Bill’s Brother, Bob
Giclee Print on Canvas
Edition of 300 S/N
Image: 28″ x 22″
$300
I have been painting professionally for over 30 years now, and while the work really never gets easier, I still try to have fun doing it. Anyone who has followed my work over the years has seen my subject matter change from old barns, mills and interesting houses (which I still love to paint) to decoys, guns and other outdoor artifacts, and on to sports memorabilia (baseball is still my first love), fine wines, old toys and always folk art. Recently, I have gotten interested in carousel animals, many of which were created by artists of incredible talent. As with most of my subjects, I do a lot of research and study before jumping into the paintings and when I finally start one I get entirely wrapped up in it, sometimes for two or three months which it takes to complete a major painting.
This piece was painted for a show at McBride Gallery in Annapolis, Maryland. The goat in the painting is from a turn of the century Dentzel carousel; I had photographed it at an antique show 10 years ago and just stuck it in my ‘possibles’ file. Cynthia McBride loves “fun” funky pieces painted in my trompe l’oeil style, so I knew this would be the perfect time to paint the goat. I usually try to paint some pieces that relate to the area where the show is, and since Annapolis is the home of the Naval Academy, and the mascot is a goat named “Bill”, this was perfect. Bill, however, is an ivory, almost white color and his harness and blanket are blue and gold. The actual goat that I photographed is the golden color that you see here, but his harness and saddle were green, so I made up the patriotic color scheme (artistic license) and just for fun, “Bill’s Brother, ‘Bob'” became the title.