Westfield Art Association Features duCret Artist Peter Ambush

The following information was provided by the Westfield Art Association.

On Jan. 19, the Westfield Art Association will host a demonstration of fine art airbrush painting by Peter Ambush of the duCret School of Art. Peter Ambush was born and raised in Frederick, Maryland, and from an early age wanted to be an artist, perhaps from watching his father, an air traffic controller, draw nativity scenes for their church. Ambush's earliest drawings were copies of Mighty Mouse and some were good enough that he was able to sell them for a nickel to fellow grade-schoolers.

Ambush attended the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland where he received a bachelor's degree in fine art. He also studied at the duCret School of Art in Plainfield, New Jersey. Using an airbrush and watercolor, acrylic, or ink, Ambush creates large portraits and a wide variety of other artworks with such realistic detail that they may easily be mistaken for photographic prints.

After graduation, he moved to Atlanta, GA. where he eventually worked doing caricatures at Six Flags and at the Atlanta Underground.

Ambush moved back to Maryland and worked as a graphic artist for the Army Times Publishing Company. After moving from Maryland to New Jersey, he worked for more than a decade for the Newark Star Ledger as a graphic artist and illustrator, creating over 400 covers for the paper's weekly "Scanner" TV guide. Ambush has illustrated eight book covers, and two books, "One Million Men and Me" written by Kelly Starling Lyons and "It's Church Going Time," for Just Us Books of East Orange, NJ.

In 2006, Ambush moved to Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania where he lives with his wife and daughter. Ambush is a member of the PoconoArts Council and the International Guild of Realism. For the past three years, he's been airbrushing at Air Graphics in Wyomissing, PA along with creating graphics for screen printing. He has recently returned to doing fine art full time and has reestablished his company, Burnin' Bush Studios, which consists of fine art, graphics design and fine art printing. Ambush continues to teach at the duCret School of Art and has exhibited in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, New York and California. His artwork can be seen at www.peterambushart.com.

The demonstration will be held from 1:00-4:00 p.m. at the Community Room of the Westfield Municipal Building, 425 E. Broad Street, Westfield, NJ 07090. Light refreshments will be served. The Community Room is handicapped-accessible and the demonstration is open free of charge to the public.

For additional information visit http://www.westfieldartassociation.org.