Templeton artist Stephen Price's wine country trompe l'oeil paintings fool the eye
Templeton artist Stephen E. Price was sitting at a table at Fig Good Food in Atascadero when a female diner informed him he had dropped his wallet.
“I laughed out loud,” Price recalled. He then explained to the woman that what appeared to be a black leather billfold was actually acrylic paint applied directly to the tiled floor.
“She had to touch it just to make sure,” he added.
Price, 66, is the creator of the Trail of Illusions, a series of contemporary trompe l’oeil (“fool the eye”) paintings located in businesses throughout the North County wine country. The paintings — 16 and counting — range in size from a quarter seemingly stuck to the floor of Matt’s Music, Stage & School in Templeton to a bottle of Poalillo Vineyards port that appears to be spilling across the entrance to the winery’s Paso Robles tasting room.
“People are always trying to bend over and pick it up,” said Susan Poalillo, owner of Poalillo Vineyards. “I’ll be walking people into the tasting room and I’ll say, ‘Look what somebody did.’ “
A child drawn to paint
Originally from Akron, Ohio, Price developed an affinity for art at an early age. He remembers watching, fascinated, as his mother painted her nails before bridge club get-togethers.
“As soon as I was big enough to haul myself up on her chair, I got those (paints) out and I started crawling around the house painting stuff,” he recalled, including the metal tacks on his father’s leather office chair.
Price’s fascination with fooling his audience grew out of childhood shenanigans — such as an experiment with magnesium that left up to 300 tiny burn marks on his mother’s white linoleum kitchen floor.
“(My younger brother) goes, ‘She’s going to kill us,’ and I said, ‘Well there’s white paint upstairs,’ ” he said.
Another time, his car’s overflowing gas tank destroyed his father’s terrazzo driveway. “I filled it up with asphalt and matched the patina perfectly” with paint, recalled the artist, who was 15 or 16 at the time.
Price studied art at the University of Akron for three and a half years before flunking out of the school’s mandatory ROTC program and being forced to leave. “I was in a band, my hair was touching my ears and 6 a.m. drill practice got missed too many times,” he explained.
At the time, Price was the bassist for Akron, Ohio, rock band Wild Butter, which enjoyed a regional No. 1 hit in 1970 with the song “Roxanna (Thank You for Getting Me High).” But he grew weary of the music industry and decided to move to California in 1971.
It was there, while working as an airbrush artist and photo retoucher in Laguna Beach, that Price first encountered trompe l’oeil.
Windsurf magazine approached him to create a special illustration that would depict a passport, an airline ticket and an invitation — all so realistic-looking that they could almost be touched. Price accepted the challenge.
It’s the difficulty of creating a perfect trompe l’oeil illustration that drives him, he said.
“For me, it’s about pushing the limits and trying to figure out how I can paint something that looks so real that someone thinks it’s there,” said Price, whose work has been displayed at the Bakersfield Museum of Art and the Greenwich Workshop Gallery in Connecticut.
The artist, who moved to Cambria in 1988 and more recently relocated to Templeton, has spent his time on the Central Coast creating everything from miniature watercolors to large-scale murals. He got the inspiration for the Trail of Illusions while driving around with one-time bandmate Matt Franscioni, owner of Matt’s Music, Stage & School.
“I said, ‘Hey, why don’t we do a trade for my illusions?’ He goes, ‘What would you do?’ “ Price recalled. In response, the artist threw a handful of guitar picks on the floor.
Today, paintings of three guitar picks adorn the counter of the Templeton music store. The business also boasts “the biggest illusion I’ve ever painted,” Price said, a faux trap door so realistic it’s fooled many of Franscioni’s customers.
“Dorian Michael the musician is standing right on top of the biggest illusion I’ve ever painted, and he’s going ‘I don’t see any painting on this floor here,’ ” Price recalled with a chuckle. “We’re like, ‘Well, you’re standing on it.’ ”
Price has also painted illusions at Dark Nectar Roasters and Wheelie Willie’s Templeton Cycle Passion in Templeton and Four Lanterns Winery, Opolo Vineyards, Red Soles Winery and Windward Vineyard in Paso Robles.
Unique working conditions
The artist gives himself one to six hours to complete each trompe l’oeil piece, depending on how detailed the subject is and where it’s located. In the case of the wallet illusion at Fig Good Food, he laid on the floor on a couple of plush rugs and a yoga-style foam mat, one arm supported by a bolster pillow.
Each illusion provides its own challenges, he said.
“Painting a thing that I have never done is like plein air painting,” he said. “Perspective changes every time the artist looks away and back ”
Price charges at least $300 per illusion, a price he compared to the cost of a small advertisement. (The original going rate was $150 per painting.) He views the Trail of Illusions as the perfect way to lure customers into a business — and keep them coming back.
Price recalled an encounter with a customer when he was painting the port bottle at Poalillo Vineyards.
“A man came up and said, ‘You know, we’ll always remember this tasting room because you were here painting something bizarre on the ground,’ ” the artist said.
In fact, Price has organized a treasure hunt of sorts. People who report finding all 16 pieces in the Trail of Illusions can win a small giclée print by the artist.
Business owners say Price’s illusions add extra oomph to each space, making visits to their eateries, wineries and stores even more memorable.
According to Christina Dillow, manager of Fig Good Food in Atascadero, the presence of art takes the dining experience “up a notch.” In addition to Price’s illusions — which include a button and a pecan — the restaurant, which she owns with brother Don Dockstrader, boasts a series of graphite portraits by her husband, Dennis, and a rotating collection of works by local artists.
“Food and art go together brilliantly,” Dillow said.
At Poalillo Vineyards, Price’s bottle and cork illusions keep wine tasters entertained. The artist is also working on a piece near the winery’s bathroom that will feature grape leaves and vines growing around a sign.
“It’s so much fun,” Poalillo said. “(When) most people come in here, they’re having fun anyhow. But if they haven’t opened up yet that (sight) will crack a smile on anybody’s face.”
This story was originally published March 1, 2015 at 5:34 AM with the headline "Templeton artist Stephen Price's wine country trompe l'oeil paintings fool the eye."