Thursday, October 29, 2009

The Gover-nator, although a Republican...

......is my kind of guy for approving this message. I'm pretty sure one of his "people" came up with it, but so what? Arnold rocks, even if he talks funny. And Maria used to be sooooo hot.
I just love it.

http://news.aol.com/article/lawmaker-tom-ammiano-gets-hidden-veto/740049?icid=mainhtmlws-sb-ndl1link6http%3A%2F%2Fnews.aol.com%2Farticle%2Flawmaker-tom-ammiano-gets-hidden-veto%2F740049

Highwaymen stuff:

In other news, Harold Newton's work is good to buy, especially right now, if it's not a plain, nothing, boring painting. Find paintings that have some "jump" to them.

That's what I look for, gentle readers. Better ones.

Otherwise, you really are just buying an autograph.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Larry is free !!!

I think I could eat an 11 pound lobster. Not at one sitting, though, but I could do it in two or three.

http://www.pawnation.com/2009/10/27/septuagenarian-crustacean-to-be-freed-from-nyc-restaurant/?icid=main|htmlws-sb-n|dl5|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pawnation.com%2F2009%2F10%2F27%2Fseptuagenarian-crustacean-to-be-freed-from-nyc-restaurant%2F

A guy named Pablo painted this stuff.............

You think Harold Newton's work is expensive ?

Like them or not, (I don't, which is totally irrelevant), Picasso's work is worth ridiculous numbers, often in the millions.

As an aside, things signed Picasso often show up on eBay, America's fence. They are never genuine. I'd give you some links to prove it, but just trust me.

If they were genuine, they wouldn't be on eBay, they'd go to Christie's or Sotheby's and get serious money realized.

Here's a yard sale story from AOL this morning.


AOL News
posted: 14 HOURS 18 MINUTES AGO

(Oct. 27) -- It may be the bargain of a lifetime. At a yard sale earlier this month, a woman from Shreveport, La., paid just $2 for a painting with a famous name on it: Picasso.
Tiesha McNeal told KSLA-TV that after she bought the painting, she saw that it bore the last name of the Spanish artist and she called the FBI.
Skip over this content

What drew McNeal to the work? "The colors, they're bright colors. It's kind of different. The way that the artist did it, it just kind of caught my eye," she said. "It looks like a woman, with a guitar or possibly a baby."
McNeal had a KSLA camera crew with her when she arrived at the home of the sellers, Edith and Jim Parker, to tell them how valuable the object might have been.
"It makes me sick that I sold it for $2," a shocked Edith Parker said.
Later, Parker told ABC News that she held the garage sale to help out the relatives of an elderly neighbor who had just died. The neighbor was an art collector, and Parker said she asked the relatives about the Picasso signature. They told her it was a fake, she said.
"I kept looking at this picture and said, 'Well it don't look like much,' and it was in this cheap little frame," Parker told ABC.
McNeal told KSLA that the FBI now has the painting. The bureau wouldn't comment on artwork's status to ABC or the local station. But ABC reported that the FBI said the painting is not on a national list of stolen art. And in an interview with KSLA, a local art professor expressed skepticism that the painting was genuine.
2009 AOL LLC. All Rights Reserved.
2009-10-27 12:33:35

Make your own judgments, but what struck me about the many disturbing things in this story is how the media (ABC News) went right to the source to inform the seller and then (gleefully I'm sure) to wallow in the seller's possible misery.

If you get AOL you can see a video interview of the buyer, the sellers, and a local art expert.
I haven't figured out how to post videos on this blog yet.

Everyone on it seems a little goofy, but maybe that's just me being too judgmental.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

update: additional results for America's fence

Scroll down to Oct 15. The forgery sold.

The buyer has given a positive feedback. These things, once again, astonish me, and they also make me wonder whether or not there was an ACTUAL LEGITIMATE transaction here.

copied and pasted from eBay feedback :

Feedback From Buyer / Price Date / Time
Very pleased with purchase. Item arrived quickly & safe! gregnbeck ( 464) Oct-28-09 11:08
Highwaymen Painting..H.Newton..Florida Scene..LOOK (#360198422408) US $400.00

once again here's the link while the image lasts :

Click here: Highwaymen Painting..H.Newton..Florida Scene..LOOK - eBay (item 360198422408 end time Oct-21-09 17:34:34 PDT)

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

The son of Alfred Hair.......

Kelvin Hair has constructed a beautiful new website.

