OT - Sports Paintings & Illustrations

[ChrisCavalier]

Hello Everyone,

While I know this question doesn't relate to game used memorabilia, I was hoping to get some opinions on another form of sports collectible. I was at the All-Star FanFest yesterday in San Francisco and ran into an exhibitor I met at the SportsFest last month. The company sells sports art and had, among other things, a number of great pieces by Stephen Holland (in fact, the new Holland Pujols piece in particular caught my eye).

I was just wondering what collectors thought of sports art as a collectible (given a number of these pieces are limited editions I am presuming they are considered collectible). Does anyone buy/collect sports art? If not, is the main deterrent cost, space or something else? I see how much money people are willing to spend on a sports cards (in many cases a photo on a piece of cardboard) and was wondering what collectors thought about purchasing sports art.

Thanks in advance for your replies. I am very intrigued by this medium and would love to know what others thought of it.

-Chris

[harpt]

Chris

I have some stuff by Rick Rush (who they call the Norman Rockwell of sports), who I really like alot. The limited edition print, in the case of one of my pieces, is limited to 190. I find this very attractive compared to (for example) many wildlife prints (like Terry Redlin) where the pieces are limited to something like 3,500 prints.

Stephen Holland is a good one though. Very unique looking stuff.

Scott

[David]

Consider paintings. It takes hundreds of hours to make one and there's very little forgery with modern sports paintings.

[rose14]

I have several pieces in my collection. I have a couple of original pieces by Darryl Vlasak along with a very unique Mickey Mantle piece. This item is 40 x 49 and is made up of neary 2,700 different Topps mico baseball cards. When right up on the item it looks like a bunch of different cards but as you get about 4 feet or further away the famous image of Mickey Mantle and his #7 appear from the backgrounds of the cards. This piece was the first one that this artist did and there were only 7 ever made. I am not sure how the artist did it but it is really cool looking. I know the same artist did a Babe Ruth one and it sold for over $8,000 in the December Lelands auction.

[AbsolonMoreau]

How my Mantle painting is evolving, hoping to be done with it this week

Original image:




Need to make the face a lot more realistic and then will make the bat look more realistic too!

[71buc]

I have enough trouble affording the things I currently collect. I love art and baseball but cannot afford to indulge both. I really enjoy vintage baseball photography which is about as close as my budget lets me come to art. I do have one piece of original comic art depicting Clemente. Revolutionary comics came out with a Clemente issue in 1992. I am a huge Clemente fan so on a whim I called the company and asked if I could purchase a page. They said sure and asked me which I wanted. I purchased this splash page for $100.00. I think it was the best in the book and now wish I had bought more of them. Nonetheless it is cool to own a one of a kind item featuring the great one.

[Gkreindler]

Hey all,

I haven't posted anything here in a while, so for those of you who are interested, here's some of the stuff I've finished since:


Lou Gehrig, 1925, 16" x 20"


Stan Musial, 1942, 16" x 20"


Mickey Mantle, April 14, 1951, 9" x 12"


Willie Mays, 1955, 9" x 12"


Derek Jeter, 200, 11" x 14"


Babe Ruth, June 25, 1920, 28" x 50"


Babe Ruth, November 4, 1934, 50" x 64"


Roger Maris, October 1, 1961, 38" x 52"

And a few random in-progresses:


Mickey Mantle, May 14, 1955, 9" x 12"


Red Ruffing, 1936, 16" x 20"


Babe Ruth, 1918, 30" x 34"


Lou Gehrig, 1938, 18" x 24"

Hope y'all dig 'em!!

Graig

[cohibasmoker]

In the early 1970's, there were a series of prints distributed and done by a guy named David Boss. They were pretty cool items because they came already mounted on a antique looking frame and the process used to manufacture the prints made the pieces look like original artwork. Most of the major NFL teams were reproduced and now and again, they show-up on eBay anywhere from $25-$100 bucks.

Jim

flaa1a@comcast.net

[b.heagy]

In the early 1970's, there were a series of prints distributed and done by a guy named David Boss. They were pretty cool items because they came already mounted on a antique looking frame and the process used to manufacture the prints made the pieces look like original artwork. Most of the major NFL teams were reproduced and now and again, they show-up on eBay anywhere from $25-$100 bucks.

Jim

flaa1a@comcast.net

Love those prints ! Got one myself.

[encinorick]

Now, now gentlemen, an art critic, like myself, knows he is friendless. It is a thankless job, but necessary. Especially, in the world of sports.

I spoke with Hef just the other day and he and the girls, especially Kendra, love LeRoy's body of work. Pastels add just the kind of grittiness an artist needs for a good football image. I personally like the boxing pictures in pastels, they are so realistic, they almost scare me.

As far as the other comment I made, please excuse my insensitivity. Now if you can paint that what's-his-name Chicago White Sox pitcher in pastels, well, you may have something there.

I'm sure Dave at Mastroauctions would enjoy it very much.