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.