Jay Koka ORIGINALS: 2015
Old Propaganda Posters | Stutz at Mark Hopkins | Seven Tuks in Bangkok | St Johns Concours 2015 | Photo-Op No2 | Ferrari Group | Cobble Beach 2015 | Selinsky Lincoln
Old Propaganda Posters
Old Propaganda Posters
Title: "Old Propaganda Posters"
by Jay Koka, © 2015
60”w x 44”, acrylic on canvas, Private Collection
No armchair traveller, AFAS member Jay Koka has actually been to the worldwide locations featured in his paintings. Recently, he portrayed a Mercedes-Benz 540K in ‘Directions In Cartagena’ with Fernando Botero’s statue ‘Gertrude’ in Cartagena, Columbia, followed up by the Athena Award winning ‘Calao’ featuring a Ferrari 275GTB/4 NART Spyder in the Lima port town of Calao, Peru.
For 2015, Koka takes us to southeast Asia.
“ ‘Old Propaganda Posters’ is an amalgam of Saigon and Hanoi recently visited by Cathy, my wife, and me.” says Jay Koka, “We were walking in the old Chinese quarter when I rounded a corner and saw the sign: ‘Old Propaganda Posters’. It literally stopped me dead in my tracks… I knew there was a painting here but how do I construct it? The idea was formed and crystalized a few minutes later when a Gallardo rounded a nearby corner.”
“I love paintings that present great contrasts and perhaps even clashing forgrounds and backgrounds. The old quarter with its cluttered art shops, flower sellers and
Title: "Old Propaganda Posters"
by Jay Koka, © 2015
60”w x 44”, acrylic on canvas, Private Collection
No armchair traveller, AFAS member Jay Koka has actually been to the worldwide locations featured in his paintings. Recently, he portrayed a Mercedes-Benz 540K in ‘Directions In Cartagena’ with Fernando Botero’s statue ‘Gertrude’ in Cartagena, Columbia, followed up by the Athena Award winning ‘Calao’ featuring a Ferrari 275GTB/4 NART Spyder in the Lima port town of Calao, Peru.
For 2015, Koka takes us to southeast Asia.
“ ‘Old Propaganda Posters’ is an amalgam of Saigon and Hanoi recently visited by Cathy, my wife, and me.” says Jay Koka, “We were walking in the old Chinese quarter when I rounded a corner and saw the sign: ‘Old Propaganda Posters’. It literally stopped me dead in my tracks… I knew there was a painting here but how do I construct it? The idea was formed and crystalized a few minutes later when a Gallardo rounded a nearby corner.”
“I love paintings that present great contrasts and perhaps even clashing forgrounds and backgrounds. The old quarter with its cluttered art shops, flower sellers and
purveyors of just about everything has a feeling of age, perhaps even pleasantly decayed. Contrast this with the the very newest and the very latest… which the Ferrari LaFerrari most certainly is.”
“It took a very large painting, 60 inches wide by 44 inches to be able to capture the level of detail that I felt the painting needed to communicate this foreground-background contrast.” continues Koka, “I am really pleased by the detail depth and wide range of colors in the background... and the LaFerrari is no slouch either. I was looking for a very delicate balance of the car in motion but just barely… I wanted to show every aspect of this awesome car.”
“I find world travel invigorating for my soul and of immense influence on my art. Direct personal experience of a location is invaluable in interpreting and transferring the scene to the canvas. I know it sounds corny, but all places have a very unique feel that I endeavor to get across in the work.”
With a return trip already booked for Egypt in 2016 and India in 2017, we can guess at subjects yet to come.
“It took a very large painting, 60 inches wide by 44 inches to be able to capture the level of detail that I felt the painting needed to communicate this foreground-background contrast.” continues Koka, “I am really pleased by the detail depth and wide range of colors in the background... and the LaFerrari is no slouch either. I was looking for a very delicate balance of the car in motion but just barely… I wanted to show every aspect of this awesome car.”
