Greg Loudon, a Homewood resident and co-owner of the Homewood paint studio Bottle & Bottega, has been hired by many clients, such as Marvel Entertainment and the villages of Homewood and Flossmoor, for many different kinds of different art projects, including logo design, photography and painting.
Since turning 60 years old, Loudon said he wants to focus more on painting the kind of artwork he’s most passionate about.
“My sensibilities tend to go a little to the dark side. So, my paintings tend to have a darker edge to them,” Loudon said. “I love the vampire genre. I’ve done so many paintings of vampires over the years it’s not even funny.”
Loudon said anyone who goes through his website can see that he loves to paint “the sexy pin up kind of thing whether it be vampires, superheroes or comic book heroes or whatever.”
“I think the female form is probably the most beautiful thing on this planet,” Loudon said.
On his website, there’s also a section titled Homewood Pride which includes drawings of Homewood landmarks and different variations of Homewood, Illinois and Home Sweet Homewood logos. Loudon said some of this artwork has been put on postcards for sale at local shops such Upsidaisy and Art Corner Frames.
In 1995, Loudon painted a Spider-Man story for Amazing Fantasy #17 with a few other artists. This was in collaboration with the extremely prolific comic book writer Kurt Busiek.
“That was my only contact with Marvel or DC,” Loudon said, adding that most of his comic book work has been cover art for small, indie publishers such as Caliber Comics and Boneyard Press.
While he regularly shops at Zone Comics & Games in downtown Homewood, Loudon said he can’t buy as many comic books as he used to because he already has many long boxes full of them.
Loudon co-founded the Homewood Arts Council to promote the abundance of artistic talent in Homewood and neighboring towns, he said. With HAC, Loudon said he found a storefront that was used as an art gallery that had several shows a year. He later resigned.
“I had a different vision than the politicians in our town. I thought we should put money behind the arts and promote Homewood as an artistic community. And they didn’t,” Loudon said.
Loudon said he really enjoyed making illustrations for the popular roleplaying game “Vampire: The Masquerade” and painting vampires for White Wolf Publishing. He said that’s the kind of artwork he wants to focus on making now.
“Honestly, I had a full time job at an ad agency for 25 years. So, I really wasn’t full time looking for that kind of work — even though that’s what I love doing,” Loudon said.
“At this age, turning 60, I decided that I was really going to pursue art for myself and not as a job. So, all the paintings I’m going to do now are things that I want for a painting just to make me happy — and then see if I can sell them,” Loudon said. “It’s going to be interesting now because when people call up and ask me if I want to do something I’m like, ‘No, no. Nuh uh, I’m not interested anymore.'”
Loudon’s website is gregloudonarts.com. A contact form is available on his website.