About
Mission Statement: Create passion-fueled fine art that inspires and brings joy to the ultimate enthusiast.
Gumball Gallery is where your automotive dreams come to life inside your home. Ian’s use of vivid acrylic colors, subtle shadows, striking highlights, and classy graphic design bring the cars to life in his unique version of realism. Staying true to the memory, all original paintings are composed and painted on canvas in the large format of 30” x 72”. This makes possible even larger custom prints and remarkably detailed smaller prints. So take your interior deign to new heights and allow it to reflect your passion. Ian is determined to find you the perfect print or original piece in all of its six foot glory.
What was your poster car?
I vividly remember the six foot Ferrari Testarossa I had on my bedroom wall. It wasn’t just a poster, it was something more, it represented a dream, an object of desire…an moment in time. So I set out to revisit it and to create something more from it- a gallery full of large-scale car art.
Why all the profiles?
According to automotive designers, the first impression of a car’s design is usually formed by its silhouette. They strive for perfect proportions to create harmony in the stance. Within the profile is the body language that gives the impression of forward-movement even while standing still. As an artist and graphic designer, I’m captivated by that harmony and strive to capture, compose and highlight the profile in a way that brings them to life on the canvas. And It’s all done with paint brushes- no AI or airbrush is ever used.
About the artist:
Ian Espich was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on September 16, 1980 and grew up in the small town of New Palestine, Indiana. He was brought home from the hospital in a 1966 Shelby GT 350 (rear seat delete). Car culture was a way of life from birth and to this day nothing stirs his soul more than a side-piped 289 HI-PO.
From the age of 12, he worked at his father’s pinstriping and custom paint shop (BillyJay Indy Custom) starting at $1.00 an hour. He was the prepper, masker, primer, buffer, detailer, take it apart, and put it back together kid. He worked right alongside his mom and dad in the small family business, where he also learned the art of restoration, sign painting, and gold leafing from his master craftsman father. There was always something new and exciting coming into the shop due to the unique ability of his father to paint anything so it attacked a wild array of muscle cars, exotics, monster trucks, Harleys, Indy cars, and antique safes. He learned from an early age how to tell the difference between a real and fake Shelby Cobra, how to detail a 79 Porsche 911 SC to perfection, or how to completely tear down and put back together a 69 Shelby GT500. He learned the importance of attention to detail because sending quality paint work out the door was paramount to creating happy returning customers. This led to his pursuit of (near) perfection in all his future endeavors, whether it be graduating at the top of his graduating class at Herron School of Art and Design, ensuring America’s finest pilots had “safe for flight” aircraft, or painting a prancing horse on an F40. It’s the details that make a difference and generate interest.
Over the years he’s had unique access to amazing events and moments that helped to shape his life: At age 11, he met the legend- Carroll Shelby at an SAAC event. At age 12 he experienced a 0-100 run in a 427 Shelby Cobra while it blew fire out the side pipes. After the John Deere, at 13 he learned how to drive the family car, a 1987 SAAB 900 SPG 5-speed. His father demonstrated the world’s greatest burnout in a 1989 Lamborghini Countach. At 15, he spent his life savings ($1,600) on a barn-find 1967 Mustang GT fastback, which he restored with his father and still has today. At age 16, he was introduced to road racing with a mind-altering ride in a yellow 94 Viper RT/10 at Putnam Park Road Course (120 MPH) during a Viper reunion. He rode on the roll bar of a red 92 viper during his high school homecoming parade. He’s been down in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s (IMS) basement to touch up damaged Indy cars…and was able to drive around the track in his Mustang. At 17, he rock crawled over crazy obstacles in an H1 during a HUMMER Homecoming event at AM General’s proving grounds. While in the service, he attended SVRA’s Coronado Speed Festival where he warmed up the most famous 427 Cobra in movie history from “The Gumball Rally,” while it carried a decal on its hood of the Centennial of Naval Aviation that he designed in 2010 for the U.S. Navy. Additionally, he had a “Top-three life experience” getting to drive a 2005 Ford GT to the IMS (nothing compares). Finally, he was once in heaven during Monterey Car Week. These few moments, all of which he shared with his father shaped his life and his art.
After graduating from Indiana University’s Herron School of Art and Design in 2004, he commissioned as an Ensign in the United States Navy in 2005 as a Professional Aviation Maintenance Officer. Though he went to school to be a graphic designer, he had a calling to serve his country and proudly did so for 20 years. Through those years he always found his happy place was in front of an easel or behind the wheel of a MINI Cooper. Now in retirement, he has elevated his passion and created Gumball Gallery to further his craft and share it with others.
Though Ian had been painting scenery and presidential portraits for years, it wasn’t until 2023 when he realized he had not painted a car. No good reason why- Maybe it was because he thought he out grew his old six foot car posters… or surely his wife wouldn’t approve of cars in the house, but he decided to paint Cobra with a gumball on the side anyway…and she loved it!
Ian always longed to have a garage full of cars, but didn’t choose a career path where that was possible. Thanks to God’s gift, he realized he could have a gallery full of them with no upkeep or insurance to be paid! He also realized that his insatiable passion for beautiful cars was something that he could share with others.
Shipping Information:
To ensure the highest quality reproduction, no third parties are ever used. All prints are professionally giclee printed, varnished, quality checked, and shipped by the artist.
Paintings are NOT shipped stretched and ready to hang. Prints are rolled in a tube for shipping. Upon receipt, your print will need to stretched (or re-stretched if an original) by a professional art/frame shop or gallery at your expense, which is typically around $250. Original paintings are removed from the stretcher bars, canvas is rolled and shipped with great care. Please contact me about art that you are interested in where an original is no longer available. Commissions are possible. Custom print sizes are available upon request. Hand-delivery of stretched/framed art is possible at a fee if in Indiana and surrounding states. Please allow two weeks for processing as each print is made to order.