Axalta Coating Systems has announced its 2016 Paint Outside the Can contest winners.

This year’s competition invited professional auto body painters in Canada and the U.S. to unleash their creativity, using any Axalta-branded coating system, to paint and decorate an unused, standard one-gallon paint can.

Celebrity judges selected six winning entries based on creativity, execution and degree of difficulty. In addition, six fan favourites were identified based on the number of “likes” that entries received during a four-day period on Axalta’s Refinish Instagram page. Finally, one grand prizewinner was selected from the six celebrity picks. The winning entries were displayed in Axalta’s booth #61009 at the 2016 Specialty Equipment Market Association’s (SEMA) Show November 1-4, 2016 at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The 2016 Paint Outside the Can Winners were:

Grand Prize Winner
Patrick Napolitano, “Painting Winners into the Future”

Celebrity Picks
Mike Burton, “Pineapple Passion”
Josh McCurdy, “Summer Clearance”
Taylor Holmes, “Who You Gonna Call?”
Garrett Sands, “So ‘Mush’ Room to Explore”
Mike Cohen, “Welcome to the Dark Side”

Fan Favorites
Mike Burton, “Pineapple Passion”
Patrick Napolitano, “Painting Winners into the Future”
Jose Espinoza, “Backyard Boogie”
Joseph Forman, “Axalta’s Iron Can vs. Paint Machine”
Josh McCurdy, “Summer Clearance”
Taylor Holmes, “Who You Gonna Call?”

All submissions can be found online at Axalta’s website in addition to Axalta’s social media channels.

The 2016 Paint Outside the Can celebrity judges were:

• Ron Coan, an automotive painter known best for his work at Mobsteel, a design/build firm in Detroit, Michigan
• Rachel De Barros, chief marketing officer, host and executive producer of Gearhead Diva
• Ray Evernham, three-time NASCAR champion crew chief and host of AmeriCarna
• Danny “Danny D” Galvez, a well-known custom automotive painter and pinstriper
• Dave Lane, one of the top traditional-style car builders in the United States
• Paul Quinn, a respected airbrush and pinstriping artist and custom paint instructor