Painting of 1929 Ford Model “A” Ford Hot Rod Pickup Truck “Wicked in Suede”

Interested in a portrait of your car? Please contact artist John Robertson.

A few weeks back I was at a street car show of about a hundred-and-fifty cars and this one I found to be the best.  And, of course, as an artist I admired the craftsmanship and artistry of the truck - and wanted to paint it.   It is a 1929 Model “A” Ford Pick-up built by Johnny Martinez.  The truck runs a small block 384 horsepower Chevrolet with a 200R overdrive.  It’s chopped 3 inches.  The interior has old style tuck-n-roll stitching.  And the exterior is a beautiful “suede” black finish.  The nickname for this machine is “Wicked in Suede” Johnny has won over 40 assorted awards with his hot rod and was a winner at the 2013 Grand National Roadster Show – the “Rod Trucks” category.  To fully appreciate this vehicle there is a great video on youtube at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojcRkKJ_F90   The painting is 6 feet by 10 feet, ink and acrylic on unstretched canvas

I have only painted a couple of other cars large-scale, a 1949 Merc (James Dean Model) and a 1931 Model “A” roadster street rod.  This pick-up  fits perfectly into the series of three that I have now painted. 

I started painting these cars as a diversion from my other “sports” paintings.  I was always fascinated with the Model “A’s”.   As a teenager I had two Model “A’s ” a 1930 and a 1931 five window coupe.  Bought them each for $25.00 (when I was 15 a long, long time ago) and kept them for 8 years.   They were both wrecks, but derivable.  I drove one of them to high school regularly.  The object was to make one good Model “A” out of the two.  Never finished the project.  When I went into the Navy I put both of them into storage and when I got out I didn’t have- much interest in working on cars.  I did keep them for a couple of more years – again driving one of them all over the place.  In 1960 I drove one of the Model “A’s”s  from Santa Monica Ca. to Flagstaff, Arizona, along old route 66 - long before the interstate 40 was completed.  As I recall it took me about 15 hours to make the drive between Santa Monica and Flagstaff.  Top cruising speed with the “4banger” engine was about 45 mph.  And you couldn’t keep it at that speed.  Lots of hills to cross.  It sure gave me a taste of what the “John Steinbeck” migration from the east and mid-west to California was like during the 30’s.