Local artist, Paul Butvila has become famous for his air brush masterpieces and the puns he names them with.
Now showing in Las Vegas at Skye Art Gallery, Butvila is celebrated for his fantasy-realism artwork and his latest collection inspired by pretty girls and fast cars. For the artist, the U.S. is the best place to show is unique style of artwork.
“In the series I am working in, ‘Gotta Wear Shades” and my other work— I love the thought process prior to painting and coming up with a clever name for the painting, I like dealing in puns and plays on words in all of my work, I am actually getting known for that,” Butvila said.
The artist mourns his paintings when he finishes them because he enjoys the process of creating them so much that he feels driven to continue the process and immediately starts anew.
“It’s almost like a drug addiction, when the drug is over and I am coming down off that high I start the painting and the process over again.”
His latest collection was a fluke, born from painting a woman wearing sunglasses at the Formula 1 races 30 years ago and it sold. Butvila picked up the concept once again after searching to see if any artists had picked up anything similar and realized they hadn’t. Now he paints realistic women wearing sunglasses and reflected in the sunglasses is where the artist embraces a fantasy and different view of the world; whether it’s a fast car or dripping ice cream. However he does not paint the eyes of the women in his paintings, citing that it makes them ‘too real.’
“I keep the eyes out of the paintings on purpose, as soon as you start painting eyes, you are painting the soul and are actually painting a person. It won’t sell, it’s too personal— buyers don’t want a face looking back at them that has its own personality.”
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Up for the challenge though Buvila is looking to begin experimenting with lowering the sunglasses and painting the tops of his subject’s eyes in his next collection.
For more information of Butvila’s work visit his Instagram or through e-mail.
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