I'm sharing another painting of event artwork completed for Cruisin' the Boulevard's annual tribute to American Graffiti, this one created in 2017. This original piece is also featured in the Petaluma Historical Museum for their exhibit on the 50th year celebration of the movie American Graffiti, running 5/18/23 - 9/3/23.
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| "The Best Seat in Town" ©2017 by Elise Durenberger |
This is the story of how the artwork came together that was created to share for the exhibit at the Petaluma History Museum:
The setting for 2017 was still being contemplated when our artist found herself quite literally crusin’ the boulevard on her way to an event downtown. It was a crystal clear night where the iconic Old Mill was showing off against an elegantly lit sky, boasting our proud American flag in strong, sturdy balance and Elise was mesmerized. She pulled over and found herself directly across from the used car lot that still uses the business office so brilliantly shown in the scene where Toad has pulled over to contemplate his fender-bender while driving Steve’s car, the exquisite Chevy Impala, and is then accosted by a smarmy used car salesman. Elise envisioned these two dramatic settings zipped together in a painting, and the 2017 theme, “The Best Seat in Town” was born. With a glorious, colorful flapping banner capped car lot, a brilliant, buzzing neon sign and gigantic rocking chair to inspire, the artist studied movie clips and still shots to confirm the signage, and other bits of nostalgic detail from a low-tech, but gloriously festooned time for car sales. The final painting is still one of her favorites and we enjoyed the use of images in this artwork, especially when considering that the majority of the movie footage is shot in horizontal scale, missing so much of Petaluma’s skyline charm. We appreciate being able to have our own stamp of Cruisin’ the Boulevard on the event artwork in Elise’s paintings.
“The Best Seat in Town,” by Elise A. Durenberger ©2017
Original, Acrylic on Canvas 24 x 30” $3,500.00
For information about purchasing the original painting please contract greg@americangraffiti.net
1 comment:
I feel so blessed to have lived in the generation that brought American Graffiti to the big screen. You've captured that era so perfectly in your amazing paintings! I was 14 when that 1958 white Chevy was built, so this really takes me back. I love all these incredible paintings you've done. You are SO talented!
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