Cigar Inspiration

Michael Moretti
Posted: July 14, 2003

If you find beauty and inspiration in cigars, you share the vision of Frank Eugene Cihler, a painter and owner of Cigar Art Works Studio in Wisconsin. While other works of art find a home on the walls of a museum, these paintings hang in the hallowed halls of cigar lounges.

Cihler's subjects include the cigars themselves wafting thick blue smoke, images of cigar rollers at work in the factories pressing and rolling cigars, and puffing historical figures and celebrities, such as Al Capone and Michael Jordan. The artist says photographs, newspapers, magazines and his own love of cigar smoking inspire most of his painting.

Although he started painting at a very young age, Cihler came across the subject of cigars, later on in life, when a Kansas City businessman commissioned him to do portraiture of a Cuaba, Cihler said. "I'm always searching for new subjects, and cigars, as a subject, offer a lot of detail and options." Since then, Cihler has painted such cigar brands as La Gloria Cubana, Fuente Fuente OpusX and Cohiba.

Cihler also feels that his "classic" style translates to cigar smokers, "People who smoke cigars want to see art they would call real art," he said. Cihler describes his own pieces of cigars as being more Sixteenth or Seventeeth century style.

Paintings primarily sell anywhere from $500 to $4500. He has some prints available, but primarily he sells original paintings of his own or on a commission basis. To learn more about Frank Eugene Cihler and Cigar Art Works Studio visit www.cigarartworks.com or e-mail Frank Eugene Cihler at cihler@cs.com.