Art & Inspiration Saturday Art Show, Prints,various Artwork, Automotive Related

From a prisoners' pencil= 34 Ford

 

Bill Drysdale
Hello,

Artist Bill Drysdale captured the essence of the famous So Cal “The Crab Cooker” Restaurant in Newport Beach, located near the Newport Pier parking area and the Balboa Peninsula street Eastward. The Crab Cooker Restaurant opened in 1951.

Our dad took us surf fishing at the beaches on either side of the Newport Pier and for lunch, we went to an early version of The Crab Cooker. He grew up a seafood person having grown up in Terminal Island and San Pedro. He always told us of his fishing exploits and access to fresh fish. So, he knew quality seafood when he first tasted it.

Many years later, our teenage hot rod cruising days took us to Newport Beach and Balboa. The Crab Cooker was a favorite with the girls we used to take to the Rendezvous Ballroom. It always was an impressive place for dinners and late lunches.

So when the college dating scene took over, I took my wife to dinner during our dating days and that went over like a big red wrapped Christmas present. The color Red was evident as the surrounding buildings were usually white or blue. She and I have always been patrons of the best Clam Chowder in the USA. As well as the other tasty dinners available back then.

“The Crab Cooker opened its doors in 1951, and was one of the first restaurants to introduce the now widely popular concept of mesquite-grilling. Well known for its homemade bread and Manhattan chowder, the Crab Cooker has been a favorite…”

The old 327 powered 1940 Ford Sedan Delivery, the 1965 Red El Camino and our old Harley Sportster was usually parked out in front or on the side street. It was a good cruise in either of the hot rods/trucks or yes, a motorcycle. For us, it was the both the "journey and the destination"... go there and you will see!!!


NOTE:
Then the old building had to be either rebuilt or completely torn down and built up from the foundation. During the pandemic, the iconic restaurant was closed and the work began. A complete teardown and rebuilding was done from dirt. The same location and best of all, the same quality food since 1951. YES!

“The Crab Cooker building sustained structural damage, requiring a complete rebuild. Complete... down to the foundation. A near replica of the Crab Cooker – call it a spitting image – has been constructed at the original location, and has officially reopened, paper plates and all.”

It was and still is a “Cool Roadside Attraction.” The area abounds with rich So Cal hot rod/surf culture history. Unless you take the Newport Boulevard and Coast Highway intersection, by taking the Balboa Ferry across to the Peninsula, you will have to backtrack West. But, the drive is cool and as shown in the old Balboa Peninsula film on another thread, beach town, interesting.

 

Paul Whitehouse Art.

 

@nickleone this link no worky...

 

By R.Lopez

 

Bill Drysdale

Hello,

Despite the continuance of the pandemic, some local beach towns have opened up their downtown streets without any pandemic rules, dining out, shopping, and cruising that was always there, but limited in where one could stop and get out for a spell.

The city of Encinitas is one of those San Diego County beach towns that has been on our radar since cruising down the coast to check out and surf those city waves. The main draw was Swami’s point break. The main coastal highway ran right in front of those great waves on good days and bad. So, if we saw great waves, we stopped and paddled out for a long session. The earlier we got there, the better the chance for waves to ourselves. The sight of the waves from the road was the key point here. Everyone and their grandmother could see the waves from their cars or definitely from the cliffside.

If it was not as good, then farther down the San Diego coastline, were the opportunities for better surf. But this place was very popular and got crowded fast. The artwork of Bill Drysdale showcases the beach influence of this coastal city with the abundance of the old woody style cars and hot rods. Moonlight State Beach, as small as the isolated beach is to the freeway, has been associated with the all-woody show that has been going on forever. The big draw are the woody station wagons. But with the limited parking spaces, early to rise is always the best case.

The annual event has drawn quite a following on the Westcoast. It is quite a drive from anywhere in Northern So Cal like Santa Barbara, Los Angeles or Long Beach. From all points Orange County, it is still a drive, but a lot closer via freeway and the shoreline hugging, Coast Highway. The inland hot rodders have access via inland freeways and connections. So, set aside the date when getting there is just as much of the journey as the final destination.

The advantage to living in San Diego city and the beaches, is that it is a short freeway/coastal highway access drive to the downtown Encinitas and Moonlight Beach in the Northern coastal area. One place to stop as a mandatory place is Juanita’s Taco Shop. It is just a block or so North of Moonlight Beach and has been known as the best tacos and burritos in this whole coastal area. We have been stopping here since the place opened in 1980. During our 6 year stint in the San Diego Harbor, this roadside stop was always a calling card for the best Mexican food on the south coastal area.

Jnaki

As always, it is your choice as to the effects of the pandemic, but there are close quarters in the whole downtown avenue beachside activities and even watching the waves or the Woody show.

The best thing about past events here in Encinitas is that it is a small coastal town with heavy aura of surfing lifestyle. The housing prices are just as high as anywhere along the coast. But the effect of a small coastal town is just heart warming and fun.

