The hot rodding culture we live and breathe is multi-faceted. Of course we love the high performance, gear grinding thrill of smashing a vintage hot rod down the road, and even the knuckle busting build of the car, but one thing that ties it all in is the pure beauty of the creation. We see beauty from patina’d out “rust buckets” on through high-dollar frame-off rebuilds. The art of the creation is quite possibly the biggest reason we do any of this.

Recently, Rod Authority got the chance to attend an amazing event. On August 23^rd, 2014, Petersen Museum in Los Angeles, California hosted an exhibit completely devoted to automotive artist Steve Stanford. Steve Stanford is quite easily one of the world’s foremost automotive artists and designers. Stanford has given life to countless pieces of art that are more akin to children to him. Each and every single piece gets an emotional response, a passion and vision that pours out onto the page and is very precious to him.

For 55-plus years, Steve Stanford has been creating his works. Art flows through his family blood lines and automotive art was a natural progression for him; he also had a passion for automotive beauty. Blending the two has been his life’s long passion. When Stanford accepts a commission for a piece, it is a true honor for both sides. Stanford has been known to turn down requests, not because the money wasn’t good enough, or the project not exciting enough, but because the vision just wasn’t there. The purity of his artwork just couldn’t be shown through the design and lines laid out. For Stanford, it’s not about the money. It is about putting pen to paper and making something truly beautiful come to life.

Stanford meddles in just about every aspect of automotive design and artwork. For years he spent time pinstriping and drawing out his favorite cars and combinations of cars. Tailfins, Cadillacs, and customs are tops on his list. Legendary automotive designer Harley Earl is a personal hero to Stanford and rightly so. The father of the automotive tailfin and Corvette can have that effect on any respectable artist. Harley Earl’s family considered it a huge honor to ask Steve to create a tribute piece in Earl’s name. To which, of course, Stanford immediately and enthusiastically agreed to.

Stanford’s clients bring various different types of projects to him. Portraits of existing cars are pretty standard as well as pre-build renderings. There are even times that clients bring him some loose guidelines and let his imagination and art determine the rest of the design. In his off time, Stanford enjoys creating Phantoms (3-4 cars combined together) and what the Aussies call “Yank Tanks” (1950s-70s American steel).

Each and every piece that Steve Stanford creates is a unique entity in itself. Tons of research and sketches envelope his life as he builds a masterpiece. Often times, the sketches get ripped up and tossed away eight to 10 times before he settles in to just the right angle or style. The right feeling just has to be there. A single piece can take anywhere from three weeks to even seven months. It’s for the love of the art.; if the feeling takes months to come about, then it takes months to come about! This is one of the things that makes his artwork so special. He isn’t churning pieces out on mass production scale. Each and every one is dipped in love and saturated with beauty.

More than 40 pieces were on display making this the largest single collection of Stanford artwork in one place.

The exhibit at the famous Petersen Museum was the largest collection of Steve’s works to be shown at one time. For more than 25 years, he has turned down offers for his very own exhibit. Stanford wasn’t creating these pieces to get famous from them. But finally after some pressuring from friends, he allowed history to be made. More than 40 pieces were on display throughout the first and second floors of the museum. Up on the second floor, outside near the parking garage, nine real life embodiments of his artwork were parked for all to see. Each had their original artwork nearby. It was easy to see to amazing accuracy and detail that was put into each piece; even for those cars that just plain didn’t exist before the artwork was made.

One of Stanford’s excelling traits is his ability to get inside his client’s head. Digging deep to get every bit of information he can. Many automotive artists draw major inspiration off of his works. The handmade pieces are each one-of-a-kind. Recently, fellow automotive artist Mike Lavallee of Killer Paint got a chance to get a Steve Stanford original. For 20 years, Lavallee has lusted after Stanford’s signature:

“I first found out about the master Steve Stanford probably over 20 years ago.” Says Lavallee, “I was reading one of my trade magazines at the time, I think it may have been SignCraft or Autoart magazine. They did an article on him and this really cool dry brushed graphics technique he created. I was blown away at how creative it was, especially at the time. You see, back then basic hotrod flame jobs and old school pinstriping where the norm. What Steve was doing was nothing like what anybody else was doing. All we knew is that it was cool as hell! Everybody started copying this style, including myself! It opened up a whole new world to us custom pinstripers and automotive artists. The other thing I remember about Steve was his totally bitchin’ signature! It’s a piece of art in itself and all I wanted was something signed by Steve so I could own one of his signatures!”

Lavallee, of course, loves the piece Stanford created of his 1951 Mercury “Dead Sled.” Lavallee had so much faith in Stanford he even told him he could disregard all of his build plans if he wanted to.

Steve Stanford is an amazingly humble man. He is not at all out to carve his name into the history books of fame or get rich off of his works. Each piece of artwork does have its price tag, just as anything does. Starting from $1,500 on up, each unique piece is quoted individually. In 2010, Stanford’s California Cadillac was appraised for $32,000 right after it was finished. Though, you’ll likely never, or rarely ever, see any Stanford works up on the auction block. Every owner holds them dear to their hearts.

A quick internet search will give you sensory overload of the amazingness that is Steve Stanford Art. For more info, head over to Steve Stanford Designs on Facebook.