Sitting on a battered old pail that looks like it might have come out of the 1930s itself, Steve Tarjan evokes a sense of deep concentration as he works on transforming Ralf Baechmann’s 1930 Hudson Essex into a piece of fine art.
He stops, then carefully wipes off a line of paint, which seen from a few feet back looks like a perfect curve.
“There’s nothing like hand painting,” said Amanda Tarjan, Steve’s wife. “Vinyl looks good when you first do it but it looks computer generated, there isn’t that human imperfection.”
Steve is the artist behind Q Ball Pinstriping, based out of Kelowna. He was at Hot July Nights last weekend, plying his trade.
He goes to two to three car shows a month from May to early September and does metal fabricating a few days a week for Konquer Custom Rods in Kelowna.
“The paints used are a one-time shot - they last,” said Amanda. “Over time, if anything, they might get faded a bit.”
She adds there are times a touch-up might be needed.
“Sometimes the guys will over polish. Or power wash. Around the gas tank area - the gas will take it off.
“Treat it like art, ‘cause it is!” she said.
In addition to pinstriping, Steve does lettering for work vehicles and business signage. Several of his large paintings are also hanging in expensive Kelowna homes.
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“He’s one of those annoying people that can do almost anything,” Amanda said. “He’s been going to car shows for a little over 10 years but he’s been an artist his whole life.”
Steve and Amanda have been married for 25 years. Amanda laughingly refers to herself as the “chief brush cleaner” but Steve said she’s more than that.
“This woman is the reason I can go home sane after a show like this because she runs interference for me on all the questions and talking when I’m trying to focus on something,” said Steve.
Car shows offer him the opportunity to do a lot of pinstriping at once. Otherwise, his business is piecemeal, based on things that just come up.
“Like a campfire,” he said. “Just keep putting sticks in it and it keeps burning, right?”
Amanda said car owners put their heart and soul into their vehicles and it’s great that Steve can put the “icing on the cake,” so to speak.
Steve acknowledges, however, that it can be frustrating at times. He might do three vehicles in a weekend and each owner is different, with their own vision and eccentricities. The problem is they do not know how to express what is in their heads.
To help them decide, he carries font books and works with sketches to try to get a pre-approval of a design idea. He loves the fact that pinstriping is “old school,” and can’t be modernized.
“To do this brings everybody back decades,” he said.
”The hot rod scene and the classic car guys are so easy to get along with and they’re such a positive family-friendly, loving group of people.”
He laughs.
“I just love it. It’s so peaceful.”
fiona.grisswell@100milefreepress.net
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