Artist keeps ‘em guessing

White gloves conjure images of butlers, orthodontists and Mickey Mouse.

So when Breck Rothage slipped on his pair, half a dozen possibilities flashed through an observer’s mind like a film reel.

Once accoutered, he lifted “The Essence of Image — Automotive Artistry” and reverently flipped through images of a 1957 Jaguar XK140 Roadster, 1931 Bugatti Type 51 Dubos Coupe, 1965 Shelby Mustang GT 350 and 1967 Lamborghini 400 GT, gazing upon them as one might at a firstborn.

The $350 book — 50 early-bird buyers can snag it for $300 — contains 39 of Rothage’s best artworks, printed on Kodak professional photographic paper. It comes in two sizes — 12-by-8 and 9-by-6 inches. The former will be offered as a limited edition of 500, hand-signed and numbered.

Gloves will also be part of the purchase. The first of their two purposes is to protect the glossy paper from being marred by fingerprints.

And for the second, Rothage said, “Since it is far above a normal coffee-table book, I thought it would send the message, ‘I am receiving something here that is very special and above the norm — a work of art.’”

The Irvine resident also launched a Kickstarter campaign, which runs until 8:08 a.m. on Nov. 22, to benefit the book’s production. Through increased production, he hopes his original work will be easily accessed by a larger pool of art enthusiasts.

“One of the problems is that people don’t have the money to buy the bigger pictures, and they also don’t have the wall space,” he remarked. “This accomplishes both.”

Rothage is a six-time exhibitor at the Festival of Arts in Laguna Beach, but he will be the first to say that getting there wasn’t easy.

Having long dreamed of participating in the show, with its lofty reputation, he tossed his name into the mix in 2005. Although confident about the quality of his nature-themed submissions, he didn’t make the cut.

When the next Jury Day rolled around, Rothage arrived at the venue carting automobile art, which was met with “oohs” and “aahs” from longtime participants. Nonetheless, he was denied admission again.

Disappointed and shocked, Rothage refused to back down. Instead, he spent the following year adding to his repertoire.

It appears that the third time’s a charm, because the judges liked what they saw, finally admitting him into the 2008 show.

For the past six years, the Irvine resident has spent July and August painstakingly spotlighting pieces, which range from a few hundred dollars to more than $5,000. Sales have been good, he said, and the response “gracious.”

Pat Sparkuhl, a Laguna Beach resident and the curator of the Festival of Arts Permanent Art Collection, was instantly impressed by the “clean and well-organized format” of Rothage’s presentation environment.

“Breck has a unique approach to creating a composition that allows the object to float in space, thus focusing complete attention on the (in this case) automobile or a combination of chosen components related to the automotive design,” he said via email. “His unique perspectives on selective aspects of automotive design, relative to the era considered, gives the viewer a truly elevated aesthetic appreciation for the composition created as it relates to that particular automobile.

“Of particular interest are those compositions where Breck has chosen to eliminate certain aspects of the automobile in the composition, creating a unique continuity of components floating in space.”

What flummoxes viewers, though, is his modality. Is Rothage a painter, photographer or something else altogether?

“People introduce me as a ‘master photographer,’ and I cringe,” he said. “I’m not. When I got my first camera 10 or 11 years ago, I went, ‘Cool, but what are all these dots and buttons?’”

Experimenting with a four-megapixel Olympus E 10 for more than a decade, Rothage captured snapshots without any special lighting or setup. He also educated himself — and then proceeded to forget a lot of what he learned — about aspects such as aperture and shutter speed. Still, he insists he is by no means an expert.

Along with photographing horses at the OC Fair and nearby rodeos as well as musicians and their instruments, he became a familiar face at Crystal Cove — first shooting nature and then rare and vintage cars.

Works like “Blue Lincoln” and “Aston ‘23” portray gleaming cars idling amid multihued foliage. Originally, though, the image comprised a focal vehicle surrounded by dozens of others like it and people everywhere. Playing around with Photoshop, the artist discovered how to erase distractions, alter color schemes and layer other pictures to match the shades of wheel ties and exhaust pipes.

Some artwork features muted backgrounds and bold central compositions, while in others, Rothage “eliminated the whole picture and painted just the essence of what [he] wanted to see in there.”

By making his creations more “painterly,” he ensures that each one is not only good, but “better.” And different — always, different.

With work that has been featured in magazines such as “Keith Martin’s Sports Car Market,” “Road & Track,” “Garage Style,” “Jaguar World” and “Octane,” Rothage is now unveiling “The Essence of Image — Automotive Artistry.”

Although a few publishers have approached him every season at the Festival of Arts, he turned them away because he found that the publications were worse than “junk mail.” Taking matters into his own hands, Rothage conducted extensive research and designed the final product, which was then published with the help of Adorama, a New York City-based camera and film equipment shop.

“If you wanted to hire me for a wedding or an event, I’d get stressed because I don’t know what I’m doing,” he remarked. “But I know what I’m doing when it comes to creating a beautiful picture, and I do that digitally with an electronic pad and a stylus.”