Stunning work. I would have been happy with any one of the progression paintings.

Absolutely!! :)

Hello friends!

Looks like I randomly came back here at the right time.

It’s been a while!! Since I’ve posted here last, we’ve had a whole pandemic (which we still find ourselves in), my kids have been growing, and I’ve managed to keep really busy with painting. Thankfully, we’re all (physically) healthy, and with the weather becoming a bit nicer, are starting to feel more positive about things.

Mike, I loooooooooooove that image of Hank. I’ve wanted to paint it ever since I saw the negative offered by Legendary ten years ago (or so). I actually posted a thread on here a long while back asking if anybody scored that one, or any other interesting shots from that ginormous auction. In fact, the scan you posted I think came from that post.

Regardless, if somebody has that negative or a nice scan of it, definitely get in touch!

Will try to catch up here tonight or tomorrow with some images of what I’ve been painting.

Graig

I bid on it and unfortunately was the under bidder. I normally save the scans of photos I bid on. I think it would be an incredible painting. I’ve saved many such scans over the years.

I just scrolled through my scans and came across these. I believe they were all in the same auction as the Greenberg I posted earlier. Unfortunately I failed to land any of these as well. I think the Goslin and Hafey were also in that auction.

Same! I was able to land a few of them, thankfully. But missed out on SO many that I thought would make great paintings. And what sucks extra is that so few of them have surfaced since the auction—like they’ve almost vanished into thin air.

That's a beauty. Congrats!

Hey all,

So, here's something y'all might not have seen before (unless you follow me on any social media platforms):

https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...080&fit=bounds
Groucho Marx, Lou Gehrig, Chico Marx and Harpo Marx, August 2, 1936, 28” x 20”

This was maybe the most fun I've had on a painting in a long time, and was completed a few months ago. In my eyes, it just might not get any better than a smiling Lou Gehrig with Groucho, Chico and Harpo. The image was one that I had had in my files for a long time, and though a few people toyed with the notion of commissioning it, it wasn't until a year or so ago that somebody pulled the trigger on the commission. And I’m super happy they did.

There were two major issues I had while painting this thing. The first was that I could never find much background information about the scene. On a few websites here and there, the image is dated to 1933, which was about as much as I had to go on. I could tell that it was taken in Cleveland because of the ballpark architecture, but I had my doubts about that year, as I thought Gehrig looked a little older than he did that year. I ended up comparing Lou's jersey to some existing exemplars I had access to images of, be it the jersey itself or just decent photography. I was able to date it to the 1936 season. After a ton of newspaper diving, it was apparent that the Indians only played at Cleveland Municipal on one occasion that year, as they used League Park for all of their other home games. It turns out, that date was August 2nd, in front of over 65,000 fans. The clubs fought to a 4-4 tie that ended after the 15th due to darkness. It turns out, the Marx Brothers were in the middle of a five-city tour of "A Night at the Opera" stage performances, and that afternoon made it onto the field before game time to laugh it up with the teams. There weren’t too many tidbits about the Marx-side of things, other than that they were in costume, and that they were clowning around with George Selkirk specifically. It’s a shame that there are no other photos from that day in circulation.

The second, and probably more important issue, was the fact that I had never seen a copy of the photo in stellar quality--all of the versions I had seen were pretty blown out, thereby eliminating a lot of crucial painting information for the painting. It's a semi-common problem with photos showing bright sunlight unfortunately, and that's doubly-so when you're combining black and white photography with the fact that the image was taken 80 years ago. It took a while to find something I could work off of, and even then, it wasn't crystal clear, but in the end, I think it turned out to be a really nice piece. And let's face it, the subject matter carries it.

One thing the light DID lend itself nicely too was all of the reflected light coming back into those shadows. You can see that especially in the Lou whether it’s the hints of the green from Chico’s coat reflecting back into the jersey, or the lit fabric coming back into Gehrig’s chin and jaw.

Hope you guys dig this as much as I did making it. Please feel 100% free to critique, comment or ask questions. Always.

Thanks for reading!

Graig

OMG Graig, that is such a cool painting!!
I grew up a HUGE fan of the Marx Bros & you captured them perfectly. Lou looks awesome.
Love it. I hope you are well.

Totally blown away. What a great painting.