Every print in the Winston Proper collection starts the same way: on hands and knees, on pavement, with chalk.
It Starts at the Festival
The I Madonnari Italian Street Painting Festival in Santa Barbara is one of the most beloved street art events in the country. Each year, artists are assigned a square of pavement and given a weekend to transform it into something extraordinary. Working alongside my dad, I fell in love with the process — the physicality of it, the impermanence, and the way a character could emerge from nothing but pigment and concrete.
Our characters — Poppy the Bear, Winston the Basset Hound, the Spanish Dancer — were all born on that pavement. Each one took shape over hours of blending, layering, and stepping back to see the whole.
The Challenge of Chalk
Chalk art is inherently temporary. A good rain, a scuff of a shoe, and hours of work can vanish. That fragility is part of what makes street painting so moving — but it also means the art lives on only in photographs and memory.
I wanted to change that. I wanted Poppy and Winston and the Spanish Dancer to have a life beyond the festival weekend.
From Pavement to Print
The journey from chalk painting to fine art print involves several careful steps:
- High-resolution photography: The finished chalk painting is photographed under controlled lighting to capture every texture, gradient, and detail of the original.
- Digital refinement: The image is color-corrected and refined to ensure the print faithfully represents the original — accounting for the unique way chalk interacts with concrete versus how ink interacts with paper.
- Giclée printing: The final image is printed using archival pigment inks on museum-quality paper. This process reproduces the subtle textures and rich color depth of the chalk original with remarkable accuracy.
- Quality review: Each print is inspected before it ships to make sure it meets the standard I'd want on my own wall.
Why It Matters
When you hang a Winston Proper print, you're not just getting wall art — you're getting a piece of a moment. A festival weekend. A collaboration between a parent and child. A character that came to life on a sun-warmed square of California pavement.
That story is baked into every print we make.
See the Collection
Browse our Giclée fine art prints and find the character that speaks to you. Each one carries a little bit of the festival with it — and a lot of heart.