Phoenix Sun Art Chris Paul Point Guard CP3

Chris Paul Still Going Strong

Chris Paul is still doing it.  You would think he’d be slowing down just a little bit.  But at thirty-six he is staying ahead of other players the other night by having 23 points  and 16 assists with the Phoenix Suns.  We have to remember as one of the highest-paid athletes in the world, he holds endorsement deals with major companies worldwide.

 Chris Paul’s Nick name Cp3

Nicknamed CP3, he has won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award, an NBA All-Star Game Most Valuable Player Award, two Olympic gold medals, and led the NBA in assists four times and steals a record six times. He has also been selected to eleven NBA All-Star teams, nine All-NBA teams, and nine NBA All-Defensive teams.  I’d say he is holding up, just fine.  You may be wondering how got his nickname CP3 Chris Paul's family gave him the nickname CP3 because he, his father, and his older brother all share the same initials.

About Basketball Art Chris Paul

The Basketball Art above is a painting of basketball player Chris Paul point guard for the.  Phoenix Suns.   Painting is 12” x 15” on 14” x 17” drafting film.  Watercolor, acrylic and ink.

Sports Art Basketball UCLA Bruins NCAA Basketball Tournament

NCAA March Madness UCLA Basketball Art

 UCLA beats Michigan and for the Bruins it is a whole new series.   They have a shot at finals and we LA fans can be rooting for nothing more than to see them in do it.  UCLA certainly has the best history in the NCAA basketball tournaments.  I thought about saving this basketball art piece for later when UCLA moves on to the finals. But I do have my doubts of them beating No. 1 Gonzaga when they face them on Saturday.

 I know this has really has been a “March Madness” with there being 14 upsets in the NCAA tournament (13 being the previous record).  And UCLA accounted for 3 of them.  But the dream run is probably over. 

 UCLA Bruins Fan

 As a native of Los Angeles and living on the Westside of LA, the UCLA Bruins has always been the college that I followed - even though I had to go to another in the area college (bad GPA) - which shall remain nameless.  In my college years and after, UCLA was dominate in basketball under Coach Wooden.  He is a tough act to follow - but, we fans always have hopes.

March Madness NCAA Tournament Art

NCAA March Madness Basketball

The drama of the dunk shot is a perfect subject matter for a basketball painting.  I have painted this image of a basketball dunk shot a number of times for a variety of clients.  This is a new one painted pretty recently - probably because, at the time, of the upcoming interest in the NCAA March Madness . The client was aware that I am duplicating the painting from a previous painting and realize each version is unique.   I am in the photo so you can get a sense of the size of the painting.  The original dunk shot painting, or I should say paintings were painted for an NBA Basketball commercial for Fox Sports Net   They own the originals and the art was painted in a different color scheme.

The Dunk Shot   

With the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament being played it seemed in keeping to post this photograph of my basketball art.  Seeing a dunk shot is the one play everybody likes to watch particularly if the dunk is coming from a basketball player taking off in flight somewhere north of the free throw line.  We love the aerobatics of the player flying through the air with his hand on the ball as he is about to drop the bomb through the net for a score. The beauty, the grace and the violence of the ball slamming through the net gives us great satisfaction

The painting is approximately 48” x 60” acrylic on unstretched canvas. And I do work on commissions if you have a specific sports selfie or photograph you would like painted.

Basketball Art Sports LA Lakers

Elgin Baylor Lakers Basketball

Before there was a three point line there was Elgin Baylor.   Before there was Michael Jordan there was Elgin Baylor. Elgin was named after the Elgin Marbles because his parents knew he would be a classic.  He was a mythic player rising above talents that played with him so you went to the basketball games to see him play.

LA Lakers Small Forward

Baylor’s hang time on a jump shot was like watching a guy shoot from a balloon.  And the basketball’s flight was so smooth it floated to the hoop.  His running bank shot was another classic launching other balloons that would float over bigger defenders.  Because of his height (6 feet 5 inches) he was considered an undersized rebounder.  Undersized?  That is like saying Magic Johnson is undersized, maybe standing next to "Shaq" O'Neal. As a “small forward” Baylor averaged 13.5 rebounds per game during his career, including 19.8 rebounds per game.   during the 1960–61 season — a season average exceeded by only five other players in NBA history, all of whom were 6 ft 8 in or taller.  (Thank you Wikipedia)  Those are “giant”  numbers. 

As a boy the NBA was still just starting to get attention to the general sports fan.  My dad took me to a lot of baseball games (Minor league as the Dodgers had not arrived in LA yet) and football. The Rams was the major sporting event to watch.  It wasn’t until the 1960-61 season that the Lakers  showed up in LA   When Baylor set a new NBA scoring record when he scored 71 points in the 1960–61season it was time for my dad and me to start paying attention to the NBA.

March Madness NCAA Tournament

NCAA Basketball March Madness

 The man of La Mancha loves The NCAA basketball tournament.  I am sure Don Quixote lowered the drawbridge this past weekend and rode out on Rocinante to enjoy watching March Madness.  The NCAA basketball tournament lives up to his kind of dreams.  Every game has an opportunity for honey and cream. Sometimes it is only a sip as we watch an underdog team think they are going to win - and then realize the last shot did not go in and they only got a taste of that cream.  A number one seeded team may be tested into overtime by a team sitting at the bottom of the bracket.  It’s exhilarating to watch the basketball game go into overtime for the potential upset and crazy chaos to follow.

