Artist Index
- Linda Brunker
- Mark Boomershine
- Faith Tatum
- Steve Penley
- Kent Mullinax
- Michael J. Sponholtz
- Billy Schenck
- Robert Carter
- Richard Webb
- Dennis Ziemienski
- Unsigned/Unknown Work
- Bobbie Crews
- Unsigned/Unknown Work
- Laurie A. Stevens
- Thiago Romero
- Allan Gorman
- Cube Works Studios
- Malcom Furlow (New, Jan ’24)
David Boyd, Jr.(Removed, Apr ’24)- Kevin Kehoe (New, Apr ’24)
- Thomas Saliot (NEW, Jan ’24)
- Unsigned/Unknown Work
- Ron Burton
- Lory Lockwood
- Michael Goettee
- Allan Gorman
- Earl Linderman (NEW, Jan ’24)
- Michael Goettee
- S.C. Mummert
- Michael Goettee
Printed Length: 46-Pages, Word Count: 8,275 (28-Min Read), Images: 100, Video Links 0
This is my brief, image-based tour beginning with “The Spirit of Speed” sculpture in front of the museum, and 31 works displayed in the various galleries at the Savoy listed n the order in which most guests will encounter them as they pass through the Lobby, into the Great Hall and begin a clockwise tour of the Great Hall and Gallery B, where these works are on display. There are also an additional 6 works in the Cafe, although four of those are in the expandable meeting rooms.
The comments below some of the paintings come from the Savoy’s past “Artist Spotlight” features on Facebook, with my additional comments and perhaps a photo added where additional context may be needed. I’ve recently added bio information pulled from various sources on the internet and included links to most of those sources.
Linda Brunker
Linda (b. 1966) was born in Dublin, Ireland and studied Sculpture at the National College of Art & Design where she developed her unique ‘open filigree’ style of casting bronze. Her innovative sculptures challenged the traditional conception of bronze figures and she received immediate acclaim from critics and interest from collectors who rushed to buy her work. Her trademark style typically incorporated natural elements to create images composed into flowing shapes which echo the rhythms of fire, water and wind. Her pieces often have the feeling of being accidental and transitory. The physical reality of metal sculpture is that it is heavy and static. Brunker works against this so that the material seems light and fluid, creating fragile images that defy logic. She was quickly drawn to public art and in her 30 year career she has made over 40 public art sculptures which are located around the world. Among them are ‘The Wishing Hand’, 2000 at the Ministry of Education in Ireland, ‘Voyager 1’, 2003 at Laguna Beach, California. USA and ‘Plant Form Head – Eternal Spring’, 2014 in Suzhou, China. Brunker strives to make artworks that have more than physical form. She believes there is energy in everything and that artworks can develop an unseen energy that is all their own which can uplift and move the viewer. More Details
Eric Strauss, Ellijay, Georgia
I’d be remiss if I didn’t also give a tip-of-the-hat to our friend and local artist Eric Strauss, who began his relationship with GMI in 2006 with metal sculpture exhibit at the Booth Western Art Museum. Eric was instrumental in assisting the GMI and Savoy find an artist as well as working with Ms Brunker to develop of the “right” artistic design to grace its campus and even helped with selecting the proper location for its installation. You can find some of Eric’s work still at the Booth, as well as in other public and private spaces in the Atlanta area, such as in John’s Creek and at Gibbs Gardens. He will be presenting a new exhibit at the Booth in Spring 2023 featuring works that represent various artists, musicians and world events and remains actively engaged with GMI on art projects.
Click here to view the 3D virtual tour
Mark Boomershine
The artist (b. 1971) is from Atlanta and was educated at the University of Alabama (1995), He studied both Business Management as well as Fine Art. The use of both left and right brain led the artist to explore all things graphic. He has traveled the world exploring vast cultures and how they represent themselves artistically. He gravitated toward the power of the pop art movement and uses simplistic images offset by meaningful words about the artist’s subject. The result brings to life both the imagery and insight in the individual being painted. Through his techniques, motivated by the palette and provocation of pop art, the viewer is able to experience a total immersion in the multidimensional quality of each subject. He recently relocated his studio to Los Angeles. New works represent the sun, life, and energy that are emitted from living in Southern California.
