Last night’s one-night-only Pabst Blue Ribbon art show at the Long Beach Hawleywood’s Barber Shop seemed a little unusual for the ur-salon. For one thing, there were ladies! A few of ‘em!

Dames, frails, damsels–call ‘em by whatever vintage name you will, but women are usually off-limits in Hawley’s shops, which strive to replicate the 1940s-era haircutting experience.

Also, there was art: Long Beach was the only Southern California stop on Pabst Blue Ribbon beer’s juried art contest tribute to itself.

The brewery asked PBR hoisters around the nation–21 and over, puh-leeze–to paint why they like the beer. (Sculptures using PBR cans were also permissible.) Then, the beermaker sent the winning, typically pop surrealist, works around the country.

The PBR painting you see here is Diana Paris’s winning One Smart Monkey, but there are others (and two other winners) here.

My favorite portrait of the night, though, had to be classically-trained Costa Mesa painter Mark Cummings‘ portrait of Hawley–which wasn’t part of the PBR-iana.

Cummings, whom I profiled for OC Weekly in January 2007, gets his hair cut at the Costa Mesa Hawleywood’s, and after he studied classical painting in Italy, Hawley commissioned him for a portrait.

The results–painted at the Costa Mesa shop, not far from Cummings’ studio–speak for themselves. Never have tattooed hands and French cuffs (and a very nice Hamilton watch) said so much.

“Character,” Cummings says of why he agreed to paint Hawley. “I just wanted to do a portrait of someone with character.”

His piece might remind you of (among other works) Norman Rockwell’s The Tattoo–maybe because Hawley is tattooed, or because of his shops’ vintage look. That’s no accident, the artist says.

“I’m a big fan of Rockwell,” Cummings says, noting the ever-so-slightly over-decorated look of Hawleywood’s (itself reminiscent of Long Beach’s oldest surviving bar Joe Jost’s, a former barber shop).

“You look at his paintings and they’re just rich with stuff.”

Indeed. And as you can see here, we’re pretty sure Hawley likes his portrait.

Tags: California, Diana Paris, Hawleywood's Barber Shop, Long Beach, Mark Cummings, One Smart Monkey, pabst blue ribbon, Southern California, The District Weekly, Theo Douglas