The drawback to the Encinitas is that it now has been given the official I-5 freeway moniker as the “Encinitas slow down” section of the high speed freeway to San Diego just south of the Camp Pendleton coastal area. The long grades in the freeway, ups and downs causes red brake lights, which in turn have a domino effect for miles back.

It is causing a drastic slow down in this Encinitas city limit portion of the busy I-5 freeway North or South. It used to be just going South, but in almost any normal hour, the northern trek is starting the same slow down, just in the Encinitas area. YRMV

 

@jnaki
The mention of Encinitas really put a smile on my face, and it brought back a very special memory of one particular night at the LaPaloma theater there.

It was 1975, I had just got out of the Army and I was in San Diego to party with a great friend, whom I had gone to high school with.

We were going to blacks beach or we had already been there and we were now cruising around having fun, the chronological order of things is now a distant blur!

The great SF Bay Area band, " THE TUBES " had just put out their first album and we loved it! As we were cruising the main road, as we were passing by, the marquee on the LaPaloma theater, it read, " TUBES LIVE TONIGHT "!

I hollered at my friend Steve and said go around the block and circle back, I have make sure of what I just read on that theater marquee, and he did! Amazing in my modified state of reality, the marquee was correct!

You would thought we had just won the lottery! We parked Steve's ride, ambled over to the theater box office, we lucked out, and literally bought the last two tickets for the show that evening, we had no idea that the seating capacity was just 500.

The seating was very cool and was way ahead of its time, for that time period back in 1975. If any of you fellow geezer/hippy's are familiar with " THE TUBES " music and stage show back then, you can imagine how rockin and rollin this theater was that night !!!!



Long story short, we had no idea of just how kick ass and wild and totally unabashed the tubes live stage show was going to be that evening! Suffice it to say, the live musical, theatrical stage show wasn't for those of a straight arrow conservative nature!

Cheshire grin!

Thanks for posting about the cool little town of Encinitas, great memories indeed!

 

Hey 41,

Back then, the Tubes were big time. The Westcoast stopovers included the different theaters and entertainment places not just the big time arenas. The whole coastline has their own little showcase places for the touring bands and such. In Orange County, there has always been the Coach House. It is a little dinner place with great sound and a small stage at one end. My wife and I saw the FIXX there several times to a rocking house and enthusiastic crowd. The place is still around with concerts as usual.

Those little places are always better than the big time arena shows or even the large outdoor events. The history of Orange County and other coastal cities/towns seems to always have those places available. In the 1960s, Huntington Beach had a cool place called the Golden Bear. That place rocked with music from country, folk, to hard rocking evenings with Janis Joplin with The Big Brother and the Holding Company concerts performing just steps away from your table.

The Golden Bear dinner/concert place across the street from the Huntington Beach Pier. This photo is "art"/print due to the nature of its history and the composition.

Jnaki

Cool times and cool events...

 

At the Lions Museum. A mural of the Albertson Olds Top Gas Dragster with Leonard Harris driving.

 

Hello,

Let's give credit where credit is due. Yvonne Mecialis is a fantastic artist. In 2019, prior to the opening of the latest version of the Lion's Dragstrip Museum, she was a part of some pretty amazing artists doing final touchups all over the walls of the new addition of the museum.

Jnaki

That logo on the copied photo is not representative of her skills and should be noted. Saturday March 6, 2021 Saturday Art Thread: This is a post for the Albertson Olds drawing/painting.

Yvonne Mecialis – Artist Muralist

"The Lions Drag Strip Museum brought together three talented artist, Kenny Youngblood, Yvonne Mecialis and Keith Moreland, to paint over 5300 sq ft of hand painted wall murals surrounding an incredible reproduction of the famous Lions starting line." https://thelionsdragstrip.com/about/


Hello,

In visiting the rebuilding of the Lions Dragstrip Museum, during the pre-opening set up days, I was introduced to several artists that play a big part of creating this fabulous display. Yvonne Mecialis makes race cars look like they will pop off of the wall and fire up the loud motor, right in front of you. Those paintings are as close to photography as detailing can make them. You are an artist, Yvonne…

The Albertson Olds FED was instrumental in making 12 straight wins at Lions in the 1960 era. On the night of August 6, the streak was interrupted by the early closing of Lions Dragstrip due to an explosion, resulting fire, and crash of a C/Gas Willys Coupe. The next race was supposed to be the Albertson Olds FED going for win number 13 at the staging area.

This time the Lions Museum will showcase different eras to appease all of the drag racing fans that poured through the gate over the years. The early days will be well represented and so will the other eras, up to the sad closing. So, everyone can associate with their own time period of activity at Lions Dragstrip and not one is more powerful than the others. Each period of drag racing activity brought out the best of the best during those early days of drag racing.

Jnaki



“Yvonne began drawing as soon as she could hold a crayon, and her mother enrolled her in private oil painting classes at age 10. Yvonne went on to earn her BFA in Illustration from CSU Long Beach, and continued to create her own style. She used various media, including oil paint, acrylic, watercolor, charcoal, and pen and ink, but she began to focus on airbrush as her primary tool of choice.”

