On the easel...

[perezfan]

Great job on both, Graig! That Vander Meer is (IMHO) in your top 3 of all time. Such a beautiful image and rich colors. As a Reds Fan I suppose I'm biased, but I cannot imagine a better painting (or a better choice of subject by Scott!)

Incredible Mo as well... very powerful image. Congrats on creating two more masterpieces!

[jacksons]

Graig -

So many great images of Mo over the years, this one you have breathed life into - simply beautiful - the light and depth are remarkable.

I have many great memories of Rivera, going back to 1995, watching him blowing away Jay Buhner on high fastballs with that deceptive heat and fluid motion.

Here's hoping his career does not end on the warning track at Kaufmann Stadium. Praying he is able to come back next year and close it out in style.

Great work, pal!

[GKreindler]

Whoops, I've been neglecting this thread for a little bit. Thank you ALL for such nice words about the last two. I'm really happy with both of them, and I'm certainly hoping the clients feel the same way.

And in regards to Mo, jacksons, as soon as you mentioned Buhner, all I could conjure up were his titanic homers off of the Yankees. I still can't get over how good those mid-late '90s Seattle teams were. They used to give me nightmares.

Here are two more I just got back from the photographers:


Smoky Joe Wood, 1909, 16" x 20


Bob Feller, July 31, 1946, 28" x 30"

The Feller is actually an oldie, but I had to change a few colors on the billboard, as I discovered they were wrong after the fact. I hate when that happens!!

Smoky Joe was an interesting painting to try and tackle indeed. I think in the end, what I was going for was a painting that showed what Horner saw in his viewfinder before he snapped the shot. So, in other words, Wood needs to be breathing and that beautiful north light has to be hitting his flesh and jersey just right. I hope I was successful.

Anywho, I hope y'all dig 'em!

Graig

[Jay Wolt]

Graig love what you did w/ the Joe Wood, you really brought him to life

[Scott Garner]

Graig,
Smoky Joe looks AWESOME!!

[Lordstan]

Graig,
WOW! You never cease to amaze. The last few have been great.

There is something so majestic and regal in that Wood. It looks like an old master style painting. I mean that wholeheartedly as a compliment.

Keep up the great work.

Mark

[travrosty]

only being on this forum for a year, could you catch me up on a few questions i have.


how long does it take for you to make a painting, on average? About how many do you do a year?

what % of your paintings are baseball related?

have you done other sports?

have you ever done a painting of a boxer?

[Big Ben]

I'll third this. Your Smoky Joe Wood portrait is incredible!

[GKreindler]

Thanks a lot for taking the time to comment, guys, I really appreciate it. And of course, your kind words are also really wonderful.

Jay, I couldn't have done it without ya!

Scott, I'm glad you like it so much. Did you receive Vandy yet? If so, what's the verdict?

Mark, that's quite a compliment. That's definitely the kind of effect I was going for. Or, trying to go for. I think in this case, the pose really helped - it has such a classic feel to it.

Ben, thank you so much!

Travis, time it takes to do these paintings vary from piece to piece. The smaller 16" x 20" player portraits only take a few weeks, though the larger, more detailed images usually take a month or in some cases, many. It all depends on how complicated of an image it is as it relates to research, elbow grease and anything else you can think of. Right now, I'd say that I'm consistently averaging about 20 paintings of varying sizes per year - though it's probably even more than that.

99% of the paintings I seem to do are sports related, with about 95% of them being baseball related. I've done a few football pieces here and there, as well as a golf painting, but I have yet to tackle boxing. Hopefully I will soon!

Thanks again, everybody.

Graig