Strangely Gramatky never worked as a background painter at Disney's. He was an animator, and was reputed to be a pretty good one. Check out his animation (and David Nethery's interesting comments) on Michael Sporn's blog, the Sept. 6, 2011 entry: http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/
BTW how do you like the juicy, vivid colors here: purple, black and green? How do you like the loose, painterly line?
A lot of artists are more familiar with Gramatky's later work (above), which was full of contrasts and used the white of the paper whenever possible. I don't know who pioneered this style, but over time a large number of California painters adopted it.
You don't suppose Gramatky invented this style, do you?
My painting teacher would never let any of us use black. What would he have said if he'd seen Gramatky's pictures, which are full of it? The picture above looks like something Milton Canniff would have done. Click to enlarge.
Gramatky excelled at all the styles he tried, but my favorites were done in the gritty, cartoony, quick sketch method he applied to Depression-era subjects like the one above.
If I didn't know Gramatky did the painting above, I'd have guessed it was an early painting by Lee or Mary Blair.
Like I said, Gramatky did the Little Toot books (above). I have early printings of two of them, and I treasure them. I wonder if these were published by Western Publishing, who did the Golden Books line. Western benefited from a lucky accident that delivered first class lithographic equipment into their hands. The company attracted top illustrators partly because artists knew their work would be printed beautifully.
Gramatky was a close friend of urban painter Millard Sheets, and the influence (above) shows.
I was only able to locate one oil painting (actually acrylic according to Linda Gramatky) of Gramatky's. That's it above. It's terrific, but I think watercolor conveyed Gramatky's cheerful, light-hearted personality better.
22 comments:
Spot on comments, Eddie. That top one is particularly great.
Great post on a great painter! I've never seen some of these images. Thanks.
Those are beautiful. I have a print done in the same style of a cafe in my kitchen. I like landscapes and cityscapes painted with "informed looseness" I guess you could call it. Good color choices, great composition, confident brush strokes but the execution isn't labored over or at least it doesn't look like it is.
Great paintings, I always liked the little toot illustrations, but did not remember who did those. The watercolors remind me of John Pike. Thanks for posting these
Adam: Yeah, confident brush strokes count for a lot. That's true even for drawing.
Moon: I associate it with John Pike, too. Him and a watercolorist named Brandt were the first to get mass market how-to books out on this style. Gramatky remains a candidate for inventer, though. You can see the style evolving in the course of his work.
Kellie, Z: Thanks!
I love the California watercolor style. In a way it's a very period style, but also timeless. A Google search and subsequent link-following turns up a treasure trove.
Thanks for digging up these treasures, Eddie. Gramatky was a big early influence on me. I gotta find my "Little Toot" books!
Hey, Eddie, I wrote a post on my blog critical of some DVD commentaries you did a few years back and the ruckus that ensued was pretty hilarious. Take a look:
http://flowerpressed.tumblr.com/
http://kalikazoo.tumblr.com/
http://nicocolaleo.tumblr.com/
Ain't I a stinker?
BTW, Kali's response really was informational, explanatory, well-written, well thought out, and she made a point by point case for the commentaries. But I still think nobody cares about any of it except for nerds who need to get a life.
Jorge: Haw! Yeah, my part of that commentary did suck, and if I distracted John when he was talking about technique then I definitely deserve to take the fall for it.
I wish I'd gotten a copy of the films we were going to discuss before the session began. If I'd seen them first (I hadn't seen those particular films in years) I would have declined to do the commnentary. I just didn't think some of the films were first-rate Fleischer. They were professional, but most lacked the imagination and excitement of that studio's best work. I decided to be silent rather than make negative comments.
I blame myself for not being more aggressive about getting hold of copies of the cartoons. I'm sure the studio would have given me copies if they'd known I wanted them.
The lesson I learned from that session was to get copies early, and to be willing to pass on gigs that I'm not right for.
Eddie
Gramatky did paint the rabbits. He did many illustrations for various magazines.
You might want to direct your readers to
http://www.californiawatercolor.com/artists/hardie_gramatky/biography/
Andrew Wyeth picked Gramatky as one of the 20 great American watercolor artists, which is in the bio.
Michael Johnson
Californiawatercolor.com
What a thrill, Eddie, when your post came up on Google Alerts about my dad, Hardie Gramatky. "Moon Magic", the rabbits, is the only watercolor he ever gave me, so now it's hanging in my grandson's room. And I wish I could show you an example of Dad's few oil paintings (can you believe he DESTROYED them all when he was moving to NYC because he liked watercolor better?) that are outstanding. He was a master at both mediums. The one you show here (about building the highway) is actually done in acrylics, I believe.
Nice of Michael Johnson to mention Andrew Wyeth's amazing list of the 20 all-time great American watercolorists. Dad would have been so honored. And a terrific 10-page article on Dad is coming out this month in Watercolor magazine's 25th anniversary issue. The writer/editor wanted to feature him because she (Naomi Ekperigin) feels that too many critics and art schools have overlooked the very qualities of Hardie Gramatky that you describe and praise, Eddie! Wish she could have quoted you in her article.
And feel free to check out our websites (www.gramatky.com and www.littletoot.org) where I've tried to share fun stories about my terrific father.
I treasure all the wonderful comments your readers have made. It's late here in Westport, but I wanted to write back right away. Best to all, Linda (Gramatky Smith)
I have a couple of those John Pike how to books, I have spent many hours looking at them in amazement when I should have been painting instead. I remember looking at the little toot book too as a kid, it's great to now know who did the artwork and to find out about Gramatky's development of the style
Forgot to add that Dad knew Johnny Pike (and I think had met Milton Caniff).
