Velvet painting

A velvet painting is a type of painting widely sold in rural America, frequently having kitsch themes. They often depict images of Elvis Presley (see Velvet Elvis), Dale Earnhardt, John Wayne, Jesus, Native Americans, and cowboys. They can also include more exotic or avant-garde themes.

Ciudad Juárez, Mexico was the Florence of velvet painting in the 1970s. A displaced Georgia farmboy, Doyle Harden, was the pioneer who created an enormous factory, where velvets were turned out by the thousands by artists sitting in studios. One artist would paint one piece of the picture, then slide the velvet along to the next artist, who would add something else. That way velvet paintings were mass produced by hand, fueling the boom in velvet paintings in the 1970s in the United States.

Black velvet paintings originate in ancient Kashmir, the homeland of the fabric. These original paintings were generally religious and portrayed the icons of the Caucasus region which were painted by Russian Orthodox priests. Marco Polo and others introduced black velvet paintings to Western Europe, and that some of these early works still hang in the Vatican Museums. Edgar Leeteg has been called "the father of American black velvet kitsch".

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