Go Skateboard Day Skateboarder Art

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Go Skateboarding Day. 

One of the great activities of the last 70 years is skateboarding.  And what better day than to relive the past is to dig out the skateboard buried in the basement or garage and head out to a nice concrete spot and celebrate Go Skateboard Day.

 I did some skateboarding when I was in my teens and early twenties.  Much later, after I was first married we had moved into our first home.  It was in my old neighborhood so some of the neighbors knew me.  But I was older now, married and settled down with a small child of my own.  One day there was a knock at the front door.  A kid about twelve from the group spoke up and asked, “Can John come out and play?”  They wanted me to come out and skateboard with them.  My wife turned to me and said, “Get your skateboard but be home by dark”.

About the Skateboarder Art

 And here is a piece of skateboarder art that I did a few years ago.  I live in a town of both surfers and skateboarders.  Only a few blocks from me is a promenade along where a couple of good surfing spots are located.  So the surfers gather in the parking lot and in between trips to the water some will break out their skateboards.  Others are just skaters coming down to watch the surfers and skate. In the case of this skateboarder, she was standing on the promenade looking out at the surf at Ventura Point in Ventura, Ca.

Minnesota Vikings Football Art

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A few years ago I created a number of football art pieces for the NFL  Minnesota Vikings, US Bank stadium in Minneapolis , Minnesota.   Although I do paint large it was fun to see one of the paintings projected up onto the Jumbotron TV screens in the stadium.  Now that is big.

The original painting of a wide receiver catching a football is displayed in the stairway leading down to a number of suites below.  The art is four feet by eight feet and stretched canvas.  More of my football art is in a variety of locations of the US Bank Stadium.

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My wife is originally from Minnesota and still has a couple of sisters in the state. We visit the state quite often.  ONe place is in a small town about an hour north out of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St.Paul and the other is sister lives in a small town in the southwest corner and close to the border of  South Dakota and Iowa.


Home Décor Sports Art

Interior Décor using Sports Art

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 Too often sports art is discounted as an attractive piece of wall décor in designing the interior of a home. If your client is a sports fan, and in the case of baseball, you can see how the art makes a nice statement to the home décor.  The design of the room is done professionally and  perfectly composed.  The interior decorator compliments the muted colors of the grey bedspread and headboard, along with the white interior of the walls and then adds the personal touch of the personal character of the homeowner.  They are sports fans. And with its use it gives a nice, clean look to the room without overpowering the interior or drawing too much attention to the art.  It provides a nice balance without the clutter of competing with other parts of the décor.

 It is always of interest and enjoyment for me to see a photograph of how my sports art is used. And I like to see how an interior designer uses my sports art as home décor. I tend to think that my sports art ends up in a den or office space.  But in this case the black and white baseball art is used in the bedroom.  I think that it is a nice addition to the room.

 Sports Art Description

 The baseball art is 24" x 48" acrylic and ink on newsprint and magazine pages mounted to canvas and gallery wrapped.

Art Donation Venice Family Clinic

About the Venice Family Clinic

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 This ink drawing on drafting film is this year’s donation to the Venice Family Clinic Art Walk that raises over $800,000 for affordable health care for those who live in poverty.  Venice Family Clinic provides more than 115,000 primary care, specialty care, mental health, dental, and health education visits annually.  For more information about the Venice Family Clinic Annual Event  To visit the on-line auction that features over 200 art works of art by nationally recognized contemporary artists hosted by Artsy.

 This is an opportunity to get one of my sports drawings at a reasonable price.  If you want you can bid my piece on Artsy (click here).  As you may know I have created sports art for a variety of sports teams and stadiums, including Atlanta Braves, Milwaukee Bucks, Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings and many more.  

 About tthe Venice Family Clinic Auction Piece

 “Safe at Second” is an ink drawing on drafting film of MLB baseball players.The narrative of the drawing of a a base runner sliding into second with the ball being thrown late to the second baseman.Ink on drafting film11 × 14 in.27.9 × 35.6 cm.

Baseball Art of Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Honus Wagner

Baseball Art Honus Wagner Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Fame

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 Honus Wagner Hs been considered one of the greatest baseball players of all time.  And most people know that the Honus Wagner baseball card is one of the most valuable sports card around. The reason it is so valuable is because it was recalled in 1909 and all were destroyed except for a few that got into circulation. At the time, the cards were distributed along with tobacco.   Wagner didn’t smoke and he didn’t like to being included in the tobacco promotion because he did not want to set a bad example for children.