“I find world travel invigorating for my soul and of immense influence on my art. Direct personal experience of a location is invaluable in interpreting and transferring the scene to the canvas. I know it sounds corny, but all places have a very unique feel that I endeavor to get across in the work.”
With a return trip already booked for Egypt in 2016 and India in 2017, we can guess at subjects yet to come.
Stutz at the Mark Hopkins
Stutz at the Mark Hopkins
Title: "Stutz at the Mark Hopkins"
by Jay Koka, © 2015
36”w x 48”, acrylic on canvas, Private Collection
“Stutz at the Mark Hopkins” features well-known collector Larry Carter’s superb 1931 Stutz DV32 LeBaron Speedster Phaeton in front of the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco.
“We had gone on a lengthy trip to southeast Asia in the early spring of 2015. Although the new painting “Old Propaganda Posters” was an unexpected result of this trip, I was on a definite hunt for a unique location.” Says Jay Koka. “I specifically went to the Penninsula Hotel in Hong Kong and the Raffles Hotel in Singapore because I thought that one of these world renowned hotels would serve as a fitting setting for the stately Stutz.”
“While both turned out to meet my high expectations architecturally, the problem was that the painting would require a very long view of either of the two hotels because their immediate entry areas, while very attrective, were just not elaborate enough for what I had in mind. Of course the other drawback in a “long shot” was that the car would end up being quite small within the frame of the painting.”
“Disappointed, I spent some time pondering the problem and recalled that a number of years earlier I had been at the Mark Hopkins in San Francisco. I remembered the spectacular entry way and hunted through my photo archive for reference shots that I knew I had taken.
Title: "Stutz at the Mark Hopkins"
by Jay Koka, © 2015
36”w x 48”, acrylic on canvas, Private Collection
“Stutz at the Mark Hopkins” features well-known collector Larry Carter’s superb 1931 Stutz DV32 LeBaron Speedster Phaeton in front of the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco.
“We had gone on a lengthy trip to southeast Asia in the early spring of 2015. Although the new painting “Old Propaganda Posters” was an unexpected result of this trip, I was on a definite hunt for a unique location.” Says Jay Koka. “I specifically went to the Penninsula Hotel in Hong Kong and the Raffles Hotel in Singapore because I thought that one of these world renowned hotels would serve as a fitting setting for the stately Stutz.”
“While both turned out to meet my high expectations architecturally, the problem was that the painting would require a very long view of either of the two hotels because their immediate entry areas, while very attrective, were just not elaborate enough for what I had in mind. Of course the other drawback in a “long shot” was that the car would end up being quite small within the frame of the painting.”
“Disappointed, I spent some time pondering the problem and recalled that a number of years earlier I had been at the Mark Hopkins in San Francisco. I remembered the spectacular entry way and hunted through my photo archive for reference shots that I knew I had taken.
Not only did my memory of the entry area prove to be right, a little digging and I also discovered that the hotel and 1931 Stutz were virtually the same vintage… here’s what the hotel says: ‘When The Mark Hopkins Hotel opened onDecember 4, 1926, San Franciscans proclaimed it architecturally perfect, flawless in its erection, comprehensive in its accommodations...strikingly representative of the best there is in modern hostelry.’ The LeBaron bodied Stutz could make virtually the exact claim as being representative of the very best there is in automotive design of the time.”
Concludes Koka, “Perfect match. As it turned out, I didn’t have to go all that far after all.”
No armchair traveller, AFAS member Jay Koka has actually been to the worldwide locations featured in his paintings. Recently, he portrayed a Mercedes-Benz 540K in “Directions In Cartagena” with Fernando Botero’s statue “Gertrude” in Cartagena, Columbia, followed up by the Athena Award winning “Calao” featuring a Ferrari 275GTB/4 NART Spyder in the Lima port town of Calao, Peru.
With a return trip already booked for Egypt in 2016 and India in 2017, we can guess at subjects yet to come.
