Since childhood, Pat has been involved in art. He knew at a young age that this was what he was going to do for a living. He began drawing at about six years old, then by the time he started school, he was well practiced and noted as the school artist. In fact, by the time the yearbook rolled around in the first grade, he was selected as the yearbook artist. The years went by and by the time he was 10 he started to notice very elaborate custom vans with wild paint jobs. He knew then that this was something he had to try. He sat his mother down and said that he had to get a gadget called an airbrush and he doesn't know where to get it, what kind to get it, how to use it, or how to pay for it! Of course, that's where mom came in.

They ventured out to several art stores where the clerks simply starred back at them with a blank look as they asked for his gadget called an airbrush! Finally they landed at an art store where the cterk looked down and in a glass counter, sat Pat Reynolds' first airbrush. It was a Paashe VL double action, with a side cup! Not knowing what else to buy or what to ask for, Pat took the tool home and began to analyze how this thing was to be used.

He approached his grandfather to ask his opinion of what type of paint he would put through the new tool. He simply suggested to walk next door where one of Louisiana's largest body shops stood. At that very moment a light bulb lit up in young Pat's head! Immediately Pat walked next door airbrush in hand and began to question the body shop's painter. The painter gave Pat four or five old cans of automotive paint, an old car fender and told him to paint all he wanted and paint he did!

For about six months straight Pat successfully ruined most alt of the extra fenders and hoods in the entire shop. Then suddenly it happened, a customer asked if they knew someone who could put a custom picture on the hood of their car. They reluctantly said yes, there is a kid next door who would probably love to do it. He got the job, completed it, and actually got paid for it! It was a picture of a lion, they wanted it on the hood of their black Camaro they had just paid three thousand dollars to have painted. It was going to be in the World Of Wheels Car Show and the owner of the car wanted to win at all costs!

Pat knew he had his work cut out for him. If he could pull this off, he knew he could probably get another job out of it. First thing he had to do was pick the brain of the body shop painter as to how to prepare the hood for painting without completely ruining it! The painter helped Pat with the proper materials and know-how to begin the job. So, after three days of prepping and painting he turned out a job that was very satisfactory to the Camaro owner. He was on his way to becoming one of the world's best known airbrushers.

The World Of Wheels Car Show came and a little black Camaro took first place in the paint division. The owner of the car attributed it to Pat's custom lion. The next day, the phone began to ring at the body shop asking about that young boy who did the custom painting. Within a month, Pat had more work than he could possibly handle. He was working night and day painting all sorts of things from motorcycles to vans. Pat loved what he did and it showed. It became evident as more and more of his paint jobs won car shows.

This went on for years to come then suddenly it happened, the job styles changed, people wanted the art graphic style painting jobs as opposed to the more airbrush job. So, just playing around one day, Pat airbrushed a picture of a body builder on a t-shirt, which he wore to a friend's house. Some other people who saw the shirt asked where he got it and he replied that he had painted it himself, at which point they offered to buy it. He sold it for $20.00. The rest as the story is history!

Pat had discovered a new use in his airbrush! He immediately spread the word around that he could paint designs on t-shirts. At school everybody heard that Pat was painting pictures on shirts that were brought to him. At that time he would paint anything on their shirt for ten dollars not knowing what to charge because he didn't know how long it would take to paint a picture on a t-shirt.

He took on any project that was given to him including cars, portraits, animals and anything else they could think of. The method of painting was fairly crude in those days as it took about four hours to paint a car on a shirt. But, Pat thought it was worth it. He didn't know why but he knew it would pay off.

He would collect shirts at school, bring them home and said he didn't know you could use an easel. He would lean the shirt against the couch in his room and lay down on the floor so he could paint at eye level. After a few months of this, he decided to try to set up a small airbrushing location at a local sporting goods store. They immediately agreed and Pat went to work. He had five pictures on his display and everything he did was custom. When somebody wanted a name on a shirt, Pat would first draw it out on a piece of paper and demonstrate what it would look like before he put it on the shirt! It wasn't until sometime later that he decided to invest in a camera and start taking pictures of everything that he painted. At that point he compiled a book of pictures which his customers could choose from. He noticed a large boost in business as people would walk up and browse through his newly devised picture book. He could see the ideas going through the customer's head.

At this point it was easy to sell them on the idea of getting something airbrushed on a t-shirt. Then he got this bold idea that maybe he should take some t-shirts and spray some designs on the shirts and pin them to the wall. It was instant success. People saw the shirts and instantly put two and two together. They know they had to have one of these new airbrushed shirts!

Then one day a shop owner from another store approached Pat with an offer to move his operation to his store. After discussing this offer, Pat decided that it would be a good idea to move. In the shop, the owner gave Pat the entire front window of the store, which made the store owner a lot of extra money and of course Pat stayed quite busy, as well.

As time went by Pat wanted to see what the Florida airbrushers looked like. So, he decided to take a trip to any town on the coast of Florida. While packing his car and getting ready to leave, a friend of his was driving by, stopped and asked Pat what he was doing. He explained that he was going to Florida and his friend asked if he could come along. Pat said of course, but I'm leaving in about one hour! The friend immediately went home and told his mom taking a trip to Florida. He came back to Pat's house, jumped in the car and off they went.

