Fine Art Collection by Thumbnails

This gallery is arranged to view my fine art collection via thumbnail images. Clicking the thumbnail will take you to the original blog entry for the piece. Once there, you can read my comments about the piece and you can click on the image there for a larger scan. Comments are welcome, so if you have any feedback, let me know.

Tilly Moes - Floral

This is a really fine painting by the artist Tilly Moes (click for larger image). I did some research on the web, and found out this about her:

Sofia Theodora van Driel was born in Dusseldorf (Germany) on September 25th, 1899, the daughter of Johannes Gerardus van Driel and Sophia Adriana van Lammeren. Until her wedding in 1927 she lived with her parents in The Hague, where she attended the Academy of Fine Arts from 1913 - 1918. During the period prior to her wedding she painted "antique" still life subjects. These were dark appearing, complicated compositions with various fruit and flowers. For these she used the pseudonym Tilly Moes. In addition to this she had a position in an office in order to be able to pay the bills.

While browsing the website, I found images of her works. A few of them are strikingly similar to this painting and were probably done around the same time. It looks like it might be the same arrangement of flowers in fact. (see images e-m09 and e-m11):

http://tinyurl.com/rx8gwg

Portrait of the artist circa 1918

The artist and her husband in thier studio circa 1937

Heeeeeere's Jonni!!

One of my favorite characters from Alan Moore's ABC line of comics was Jonni Future. The reason is simple - Art Adams. Art really pushed himself to a new level while working on the book, and I'm really pleased to have another Jonni piece in my collection. The amount of work he puts into these pinups is just incredible. (Pencils and inks by Art Adams. Click for larger image)

Dutch Scene 2

I picked up a pair of very nice paintings by the same artist depicting Dutch canals with houses and lovely scenery. They are both unsigned, and probably date to somewhere between the 1920's through 1940's. Both are on wood panels and are approximately 18 x 24. (click for larger image)

Dutch Scene 1

I picked up a pair of very nice paintings by the same artist depicting Dutch canals with houses and lovely scenery. They are both unsigned, and probably date to somewhere between the 1920's through 1940's. Both are on wood panels and are approximately 18 x 24. (click for larger image)

What I Want Part II

UPDATE!  I originally created this blog post in 2009 - now, almost 10 years later (2018), I have finally found one of these paintings!!  Please help me find more! :)

In one of my first blog entries, I submitted a small want list. I'm also looking for any of the four paintings by artist Darrell K. Sweet shown here. They were done for Stephen R. Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant trilogy way back in the late 1970's. From left to right, they are, Lord Foul's Bane, The Illearth War, and The Power That Preserves, and The Wounded Land. I will pay a finder's fee for successful acquisition! (click for larger image)

World's Finest 258 Page

UPDATE: SOLD IN 2010!!

More nostalgia from my early days of comic reading (1979). This was one of the few stories that stood out to me from way back then - likely due to the fact that it was scripted by the great Denny O'Neill. It features two of my favorite DC artists of that time - Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (pencils), and Dick Giordano (inks), and the cover is a classic done by Neal Adams, which depicts the action in panel one (click for larger image)

Fantastic Four 264, pages 13 and 14

More greatness from John Byrne - vintage Fantastic Four pages from 1984!! These pages are from Byrne's "marker" period, which I used to look down on slightly. Recently, I've begun to have a change of heart. I really think this might be some of his best work. The earlier "pen and ink" FF pages certainly have a great line quality to them - they are very tight and crisp, but these later pages have a great energy to them. They're a bit looser, but I think Byrne's storytelling, anatomy, and layouts are better. I guess each period has it's own appeal - I'm glad to have examples of both. (click for larger image)

Art Adams Storm 2

After about 5 years of admiring this piece, I've finally been able to add it to my collection! This was originally done one month after my Art Adams Jonni Future pinup way back in 2004. I'd seen it change hands a few times, and let the last owner know that I wanted it next! I think these pinups that Art has done in the past several years are some of his best. Now I need to go find another one to covet... :) (click for larger image)

Daredevil 217 Splash - 1985

UPDATE: SOLD IN 2010!

