backseat for my dog, Gracie! She loves to come along wherever I go!

If you take a look at my art, you'll see that I love painting butterflies. My first one was at the suggestions of my son, David. We were doing a mural on the side of our shed and I found a picture of a purple cone flower that happened to have a lovely monarch visiting it. When we finished the flower, David reminded me that it was time to add the butterfly. I told him I didn't think I knew how to paint a butterfly, but I'd try. Well, it was pure magic. The giant image just flowed and I dearly love that first butterfly and see it almost daily when I look at the artistically painted shed in our yard.

Since I'm probably a ways away from being able to buy my truck :(, I thought I'd start practicing painting on cars with bits of car that I can get from wrecking yards. So far I've gotten a piece of bumper which I've hand painted a couple of butterflies on. I used acrylic paint and brushes to do these two. I'm going to try creating a stencil and using my airbrush to do the background and adding the details with brushes.

Finally, I have a friend who is an auto body guy. He'll clear coat the whole truck and protect the images as well as the original paint.

If you've created an art vehicle, I'd love to hear from you and learn what you found worked and what didn't. I'll continue to share my experience and, hopefully, will have a finished truck to show you!

Here's the piece of bumper I've been practicing on.

Open  view of monarch

side view of Monarch, no legs yet!