Photos: A peek at the treasures of the Velveteria museum

The Velveteria museum’s walls are lined with hundreds of velvet paintings from the early 20th century to the present. Seen here: a bedazzled portrait of Liberace, with a jackalope riding a unicorn to its left.

Velveteria proprietor Carl Baldwin likes to stay on top of cultural and news events and respond to them on his museum’s walls. This week he added a new canvas featuring Caitlyn Jenner.

The rear area contains a naked lady room and a blacklight room (pictured here), which features an array of glow-in-the-dark canvases viewable under black light. It was a black-lighted painting of the devil at a Newport Beach head shop that first drew Baldwin’s attention to the form.

Because it is plush, velvet is difficult to paint on — which is what makes this painting of a pilot by Louis Behan so remarkable: he is able to achieve a high level of detail.

The museum’s collection comprises more than 3,000 paintings, some of them by noted artists — such as Edgar Leeteg, an American painter who is regarded by some as the father of modern velvet painting. Leeteg lived in Tahiti. This work features an older Polynesian man.

Naturally, Elvis gets pride of place at Velveteria — namely his own hallway at the rear of the gallery. Baldwin estimates that he has roughly 30 velvet Elvises in his collection. He also has a wooden Tiki-style statue of the singer.

Baldwin says that celebrities who have died in tragic circumstances (Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Elvis) are popular fodder for velvet paintings. But so are exotic themes — often with Polynesian or Mexican elements, such as this work by Louis Behan, which depicts a Spanish conquistador.

A painting of Dodgers pitcher Fernando Valenzuela (a figure who harkens back to the days when you could watch the team on broadcast television) is also part of the Velveteria collection. More contemporary players are also featured, such as outfielder Yasiel Puig.

Carl Baldwin poses at the entrance to Velveteria. Among his many gems, he owns a black velvet jacket with Elvis on it.