No armchair traveller, AFAS member Jay Koka has actually been to the worldwide locations featured in his paintings. Recently, he portrayed a Mercedes-Benz 540K in “Directions In Cartagena” with Fernando Botero’s statue “Gertrude” in Cartagena, Columbia, followed up by the Athena Award winning “Calao” featuring a Ferrari 275GTB/4 NART Spyder in the Lima port town of Calao, Peru.
With a return trip already booked for Egypt in 2016 and India in 2017, we can guess at subjects yet to come.
Seven Tuks in Bangkok
Seven Tuks in Bangkok
Title: "Seven Tuks in Bangkok"
by Jay Koka, © 2015
44”w x 34”, acrylic on canvas
No armchair traveller, AFAS member Jay Koka has actually been to the worldwide locations featured in his paintings. Recently, he portrayed a Mercedes-Benz 540K in ‘Directions In Cartagena’ with Fernando Botero’s statue ‘Gertrude’ in Cartagena, Columbia, followed up by the Athena Award winning ‘Calao’ featuring a Ferrari 275GTB/4 NART Spyder in the Lima port town of Calao, Peru. And most recently, "Old Propagana Posters" in an amalgam of Saigon-Hanoi.
For 2015, Koka takes us to southeast Asia.
TUK-TUK: wikipedia: “An auto rickshaw, also known as a three-wheeler, samosa, tempo, tuk-tuk (in Thailand), trishaw, autorick, bajaj (in India), keke Napep or Maruwa (in Nigeria), rick, tricycle, mototaxi, baby taxi, lapa or tukxi (Piaggio Ape Calessino) in popular parlance, is a common form of public transportation in many countries ...”
“I've seen Tuk-Tuks in countless countries and, I have to confess, I would love to own one.” says Jay Koka, “I am however concerned that it would be a real roll of the dice to walk away from a collision with anything but the tiniest cars where I live.” (They are called Tuk-Tuks in Bangkok because of the sound of their engine.)
“Like everyone else, I thought that Tuks are all the same... as cool as they are, they are really nothing more than overgrown 3-wheel motorcycles. Bangkok is home
Title: "Seven Tuks in Bangkok"
by Jay Koka, © 2015
44”w x 34”, acrylic on canvas
No armchair traveller, AFAS member Jay Koka has actually been to the worldwide locations featured in his paintings. Recently, he portrayed a Mercedes-Benz 540K in ‘Directions In Cartagena’ with Fernando Botero’s statue ‘Gertrude’ in Cartagena, Columbia, followed up by the Athena Award winning ‘Calao’ featuring a Ferrari 275GTB/4 NART Spyder in the Lima port town of Calao, Peru. And most recently, "Old Propagana Posters" in an amalgam of Saigon-Hanoi.
For 2015, Koka takes us to southeast Asia.
TUK-TUK: wikipedia: “An auto rickshaw, also known as a three-wheeler, samosa, tempo, tuk-tuk (in Thailand), trishaw, autorick, bajaj (in India), keke Napep or Maruwa (in Nigeria), rick, tricycle, mototaxi, baby taxi, lapa or tukxi (Piaggio Ape Calessino) in popular parlance, is a common form of public transportation in many countries ...”
“I've seen Tuk-Tuks in countless countries and, I have to confess, I would love to own one.” says Jay Koka, “I am however concerned that it would be a real roll of the dice to walk away from a collision with anything but the tiniest cars where I live.” (They are called Tuk-Tuks in Bangkok because of the sound of their engine.)
“Like everyone else, I thought that Tuks are all the same... as cool as they are, they are really nothing more than overgrown 3-wheel motorcycles. Bangkok is home
to an astonishing number of them, more than anywhere else I've been and it's when you see them in a group, standing still, that you start to have an appreciation for how different they truly are from one another.”
