An ancestor of inspiration.

A while back, I bought an instructional video by one of my favorite illustrators, Gregory Manchess. That led to me watching a presentation that Manchess gave to the California College of the Arts (watch it here). Manchess talks about his own story with art and illustration, while bringing up some of his favorite inspirations. It’s a fascinating story, and worth the seventy-two minutes to watch it. Among those artists who influenced him was Frank Duveneck (October 9, 1848 – January 3, 1919; Wikipedia). To the left is a self portrait painted by Frank Duveneck.

After being struck by the beautiful brushwork and lighting, I realized I had found what must have been another inspiration for perhaps my favorite painter of all, Jeffrey Jones. Jones was a student of Frank Shoonover and N.C. Wyeth (not directly, of course) among many others, and I’m sure he would have loved the brushwork of Duveneck.

I find it kinda funny that although this is my first post about what one might expect to be my art, my paintings, and all I am doing is gushing about other painters that have inspired me. I would expect more of this to follow. I’m sure of it. But if I’m not careful, I can easily spend more time looking at art as doing it.

At any rate, now you’ve heard of Frank Duveneck (maybe I was the last to hear about him after all). And if you haven’t heard of Jeffrey Jones, just do the google and prepare to spend a long time being amazed by a person that Frank Frazetta called “the greatest living painter.”