First the Big Break, Then Heartbreak for Aspiring Artist

Stig Einarson didn’t discover his real passion until later in life. Venturing into abstract art in his late 40s, he has spent the last few years slowly building up his talent and his name.

This week was to have been the culmination of a dream, a show representing years of his work at an art gallery in the exclusive community of Palm Desert.

Instead, the San Clemente man woke up Saturday morning to find his van missing, and all the art inside, valued at $50,000 to $60,000, gone.

For Einarson, 53, it’s been a devastating blow.

“It’s been hard,” he said, choking up. “These pieces are the most significant ones I’ve done. These are my life.”

“We were so excited about this,” said his wife, Annette. “He’s put off his art for so long to sacrifice for his family. Now it’s his turn. This was the first big break for him. That’s why it was heartbreaking when it happened. It was his life in that van.”

Einarson, a native of Sweden, had spent much of his life concentrating on the commercial art that was his livelihood. He established a strong reputation as a decorative painter who specialized in faux finishes and trompe l’oeil for the home.

But all the while, his creative impulses kept tugging at him. Then, he remembers, “about six or seven years ago, it came like a wave. I felt like I had to do it. It took on a life of its own.”

His abstract paintings are raw, stark images done in mixed media. He works with building materials, multilayered colors and metallics.

Gallery director George Schaffer of Desert Art Source in Palm Desert characterizes Einarson’s work as “understated elegance, very textural and powerful.” In the competitive arena of art, Einarson is considered an up-and-coming star, Schaffer said.

“He has the ability to reach out and touch both first-time buyers and longtime collectors,” Schaffer said. “He’s new to my gallery and has already sold multiple pieces. It usually takes artists a year or two to get promoted and start selling.”

Einarson got such an enthusiastic response from gallery clients that Schaffer asked him to bring in a full array of his work to exhibit. So last Friday, Einarson, who works out of his Capistrano Beach studio, loaded up his van with about 15 pieces done over the last six years.

Saturday morning, his wife awoke and peeped out their window to find their white ’89 Chevy Astro van gone from its parking spot in front of their home.

“I thought he’d just parked it around the corner. He was in the shower, and I asked him where the car was. He just froze,” she said.

Early that morning, the couple had heard what they both described as “rubber burning,” but neither of them thought to investigate. Among the pieces stolen was one Einarson had made for his mother.

But the couple refuse to give up hope. If the thief simply took the car for a joy ride, they are hoping the art can still be retrieved. In the meantime, they are looking toward the future.

“We’re in shock, but we’re not broken in spirit,” Annette Einarson said. “Stig was back in his studio the next day working hard.”