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ThisWeeK      Thursday, Oct. 24,2002
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       Humble/Kingwood/Atascocita

Page 4 - Zone 2                                                                                   Houston Chronicle Thursday, October 24, 2002                  


Have Airbrush                       Click on image to view larger
will travel                       Click here to go see the two canvas murals created for the
                                                                                   restaurant.

Humble Artist          
paints variety surfaces

By KATHERINE ECHOLS
Chronicle Correspondent

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Usually Gatica doesn't have to sketch out the design before he begins. He just starts painting.

His clients will comes to him with reference material they have gathered to explain

The painting or he will gather photographs and other material for inspiration.

Gatica said working with murals gives him the freedom to use various techniques and to incorporate airbrush to create a style.

Canvas paintings are a maximum of 10 feet by 10 feet, the largest available size.

"In some areas the client is
looking for large canvas that be moved and taken with them, so we will make a frame to the wall's
size," he said.

The Canvas is painted in the studio and stretched on the frame on the client's wall.

"It can be a lot of fun seeing something of this nature materialize from a flat plain wall or can-
vas. The most rewarding part for me, in this line of work, is when clients give me a big, happy smile of appreciation — when a client is pleased," he said. Commercial and residential commissions keep him busy and he doesn't get much time to sit and paint for pleasure. But he did find the time to write a children's book. The Little Baby Watcher was created because of a gift he made a few years ago for a friend's newborn baby.

Gatica illustrated the book and designed the character.

The Baby Watcher character looks like a cross between a doll and soldier with big eyes and ear
that will allow him to see and he everything in the baby's room keeping the baby safe from harm.

The book and toy are now available at the Northeast Methodist Hospital in Humble and in the Methodist Hospital Gift Shop.

 

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Artist Ray Gatica has left
his signature on fingernails, a coffin, the nose of an airplane and the wall of the new Reliant
Stadium.

The Humble resident hand
painted more that 2,500 square
feet of wall space in the stadium
representingthe Houston Texans
and the Houston Livestock Show
and Rodeo.

It was neat to be a part of the  project," Gatica said.

The red, white and blue Texan logos are spaced throughout the stadium and measure 8 feet by 8 feet. Two assistants helped him paint logos and cattle brands representing the Houston rodeo.

While doing the project, Gatica found he couldn't just leave his work when he left the stadium. "The brands were chasing us in our dreams," Gatica said

He completed the three-month project in September.

While Gatica, who is in his 40s, was living in the Northeast a number of years ago, he taught nail technicians how to airbrush
designs on their clients' fingernails.

When a local television station gave his work coverage, Gatica started receiving calls for a variety of commissions.

Gatica can retouch paintings or photographs, custom airbrush graphics on cars, vans, trucks and motorcycles and airbrush textile designs on clothing.  He also designs large banners.

His' strangest commissions
were paintings on airplanes and a coffin.

 

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 A few years ago Gatica was asked to paint the portraits of a husband and wife on the noses of their twin vintage airplanes. "That was my most exciting commission," he said.

His most unusual was the
coffin painting.

It was eerie," Gatica said.
"About a year and a half ago, I was asked to design a Texas
themed Casket for a funeral home hears Galveston.

They wanted a demonstration model in the show-room."

Gatica painted a Texas flag and bluebonnets on the coffin.

The artist can paint just about anything, he said,

"We have also painted 14-foot, high-fashion bejeweled Art Deco figures and impressionistic desert-scapes in homes," he said.

His largest single work has
been a 20 foot by 20 foot mural in a restaurant, Spaceys, in The Woodlands.

He recently completed two
Italian-themed murals on a 69 foot by 70 foot wall in Roma's Restaurant in Humble's Eastway Village Shopping Center.

One mural has a gondola floating along a river lined with Italian architecture and the other is a portico surrounded by trees and
flowers.

Gatica said the owners, Al and Susie Sadiku, wanted a warm theme to add to the restaurant's cozy atmosphere.

Murals have been a growing trend in the past few years, he said.

"I believe we all have a fantasy mural - a painting of something we would like to have in our homes," Gatica said.

He said a mural can convert a wall into a conversation piece.