Faith Tatum
The artist (b. 1956) is, first and foremost, a professional artist. She is a self-employed, professional artist with an interest in contemporary painting, but has also created a large portfolio of industrial design work and is an interior design consultant. She received a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Business Administration and Management from Columbia Pacific University in San Rafael, California who has lived and made her home in the metro Atlanta area for over ten years.
Michael J. Sponholtz
Michael or Sponz as he is known professionally, literally “carved out” a brilliant 30-year career as a professional wildlife and snow sculptor before accidentally walking backwards into his youth post retirement. From the age of 4, Sponz’ art was already turning heads. Thousands of pieces followed over the next three plus decades but never once was an automobile the subject. That all changed when Sponz and his wife Jan left the congestion of Milwaukee and retired to Mishicot, Wisconsin, where they settled in a neighborhood full of “car guys”. A neighbor innocently requesting a painting of his car unveiled a hidden talent never before seen in automotive art. Now, as he closes in on 70, Sponz is a large format automotive artist. More Info on Facebook Page
All of the works feature cars from the Savoy’s collection.
The Buick is a central piece of art in the Great Hall, while the others are smaller works displayed in the Expandable Meeting Room / Dining Room Spaces that are not always open, but can usually be accessed with the permission of the Savoy staff when events are on-going.
Oil on Fiberboard, 8′ x 6′
Steve Penley
Stephan Lyall Penley was born into a family of musicians in 1964 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Penley family moved to Athens and then to Macon where Steve graduated from First Presbyterian Day School. Steve continued his studies of art at The School of Visual Arts in New York and at The University of Georgia.
After college, Steve was working odd jobs while painting when his talent was recognized by an attorney and art enthusiast, Robert Steed. Steed’s friendship and patronage helped Steve connect with many other clients and grow his business. Penley quickly gained recognition for his bold brush strokes, vivid colors and historical icon paintings.
Steve is now one of America’s most celebrated artists with works exhibited worldwide. Steve has created many projects for Fox News, major companies such as Coca-Cola, AirTran/Southwest, Kaiser Permanente, as well as several U.S. Presidents.
Penley has authored several books of his own and illustrated books including several authored by Coach Vince Dooley. He has received a number of awards and honors for his talents and has donated countless paintings to charities and organizations in his community and state, as well as across the nation. He especially considers it an honor to be involved with numerous organizations that benefit our service men and women as well as our veterans.
Steve is proudest of his role as a father of three very talented artists and musicians: Lyall, Abbey and Parker. The Penleys call Atlanta home. More Details
The artist (b. 1968) is the Art Academy Manager for the Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville, Georgia. In addition to being an avid artist, Kent’s work at the Booth includes coordinating and managing the Summer Art Camp, Adult Art Workshop, After-School Art Class Coordination, Artists Visits to Schools and the Graffiti vs Street Art Comparison and Art Project.
Billy Schenck
The artist (b. 1947) was born in a small town north of Columbus, Ohio, but spent his childhood summers near Lander, Wyoming. He attended Columbus College Of Art and Design from 1965 to 1967, and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Kansas City Art Institute in 1969. As a young man, he moved to New York where much of his artistic influence developed, and has his first solo art show at the age of 24 in New York City that sold out. In the mid-1970’s, he began a journey west, living and producing art in Wyoming and Arizona before settling in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His work can be found in numerous major collections throughout the world, including the Smithsonian Institution and locally, the Booth Western Art Museum, More Details
MPL Added: I’ve really come to enjoy this very whimsical piece for a variety of reasons. Bear-in-mind, Billy Schenck adopted some of his artistic inspiration & techniques from Andy Warhol and was one of the first to apply Warhol’s pop art ideology and techniques to images of the American West. This painting entitled “The Big Wait” is one of a series featuring Schenck with his girlfriend and artist, Anne Coe, that is filled with metaphors and double-entendres: take, for instance the title of the piece and the license plate on the car, “Where is GODOT,” likely a reference to the famous 1950’s French Tragicomedy Play, “Waiting for Godot.” Add to that the absurdity of a 1938 Rolls Royce Wraith sitting out in the desert, the urban / modern cowboy look of both Schenck with his case of Coors and Hawaiian shirt and Coe, with her champagne, cigarillo, fashion western shirt and boots and it’s a story dying to be told in terms of what’s captured in just this one piece. This was one of a series of six paintings, all featuring the Rolls and Coe with similar messaging in the titles, license plates, fashion and feel. Snap-shorts of the other five in other galleries and private collections, are below.
