Art Donation Venice Family Clinic

About the Venice Family Clinic

Baseball Art Safe at Second 11 ix 14 artist John Robertson frame.jpg

 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 Players on Steroids

Baseball and Steroids, Runs, Hits and Lots of Errors

The first thing a new season’s manager needs to tell the players is the difference between human growth hormones (HGH), bovine growth hormone (bGH)and no hormones – and it has nothing to do with utters. He needs to tell the players some side

effects of steroids are reversible but other effects are never changed in the minds of the public.

By taking steroids and bGH a player can inflate his statistics and his body. I don’t mean to pick on Mark McGwire but to use him as an example In 1996 McGwire hit 50 home runs with 390 official times at bat – every 7.8 times he was at the plate. Babe Ruth did that eating candy bars and "light drink." When listening to McGwire’s infamous performance before 

House Government Reform Committee

 in March 2005 there were short pauses while viewers smothered their faces with laughter. McGwire didn’t hit 135 home runs in two years eating bonbons. Originally the baseball was made so you couldn’t hit it easily, high, or far, so 60 home runs a season hitters are usually pituitary freaks. But we want our players to be made by nature not in the lab. Remember when baseball players were small? (For example: PeeWee Reese). Joe DIMaggiowas only 6 feet 2 inches and weighed 193 pounds. 

Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio? There is a generation out there that thinks DiMaggio invented the coffee maker. Like Joe DiMaggio, baseball players are symbols – of what things were what things are and what things will be. I guess we, as fans, get what we deserve. I just prefer not to see a some great ballplayer pumped up on steroids riding in a convertible waving to a frenzied crowd.

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Art Basketball Image player dribbling the ball

basketball dribbling, basketball dribble, charcoal drawings, art drawing, drawing art,
I did a series of large-scale (5 ft by 6 ft) black and white paintings for the Amway Sports Arena in Orlando Florida a couple of months ago. (Home of the Orlando Magic) I sometimes do charcoal drawings or small paintings first to see if the image is going to work well. (You can see some of those paintings further down on the blog.) I was running out of paper so I drew this basketball image of a player dribbling the ball on a map.

Art basketball. Sport image on map by sports artist John Robertson
dribbling is 10" x 14" charcoal on paper.

End Zone Catch

This is a very humble and crude charcoal drawing of a receiver catching a football in the end zone. The questions sometimes arise from sports fans as to why I would draw something this simple and crude. Well, one of the reasons is that I get bored seeing the same old drawings and paintings of sports action in a traditional, finished and polished style. The idea of an artist is to capture the essential meaning or feeling of the image. So to draw or paint it like a photograph takes away from that idea. That is not to say that I did that in this drawing – but an attempt to do so in all of my work. It is in the trying.

Charcoal drawing of a football player by artist John Robertson is 18" x 24" on paper.

Football Art Quarterback Joe Namath Charcoal Drawing

Quarterback, Quarteracks, football images, football art, Joe Namath Preliminary drawing for a large painting of Joe Namath of the New York Jets. The drawing is 24" x 18" charcoal on paper. If you want to see the finished painting tht is 8 feet tall by 3 ½ feet wide please visit my web site at http://www.johnrobertsonsportsart.com/

Football Art - Linebacker - Charcoal Drawing

Preliminary drawing for a large painting that you can see further down on this blog. The drawing is 24" x 18" charcoal on paper.. Number 66 linebacker. I am not sure who this drawing represents. Three good ones come to mind. Clyde Turner (Chicago Bears ,Ray Nitschke (Green Bay Packers) or Billy Shaw (Buffalo Bills). In the end I prefer Ray Nitschke of the Green Bay Packers. That is because I spent a couple of weeks in Green Bay in the early 60’s and went to the daily workouts on Lambeau Field. At the time they allowed the public to sit right on the bench with the players during workout. It was fun to be so "up close and personal" with the players.

Football Art Running Back Charcoal Drawing

Preliminary drawing for a large painting that you can see further down on this blog. The drawing is 24" x 18" charcoal on paper.. Number 28 running back. I’m not sure who this art represents. Three good ones come to mind. Marshall Faulk running back for Indianapolis Colts, St. Louis Rams, running back Darrell Green, Washington Redskins or running back Curtis Martin who played for the New England Patriots and the New York Jets.