WHAT earns an airbrush artist the lofty title of “The King of Airbrush”? In Daniel Power’s case, a 35-year-old Australian airbrusher who was flown in for the 2009 Autoshow at Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil recently, it speaks of 17 intimate years with a steel cylinder and an action trigger.
It is the culminative collection of work on cars, boats, motorbikes, X-boxes, cinema walls and a guitar, which has spanned 14 countries and airbrush demonstrations in front of hundreds of thousands in his home country. The Power line, in addition to a studio in Bayswater, Melbourne, also extends to airbrushing classes which covers teaching locations in Britain and Canada. To boot, Power also has his own series of instructional DVDs.
Blazing: To depict this CRX as one hot ride, Power painted dragons on it. It also helped that Power has a fan in Jaz Wong, 34, one of Malaysia’s top airbrush artists who was instrumental in bringing the Australian in for the show and who “bestowed” Power with his “crown”. That was not an act of whim, in any case.
“The first thing that caught my attention were his lively airbrush portraits. Every piece has a story to tell. It’s the way he captures their expressions and the little background details. His work has a level of creativity which is seldom seen in the airbrush arena. In my eyes, he is certainly The King, after the thousands of comparisons I’ve done throughout my five years in this line,” says Wong.
Yet, when the Airbrush King descended to the lobby of his hotel for this interview, there was no sign of a royal retinue, save for the characters of Batman and Robin emblazoned on his black tee.
“I am not very comfortable with the kingly title, really,” admits Power as he settled to a warm cup of chamomile tea and honey.
“I think the more appropriate term to use would be to say that I am part of the airbrush royalty. That way it covers all the greats who have driven the inspiration. Realistically, it is very hard to have just one top person for anything. Obviously, it is impossible to do everybody’s work and I guess it would be lonely, too, as there would be no one whom I could learn from,” says a modest Power.
Daniel Power’s amazing collection of work on cars, boats, bikes, canvas and even the human body, displays a level of creativity seldom seen in the airbrush arena While Power has worked on very unusual canvasses, including skate decks and female bodies for a liquor company, it is the automotive industry which has shown most appreciation for his work when he started on them seven years ago. Herein, the King of Airbrush finds himself in the position of having to answer the sticky question of why automobile owners are so fond of having hideous beasts and the female form, of which Power seems to be especially fond of drawing, on their bonnets.
The question inadvertently entices a laugh from Power, a father of two.
“That’s what my customers want,” he insisted.
Still, Power, whose father is a doctor of psychology, has a theory. The beasties, which he personally considers “cool”, is a primal need for man to exercise the scare factor.
“It’s like the old days when people rode their horse and armour out to war. The more you scared the enemy, the better. It’s just that now the horse has been replaced by a car but there is still this need to outshine the competition. As for the popularity of the female form, I see it as a natural choice for a male owner who regards his ride as the most beautiful object on the road. I am sure that if the car owner is female, she might have an image of a very buffed up Bruce Lee airbrushed on her wheels,” explains Power.
King or not, having a surname like Power has made the artist a favourite subject for puns and it is not uncommon for this amiable character to have to verify if he has any relations to Austin Powers, the movie character.
Life in her palm: Power has the ability to bring life to his pieces, as seen in this image of a woman holding a capsule of human DNA. “My surname is spelt without the ‘s’ so clearly we are not related,” is Power’s favourite reply.
But talk about his artistic career and the serious side of Power emerges.
The youngest of five siblings, the self-taught artist who started airbrushing in his early teens had started life as an artist for an Australian airbrush art company.
Growing up in a big Irish Catholic family, one of the life lessons that his parents had instilled in him was in making sure everybody has their fair share. It took three months before Power realised that he was not getting a fair salary from the boss who made Power do everything from designing T-shirts and catalogues to setting up venues for airbrush demos.
To rub salt to the wound, Power says, he was also told to stick to cartoons because he was not good at portraits, which incidentally was and still is, Power’s pet subject.
Deciding that it would be difficult to see eye-to-eye with his employer, Power left and, at only 18, he boldly made up his mind to venture out on his own, setting up a temporary studio in his parents’ garage in View Bank, a suburb in Melbourne.
Minute detail: Turning on the creep factor with the face of Terminator on this computer case On reflection, Power surmises that his establishment in the airbrush world has been uncannily governed by quirky twists of fate. It had to be another case of injustice that landed him his biggest job with the Australian-based Village Cinema in 2002 which saw him doing a 17m-long mural of airbrushed portraits in Taipei, Taiwan.
Power had been approached to do a series of airbrush celebrity portraits by a design company which told him that they only had a A$3,000 budget for each piece. It took a chance trip to the cinema for Power to discover that they had put up reproduced copies of his work. This subsequently saw Power at the management office which revealed that the design company had not only claimed his work as their own but had sold his pieces to the chain for A$12,000 each! In the end, Power got his due accolades when Village decided to deal directly with him.
And while it is fitting that only an airbrush pro can take on a 17m x 4m mural simultaneously with another slightly smaller one for the same client and finish both in 30 days, Power lets on that there is no job too small for him either. In 2004, he was commissioned to airbrush a female face the size of a coin on a guitar for a client whose name he prefers not to reveal.
But tell Power that he has been lucky and he gives a wry smile. It is not easy being “king”. In Power’s case, it means juggling 12-hour work days and family time with his two boys, Torin, three, and Reilly, 11 months. It is a tiring but rewardingjourney.
“The thing about wanting to be good at your work is you need to devote your life to it, and that’s what I’ve done for the past 17 years,” says Power.
Eye of the tiger: Power’s artwork for the Tiger Temple in Thailand. Knowing well that no reign can last forever, Power is ready for the day when he has to relinquish his “crown”.
“That’s what I’m working on now. Leaving behind my knowledge in my instructional DVDs in the hope that it will inspire another artist to take up airbrushing and become my successor,” says Power.
What will Power do after that?
“Fine art, that’s what I’m heading for,” he concludes passionately.
For more of Daniel Power’s work, log on to www.airbrushdvds.com
Published in The Star 4th Jan 2010
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