During an interview early in his 12-year powerboat-painting career, Stephen Miles stated his goal of painting “at least one model”—new or used—from every major high-performance brand. The Owensboro, Ky-based artist had as much ambition as talent, and he set his mind to doing just that.
That goal remains, but Stephen Miles Design gone a long way toward achieving it with design and paintwork for models from Baja, Cigarette, Cobalt, DCB, Fountain, Midnight Express, MTI (including his own 340X catamaran), Mystic, Outerlimits, Phantom and Spectre. The shop currently is painting a GSX/Glasstream center console and the first new Platinum Powerboats catamaran, so that makes two more brands Miles can cross off his list.
For the record, his work also graces a couple of yachts and one private jet. Also worth noting? The late Mike Fiore of Outerlimits Offshore Powerboats recognized Miles’ artistry before anyone else in the high-performance marine industry and gave the then-fledgling painter his start.
Now Miles is about to add another brand to his list. A South American client has tasked him to create a design and paint his 36-foot Doug Wright catamaran.
Of course, he still has brands on his to-paint list including something from the venerable Skater catamaran line. And as new lines such as the above-noted Platinum Powerboats emerge, he’ll need to add them to his roster.
But does his ambition to “paint them all” still burn as hot as it did when he first started?
Asked that question, Miles scoffed.
“Damn straight it does,” he said, then laughed.—Matt Trulio