Robert Carter
The artist (b. 1952) was born in London, England and at an early age developed an interest in motorsports, Classic cars and motorcycles. At the age of fourteen he began to pursue a career in art and began to explore London’s galleries and museums, and by the age of fifteen, began an apprenticeship in a commercial art studio, learning the basics of lettering, airbrush and design. In 1971, Robert began working on a freelance basis for some advertising agencies that had Ford and Chrysler accounts after moving to the USA where he became involved in auto racing, from pinstriping cars to creating 25 foot murals on race trailers. His work has been featured in automotive publications and can be found in many automotive museums and private collections. He continues to be involved in racing and is a member of the Ishi chapter of the Antique Motorcycle Club of America. More Details
Original Oils on Canvas, 48″ x 72″
More about the history of the Vanderbilt Cup in Savannah and the Atlanta Lakewood Speedway can be found by clicking on the images below.
Richard Webb
MPL Added: This is a painting, like many at the Savoy, that needs to be seen in person and up close to fully appreciate. Just a few feet away, you’d swear this was a photograph, but the closer you get the more it becomes evident just how much paint needed to be layered-on in just the right way to create the photo-realistic results and the reflective qualities of the chrome, etc.
It mentions a psychedelic twist, but it’s an exact replica of her Dolphin Grey,1964 Porsche 356 SC which she bought in 1968 for $3500. She commissioned one of her roadies, Dave Richards, to paint the car in a way that captured “The History of the Universe” for which he was paid $500 by Joplin. The famous art car has since been stolen, recovered, repaired, and restored decades after it was first purchased. It last sold at auction for $1.8M.
Dennis Ziemienski
The artist (b. 1947) is a native of San Francisco, California, and graduated cum laude from the California College of Arts and Crafts. He went on to teach art at the California College of Arts and Crafts and the Academy of Art in San Francisco, and has had studios in California and New York. Frequent travel to Europe fostered his affinity for the architecture, lifestyle and light of the Mediterranean, and him strong and richly colored images also reflect inspiration from early 20th century paintings and posters. Well known in the U.S. and internationally as a painter, illustrator and designer, his paintings have been featured in numerous one man shows and group exhibitions and have won many awards and he was selected by Churchill Downs selected as the Official Artist of the 2006 Kentucky Derby. More Here
Unsigned / Unknown Artist
Bobbie Crews
The artist (b. 1956) was born and raised in NW Ohio; lived for several years in Alaska, Germany and Kentucky; and shorter periods in North Carolina, Arizona, Alabama and Georgia. Originally a self-taught artist, she received her her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Tennessee. Knoxville, Tennessee has been her current home for the past 30 years where she teaches workshops, does courtroom sketching, portraits, murals, consulting and design. Her work is influenced by John Singer Sargent and Andrew Wyeth among others, and a love for all things “Art Deco and Art Nouveau”. Oil painting is her current favorite medium, layered many times over in order to achieve the depth and luminosity that brings the work to life, much like painting a portrait of a person. Her work has been shown internationally, and she’s best known for her “Intimate Portraits of Automobiles” often times featured at Concours d’Elegance classic automobile shows as well as her portraits of people: her work has been described as “Rubenesque.”
