Have You Ever Met A Famous Artist?

[Sean Regan]

The death of Jack Vettriano the self-taught Scottish artist, prompted this post.
His painting. The "Singing Butler," became the one of which there were more prints displayed in homes, than any other painting.






It overtook this of another self-taught artist, the Russian, Vladimir Tretchikoff, who spent most of his life in South Africa.





He was the artist my wife and I met back in the seventies.
We were shopping in a Manchester departmental store and we stumbled across an exhibition being held there of his paintings on a top floor.
The object of course was to sell the prints. We spent quite some time looking at the originals on display. We much preferred those of his animals. There weren't many people there. This guy approached us and introduced himself as the artist. We told him how much we liked his work and he spent some with us explaining how he came to paint several. Of course, we couldn't afford at the time to buy any of his prints.

There's been a documentary on Jack Vettriano, I think on BBC TV. So it will now, probably be repeated.

 

[MiTmite9]

Many years ago I knew Julian Ritter. He was famous for his nudes and clowns. He lived in Santa Barbara (Montecito), CA.
Just now, I was unable to find the image online of the one nude of his I liked the best.
Apparently the images I wanted to upload here are too large, apart from the one shown. This is a framed print of one of Julian's nudes done in chalk. The majority of his most magnificent creations were in oil paint. (The model's face here is blurred a bit due to reflection on the glass.)

 

[MiTmite9]

If we're including actors as artists, I once knew and worked for Virginia Gilmore. She was well-known back in the 40s and 50s. She starred in "Western Union" with Robert Young and Randolph Scott. I knew Virginia for many years before I found out she had been married to Yul Brynner for 16 years.

And --- I was once introduced and sat next to (at a Genesis concert) Josh Brolin. A mutual friend introduced us and said, "Josh is going to be an actor." Josh was 17 at the time.

 

[MiTmite9]

The death of Jack Vettriano the self-taught Scottish artist, prompted this post.
His painting. The "Singing Butler," became the one of which there were more prints displayed in homes, than any other painting.






It overtook this of another self-taught artist, the Russian, Vladimir Tretchikoff, who spent most of his life in South Africa.





He was the artist my wife and I met back in the seventies.
We were shopping in a Manchester departmental store and we stumbled across an exhibition being held there of his paintings on a top floor.
The object of course was to sell the prints. We spent quite some time looking at the originals on display. We much preferred those of his animals. There weren't many people there. This guy approached us and introduced himself as the artist. We told him how much we liked his work and he spent some with us explaining how he came to paint several. Of course, we couldn't afford at the time to buy any of his prints.

There's been a documentary on Jack Vettriano, I think on BBC TV. So it will now, probably be repeated.

Unlike a great many well-known artists, Vetttriano lived to see his masterpieces be celebrated as such and also sell for big money. Thank you for peaking my interest in him.

 

[kate_grey]

Unfortunately, never, but I think everything is still to come.

 

[reder]

I actually met a local painter once who ended up getting featured in a gallery. Super humble guy. It made me appreciate how much talent is out there. I’ve been browsing art online lately, too. Some Fine Art America reviews say it's great for discovering new artists, though others mention shipping delays.

 

[Scott F]

I’ve met renowned wildlife artist Al Agnew. He’s probably most famous for having painted many of the covers of the Bass Pro Shops catalog. Aside from painting incredibly lifelike wildlife, he’s an avid fisherman. As a smallmouth bass fisherman myself, I became aware of Al when I purchased some signed prints he did of a smallmouth bass.