Courtney Hansen Portrait

Hi, All;

Unlike most of my blog posts, this one is about something that happened a couple of years ago.  I often go to the World’s greatest book store on Saturdays. It is called Autobooks-Aerobooks, but we car guys call it just “Autobooks.” It is in Burbank, California, and it has books about almost any car. To illustrate a point, I was there one Saturday, when Jay Leno came in (he’s there often on Saturday). He asked where the books on “Tatra” are located. In case you’ve never heard of a car called Tatra, don’t worry, most people probably don’t know what they are.  The salesman behind the counter told Jay that, if there were any such books, they would be “down that aisle.” Sure enough, Jay came back to the counter, with a book in his hand. Jay seemed impressed that they had the book, but a little dubious about it, as the book was written in Czechoslovakian!

Not only is Autobooks a great place to talk about cars, but there often is a car show in the morning in the parking lot behind the store. As if all of that weren’t enough, often authors, or photographers are there to sign books, or CDs. The people they ask to sign are usually very well known.

This particular day, I walked to the front of the building, after parking in the rear parking lot. A few friends were outside the store, and I stopped to talk with them, before entering. As I remember it, I was talking when struck dumb, in mid sentence! A vision of loveliness was right inside the store! Tall and tan, and young and lovely, and she wasn’t anywhere near Ipanema!

She was one of the most beautiful women that I had ever seen, and I wanted to find out who she was, and whose girlfriend she was. It never occurred to me that she was the celebrity autograph signer.  The time set for autographing arrived, and The Beauty sat at the table!

I had no idea of her identity, until I saw the sign on the table that said “Courtney Hansen, ‘Host of the the Powerblock, on Spike TV.’”  She had written a book, and was happily personalizing copies for her fans. During a lull, I talked to her, and found her delightful to converse with.  I showed her some of my artwork, cars and portraits, then asked her if I could take her picture.  She very graciously said that I could, which I did.  I’m not a great photographer, but I doubt that even I could take an unflattering photo of her.

I knew that drawing her portrait would be great fun, and I was looking forward to it.

It took a couple of weeks to complete the rendering, and called Courtney’s agent, who had given me her card on that day at Autobooks.  The agent asked to see how the portait turned out, so I sent an email with the image attached, and she thanked me.

I have never seen Courtney since, but I had a wonderful afternoon with her, and have her portrait to remind me of it.

Here’s that portrait, how do you think I did? Click on the image to see a larger version.