 

Excitement of March Madness

 Our favorite underdog challenges the ”unbeatable foe” and like most dreams, (the cynic that I am) they end – sometimes they end in success but usually they end in failure.  And that is why we love to watch one of the most exciting championships of any sport.   The players are young and enthusiastic.  They come to the game with dreams of winning – metaphorically in a better world.  The NCAA basketball tournament playoffs and finals give us that enthralling, excitement of (what the great sports broadcaster, Jim McKay would say) “…the thrill of victory…and the agony of defeat.”

 The basketball art, painting is approximately 26” by 48” ink and acrylic on old newsper

Basketball Art NCAA Tournament

March Madness

When you read this and see my painting of the basketball player holding the ball, the NCAA’s March Madness may have already passed.  Is there or was there a  fairy tale story in this March Madness?  Who goes down, or went down the crazy rabbit hole with the March Hare, runs with the mad hatter and comes out winning in wonderland.  The covid pandemic may have come and gone the way of other viruses or college teams.  A great college team comes along, stays together and sweeps everything.  And then goes into the doldrums.   

NCAA Basketball History Best Team UCLA

An NCAA team we have not heard from much in these last few years is UCLA.   Of course my all time favorite team (because I am from LA) is the Bruins under the great coaching leadership of John Wooden.  And, of course their run through the NCAA’s March Madness is legendary.  From 1963-75 the UCLA Bruins had an overall record of 335-22 (93.8 winning percentage); 10 national championships and four undefeated seasons. That’s as good as it gets.  How good were they? They had an 88-game winning streak, but what a lot of people don’t know is that the  Bruins went 205-5 (97.6 percent) during one seven year run.

Personal Meaning

On a personal level  putting those numbers into perspective is daunting.  I’m an artist and I paint a lot.  I used to say, “A painting a day keeps the creditors away”  Comparing those percentage points, let’s say that I paint 200 paintings - then only 5 of them would be bad.  If I was a baseball player I’d be batting .970.  That is outrageous.  When I am on a streak, as a painter I can paint three good ones out of ten.  I would be three for ten - batting .300.  That’s if I am really lucky.  Like a lot college basketball teams I just go along and have some good seasons and some great seasons.  Occasionally, not so good.  

The March Madness tournament is always like entering “ Through the Looking Glass”  because you never know what you are going to see.  Are the players going to play as if they trained with a skillful coach or are they going to act as if trained by a Hookah-Smoking Caterpillar.  That is what makes watching a college basketball tournament so exciting. They beat the pros for enthusiasm every time. 

A  highly ranked team pulls a “humpty-dumpty” and gets knocked off.  With every turn on the scoreboard the college basketball world gets stunned when a favorite loses and we watch the merriment of the underdog.  There is nothing more exciting than a true buzzer-beater.  That’s what great about watching the NCAA March Madness tournament – anything can happen an this year is no different than any other in that respect.

The March Madness basketball painting by sports artist John Robertson is 54" x 72" acrylic on unstretched canvas

Basketball Art Dunk Shot Painting

The Dunk Shot

The dunk shot is a good reason we go to basketball games.  It’s the same reason some go to the ballet.  We want to see the basketball player fly.  We are not as much interested in seeing the ground game with a guy dribble a ball down the court.  What we want to see the spectacular leaps and bounds, the jumps (Superman flying, the sun coming up over the horizon), the amazing ability to defy gravity. That’s what we want to see - the dunk shot.

And we want to see it done with a basketball in the basketball player’s hands. We love “the air game” with the basketball grasped in the hand of a player reaching above the rim for the dunk. 

We want to see the basketball player takeoff from the baseline and the long soaring  outreach of the hand with a grip on the ball and to hear the swish of the net.  That is what we want to see.

And in this basketball painting of a hand about to dunk a basketball I am trying to capture that feeling of what it is like to watch a high flying bomber about to smash a basketball through the net.

The basketball art is 60” by 84” acrylic on unstretched canvas.  This means there are no stretcher bars or frame.  It is meant to hang like a  tapestry or banner.  Available for sale.

NBA Milwaukee Bucks Basketball Art Dunk Shot

Milwaukee Bucks Basketball Art

 Earlier in the year I had painted a basketball painting for the NBA Milwaukee Bucks.  This basketball sports art is approximately 5 feet by 7 feet, acrylic on unstretched canvas.  I am not sure where in the Fiserv Forum the art is hanging.  If you happen to be in the arena I would love a photograph of it showing where it hangs.  I would show my appreciation for the photo by provide a nice archival print of one of my sports paintings.

 About the Basketball Painting

 One of the difficulties to paint a hand dunking the basketball is to get a good photo of lthe action.  Through a contact I was able to get a college basketball player to dunk the ball.  I stood on a ladder and the guy continued to dunk the ball time after time.  It was not only this shot of him dunking I got, but his hand in various positions above the rim and the ball being slammed down through the basketball net.  Because of this I was able to paint a number of basketball paintings showing the ball in different stages of the dunk shot.