If you click on highwaymen, the info is concise and to the point.
The same with clicking on Alfred Hair info, his dad.
As any fool can plainly see, Kelvin is also a very accomplished artist.

Here's the site: http://www.khairart.com/index.html

Friday, October 16, 2009

Actual highwaymen info.........surprise

Found this today and thought I'd finally say something about highwaymen rather than my usual nonsense.
I offered a comment and have included it after the Editor's story.

I'm not sure the image will post here. I checked. No, it won't.

It's the sailboat Harold on my website that is pictured.

The Highwaymen
Posted by editor
May 1, 2009
The “Highwaymen” is a tag given to a loose-knit group of self-taught African American artists painting on the East coast of Florida; scenes of wind-bent palm trees, sand, surf, billowing clouds and vivid sunsets that were the essentials of Florida landscape painting that emerged following World War II. The name derived from their unique marketing strategy that consisted of traveling the highways and byways of central Florida to sell their paintings out of the back of their cars.
It is thought that they number some 20 artists that are still living, however for the most part many are unknown and have never received credit for their contribution to Florida’s art tradition. During these decades this group of friends, relatives and neighbors produced and sold an estimated 50,000 to 200,000 landscape paintings for $10 to $35 a piece, so the paintings were readily affordable to the average middle-class white worker.
They created an awareness of and appreciation for Florida regional landscape art and have encouraged what is considered the Indian River school of painting. They learned to paint by observation and practice; perhaps with a natural, untraditional lifestyle of marginalized and impoverished bent – however, painting for them was perceived a being a way out of the fields and groves.
This somewhat eclectic style of Florida landscape paintings were usually done on Upsom board or Masonite with whatever materials were at hand, including house paint. These paintings today sell and resell upwards from $1000; and, as these artists developed their talents and skills they gained respectable reputations and some still retain the highway marketing technique of promoting their artwork directly to the art collector.
Featured above is an oil painting by Harold Newton (1934-1994) on Upsom board measuring 30×48 inches executed in the 1960’s. It was the first highwayman painting to reach $10,000 when it sold in 2001.
Leave a comment...
Thanks for finding my website and using it for a reference. Here is some additional provenance for the readers of your blog. The Harold Newton sailboat painting that you have pictured as an example was brought to the Scott's show in Atlanta by a dealer from Maine (ay-yuh, been thay-uh) in 2001. A patent attorney and experienced antique picker bought it from the Mainer for $1,000.00, and since I had been teaching him about the highwaymen for several months, ( we attended every monthly show there for about two years) he showed it to me. I offered him $5,000.00 and he sold it. A couple of weeks before the NY Times article was published, I re-sold it for $10,000.00 to a so-called collector who was really a dealer. Word spread fast in the market and the writer of the Times article heard of it, then stated in print that Newton and Hair paintings were valued at $1,000.00 to $10,000.00. The article gave the entire nation a full color look at a burgeoning art market as well as establishing serious value for the two most important artists of the genre.

The sailboat painting has changed hands twice since then and currently resides in the Otto Collection. It is plated in the Enns book.

regards, readers of www.tropicalconservancy.com/ , Bob LeBlanc
Visit http://www.highwaymen-buy-sell-trade/. Read my blog.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Here we go again.....

WE CAN'T EXPECT EVERYONE TO BE AN EXPERT, HOWEVER EBAY IS QUITE OFTEN REFERRED TO AS "AMERICA'S FENCE".

Highwaymen Painting..H.Newton..Florida Scene..LOOK

Click here: Highwaymen Painting..H.Newton..Florida Scene..LOOK - eBay (item 360198422408 end time Oct-21-09 17:34:34 PDT)

I emailed the Illinois seller (296 positive feedbacks, 100%) thru the eBay ask a question service as follows:
Dear moldysoldies,The experts will tell you this is an obvious forgery. I hope you have no money invested. Perhaps your reputation is invested however.BOB http://www.highwaymen-buy-sell-trade.com/

We'll see what happens next, I guess.

BE CAREFUL OUT THERE.
_______________________________________________
No more guessing.

