Hugo Prado was born June 2, 1952 in Lima-Peru, South America. He grew up in Miraflores a West Coast surfing suburb of Lima. His main passion, other than car races and surfing, was drawing. One of the early recollections of Hugo's artistic abilities was doing drawings for his grade school event fliers. Hugo's father, Carlos, was the source of inspiration as Hugo was growing up, Carlos was a race car driver and responsible for importing vehicles, such as VOLVO's, BMW's, FIAT's, etc. "I was the most popular kid in our neighborhood, Hugo comments, since my father Carlos would bring a different car from work everyday, sometimes he would bring the race cars as well for fine-tuning and testing for the upcoming races, I couldn't wait to come home from school to see which car he would bring from work that day" Hugo has been self-employed for the past 26 years. The delicate detail in his paintings is owed in part to his technical background as an industrial designer for a foremost football helmet manufacturing company. This was the first job Hugo held in the United States from 1972 to 1974 before going into airbrush illustration for advertising agencies and private corporations for 16 years. Hugo executed a wide variety of realistic paintings for these clients before realizing his life-long dream in 1989, when he decided to leave commercial art to become a full-time automotive artist and founded AIR ARTS, INC. Hugo's medium is a mixed media of acrylic and watercolors sprayed through the airbrush. Technical pens are also used to bring accurate detail to the whole painting. His original paintings measure 25" from bumper to bumper and usually take 3 months to complete, with the exception of more complicated paintings like the 1931 Duesenberg and the Dale Earnhardt C5R that each took a year. His work has been televised nationwide in MOTORWEEK, a prestigious automotive TV show. His prints have been sold on TV through QVC NETWORK and auctioned by "The World Leader of Collector Car Auctioneers " KRUSE INTERNATIONAL. Hugo's work has been showcased in top magazines like CORVETTE FEVER, CORVETTE QUARTERLY, VETTE MAGAZINE, HOT ROD, HEMMINGS MOTORNEWS, OLD CARS WEEKLY, etc. Hugo's prints have been given away live and on-the-air by legendary disc-jockey DICK BIONDI, and distributed by AUTOMOBILE QUARTERLY, MID AMERICA DESIGNS, INC., CORVETTE CENTRAL, HEMMINGS MOTORNEWS, THE CHEVROLET CATALOG, to name a few. Among Hugo's noted collectors is JAY LENO, of the Tonight Show. Hugo personally oversees every stage of the pre-press and printing of his fine art limited-edition prints. "Every stage of the printing process has to be delicately handled, since after all, that is the final product the collector is going to purchase. Having created this company from nothing, I understand the meaning of quality and service. That is why, I only provide my collectors with the best quality from the painting all the way to the tubes the prints are shipped in. Only the best is good enough". This degree of commitment to quality and service is what makes Hugo Prado's limited-edition art prints so collectible. Hugo is so committed to the quality of the printing, that in
order to keep up with this digital times, he learned how to
operate an IRIS 3000 (That's a giclee machine.) Hugo was certified
by SCITEX to operate and maintain the equipment not to mention
the use of a 4" x 5"* camera with a BETTERLIGHT instant
image capture back (Hugo owns the exact 4" x 5" camera
without the BETTERLIGHT back.) Hugo is absolutely commited to
his art and to the quality of how is reproduced. |