 Honus Wagner’s Hall of Fame Induction Speech June 12, 1939.  Cooperstown,  NY.

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 Honus Wagner’s Hall of Fame Induction Speech June 12, 1939.  Cooperstown, NY.    “Ladies and gentlemen, I was born 1874, and this organization was started was 1876. When I was just a kid I said, “ I hope some day I’ll be up there playing in this league.” And by chance I did. Now Connie Mack the gentleman that preceeded me here at the mike, I remember walking fourteen miles just to see him play ball for Pittsburgh. (crowd laughs) Walking and running, or hitchhiking a ride on a buggy, them days we had no automobile. I certainly am pleased to be here in Cooperstown today, and this is just a wonderful little city, or town, or village or whaever we’d call it. It puts me in mind of Sleepy Hollow. (crowd laughs) However I want to thank you for being able to come here today.”

Basketball Art Sports LA Lakers

Elgin Baylor Lakers Basketball

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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.

Basketball Art NCAA Tournament

March Madness

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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


Boxing Art Painting Marvin Hagler’s Death

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Marvelous Marvin Hagler passed away over the weekend.  He was one of my favorite boxers of all time - although this is not a painting of him in the ring. But his death reminded me of my enjoyment of watching boxing on tv  as a kid with my dad.  That continued through the 80’s when I watched Hagler’ major fights that were shown on tv.  They were classic all out brawls - my favorite being his battles with Thomas “Hitman” Hearns.  

This interest in boxing continued to a point where I did a series of boxing paintings and drawing and had a show with a number of the works.  The painting shown here was one of those paintings and one I had decided to keep around for a while.

The boxing painting is in storage but, as I remember, it is 36” x 36” acrylic on stretched canvas

Baseball Pop Art Left- Handed Catcher Sports Painting

The Left-Handed Catcher 

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What baseball play do you think this left-handed catcher would like to be involved with?  A batter in the right side of the batter’s box and a runner trying to go from second to third base.  That’s this left-handed catcher's wheel-house.  That’s the pocket to be sitting in. He doesn’t even have to come out of his squatting stance behind the plate to throw the guy out - a bazooka shot straight down the left foul line  And after this catcher throws out that base runner at third he is going to scowl at the runner, looking through his catcher's mask as if that guy had some nerve just to take a big lead off of second. base. 

Just think, when that catcher was a kid trying out the position as a left hander the coach probably looked over at him behind home plate and yelled out a string of four letter words that meant,  “Get out of there.  You want to play, get on first.”  Because in those days left-handers did not play catcher. You get the eerie feeling that if Thomas Wolfe was the coach he would have told him, “You can never play home.”  The only way a left-hander can get there on his own is by hitting a home run - unless he steals i - which means,. left-handed catchers are as rare as uncooked meat.

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The baseball painting of the catcher created in a pop art style is 54” by 71” acrylic on unstretched canvas.  There is no stretcher bars or frame.  It hangs like a banner or tapestry.


NFL Green Bay Packers Aaron Rodgers Art

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Football Art Aaron Rodgers

NFL Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers art was painted a bit ago but I never posted it.. Although I have painted a number of Green Bay Packers paintings for their Lambeau Field stadium for their remodel last year, this one I still own. This art of Rodgers is 4 feet by 6 feet, acrylic on unstretched canvas. .

Why I paint Green Bay Packers Players

Since the sixties I have been a Green Bay Packers fan when I took a trip back to Green Bay. I spent a couple of weeks there with my best friend. Our afternoons always ended by going out to the Packers Lambeau practice field (which was just across from the old Lambeau Stadium) and watching them in their afternoon practice The field was open and anyone could stop by and watch. These were the days when Green Bay dominated under Vince Lombardi: Bart Starr, Paul Hornung. Jim Taylor, Fuzzy Thurston, and my favorite the great middle linebacker, number 66 Ray Nitschke who played his entire career at Green Bay. Now-a-days I lean towards the Vikings because my sweetheart is from Minnesota. It is a tough decision during Packers and Vikings games on whom to yell for.

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