Not knowing where they were going to, they ended up in Panama City Beach, Florida where there were a handful of artists painting at various shops on the beach. Pat knew he had to try this, so he went from shop to shop to see if he could get a job. After landing two jobs, he began to see what it was like to be a Florida painter. It was a great life, but with a price. He found himself working all the time. He loved it so much he didn't want to take any time off.

After a couple of years, Pat began to see other artists come to the beach to earn their living as airbrushers. They too wanted to see what the Florida painters did. After a while, it seemed as though every gas station and bait shop had airbrush in it! You couldn't turn around without seeing the airbrush work some where. It was hot!

Panama City Beach became one of the most popular airbrush locations in the world and consequently some of the best airbrush artists in the world worked in close proximity to another. This had fantastic advantages such as they could bounce great ideas off to one another.

At this point, Pat decided to open his own shop. This was the beginning of his taste of the real business world. It was a small brightly colored store that was right on the beach. They sold t-shirts, beach toys, sun tan oil and tourist trinkets.

The world of retail was extremely appealing to Pat. He quickly learned the rules of how to make a shop work. He also had other shops, one in an amusement park where he also did caricatures! That was a change of pace that was too much to handle along with t-shirts. So, he simply had others do the shirts while he did the caricatures.

Another shop was right down the road. He opened a shop called Beachworks. It was a complete beach shop that was large and had much more display room inside. Pat worked as hard as he could during the summer because the winters were completely dead.

So, to fill his time, he built a couple of custom cars. One was a Corvette with a big block under the hood that he painted blue graphics all over. Later he built a Porsche, which he painted pearl white. But, after several custom vehicles and big four wheel drive jeeps, Pat decided it was time to grow up. Not regretting one minute of his past, he decided that he needed something with air-conditioning! So, he went out and bought a new Honda. That would be the end of the hot rod era.

Pat was painting one day in his shop and heard that a visitor was in town. He was from a magazine called Airbrush Action. This news spread like wildfire, every airbrush artist in town wanted to meet the guy that owned Airbrush Action. His name was Cliff Steiglitz. After a day or so, Pat and Cliff finally met. They talked and joked and got along quite well. Cliff interviewed many artists and then went back home.

Then one day Pat received a phone call from Cliff to see if Pat would be interested in teaching classes at the Airbrush Action Get-A-Ways. Pat accepted and the first one was in the Florida Keys. It went quite well. Pat loved teaching and decided to continue teaching with Cliff. After a couple of Get-A-Ways had passed, this new guy came aboard and was going to help teach the ever expanding shirt class with Pat.

His name was Terry Hill. Pat and Terry immediately get along like brothers. They seemed to have a chemistry on stage that all of the students enjoyed. Soon after, manufactures approached Pat and Terry to endorse their products on the pages of Airbrush Action Magazine. They were relationships that lasted a long time, such as Createx paints and Thayer and Chandler airbrushes. These are a few of the products that Pat and Terry introduced to the European market.

They traveled to Germany, Switzerland, Italy just to name a few of the places where Pat and Terry became household names in the airbrush industry. They were treated like rock stars and made a lot of close friends throughout Europe. Pat was asked to give out several awards of excellence for a German magazine and received several awards from others. But, Pat felt like awards were nothing compared to the fond memories he had compiled throughout the years traveling with his many friends throughout the world teaching people about airbrushing.

Articles were written about Pat's travels and every subject was covered that included an airbrush. Airbrushing on leather, wood, vinyl, metal, and of course skin! Yes, even skin! When Pat goes to paint a naked girl on stage in Germany, she walks out nude and no one even notices! But, the second Pat starts to paint, people come from the entire convention to see what Pat is going to do next! The cameras go crazy and the press goes wild! A naked girl? Who cares, but an airbrushed naked girl, WOW!

Well, Pat decided to move back home to New Orleans and open a mall store where he could be open year round. He not only opened a mall store, but he also decided to put his show on the road. Going to festivals across the southeast, he had a trailer built where he could simply open the sides and be was ready for business. The move was a financial success, but the traveling was causing him not pay attention to his mall store where he had 14 faithful employees.

So, he decided to pull back on his road work and focus more on the mall store so much that he wanted to make a bang out of the Christmas season. He decided to lease out another location in the mall to put airbrush in and while he was at it, he might as well lease out the whole mall!

He put a different type of concession in every space. Everything from glass blowing to leather belts. He had all the bases covered, it cost a small fortune to set the whole thing up and a huge amount of effort. But, after it was all said and done, he had pulled it off. They all pulled a profit and without a hitch. Just goes to show that with hard work anything is possible.

Today, Pat lives back in Panama City Beach where it is calm and he can concentrate more on his new developing career as a fine artist. He is known as the Angel guy in the art world, painting his water color angels, writing profound stories about each of them, giving each a character and a mood. His work started selling faster than he imagined and has now become a full time job selling his work world wide and teaching watercolor techniques in seminars and soon to be released video series on the subject.

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