SEMA 2014
Live iPad Portraits at World’s Largest Hot Rod Car Show!

Live painting at SEMA 2014, Las Vegas Convention Center, November 4th – 7th, 2014

SEMA 2014 – Portraits of Legends

SEMA, the Specialty Equipment Market Association, the main trade organization of the car customization industry, organizes the world’s largest custom car and hot rod trade show in the world in Las Vegas each year. It is also one of the largest annual events that takes place in Las Vegas. This year I was invited by SEMA to paint live iPad portraits of the icons and legends of the industry at their main booth in the SEMA 2014 grand lobby. It was a wonderful experience on all levels: artistically, technically and personally. Using the iPad with the Sketch Club app and a Pencil by 53 stylus was the perfect tool for the job – my paintings could be seen developing in real time on a 40 inch LED display mounted on my artist’s easel. Each portrait subject who kindly sat for me was immensely gracious, friendly and passionate about the industry. Plus they were a pleasure to talk with and all had fascinating stories to share. They each received a digital JPEG file of their completed portrait plus a short QuickTime movie of the entire process, brush stroke by brush stroke. The portraits were printed onto 4’x 8′ mounted boards that were then displayed at the entrance way to the SEMA Hall of Fame Gala. They looked amazing!

My iPad Portraits on display at the SEMA 2014 Hall of Fame (HOF) Gala

Big thanks to all at SEMA, to Rick and his fabulous team at lucid and, of course, to all my wonderful and inspiring portrait subjects!

To give you a taste of the experience I’ve divided my images (below) into a selection of the live portraits I created and scenes of me painting, and a few of the phenomenal customized cars that were on display, some of which had to be seen to be believed!!

Some of the Portraits

Jeremy with Jimmy Shine and his iPad portrait

Jeremy with Billy Gibbons and his iPad portrait

Camee Edelbrock portrait

Leo Kagan portrait

Linda Vaughn portrait

“Gentleman” Joe Schubeck portrait

Nile Cornelison portrait

Boyd Coddington portrait

John Waraniak portrait

John Waraniak and I with his portrait

Nate Sheldon portrait

Pete Chapouris portrait

Alex Xydias portrait

My iPad Portraits on display at the SEMA 2014 Hall of Fame (HOF) Gala

Painting Nandini at the SEMA 2014 HOF Gala

Painting Von Hot Rod on his birthday at the SEMA 2014 HOF Gala

A few of the Cars

The original Batmobile!

Pointed nose..

Two low riders.

Shiny red Chevy.

Big tires.

3D printed car.

Chevy x2.

With Elvis’ last car…this car wasn’t actually in the SEMA show, just on display at the Westgate Hotel next door, but being an Elvis fan I couldn’t resist including it:-)