“In big tropical cities like Bangkok, they are the ubiquitous Taxi. But closer examination like that required while doing this painting has shown me that first they are very different from each other and second that they perform an immense number of jobs. For example, in the painting there are a number of Taxi's but there are also a couple of "freight" Tuks, sort of like small transport trucks that carry everything that can possibly be strapped, balance or wedged into their somewhat limited space. The 3rd and 7th from the left are "transport-Tuks".”
Another discovery was just how individually unique they are.” continues Koka, “Take the first Tuk on the left. This is obviously a high-end machine. Note the pin-striping and the chrome trim not to mention the positively luxurious interior...and not just for the passengers... but the driver too. But that's only the beginning. Like motoring enthusiast the world over owners customize and personalize their Tuk in an effort to make it "their own".”
Concludes Koka, “I came across this group of Tuks in Bangkok at what could best be described as a "tuk- stop", a watering hole for the locals.”
With a return trip already booked for Egypt in 2016 and India in 2017, we can guess at subjects yet to come.
“In big tropical cities like Bangkok, they are the ubiquitous Taxi. But closer examination like that required while doing this painting has shown me that first they are very different from each other and second that they perform an immense number of jobs. For example, in the painting there are a number of Taxi's but there are also a couple of "freight" Tuks, sort of like small transport trucks that carry everything that can possibly be strapped, balance or wedged into their somewhat limited space. The 3rd and 7th from the left are "transport-Tuks".”
Another discovery was just how individually unique they are.” continues Koka, “Take the first Tuk on the left. This is obviously a high-end machine. Note the pin-striping and the chrome trim not to mention the positively luxurious interior...and not just for the passengers... but the driver too. But that's only the beginning. Like motoring enthusiast the world over owners customize and personalize their Tuk in an effort to make it "their own".”
Concludes Koka, “I came across this group of Tuks in Bangkok at what could best be described as a "tuk- stop", a watering hole for the locals.”
With a return trip already booked for Egypt in 2016 and India in 2017, we can guess at subjects yet to come.
Concours at St John's 2015
Concours at St John's 2015
Title: "Concours at St John's 2015"
by Jay Koka, © 2015
42”w x 50”, acrylic on canvas, Patterson Collection
Koka returns as featured and poster artist for the Concours at St John's. Koka created the poster painting for the St John's innaugural event in 2011 when it replaced the long-running conours at Meadow Brook Hall (where he was also featured artist in 1992). This time featuring the winners of the 2014 event... Best of Show European is the incomparable 1939 Bugatti T57C Cabriolette by Vole&Rutherbeck (Patterson Collection). In the background, Best of Show American, 1932 Duesenberg J Convertible Victoria by Murphy (Parfet).
Title: "Concours at St John's 2015"
by Jay Koka, © 2015
42”w x 50”, acrylic on canvas, Patterson Collection
Koka returns as featured and poster artist for the Concours at St John's. Koka created the poster painting for the St John's innaugural event in 2011 when it replaced the long-running conours at Meadow Brook Hall (where he was also featured artist in 1992). This time featuring the winners of the 2014 event... Best of Show European is the incomparable 1939 Bugatti T57C Cabriolette by Vole&Rutherbeck (Patterson Collection). In the background, Best of Show American, 1932 Duesenberg J Convertible Victoria by Murphy (Parfet).
Photo-Op No2
Photo Op No2
Title: "Photo Op No2"
by Jay Koka, © 2015
48”w x 36”, acrylic on canvas, Hirschmann Collection
The small 16x12" painting "Photo Op" was a dress rehearsal for the highly complex "Photo Op No2". Commissioned by a Swiss collector, "Photo Op No2" features the owner's Ferrari 599GTO at the start line of the Gumball 3000 Super Car Rally set in Copenhagen. Complex - no doubt from the apparent "cast of thousands" - the real challenge according to Koka is that the car was wrapped with a "matte" finish. Koka: "In many ways, a "shiny" car is easier to paint... depicting a "matte " finish car presents the danger of it looking almost like a mockup of the car. Or, even worse, your inability as an artist to competently render a car."