UPDATE Oct 21, 2009


Highwaymen Painting..H.Newton..Florida Scene..LOOK
Item condition:
--
Ended:
Oct 21, 200917:34:34 PDT
Bid history:
1 bid
Winning bid:
US $400.00
Shipping:
$15.98UPS GroundSee more services See all details
Estimated delivery within 3-8 business days
Returns:
No Returns Accepted


There you have it. Someone with very little taste in art is now screwed out of $400.00.
I qualify that by stating, if this buyer really really loves the painting, then I'm sure they are happy to hang it and display it for all visitors to enjoy.
Howevah...........................
It's not like there aren't a thousand Harold Newton art images to look at and compare on the internet.

HOW CAN SOMEONE WITH EYES NOT SEE THE DIFFERENCE ? HOW ?

These things that happen just astonish me. A two dollar yard sale painting with a forged H Newton signature sells for $ 400.00.

America's Fence strikes again.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Hogs, guns, and nine year old girls.

Yup, this is Florida. Not only are we getting overrun by six foot dinosaurs, pythons and the usual native snakes and gators, but now there's a problem with wild hogs.

The Florida solution ? Put guns in the hands of nine year old girls and send them out to blast the hogs straight into hell where they belong.

I personally have nothing against hogs, it's armadillos that give me headaches, digging holes without end and rooting around in my yard and making the dog go through the screen after them.

I also have nothing against nine year old girls and I have nothing against guns.
American citizens certainly have the right to bear arms.

It just somehow seems a little off kilter.

Oh, and of course, blame the Spanish for the problem

Here's the story copied from somewhere on AOL.

Wild hogs aren't native to Florida. They are thought to have been brought to the area by Spanish explorers, according to the SWFWMD. They root with their broad snouts to find food, which can greatly damage habitats.
"The District only allows hogs to be controlled through hunts when the damage they cause is at unacceptable levels, and damage is occurring more frequently and with increasing severity," the management district said.
Young hunters had to submit an essay about why they wanted to participate in the events scheduled for Oct. 17 and Oct. 24 at the Edward W. Chance Reserve's Gilley Creek Tract.
Cecilia Plummer, 9, of St. Petersburg, plans to hunt, she told the newspaper.
"They're creepy," she said of the hogs. She learned to shoot during a recent camping trip.
Each young hunter must be accompanied by an adult, and their guns must remain unloaded until they arrive at their hunting site.
Not everyone supports the idea.
"We don't think having a young child shoot an animal and watch that animal die before his or her eyes is a positive thing in any way," said Nick Atwood, the spokesman for the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida.

Friday, October 2, 2009

appraisals and authentication

I have been declining offers to appraise and authenticate the newer work by the surviving highwaymen who are currently painting and marketing their work.

With canvas transfers such as this:

Item number: 250507325072
ROY MCLENDON SR. CANVAS TRANSFER HIGHWAYMEN
YELLOW POINCIANA 1/100 PURCHASED DIRECTLY FROM ARTIST
http://cgi.ebay.com/ROY-MCLENDON-SR-CANVAS-TRANSFER-HIGHWAYMEN_W0QQitemZ250507325072QQcmdZViewItemQQptZArt_Paintings?hash=item3a53666e90&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

now being offered on eBay, I will now accept new paintings on canvas for physical inspection to determine exactly what they are.

Also, I know that there are quite a few giclee prints of Livingston Roberts' work, so I see a more pressing need for the naive collector to be protected from possible misrepresentation of these products.

I am not claiming that transfers, prints and giclees are worthless, far from it. They are, in fact, an opportunity for a collector to get a very affordable decorative piece of art by a favorite artist.

The true value of an original oil painting is considerably higher than that of a reproduction of the same scene. Scammers and crooks, of course, know this and use it to their advantage. EBay is a favorite place to misrepresent prints as original art, and it occurs much more often than you even want to know. If you think it's unusual, well.........dream on.

It takes a trained "eye" to determine the subtle differences in most cases. I've got that covered for you if you wish to take advantage.

Therefore I now offer to examine new paintings, or what LOOK LIKE new paintings by the highwaymen and issue certificates.

The fee will be the standard $ 100.00 per piece for my expert opinion.

Needless to say, you don't need this service if you are buying Robert Lewis's $ 75.00 five by sevens, but you might consider the service for a Roberts or McLendon with rare elements.

As "Protector of the Naive", I may sound a little arrogant, but keep this in mind, gentle reader, I am here for two reasons. To help you and to make a living as I do so.

No one, make that NO ONE, has more experience in this market.

I've seen a lot of highwaymen paintings, and a lot of art in general, but remember the words of Aerosmith's Steven Tyler:
"You ain't seen nuthin' til you're down on a muffin."