If it wasn't for David Mazzucchelli, I may have never discovered Frank Miller. Back in the 1980's, when I started reading comics full-time, I almost always made buying decisions based on the artist of the book. Coming in at issue 216 (I think), I'd completely missed out on Miller's original run on Daredevil. For me, Daredevil was defined by Denny O'Neil scripts and Mazzucchelli art. The stories were dark and moody, and Mazzucchelli's art was the perfect fit. Miller would be back on the book with issue 227 - the first of a seven issue story arc, later collected in a trade edition entitled "Born Again" (now a classic - see the other Mazzucchelli pages from this saga in this blog). But prior to Miller's return, there was some great stuff being done on this title. I recently re-read most of these stories, and they really hold up well. I was happy to pick up this splash, penciled and inked by Mazzucchelli himself (click for larger image).

Dr. Kildare 05-30-1963

Found another great strip that I couldn't resist - a 1963 Dr. Kildare daily by Ken Bald featuring a very lovely woman. I owned a few Bald Judd Saxon dailies once, but sold them off. It's nice to have another Bald back in my collection. This strip is a bit earlier than the ones I used to own, and the quality is a bit nicer. What makes it extra special though is that it once belonged to comic art giant Wally Wood!! Pretty nifty (see inscription).

Whenever I see a strip signed with a dedication to another person (like my On Stage daily by Leonard Starr ), I always assume the artist was particularly pleased with the strip since they were giving it as a gift. I could be wrong but both the dedicated strips in my collection are pretty darned good examples. (Click for larger scan. Pencils and inks Ken Bald.)

UPDATE - SOLD THIS PIECE IN MAY 2009!!

Early Gallo

Many years ago, I was helping artist Gregory Gallo clean out his studio and we came across this piece (which he told me to throw in the trash!). I convinced him to let me keep it. It's a pretty early example of his work and is dated 6/27/84. The main image with the face seems to be painted on a piece of cardboard, and the background with the pink, white, and green is actually a very thick piece of wood - might have been a cabinet door or something. (click for larger image)

Fantastic Four 253 Pages!!

UPDATE: SOLD IN 2012!

Well, it seems I've come full circle in my collecting life. As outlined in my article for CFA-APA 62, owning a John Byrne Fantastic Four page is what set me down the path of collecting original art. Despite the fact that Byrne worked on over 60 issues, good pages are very scarce!! Over the years, I was able to acquire some nice pages, but all of them were from the later part of the run - the 260's, in which Byrne used marker to ink the pages. For the first time, I've finally been able to get a hold of some earlier pages from 253. These pages are all inked using the traditional "pens" (or crow quill), and they are amazing!! The inking is very crisp and detailed, and the blacks are very solid - a big difference from the later marker pages. Couple that with the great content - all four of the FF in battle, well, I couldn't ask for more.

Morrison - Quitely All Star Superman 07, Page 21

UPDATE: SOLD IN 2010!

For the last few years I've been saying that we're in a second "Golden Age" of comics. The quality of writing and art in many titles is as good or better than anything previously produced in the history of the medium. Some of the standouts have been - The Ultimates by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch, Ex Machina by Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris, 100 Bullets by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso, Astonishing X-Men by Josh Whedon and John Cassaday, and Alan Moore's ABC line of comics - Tom Strong (art by Chris Sprouse), and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (art by Kevin O'Neill), to name just a few.

My most recent favorite has been Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's new Superman series. Morrison seems to be harkening back to the Man of Steel's Silver Age, where anything could happen in any given issue. And that's the fun of it - no worrying about continuity, and no need to be a Superman historian. You can just jump right in and enjoy the fun. I've taken a strong liking to Quitely's work too. My first exposure to his work didn't really impress me, but after reading this series, I'm finally beginning to see the light (it might help that he's not being inked by anyone - the pencils are scanned directly and colored). I picked up this page at San Diego Comicon in 2008, and I'd love a bunch more! I've added word balloons using Photoshop to make it more readable (click for larger image).

Killing Joke Prelim 28

UPDATE: SOLD IN 2012!

Here's another neat prelim from Alan Moore's Killing Joke, with art by Brian Bolland. I love comparing these to the printed page and seeing the differences. You can see in panel four that Bolland indicated that the Joker's face be rotated, and in the printed page, he has done just that. I also love the last panel with the Joker's reflection in the puddle. The very next panel in the book begins a flashback sequence and is nearly identical to this one - it also shows him standing over a puddle just before the "accident" that will turn him into the Joker. Moore uses this trick several times in the story when he switches from past to present and vice versa, and I'm quite fond of it.