On the easel...

[Jay Wolt]

Graig fantastic as always, great job

[GKreindler]

Thanks a ton for that, Jay!! Great seeing you here, too.

[bgar3]

Graig, after 44, I was drawn to the uniform material texture and detail. Great job.

[GKreindler]

Thank youuuuuuu!!! 🙏🙏🙏

[Leon]

Great to see you back, Graig. We did have a nice, fairly long chat at the airport. One of my best conversations of the week. Great painting as usual too.
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[GKreindler]

Awww, man. Thanks, LL. It was great seeing you, too. And it was nice being able to talk to you and not have to shout over people breaking and screaming. Whuddathunk.

[GKreindler]

Hey all,

Here's one for a rainy, albeit warm, Sunday:


Mickey Mantle, October 4, 1953, 22" x 38"

This painting was both a challenge and a blast. The depicted scene shows our boy Mantle hitting a home run off of Russ Meyer during Game 5 of the '53 World Series. When I first saw the original Mark Kauffman photo, I was instantly drawn in by that patch of light in front of him. Since the shadows cast by the Ebbets Field stands were creeping across the infield, that bit of light on the bottom right must have come from one of the sky holes on the top of the upper deck. Interestingly enough, it must have vanished right after Mantle started his trek out of the box, as it can't be seen in this video after the fact:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jLqTK_hQI4

Either way, the possibilities of color in the painting were incredibly hard to pass up, what with the blue in Campy's hat and sleeves, the deep red and navy in the stands, and the warmth reflecting back into Mantle's front leg. Combine that with Mickey's bat being a shimmering beacon against the shadowed spectators, I felt like there was something really special happening in the photograph, which in turn I just needed to get out on canvas. Glad that this went to a good home, too.

Again, any comments, questions, and critiques are always welcome!!

Thanks again for reading.

Graig

[whitehse]

your use of light and shadows are literally mind boggling to me. I mean, I see the sunlight streaming down on Mantle's hands and bat but how you actually painted that is just incredible.

Graig, I missed your first Giclee....are you planning on another anytime soon? I need to start saving!