By Mikaela STONE

“Every morning when I get up and leave the gym, I look at the mountains and…” said artist Sid Bingham, indicating his awe. After 30 years of living in the Crescenta Valley, Bingham still remains enraptured with the beauty of the area. Since graduating from Pasadena Art Center College of Design in 1978, he has celebrated an expansive career, raised three daughters, established friendships with other SoCal creatives and captured local natural beauty in his sun-dappled watercolors. 

Bingham carries over 40 years of teaching experience, including 20 years at Pasadena Art Center College of Designand an array of courses at the University of California Irvine. Bingham similarly directs his students to local nature when teaching, including Huntington Botanical Gardens and Descanso Gardens. Currently he hosts paint nights at his cross fit gym where he plans to take his students to the Arboretum. Since Zoom’s rise in popularity, Bingham has offered online watercolor classes. The students he is proudest of, however, belong to the classes he taught through Maryland and Utah’s Veteran Affairs programs and affiliated art therapy groups. 

“It’s not so much teaching as the art is therapy,” he said. Art therapy is proven to reduce Post Traumatic Stress Disorder flare ups. Bingham sees this as his way to give back. While teaching remains a part of his life – Bingham just returned from instructing a series of classes in Tuscany, Italy where students painted wineries and castles – he also recognizes that his early career took off once he stepped back from the familiarity of working at Pasadena Art Center. 

“You get your basics at Art Center and then you get your direction,” he said.

Bingham soon found that self-employment at his own design company offered its own trials, running into “dead ends here, then another door opens.” His love of sports brought him to paint for the Dodgers, basketball’s Dream Team, and Shaquille O’Neal. Stepping in as a freelance designer at Gibraltar Savings and Loan while it was between artist contractors left him with the varied work of several types of artists at once, including creating art for trade shows, advertisements, newspapers and logos. 

He credits much of this success to good friend and fellow designer Jan Detanna who offered personnel from his own company; Detanna also would, years later, coach Bingham’s daughter in AYSO soccer. 

When Gibraltar Savings collapsed, Bingham pivoted to concept art for theme parks. He picked up work for Universal Studios theme park and the now postponed Dreamworks’ Shanghai theme park. Perhaps Bingham’s best known concept art pieces are the ones he created during his 20 years freelancing with Disney. He called this model “far better than being employed” as it offered him the freedom to work for many different departments. His designs for Shanghai Disney helped bring concepts into the conceivable, illustrating potential layouts for the park’s downtown Disney shopping district and a flyover view of the park’s coast during a vibrant firework show. 

Bingham’s attention to the function of color is his specialty. Disney relied on him to balance colors for their many parades – until one. As the 2006 Rose Parade – and Disney’s 50th year anniversary celebration – loomed closer with no design in sight, Bingham received a call: “We have no time for your color, just give us a pencil sketch.” 

Bingham delivered with a design showcasing the five existing Disney castles. While the 2006 Rose Parade would be better known as “the year it rained,” The Most Magical Celebration on Earth float won the Craftsman Award for exceptional showmanship and dramatic impact. Other Disney concept pieces included working on the team that designs the Christmas appearance of the princesses’ castles and other Christmas looks (complete with new snow and lighting) and concept art for the Jim Carrey “Christmas Carol” movie tour. 

Now Sid Bingham designs concept art for The Discovery Cube, a job that is “never boring.” His recent contributions include helping implement the Los Angeles Discovery Cube’s junior fire ranger training to show how the LAFD and similar organizations fight fires, a water lab for conservation teaching, an outdoor theater, and the Eco-Adventure Carousel where families can ride designed native animals such as mountain lions and egrets. He enjoys getting to work on designs with talented engineers and architects. 

“That’s what living in SoCal is like,” he said. 

Much of Bingham’s fine art is inspired by his travels. He considers traveling with a brush in hand the best way to see new places. He explained that when one is painting, strangers come up to talk, allowing him to get to know tourists and locals and he even befriends restaurant staff. He travels often to visit his daughters, who have graduated from Crescenta Valley High School and are “living scattered” across the planet. He noted that portraits are his favorite. In reference to his portrait of a man in a straw hat with sunlight streaking his face, he encouraged the viewer, and other artists, to think about “Where does your eye go? How do you design your composition to make it interesting?” 

He used his talent in drawing figures to capture his granddaughter in her skating gear as she practiced in Frankfurt, Germany, cheered on by her sports-loving family, including her hockey-playing father and softball-playing CPA mother. Of his three daughters, one daughter is pursuing STEM in St. Louis and another is teaching theater in Tanzania. Looking at his storied career, he said, “It’s been a really good ride and I love the direction it’s gone.” 

Bingham is currently looking for the next place to exhibit his work. View his work at http://sidbingham.com/ and https://www.sidbinghamfineart.com/, which features an email newsletter one can subscribe to, and his Instagram account @sidbingham09.