All of the images in Gallery 1 were drawn and painted, using airbrush, pencil, acrylics and oils.
All content copyright 2020 Stephen Durke
“Barbecue With Still Life;
The Texas Stereotype”
Texas Monthly
January 1986
Acrylic on Crescent Board
11.5” x 16”
A few months after publication Stephen got a call from the art director on the movie “Texas Chainsaw Massacre II” wanting the original for the set’s dining room wall. We hated to part with it but we needed that $800. I wonder where it is now.
[Visit the Gift Shop for an original tear sheet from the magazine, suitable for framing. Limited quantities available.]
Album Cover
”Arturo Toscanini, A Legendary Performer”
1977
Airbrush Acrylic & Pencil
18”x 20”
Saga Album Cover & Poster
”Heads or Tales”
1983
Acrylic on Crescent Board
19” x 27”
Saga was a Canadian progressive rock band. The album reached gold status in Canada and Germany.
Portrait, Bob Bullock
Texas Monthly
1979
Acrylic on Crescent Board
11.5” x 14.5”
Cover Feature
Physician’s Weekly Magazine
1987
Acrylic on Crescent Board
16” x 16”
Book Cover
”The Universe Against Her”
James H. Schmitz
Ace Books
1984
Acrylic on Crescent Board
12.25” x 18.75”
Feature
Houston City Magazine
1978
Acrylic on Crescent Board
11.5” x 14.75”
John F. Kennedy portrayed at the Rice Hotel in Houston, where he slept the night before he was assassinated in Dallas on November 22, 1963.
Portrait, Jackie Gleason
Cover, American Film Magazine
November 1982
Acrylic on Crescent Board
13.25” x 17.5”
Feature, Texas Monthly
“When Picasso Was a Texan”
February 1985
Oil on Canvas
22” x 16”
Works of master artists were featured as parodies, as if the artists had been Texans. Stephen was assigned a play on Salvador Dali’s “The Persistence of Memory,” 1931, substituting jalapeno peppers for floppy watches.
Portrait, Salvador Dali
Self-Promotion
1977
Pencil, Airbrush Acrylic
15” x 15.75”
This portrait of Salvador Dali was Stephen’s first self-promotion piece. While he was working in Larry McEntire’s Lonestar Studio it won an award from the New York Art Directors Club. Pretty heady stuff for someone who was welding in the Texas shipyards six months prior.
Book Cover
”In The Country of the Walking Dead”
Walter O’Meara
Ace Books
1980
Acrylic on Crescent Board
12.25” x 18.75”
Greeting Cards
Paper Moon Graphics, Inc.
Los Angeles, CA
”I see a Birthday in your future.”
1982
Airbrush Acrylic on Crescent Board
12.5” x 18”
“I’m programmed for Love.”
1982
Airbrush Acrylic on Crescent Board
12.5” x 18”
[Visit the Gift Shop for a set of these vintage cards. Limited quantities available.]
Portrait, John Connally
Texas Monthly
”The Truth About John Connally,” Paul Burka
November 1979
Acrylic on Crescent Board
14.25” x 19”
Circuit Board Globe
Western Digital
c. 1982
Acrylic on Crescent Board
14.5” x 19.5”
Feature
California Magazine
1982
Acrylic on Crescent Board
22” x 14.75”
Story about hazardous materials
transport in California
Illustration for Oil Company, Houston
Acrylic on Board
c. 1980
Call For Entries Poster
Texas Monthly TexAd Promotion
”New Writers of the Purple Sage”
1979
Pencil on Crescent Board
24” x 18”
Book Cover
Portrait, Chief Joseph
1979
Airbrush Acrylic, Pencil on Crescent Board
20” x 27”
Poster
San Antonio Zoo Fundraiser
”Bring ‘Em Back Alive”
1985
Acrylic on Crescent Board
16.5” x 17.75”
Feature, Texas Monthly
”Moon Struck,” Al Reinert
July 1979
Acrylic on Crescent Board
11.5” x 15”
”Once the astronauts left Earth, they were aliens in a mystical environment, bombarded with sensations, revelations and mysteries whose power has not diminished in the ten years since.”
R.I.P., Al Reinert
THOUSANDS OF TINY STILL LIFES
In the early 1990s H-E-B displayed tabloid newspapers in the stores to promote weekly specials. Photography was not practical. Stephen was hired to produce what eventually amounted to thousands of individual product illustrations. Each item was drawn and painted from life, with from 30-80 products being delivered to our door every week.
He soon realized there was no way to hand paint the type and logos on every item in the short deadline time, especially since he was producing anywhere from 3-8 illustrations a day, 6-7 days a week. Our little side porch was already my graphics darkroom, with a horizontal stat camera, so I assisted him, developing a system of shooting the type and logos as line art, sized to fit his hand drawn illustration. We then created a custom rub-on transfer in the appropriate color which was transferred to the final artwork. We had everyone guessing how we made them look so real. It was a stressful and exhausting period, but it paid a lot of bills, and was a gratifying opportunity to serve a great local company.
