We are doing fundraising for our railroad museum. One facet we've considered is having a painting commissioned of a restoration project. This would be offered as a premium or raffle or auction piece.

If anyone out there has any sources of railroad art painters/illustrators it would be appreciated if yuou'd let me know.
Either here or by message.

Thanks.

J. Craig Thorpe. Lives out in the Pacific Northwest. He's done several pieces of artwork for our capital campaigns and has done work for several other museums. Attached is a cropped and dumbed down sample. He's been great to work with. https://jcraigthorpe.com/

/s/  Larry
Lawrence G. Lovejoy, P.E.
Director of Engineering
Pennsylvania Trolley Museum, Inc.

I would HIGHLY recommend Pete Lerro Jr (not the charter operator, but his father) and Lerro Productions. He does quality work, and also has done artwork for other railroads/organizations:

https://www.lerroproductions.com/

We also had a good experience with J. Craig Thorpe.

Our intent was to offer signed and numbered prints and we had 557 of them printed and signed. We also offered it as a gilcee print on canvas (or maybe it's canvas appearing paper) which can be printed on an as-needed basis at a shop specializing on art work.

It's an investment, and having prints done is probably where the money is rather than a one time sale or raffle of the original.

We have given a number of copies to local non profit orgainzations to use for door prizes or for their own raffles and to a couple of organizations and businesses in appreciation for major grants or support. It tends to be an excellent way to build exposure and a base of supporters within the community.

He worked closely with us as the painting was being created, including letting us review and make suggestions several times during the process.

As I believe is the norm, he retains the copywright, but we get the original painting, and have a pretty liberal license to use the image as needed on prints, mugs, etc.

https://www.alaskarails.org/pix/former- ... index.html

John Coker is another respected artist to consider.
rrart.com

Depending on the style, Angela Trotta Thomas.

My son recently commissioned a painting by Peter Lerro, Jr. It was a wonderful experience. He worked with us to make sure all of the little details came out exactly as we wanted, aand we highly recommend his work.

G.F. Payne
Baltimore, MD

The Railroad artists listed above are great - but I wonder if you have a local artist that you could work with that has a following in your region?

This hopefully will he a no-brainer, but I used to be a commercial artist for a living, and the vast majority of the time when someone approached me for something for a non-profit, I was never once offered any payment.
I found that the most demanding customers were the ones who felt they should pay the least.
Please, don't say "It'll be good for exposure."
Any artist worth the effort will have long had the exposure and exposure doesnt pay the bills.
The first lesson any art school teaches should be a self marketing class called, "Nobody will EVER want to pay for your work"...

Yes. it is a "No brainer." Why on earth would we expect someone to put time and effort into doing a custom piece of artwork without being paid? I don't know what kind of folks you encounter out there, but nonprofit businesses are still businesses and should understand how the marketplace functions.

Ask any legit commercial artist. This isn't just something that happened to me.
It happens to every artist.
Norman Rockwell got calls from people looking for magazine-quality artwork and offered 'exposure', at the height of his fame.