We love to hear from the Plein Air Today community! The following is part of a series that spotlights an artist who loves painting outdoors. Today’s feature is on David Meffert (aka Meff).
As an Art Director for 35 years in Advertising for the automotive industry, I watched some of the best car photographers in the world light cars in the studio and on location. I saw the beauty of curvy metal, bent steel, and glass. It should come as no surprise that I’ve returned to my original passion for cars and trucks, painting vehicles found on hikes around the city and through the countryside.
I also like to go to car shows and paint on location. When working en plein air, I get all the typical remarks: “My aunt paints too … that doesn’t look right … the color is wrong …”
The most memorable interaction was when I was painting the front grill of a ’57 Chevy Impala. I asked a lady sitting by the car for permission to paint it, and she said yes. After I blocked in the painting, her husband showed up and wanted me to pay him a fee to paint his car. I told him I had already gotten permission from his wife, but he said it wasn’t her car.
We talked for a while; he finally said I could finish the painting and then he ended up buying it from me. After the cash transaction, I pulled out my phone to take a photo of my work. He stopped me and said, “That’s my painting and you will have to pay me to shoot a picture of it.”
We haggled for a while, and I never got a shot of the painting.
David Meff’s Website: www.Meff-Art.com
Editor’s Note: Have you ever had something similar happen? How did you handle it? Or, what would you do if someone tried to charge you a fee for painting a specific subject?
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Blog post prepared for the web by Cherie Dawn Haas, Editor of Plein Air Today
Walk away. You own the copyright. He owns tne painting, not the copyright.
you can choose just not to live by those rules 🙂