Here are Peter and Glen Strock (illustrator of The People's Guide to Mexico) drawing together in Peter's adobe house in the wilds of New Mexico. This picture was probably taken in the 1970s. You can see that lighting was by kerosene lamps. Heat and cooking were by woodstoves and they either hauled water or got water out of hand-dug cisterns. It was a simple life but the views from his mountain property were magnificent. A lot of Peter's early work was done in this house. In the words of Glen Strock (see more in Interview #2 below):

I decided to take Peter up on his offer of a visit and moved to Mesa Poleo where Peter was living with his family. I arrived at night in the pitch black and had to yell for Peter until we connected. Peter was doing revisions to the VW book—smoking, drinking coffee, and working into the night. I was very disoriented and still trying to finish the Guide. Peter’s wife, Jeanne, would bring us coffee as we drew by kerosene lamps all day and into the night. There was nothing else in the world but drawing.

Be sure to take a look at Peter's four large black and white posters—the "original" classic posters where Peter supervised the printing himself—The Exploded Beetle, The Exploded Rabbit, The Cutaway City and The German City.

We also produce 12" x 18" black and white reprints of all four of these posters along with reprints of The Dream, The Cutaway VW Engine, Tularemia, The Engine, Bus & Friends and the Lobster Engine Rebuild. Two of our most popular reprints, The Cutaway VW Engine and The Dream are pictured here.

Peter's large (24" x 36") Map of Old Santa Fe poster is a gorgeous full color three-D view of Santa Fe surrounded by humorous pictures of Santa Fe life. Peter is in one of them. This poster is printed from Peter's original painting.

And take a look at another large, full-color poster printed from Peter's original painting The Birth of Billy the Kid. Peter did quite a few paintings and sculptures about Billy and this one is based on Botticelli's famous painting Venus and includes various actors in the Lincoln County War instead of Botticelli's original angels. The Lincoln County War is a fascinating bit of New Mexico history that Billy was very involved in and is worth looking up. The poster comes with a handy guide to all the characters.

Peter produced three 9" x 18" full-color posters that are part of The Route 66 Series. These beautiful posters highlight three areas in New Mexico along Route 66: Bernalillo, Los Lunas and Moriarty and are available as reprints or originals.

Finally, we have only a very few original posters left that are signed by Peter himself. We sell these for the poster price plus $100. Send us an email if you are interested in finding out more about these. They are in varying conditions and we can send you pictures of them.

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TOUR PETER'S STUDIOS
After Peter passed away his family had a video made by Mundo Bravo of both Peter's upstairs and downstairs studios in his Santa Fe home. His upstairs studio was used in winter because the downstairs studio, though much larger, only had wood heat and could be very cold! Mundo Bravo did a wonderful job of showing both studios with background jazz that Peter loved. Mundo Bravo has reissued this studio tour now on Vimeo and says of it,

Think this one should be dusted off... a little offering I shot 15 years ago of Peter Aschwanden's studio at the time of his death. Peter was the illustrator for John Muir Publications here in Santa Fe. His artwork for them helped make some of their books like "How to keep Your Volkswagen Alive" and "The People's Guide to Mexico" into counter culture classics.*

When Peter died in 2005, Deborah Reade saw his studio and realized that it needed to be preserved, at least visually, and I was lucky enough to get that task. What you see here is the working studio of one of the great countercultural artists just as he left it on the day of his death.

This is an opportunity to see  a lot of Peter's art—not only his illustration art but his sculptures and paintings as well, including a very large sculpture of Billy the Kid's pistol carved out of wood and painted. Peter could turn anything into art. He built beautiful furniture and even theater props. You can see just a little of the two drawing tables he built in the downstairs studio. The large head is a theater prop—the Wizard of Oz—with eyes that go side-to-side and a mouth that opens and closes.

(*Note that almost all of the illustrations in The People's Guide to Mexico were done by Glen Strock)

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STORIES & INTERVIEWS
Some time ago we did a series of eight interviews with Peter's friends and family. These cover a wide range of topics including Peter's early life, who he was as an artist, life at John Muir Publications in Santa Fe and much more. Lots of pictures. Combine these interviews with Peter's studio tour to get the full picture!

Interview 1 with Hildegard Nelson, Peter's mother. Peter was always an artist and even as a small child would draw on anything–the street, the walls–as well as on paper. Pictures of his early art showing how his cartoons developed.

Interview 2 with Glenn Strock, author of The People's Guide to Mexico and a good friend who worked together with Peter on several projects.

Interview 3 with Ada Browne, another good friend who worked at John Muir Publications. JMP published and distributed How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive, The People's Guide to Mexico and a lot of other wonderful books.

Interview 4 with Barbara Luboff who typed the original How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive manuscript and was there from the beginning.

Interview 5with Eve Muir, wife of John Muir who, with him, owned John Muir Publications in Santa Fe. And of course, there from the beginning!

Interview 6 with Gilberto Guzman, a good friend of Peter's and a fellow artist who would talk with Peter for hours about art and life. An international muralist with many beautiful murals in Santa Fe. This includes one on Guadalupe Street that many people are still trying to save from destruction by developers. Peter helped some with this mural in its earliest stage. Includes pictures of Gilberto working on the mural.

Interview 7 with Calvin Hildebrand, another good friend of Peter's who would also sit with Peter, drinking coffee and discussing all manner of things.

Story 8 about JMP in the 70s and 80s. Peter illustrated How to Keep your Volkswagen Rabbit Alive, How to Keep Your Honda Alive, and How to Keep Your Datsun/Nissan Alive during this time. He also redrew most of the illustrations for the original VW Book through these years and created new illustrations for updated versions. He even contributed to some of the writing updates while illustrating a host of other books and projects.

T-SHIRTS & BEETLENESS!
Although we only take large or wholesale orders for T-shirts through this site, you can continue to find Peter's designs on individual T-shirts through www.beetleness.com out of the UK. They are fully authorized by Flathead Graphix and we work closely with them to make sure you'll always receive the same great quality that you have in the past. Shipping out of the UK is much more reasonable than US shipping, so prices are good as well.

GIFT ORDERS
We have Gift Orders available. Please ask us about them.

 

 

 

 

©2025 Flathead Graphix
Illustrations ©2008, 2009, 2010, 2011
2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017,
2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024, and 2025
Francisco and Sophia Aschwanden

Website design by Deborah Reade Design