I really appreciate it, DCsports!! The uniforms are undoubtedly a very fun part of the equation. When I have to second guess some of the color choices because we have no existing examples though, that's the beast.

Scott, let's not get crazy, now.

Frank! It's happened twice and in the same painting, no-less. The one I did of Bautista's home run bat toss, two separate folks have reached out and claimed they were there that night and even in the shot. It never happens with the paintings of the older guys, though.

This is great news. Time to increase the saving. :)

Speaking of George Silk photos, my favorite is the image of the 1960 World Series with Pitt students watching Forbes Field from atop the Cathedral of Learning. Would love to see Greg do that image.

put this in the met museum

Hey all,

Here's another one for ya:

https://hosting.photobucket.com/9940...080&fit=bounds
Satchel Paige, 1935, 16" x 12"

I had never seen the original photograph before, until a collector shared it with me randomly. I pretty much dropped everything I was doing and got to painting it--clear portraits of Satchel during the beginning of his career (funny to think that in 1935, he's in his 10th season or so of professional ball, and it's still *early*) are virtually non-existent.

Anywho, not only was the portrait super clear, but I LOVED the narrative with the uniform and cap. Paige had come to the Monarchs (for the first time, no less) at some point in late 1935, after his stint with Bismarcks. It was with the latter club that Paige built on the legend he had started during the Denver Post Tournament in '34. Bismarck finished the season with a 60-19-3 record, and secured an invitation to the National Semi-Professional Baseball Championship Tournament. At that tournament the team went undefeated at 7-0, with Paige winning four games and striking out 60 batters, thus becoming the first fully-integrated club to win a national championship.

So, here we have Paige in his Kansas City duds wearing his Bismarcks hat, most likely because when he joined, the club probably didn't actually have an extra Monarchs one to give him! Knowing how MLB is now with whatever they give (and CAN give) to players and the such, it's amazing to think of how NOT uniform things could be in the Negro Leagues. Truly a different time.

Any comments, questions, and critiques are always welcome!!

Thanks again for reading.

Graig

holy cow, so realistic. AMAZINGLY beautiful!

Joe! That Silk is one of the greatest sports photos of all time, in my opinion. What a sense of atmosphere in that.

Octavio, maybe somewhere in one of the Met’s many bathrooms? I’ve got no business hanging in those hallowed halls.

Rob, thank you so much for the kind words!!!

Picked up these amazing frames on the BST made of seats from Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds.

Took a shot these would fit. Wow art with art.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...78dc3d57b7.jpg


https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...00dac2213d.jpg


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Wow! Crazie cool, Jamie!
Congrats! :D

Those frames look pretty darn rad, Jamie. Love seeing the original seat colors incorporated so well.

We're starting to get some nice weather in Brooklyn, so that's making my heart sing. And baseball is officially underway, so that doesn't hurt either. Annnnnnnndddd, we're that much closer to the National, which is still my favorite few days of the year.

Anywho, I thought I'd post another one that I finished semi-recently:

https://hosting.photobucket.com/9940...080&fit=bounds
Donie Bush, 1912, 9" x 12"

I think if you've ever spoken to me or taken a thorough look at the stuff I've done in the last 15 years, you probably know that I love me some Conlon. The series that he did that focused on the eyes of the fellas from Murderer's Row has always been a favorite. What a lot of folks don't know if that it's a motif that he started to play around with in the early 1910s, the context of which has been studied thoroughly by our buddy Paul Reiferson.

While I did intend on painting the '27 Yankees portraits (preferably VERY large), I liked the idea of doing these older ones at a smaller scale, in kind of a less confrontational approach. It was a lot of fun to try and get Donie's freckled Irish skin just right (which I'm hoping I did?), as it really had work in concert with those ginormous eyes. Definitely excited to do more of these as time passes--I've already started one of Chief Meyer that I'm hoping will give off some similar vibes.

Oh, and also, the folks at FOX 5 NY came by the studio a week or two ago, and put together this cool little package which aired a few times today:

https://www.fox5ny.com/video/1629013

I was honored to have them there, and really happily surprised that the segment was as long as it was! I feel like they even make me sound somewhat sane.

Anywho, thanks so much for reading, and as always, shoot me an email/PM if you have any questions, comments or critiques!

Thanks again,

Graig

Donie's eyes ... WOW so real!

Terrific video, congrats and thanks for sharing!

Graig that was an impressive Fox piece, thanks for the link

If you haven’t done this one, I think this would be a fantastic painting…

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...428bb4b91d.jpg


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This was moved from the memorabilia section to get more eyes on Graig's work. It's simply great.

said it on messenger and i'll say it again graig -- the rendering of emotion here is on par with the masters. another, along with that cy, that is simply superb. you've tapped into drawing the life from these deadball era photos in a way that elevates the genre of photorealism in a way that no longer (if but rarely) exists in the modern world.

looking forward to the day where your work and some of the fantastic WPA era photography + early deadball darkroom artistry is known and understood as essential and fundamental parts of the greater American art historical canon. the day is coming soon; i hope with my essay work and critical lens to foster it as well....

