Regarding my art… I’m not currently selling any of my personal art work. You can find samples on the web if you put in my name and go to images. There are also lots of black and white cars and parts drawings in the parts catalog.
Please note: There are other Mark Ashcrafts (some are artists too) out there and my old site is not current and might be difficult to find. You can try
www.markashcraft.com on a google search (half the time even I can’t find it). The front page has a rendering of a black prototype Saab 92 with my name in big letters above the art. Not sure if current listings will have the site or not. I did not pay the $5000.00 + fees to have top-search status since I have retired and closed down the business last year. I could not find the site myself – so it may have expired? I can’t believe the number of ‘Mark Ashcraft’ listings I found online. Who knew the name was so popular!
Will I offer any art work for sale in the future? Maybe. I recently moved to my new location in southern California about 1.5 hours east of Los Angeles (I was previously located in Medford Oregon). I have attached a few samples of my automotive art. All of my art work is hand-drawn (old school techniques, not on computer) in various media (often mix-media), pen & pencil, B&W, marker/chalk, color pencils, watercolors, acrylics, and gouache. I don’t work in oils – too stinky and take much longer to dry!
I have thought about putting together an art book with drawings, sketches and car renderings I’ve done but it is still in the planning stage at this time. If I do, I’ll also put together a self-published book featuring Saab art images (cars and parts) that Saab enthusiasts can purchase. However, I haven’t had a chance to start on these projects as I’m still in the process of getting settled-in at my new home. Perhaps I can start on them next year.
Brief background about me…My father (Jack) owned/operated a Saab, Fiat, and Citroen car dealership in central California in the 1960s and 70s and I used to work there after school (high school) and learned a lot about the V4 Saabs. I’ve owned, raced, rallied and restored many Saab 96V4 sedans, 95V4 wagons and Sonett cars (plus a few 2-stroke models).
I graduated from the Art Center College of Design (Pasadena CA campus) with a degree in transportation design in 1980 and was hired by Saab Design. I worked in Trollhattan, Sweden under Bjorn Envall until 1982. While at Saab I worked on the classic Saab 900 design updates (including the first Saab 900 convertible) and did a lot of interior design for the Saab 9000 (prior to production). After Saab had big financial losses in ’82 I left and went to Honda Research and Development and I helped design Honda and Acura cars until 2005. While at Honda R&D (Torrance, CA) I worked on designs for Civics, Preludes, Accords, the first CRV, Honda Minivans, Honda/Acura NSX. Acura Integra, Acura Legend, Acura CL coupe, and designed several concept cars for Honda R&D (internal design projects). They were mostly non-production concepts at the time such as an Accord convertible, off-road capable SUVs, Civic based prototype sports/rally cars, and electric vehicle designs. My last title at Honda R&D was Senior Designer-Futurist.
While working at Honda R&D (and after) I taught design classes (part time) at the Art Center College of Design (Pasadena, CA) for product designers, transportation designers and environmental designers (sketching, rendering, modeling, and research and analysis classes) from 2005 to the end of 2008. During that time I also taught design classes at Otis College of Art at their west LA campus (near LAX airport). They had started a new product design department and I helped them develop some of the product design curriculum and classes.
At the start of 2009 I moved to Oregon and took over the Saab V4 parts business from my father, Jack Ashcraft (he is now 86 and in good health). I ran the business until the end of 2022 when I retired and closed the doors. I still have some good-used parts (more than I need) and will be selling them off (most of these parts are for USA Saab V4 models up to 1972). I still have two Saab 96 sedans (both 1968 deluxe models) and 3 Sonett III cars (1972 year models) all are non-running and need lots of work. I will likely restore one 96 and one Sonett III and plan to use the others as parts cars.
Running the Saab V4 parts business took up 95% of my time (6 days/week, 12 hour days) for the last 14 years. So, it was time to step back and focus on the things I want do but never had time for (I’m now 68). My main focus from now on will be my art (mostly automotive) and my model building hobbies (cars, aircraft and slot cars, in various scales) which gives me a lot of enjoyment.
Cheers, Mark.
