The owner of Joe Buck’s Restaurant in downtown St. Louis has just commissioned Ray Harvey to create three large sports murals for display in the venue. The site sits only blocks from home plate at Busch Stadium. The scenes will depict St. Louis sports in all of it’s glory. The far left mural will be dedicated to baseball, cardinals players and the ’06 and ’11 World series. The center painting will show the broadcasting of Joe Buck with the skyline in the background and his booth partners, select stars and his now famous re-creation call of “See You Tomorrow Night.” The right-hand scene will cover Hockey and Football with the three Hall of Fame Blues hockey players and some of the Big Red Players from Cardinal football. The three paintings are fifteen feet wide and five feet tall. Each painting will be an original on canvas. They will replace the b/w photographs that hang there now. The design process is in the beginning stages but the only deadline is to have the art finished and installed by the opening of Baseball season.
Ray Harvey is not foreign to the St. louis sports scene after his forty-eight foot wide mural of St. Louis sports in 1999 for Fair St. Louis and his Official Artist status during the PGA Championship at Bellerive CC. Prints of each of the three scenes are planned to be available at the restaurant following installation.
The fifth image in my Washington Christmas series is now available. In partnership with Downtown Washington Inc, the newest painting is titled “Christmas Rush at the Post Office”. The new scene is available for purchase at the downtown Post Office, The Art Center on Main Street and at the Ray Harvey Art ETSY store on-line. The 16″ x 20″ signed print is retail priced at $60.
This painting depicts a 1961 evening when last minute shoppers are rushing to mail Christmas packages. Santa is also sneaking into the building under the watchful eye of the local mailman. This is a big year for the historical building since its purchase and renovation by Downtown Inc. In addition to the new prints, the four previously published images are available in 5″ x 7″ Christmas cards.
The original painting will be on display downtown and is also available for purchase. Anyone interested can contact the artist for cost and delivery.
This weekend my newest hospitality mural was delivered and installed at The Branding Iron Restaurant in Wright City. Owner John Bastian commissioned me to create an original twelve foot wide painting for the main dining room. The restaurant, his third, opened last week to excited customers. The place has been reported to be packed since opening day. The mural which depicts cowboys on the range ending the day at the chuck wagon sets the tone for the rustic menu. Mr. Bastian originates from Montana where he opened his first restaurant.
The Chesterfield, MO venue Annie Gunn’s Restaurant was photographed Friday night. Owner Thom Sehnert and Chef Lou invited me in to see what goes on behind their swinging doors. This restaurant has been a premier location for over twenty years while the Smokehouse has been in operation over thirty. This site becomes my fourth restaurant in my photo series “Behind the Swinging Doors.” This project is expected to be completed by years end with a minimum of twelve popular restaurant kitchens from all over the St. Louis region.
The Friday shoot was fun and productive as usual where I rubbed elbows with a staff of over twelve young, dedicated cooks. I was able to view everything from the pastries being baked, proteins being cleaned to massive steaks being grilled. The outcome collection should be ready for viewing on my website www.widelooks.com by the end of this week. Stay tuned for more!
This past Saturday evening Herbie’s Restaurant and Chef Aaron invited me and my trusty Panon Widelux vintage camera to capture the magic in their kitchen. After almost 250 tickets passed through the doors I had collected some very impressive images of what goes on “behind the swinging doors.” The heat was unbearable, the organization incredible and the commradery impressive. Upon leaving at the end of the evening I was reminded once again why I chose to begin this photo series. Here are a couple of the first samples of the shoot. Next stop, Pappy’s BBQ in midtown St. Louis.
The first of many restaurant photo shoots is on the hard-drive. Chef Josh Galliano, voted Best St. Louis Chef in Alive Magazine, graciously invited me to photograph the kitchen of the popular Maplewood eatery last Saturday evening. With a few exposure and shutter speed corrections many terrific action shots of the kitchen atmosphere were attained. This group of images will go into the continual photo file resulting in the “Behind the Swinging Doors” project. It is my goal to shoot a minimum of twelve of the most popular or notorious restaurant venues in the St. Louis region. These images will be displayed in a future photo exhibit at a partnered gallery. The goal of the project is to show the viewer the real cooking atmosphere behind the swinging restaurant doors where the patrons rarely see.
If you follow my career’s progress on this blog you will notice a dominant emphasis on public art murals. But now I am about to embark on a new project with photography. For a few years I have been exploring the world of Widelux panoramic photography. Much of this can be viewed at my alternate website www.widelooks.com. I have been fascinated with the images created with the Panon vintage camera from first look.
A new photo series is about to begin. I received word from Chef Josh at Monarch Restaurant in Maplewood, MO that he is excited to be the first in my restaurant kitchen series in St. Louis. The title of the series is called “Behind the Swinging Door.” The images collected will showcase the world behind the swinging door of the best and most popular restaurant kitchens of St. Louis. The Widelux swing-lens camera is the perfect tool for this project. It allows the shooter to acquire a full 140 degree view. Based on the camera levelness a spontaneous warpage is produced as is seen by theses samples. It should create quite an interesting view of world in these great restaurants.
Much of project is subject to evolution. At this time my first goal is to collect the desired shots and then negotiate the usage and display. I need to know your favorite restaurant candidate. Let me know with a comment, please.
Eight weeks ago I unloaded the van full of paint supplies, ladders and scaffolding at the new Victorian Manor facility in Washington, MO. What I left yesterday was over 2,000 square feet of backdrop scenes depicting the Washington Town & Country Fair. This total included twelve different murals and vignettes.
The final product will be viewed at an open house in the next few weeks. This is only the first of two facilities planned in Washington. The theme of the second venue is still being discussed.
The mural titled ‘California Cruisn’” by Owner Wally Overstreet was installed today. The twenty foot wide painting was originally created on museum grade canvas and mounted to the wall in the new showroom. Tours will begin soon and all will be able to view over sixty classic cars and the two large scale paintings created by Ray Harvey. Overstreet House of Cars is located in Creve Coeur.
The commissioned painting of a Pacific Coast Highway scene is now complete. The mural measures twenty feet wide and seven feet tall. The art will be installed at the Overstreet House of Cars in Creve Coeur, MO. The museum has been the site for seventy classic cars and now will have more room due to a make-over in the showroom area. The new mural will be a backdrop to the new showroom.
