Beginning Thursday, August 29, and running until Friday, October 4, the Janice Mason Art Museum in Cadiz will be hosting “A Splash of Color” by artist Steve Chlupsa — showcasing a career profile expressed through several mediums using acrylics, watercolors and pencils.
He has focused on watercolor exclusively since 2020, and spent many years as an avid “hot-rodder” and classic car enthusiast — and magic happened when he married cars and watercolor, creating the dramatic images for which he is known.
A life-long artist, Chlupsa was surrounded by art from a young age. His mother, Verna, is an artist and retired art teacher, and his father, Arnold, is a retired game warden and decoy carver. His brother, Andy, focuses on bird carving.
Self-employed since 1985, Chlupsa has invented and sold tools and other devices to the wood carving and high-performance automotive communities. He also spent 10 years working with Verna as a professional wedding cake artist.
After retiring from cakes in 2018, Chlupsa finally had the free time to get back to his paints and brushes, and in 2022, he was commissioned by “Shelby’s Trio” restaurant in Clarksville, Tennessee, to paint four watercolors of owner Joe Maynard’s classic Shelby Mustangs. The paintings are installed in the lower level of this amazing new eatery, one called “Joe’s Garage.” The 1970 GT500 piece is a 4 feet x 6 feet in size.
In Spring 2023, Chlupsa began a series of dramatic floral pieces to add variety to his portfolio. With the dark backgrounds, the flowers jump right off of the paper — and need to be seen to be believed. That same summer, he began a series of “Steampunk” pieces — combining faces and Jules Verne-like fantasy images. Then, last fall, he began a popular series of paintings of animals in a retro Cubist style — using bright colors and facets like stained glass.
Most of his work is done with Winsor Newton and Daniel Smith professional watercolor tube paints on 140# Arches paper, and he also does all of his own matting and framing.
He’s a juried member of the Clarksville Downtown Artists Co-op, as well as a member of the Hopkinsville Artist’s Guild.
To contact Chlupsa, visit his web page at stevechlupsa.com, or reach him by phone at (270) 871-7976.
He has two children: Kelsey, the anesthetist, and Austin, the IT specialist.