“In 2018, Yvonne was asked to lend her painting skills to create full-scale murals, to adorn the walls of the Lions Drag Strip Museum, in Rancho Dominguez, CA. The museum is designed to resemble the famous drag strip in every detail, including cars lined up at the starting line. It is the largest project she has ever worked on."

"Yvonne has contributed her artistic talents to the world of custom painting as well, and has painted motorcycles, cars, boats, helmets and guitars, and has designed her own set of freehand airbrush templates, called “Metropolis,” for Artool Company.”


JNAKI, MAR 6, 2021

 

@jnaki Thank you so much for posting this great recognition of Yvonne and her magnificent artistic skills and talents!

There is a lot of power in artistic expression, when it comes to the realm of hot rods, vintage and traditional drag racing.

Thanks to artists like Yvonne and the others you have mentioned, historical moments are captured in a grand style and size, that everyone can enjoy and learn from!

Thanks from Dennis.

 

Britt Madding.

 

Hello,

Ever since seeing the first artwork of Gilbert “Magu” Lujan, I can’t get enough of the artistic skills of the late artist. His eye for design and creative media is to be enjoyed in display all over So Cal stores, museums and university art centers.

Look back to other Saturday Art Threads and see the outrageous art to simple drawings of old hot rods in his paintings. A true artist…

Jnaki


Gilbert “Magu” Lujan (1940-2011)

 

Truth in advertising, rarely is put into publication !

 

Barrio Carlsbad Oak and Roosevelt St.
Painted by Chicano Park Muralist, Victor Ochoa & La Raza Unida in 1983.

Hello,

Custom cars have been around as long as I can remember from our early days in the Westside of Long Beach. We used to see the cool lowered cars cruising around our neighborhood parks and the schools, for the morning drop offs and afternoon pickups. As we got older we were able to identify the makes and models with the custom artwork plastered on them.

The style and finished cars were called customs by all of us. The term “lowrider” wasn’t used util much later. But for the locals, it was a car show whenever we saw them. The neighboring communities of Wilmington and Compton had their share of custom cars cruising around our area.

So our introduction to custom cars started with the community creations. In the recent community allowed, mural art, these custom cars are now labeled low riders and with that, a history that goes back to those early 50s timeline periods of the communities all over So Cal.

Jnaki

Most of the murals are located in the different communities that have allowed their cultural community art program to expand and get involved with its rich histories. This mural with a centered lowrider sedan is located on one of the major streets leading from the I-5 freeway to several good, coastal surf spots along the beach in Carlsbad, CA

 

Hard to find, "STAR" radiator shell, true honey comb radiator, and a rare Weidenhoff cyclone test panel.
The car belongs to a friend of mine, the test panel is in a showroom for Romaine Electric co. Down in Kent Washington.
I figure @VANDENPLAS will appreciate, that NOT everything, is a DODGE !

 

They say imitation is the sencerest form of flattery





pretty darn close !!!

 

Dan McCrary, watercolor,Troy Ruttman roadster.

 

From A Friend In 1970...

 

Bill Drysdale

Hello,

Living in So Cal has plenty of ocean associated rewards. This wonderful painting by Bill Drysdale is of the famous Shake Shack on PCH Corona Del Mar area of the Crystal Cove shoreline cliff. In the early days, it was a stop over for drinks and snacks. Later on, my wife and I stopped there many times on our Harley Sportster, El Camino, and our 40 Ford Sedan Delivery for a snack, lunch or just to sit and rest to watch the ocean do its thing.

For us in the surfing days, it was not just a Shake Shack, but a stopping off or viewing area to check out the swell direction and power/consistency. If it showed some waves, then it was a similar coastal beach direction as our favorite spot in Camp Pendleton. If it was small or odd looking, then a Dana Point or Salt Creek stopover was the leading surf spot for us. So, it was an indicator spot, called “The Indicator” of all names.

Jnaki

It has changed over the years and is now owned by the California State Parks as part of the Crystal Cove State Park area. Down below are old historic houses from the 1930s-50s that have been refurbished and are available as rentals. If that is not your thing, the beach is a wonderful place to take your mind off of the pandemic blues, at least for a little while. The food/drinks over looking the ocean is a great way to enjoy the day… YRMV

“This beachfront landmark appeared not long after that segment of Coast Highway opened in the late 1920s, when roadside date shake and orange juice stands were synonymous with Southern California. Early on, it was the Laguna Beach Hot Dog Stand. By the 1940s and ’50s, the focus was on orange juice, although nuts, shakes, and dried fruit were also sold. The shack was remodeled in 1968.”

“In the mid-1970s Virginia McKinney took the reins, renamed it Sunshine Cove, and added health-food options to the menu. The state bought the land as part of Crystal Cove State Park in 1979, and the stand became a park concession. Ruby’s, which took over in 2006, still serves date and “Monkey Flip” (chocolate, banana, date, and peanut butter) shakes, and after a brief dalliance with a blue and white paint job has returned the building to its traditional bright yellow.”

 

Old and slow and not so slow !

 

This is a quilt that a local seamstress made for me from old car show tee shirts.

 

Britt Madding