Thursday, November 5, 2020

Baseball Art

 Well, I just felt like showcasing some of the baseball art that I enjoy here.

There are many many baseball artists out there, but I just wanted to share a few here with you.  These are different styles but all very cool.

I have a degree in fine arts with a concentration in painting so I am naturally drawn to baseball paintings.  Would I like to do my own baseball paintings?  Yes, I would.  However at this time in my life I don't have the time or space in my home to set up for painting.  It is something I will get into when my kids are a bit older and I can dedicate some space to it.

So I live vicariously through other artists and dream of someday producing something of my own.

First I wanted to share a painting by Kadir Nelson.  Kadir doesn't exclusively paint baseball art, but this work is simply fantastic.


This image captures the great Cool Papa Bell sliding into third in a close play.  I really like the elongated figures and the drama they display.  You can see Cool Papa's long leg reaching third before the throw make it to the glove of the third baseman.  It reminds me of the loose uniforms and lanky looking players in the Negro League back in the early part of the 1900's.  

Next up is a water color panting by Noah Stokes depicting the great Human Vacuum Cleaner Brooks Robinson fielding a ball in his signature diving defensive play.


Noah captures the action beautifully with great detail in the water colors in Brook's figure.  The contrasting loose brush strokes in the background work perfectly to highlight the player which is much more detailed.  We see Brooks holding the ball in his glove showing he has snagged it for the out.  The touches of red in his socks, pinstipes on his pants and number really stand out as well.

Christopher Arndt brings in our next piece.  This is a stunning image of the Washington Nationals ballpark at dusk with absolutely stunning skies. 


I really like paintings of stadiums like this that show expansive views of the park including the entire field.  The scoreboard in the background has so much weight to it and feels so imposing.  Even the well manicured lawn with the lines and the well manicure dirt look great.  It really feels like you're at the park in your seat watching the game.  

Our next artist isn't a painter at all, but instead Tim Carroll actually cuts up junk era baseball cards and glues them back together to form "paintings" of mostly baseball cards.  Tim has so many works to choose from but I went with one that I really like a lot.


Here is a 1955 Sandy Koufax rookie card made up of thousands of pieces of cut up baseball cards.  The face of Sandy is made of hundreds of cut up faces of other ballplayers arranged to form his visage.  Tim has done so many other cards from tobacco and candy prewar cards to modern cards.  His work speaks for itself.

My last couple of works are from my favorite baseball artist, Graig Kreindler. I chose these two pieces because they have the advertisements in the outfields.  For some reason I find it really cool when he paints the ads that were on the walls of the outfieldl


This is an image of the great Mickey Mantle at bat.  I love the wide angle image and the overcast weather  But the ads strike me for some reason.  I also really like the water tower in the background and the scoreboard on the right side.  

The next one features the Splendid Splinter Ted Williams up to bat.  


This one has great advertising as well as two large oil signs in the Gulf and Cities Service signs outside the stadium.  Here is a detail of Ted where you can see the brushstrokes.


There are so many more sports artists out there that I obviously could've profiled here.  But I just wanted to share a few of the ones that I really like.  If you're interested in this stuff or any of the artists please look into it on your own. You'll be surprised what you can find out there.

Enjoy the hobby all...it's a great one.

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