And Little Toot was the first children's book published by G. P. Putnam's Sons (in 1939) and it wasn't a Golden Book. There was a later Golden Book about a tugboat named Scuffy. Just FYI.
Unfortunately, Putnam's kept using the same plates for 68 years and poor Little Toot book got SO faded. The main colors turned to orange and gray, not kid-friendly colors, so we were thrilled in 2007 when the head of Putnam's Young Readers, Nancy Paulsen, decided to rescan the original artwork AND add nine new full-color manuscript sketches dad had done. The new "restored classic" edition of Little Toot is so full of the same vibrant colors that you mention in your blog, Eddie, and I am so, so proud of it. It was important to me to have today's kids see the artwork as Dad originally painted it in primary colors.
Again, best to you, Linda
Linda: Holy Cow!!! Hardie Gramatky's daughter!!! That's royalty in my world. If I'd known you were going to write I would have dusted and picked up all the dirty clothes.
Hardie was one of the all time great watercolorists. His pictures convey happiness and sanity and skill. They make me glad to be alive.
I bookmarked the Gramatky site and couldn't help noticing that
you have a great writing style. It's evident even in the comments you wrote here. Why not do a book on your dad? That's no doubt a much bigger job than I can imagine, so if it doesn't happen, I'll understand. I just thought that maybe your unique style would help to convey the happy, intelligent spirit in your dad's pictures.
Michael: Holy Mackerel! THAT is one heck of a site! Many, many thanks for the link!!!
Oh my, Eddie, you made me laugh! Royalty? Me? I was just lucky to have a talented dad whom I really adored. So you can see why I was touched by your wonderful comments. And we are so lucky that California Watercolor decided to make the very best quality giclees of Dad's watercolors because now it is not just art collectors who can have a "Gramatky" on their walls. Glad you liked that site.
And you intuitively got the essence of Dad's talent: he was an optimistic, humble guy who felt so glad to be able to paint until the end of his life (too early at age 72 from cancer). There is always something "happening" in his paintings and the light and colors just make me happy too.
Funny that just a couple of days ago I thought, "I think I'm probably never going to be able to write that book on Dad." Other artists had "patrons" who would bankroll a biography, but Dad just painted what he loved, kept pushing the boundaries (if someone bought a watercolor, he didn't then decide to paint a similar one because that's what sold -- he was on to the next challenge instead!) and growing as an artist. So I'm afraid we don't know anyone who thinks a Gramatky biography should be published. :-( But, hey, never say never in this life. :-)
Thanks to you, Eddie. Linda
Linda: Patrons? I assume you mean sympathetic publishers or foundations, but it occurs to me that some of the best art books might get an assist from some private person who's willing to finance the assembly of the book. If that's true it would explain how some of my favorite art books got published.
The one that comes to mind is the book on Cecil Bell (a New York painter from the 40s...I blogged about him a while back, maybe in 2007) that came out in the seventies or eighties. I don't think it sold well, but I'm sure it had a huge impact on the artists who bought it.
Thank God George Post and some other California painters got books about 20 years ago. I guess your Dad was left out out of that, maybe because the first books in the series didn't sell well. Mary Blair didn't get a book til almost ten years ago, and Lee Blair never got a book that I know of. I guess Museum catalogues and anthologies are the best that many of the best artists can hope for.
It's horrible to think that a lot of our best artists may be lost to posterity because they didn't get a book. I worry about the preservation of original watercolors, which strike me as especially vulnerable to fading.
Understandable, Eddie. I agree the films weren't the best Fleischers, except for the two-reelers, but even those weren't as funny as the best Fleischers, just more adventurous and appealing in a different way. I think in a situation like that were they didn't provide copies of the films beforehand (!) anyone would have been hard-pressed to do decent commentaries.
I would love a Hardy Gramatky art book, it would be a treasure. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the websites. I will watch for the Watercolor issue coming out this month.
This blog consistently gives me artists and information and entertainment that I did not know I was missing out on- I don't comment often, but I do read and appreciate every post
Sorry to be out of touch for a few days because I appreciated Eddie's take on the use of my word "patron". Some artists did use that word (I'm thinking of Millard Sheets) but I wasn't thinking of publishers (ours said that art books don't sell well so in this economy they're reluctant to publish any) or foundations, but I did mean private people. You're right that some of the terrific art books on different artists were just financed by people who loved their work and wanted the world to know about it. I agree with you completely.
There was a great book (I've bought a couple of copies on eBay) called Six Artists Paint a Landscape with Dad and five of his Connecticut artist friends (all good, and I remember Steven Dohanos, John Pellew, Alex Ross, Wally Richards and one more). I see that www.biblio.com has some inexpensive copies, but it was a terrific book where they took the six artists to the SAME location and then took photos of how they went about painting this house/landscape and interviewed them on their techniques. Published by North Light, I think. Fun to see how the watercolorists painted so differently.
We've always read about how vulnerable watercolors are to fading (especially from art historians) but it's amazed me that when my husband and I take one of Dad's out of a frame, there are not darker colors beneath where the frame was. Of course we don't leave most in very strong sunlight, but an artist who paints with vivid, strong colors doesn't seem to be as vulnerable as the early English artists who used very light washes with almost no color. Oh well, we try to protect them anyway, and most of these paintings aren't more than 80 years old.
And I got a couple of copies of the Watercolor 25th anniversary issue and it looks really spectacular. The entire issue has so many good articles, but the article on Dad is really featured.
Love and thanks for all your interesting comments! Linda
Linda: Thank you too, Linda! I'll check out that copy of Watercolor magazine!
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