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About Rick Herron

Rick Herron was born in 1949 in El Salvador, a foreign service brat, and as soon as he was able to hold a pencil got to work drawing cars. He has a degree in English Literature from The University of Virginia’s College at Wise, 1982 and Graphic Design from Northern Virginia Community College, 1999.

Growing up moving throughout Latin America he continued practicing on the new models from Detroit, then on original designs of mid-ship engine GTs. He constructed two of his original designs from sheet plastic, mounting one on a 1/18th chassis of an XJ 220 Jaguar and the other on a Lamborghini Diablo chassis. These were awarded second and first place at the Northern Virginia IMPSI modelers shows in 1996 and 1997 respectively. Knowing that he did not have the funds to build his own exotic designs he settled instead on doing paintings of the more impressive cars of his childhood and early adult years.

Today he freelances as an automotive artist and has accepted and completed many commissions form classic car owners across the U.S. Canada and Europe. He is already a recognized and established American Automotive artist. He has licensing agreements with Carroll Shelby and The Auburn, Cord, Duesenberg Co., which allows him to sell reproductions of his art work with their authorization.

Rick is proud to have had a print of his work, Auburn in Asheville, represented in one of Americas most prominent automotive museums, the Auburn, Cord, Duesenberg Museum in Auburn, Indiana along with other American and European automotive museums. Mercedes Benz commissioned the work “A Fine Day For Sailing” of a 300SL which now sits in a San Jose, California dealership.

Because many automotive artists on the east coast often feel shunned by the art establishment, Rick was pleasantly surprised a few years ago to get a call by Alice Ross asking if he would like to have his work featured in Elan Magazine, the Washington, DC areas premier Fine Arts magazine. The answer was yes of course. When many area fine artists wait months at a chance to have their art presented within the covers of this wonderful magazine, without having to ask, Rick Herron had been given this great opportunity to showcase his art thanks to the magazine and Alice Ross. For an artist to be considered a fine artist must always supersede the fact that he is also an automotive artist.

Rick paints in acrylics and also does digital art. He loves old cars but is also an environmentalist and has begun a series of environmental paintings. This endeavor will take time, money and a strong commitment. He wishes this new direction in art to make a statement about man’s relationship with his environment and his impact on it. Each era is defined by its art and its better art conceptualizes in a more satisfactory way a current society’s place within its surroundings. Often this art is a reflection of a new view of man’s place in the scheme of things or a radical change in the physical world he occupies or the spectrum through which he views it. With this new movement Rick will be taking a risk in presenting a not always pleasant portrait but after all art requires risk taking.