Thank you so much for those kind words, David!!! I can't say that I agree on the master claim, but I do really appreciate the sentiment. I can only hope that at some point, sports-related artwork can be placed in the context of other, more "elevated" themes in the art world. After all, it's always been my contention that depicting sports dates back further than the ancient Greeks and their pottery depicting pankration and equestrian events. But at the same time, I'm probably also biased. :)

And thanks for moving this over here, Leon! It's a little weird to think that it's on this side, since I guess I've been on the memorabilia page since this thread started (2009?). I appreciate the nudge!!

Figured this might be a decent time to post one of my latest:

https://hosting.photobucket.com/9940...080&fit=bounds
Satchel Paige, September 8, 1941, 36" x 46"

I really enjoyed painting this, even though it was a BIG challenge finding a decent quality image to work off of. The photo has been in circulation forever, and is one of my favorites of him with the Monarchs; however the quality was always a bit suspect in spots, as well as being heavily cropped. I was able to procure a reaaalllyy nice scan from the original Detroit News negative, and it made SUCH a difference in how I approached it. Especially since in the version most of us have seen, you're not getting much of that ballpark in the background--just the wall behind Paige and a bit of the dugout step.

So, pictured is the great Satchel Paige at Briggs Stadium in early September of 1941. Reason being, there was to be a big doubleheader between the Monarchs and the Chicago American Giants a week later, and the hope was to generate some interest in the event. Having ol' Satch pitch was bound to do that--they were expecting close to 50,000 for the games. This afternoon, there were a number of photographs taken of him, whether it was in sitting at rest, standing on the mound or even pantomiming his throw. Personally, I just loved the idea of showcasing those long and skinny legs, as well as presenting that colorful uniform in all of its glory.

The hope is always that I do the subject justice, but I feel like it's doubly so when I paint these Negro and Latin American League folks. It's become of profound importance to me that they're not relegated to the dustbin of history. Fingers crossed that that sentiment rings true with these paintings.

Oh, and I should probably mention, I'm making this available as a giclée (a very high quality fine art print) in a few months! It's to be the second time I've done a reproduction like this, and thankfully, a portion of the proceeds will be going to the Paige estate, as well as the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City. It's to be a timed release, meaning that I'll make it available for a week only, and after that, it's gone forever! If you're interested in keeping informed about the whole process, feel free to leave me with your email address here.

As always, if y'all have any questions, comments are critiques, fire away!!

Thanks for reading.

Graig

Fantastic! All of it is great but I continue to be amazed by how well you portray the textures and contours of the various fabrics.

Amazing! I could look at this painting for days in amazement. Look at the detail of the end of the piece of wood above shoulder:eek:. The age rings are so real and detailed

Graig that Satch is amazing

That Paige is so good, it's hypnotizing.

I am all out of adjectives worthy of describing it! :eek:

Wow! What a beautiful painting of a seminal player in our national pastime. Thanks for doing what you do. It's really amazing to see your work.
kevin

Thank you so much for all of the super kind words, everybody!! I really appreciate all of you taking the time the make them.

Hope you're all having a nice Memorial Day weekend. I'm doing my best to get some work done while the kids are home, but since it's going to be pretty nice out here in Brooklyn, I imagine it's going to be a losing effort on my part. So I guess the main objective seems to be to not beat myself up over it!

Anywho, I thought I'd post a painting I finished a little while back, one with subject matter that I guess is a bit less common to see on the boards:

https://hosting.photobucket.com/9940...080&fit=bounds
Dorothy Kamenshek, 1947, 24" x 18"

I've always had a fascination with the AAGPBL, and like so many of us, it was sparked by Penny Marshall's A League of Their Own. For those who don't know, the depicted subject matter, "Kammie", was pretty much the face of the Rockford Peaches. She was a seven-time All-Star and a two-time batting champion. I believe she is still the all-time leader in hits and total bases for the league, too. In other words, she kicked @$$.

The main issue I had with this painting was all in its beginning stages--just finding the imagery to work off of to make it happen was the biggest challenge. The AAGPBL, though obviously popular in the midwest, wasn't as well documented visually as their male counterparts. Finding un-posed shots, be it during a game or during practice, is still to this day no easy feat. I luckily have a few friends in the space who mainly collect stuff from those leagues (as well as other women's teams), and they were more than willing to share some of their pieces with me. This candid snapshot of her was probably my favorite of the entire batch. I've always loved the motif of ballplayers with children, and when you add the fact that here it's a young girl getting the autograph, it makes it even more powerful (in my eyes). And then that red of her hat and the AAGPBL jacket draped over her arm--it's a winning combination.

They're outside of the visiting team's dressing room at Beyer Stadium in Rockford, and if you look closely, you can even catch some graffiti on the gray bricks. 1947 wasn't necessarily a great year for Rockford, as they finished in 6th place, but they bounced back to win the League Championship for three straight years from '48 to '50.

As always, if y'all have any questions, comments are critiques, fire away!!

Thanks for reading and enjoy yourselves today!

Graig

Breathtaking spectacular as always!!!:eek:

A graphite autograph - interesting

Graig,

As a collector of women in baseball items and the father of three girls, this image quite literally captures the very essence of why I collect what I do. Have to admit that I teared up a bit seeing this. Indescribably wonderful.