Title: "Photo Op No2"
by Jay Koka, © 2015
48”w x 36”, acrylic on canvas, Hirschmann Collection
The small 16x12" painting "Photo Op" was a dress rehearsal for the highly complex "Photo Op No2". Commissioned by a Swiss collector, "Photo Op No2" features the owner's Ferrari 599GTO at the start line of the Gumball 3000 Super Car Rally set in Copenhagen. Complex - no doubt from the apparent "cast of thousands" - the real challenge according to Koka is that the car was wrapped with a "matte" finish. Koka: "In many ways, a "shiny" car is easier to paint... depicting a "matte " finish car presents the danger of it looking almost like a mockup of the car. Or, even worse, your inability as an artist to competently render a car."
>Ferrari Group
FERRARI GROUP
Photo Op by Jay Koka, © 2015
16”w x 12”, acrylic on canvas, Private Collection
"K" by Jay Koka, © 2015
16”w x 12”, acrylic on canvas, Private Collection
15 Minute Limit by Jay Koka, © 2015
16”w x 12”, acrylic on canvas, Private Collection
Photo Op by Jay Koka, © 2015
16”w x 12”, acrylic on canvas, Private Collection
"K" by Jay Koka, © 2015
16”w x 12”, acrylic on canvas, Private Collection
15 Minute Limit by Jay Koka, © 2015
16”w x 12”, acrylic on canvas, Private Collection
Reminiscent of the 2013 Tour Group of 12 small originals, this group of Ferrari studies is like a set of small jewels...each an exquisite study in shape, color and texture. Initially realist, the painting style breaks down to impressionist shapes and colors on closer contemplation with a sweeping bold painting style.
Series 1 E-Type Jaguar
Cobble Beach E-Type
Title: "Cobble Beach E-Type"
34x44", acrylic on canvas © Jay Koka, 2015
Two versions of the 2015 Cobble Beach Concours poster were designed (see below) The first incorporating this new 34x44" acylic on canvas original featuring a Series One Jaguar E-type in front of the Cobble Beach Club House. Last minute participation by Cadillac as presenting sponsor saw the poster redesigned to incorporate an very early... 1988... original gouache on board painting by Jay Koka titled "Cadillac".
Title: "Cobble Beach E-Type"
34x44", acrylic on canvas © Jay Koka, 2015
Two versions of the 2015 Cobble Beach Concours poster were designed (see below) The first incorporating this new 34x44" acylic on canvas original featuring a Series One Jaguar E-type in front of the Cobble Beach Club House. Last minute participation by Cadillac as presenting sponsor saw the poster redesigned to incorporate an very early... 1988... original gouache on board painting by Jay Koka titled "Cadillac".
Selinsky Lincoln
Selinsky Lincoln
Title: "Selinsky Lincoln"
by Jay Koka, © 2015
40”w x 48”, acrylic on canvas, Selinsky Collection
Privately commissioned painting of a 1931 Lincoln Model K Series 201 Dual Cowl Sport Phaeton, body by Murray. One of 17 remaining examples from an estimated original build of 77. Owned by Craig Selinsky.
The building in the background is a private residence located in the Hills and Dales Village in Canton Ohio. Completed in 1930 by the Koontz family, it has only had 3 owners to the present and is maintianed very much in its original style.
Title: "Selinsky Lincoln"
by Jay Koka, © 2015
40”w x 48”, acrylic on canvas, Selinsky Collection
Privately commissioned painting of a 1931 Lincoln Model K Series 201 Dual Cowl Sport Phaeton, body by Murray. One of 17 remaining examples from an estimated original build of 77. Owned by Craig Selinsky.
The building in the background is a private residence located in the Hills and Dales Village in Canton Ohio. Completed in 1930 by the Koontz family, it has only had 3 owners to the present and is maintianed very much in its original style.