More Here
Unsigned / Unknown Artist
MPL Added – Just an uncanny resemblance between this piece of art and a 1954 poster by Erich Strenger, the well-known German artist who played a significant role in shaping the image of Porsche between 1951 and 1988: The Art of Speed
Other, similar posters by Erich Strenger in the early 1950’s
Laurie A. Stevens
The artist (b. 1952) was born in Billings, Montana and raised there as well as in Arizona before moving to Los Angeles, California where she spent 12-years working the motion picture, theater and entertainment industry as a scenic artist and muralist, as well as for Walt Disney Imagineering during the creation of EPCOT Center in Orlando, FL. In the 80’s, she returned to Montana, where she transitioned from painting 30’ high murals to 30” high canvases, and from gallons of acrylic paint to artists’ oil paints in tiny tubes: a daunting task. However, working on a large scale early on helped her see how important strong, graphic design is to the success of any painting. She still lives and works in Montana, and now makes her home a few miles south of Great Falls in a rural area surrounded by wildlife. Having lived most of her life in the west, the wilds and back country of Montana or the desert of Arizona when she was young, her focus in art tends to be about place – about landscape, and about the people and animals who have lived close to the land over time. She is drawn to the history and stories that unfold in still wild and natural places; and to the resilient, ever-changing beauty of the natural environment. She has paintings in the permanent collections of the Booth Museum in Cartersville, GA., C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, MT., Marty Skylar, past Principle Creative Executive and International Ambassador for Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI) in Glendale, CA., Phillips Academy in Andover, MA. and The USAF in Washington, DC. More Here.
MPL Added: I will confess, I spent some time working to confirm this piece was done by Laurie Stevens, as it just didn’t seem to fit the style of near photo-realistic painting she’s produced — given where the sign this depicts actually is placed, never mind the detail afforded to the truck and it’s odd placement, having backed-up to where it’s placed in the photo.
However, the signature on the painting is a match to her other work, so it must be the L.A. Stevens whose other works are, well, far more amazing and interesting… at least to me.
Thiago Romero
The artist (b. 1979) was born in São Paulo, Brazil. While developing his artistic career, Thiago also worked as a journalist for over 15 years with some of the most influential media companies in Brazil, including TV Globo, TV Cultura, magazines such as “Época” and “Superinteressante”, Folha de S. Paulo and FAPESP (The State of São Paulo Research Foundation). He is credited for producing more than 1,200 videos and articles about science, technology and innovation. While reporting on the arts for the “Metropolis” show in TV Cultura, he was introduced to artists of different styles and schools when they visited the studio for live interviews, to promote the exhibition of their works. Exposure to these new artistic concepts and processes proved to be a great influence on his artistic pursuits. While his education and training are not readily available, most of bio’s note he is a contemporary artist, writer, journalist and skydiver most recognized for his unique and distinctive technique of “abstract expressionism”, often-utilizing waves, flags, cars, racing helmets, geometric shapes, letters, and numbers in his paintings. His style is characterized by a vibrant, expressive, and spontaneous approach, obtained by the rapid application of different shades of acrylic paint, water, and other elements. His work has been exhibited and sold internationally, with his most recent North American exhibitions in Miami, Orlando, and New Mexico. He presently balances his passion for painting with action sports, painting almost every day in Florida and finding creative inspiration while skydiving, surfing, wake boarding, running, snowboarding, biking and scuba diving. More Here
Allan Gorman
The artist (b. 1947) was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, and now calls Orange, New Jersey home. He didn’t start painting until the 1980’s, then took a 20-year hiatus before beginning his career as an artist in 2009. Although he attended New York City’s School of Visual Arts in 1970, he began his first professional career as an advertising art director and went on to teach a creative concept class at The School of Visual Arts in early 1980’s, where one of the perks of teaching was taking classes as no cost: his wife encouraged him take a painting class. While inspired by art, he felt he needed to set-it aside, as by that time he had a house and child, a mortgage, had started his own business, and needed to put his energies into earning a living. In 2006, he attended the Montclair Museum – Yard School of Art and by 2008 began painting and drawing again as a hobby. In 2013, he closed his advertising and brand marketing agency after 27 years, and began his second career as a full-time, mostly self-taught artist, exploring hidden abstract patterns, random shapes and aesthetic tensions he finds in manufactured objects — mostly in structures and machinery. He uses his camera as a sketchbook, constantly searching for subject matter that makes him say: “Hey, look at that!” and tries to convey that in artwork as more than just a technical rendering, but also something that resonates emotionally. More Here, Here and Here.
Cube Works
Cube Works Studio is world-renowned for re-contextualizing common objects to create impressive and entertaining works of art. The Cube Works studio operates as a small collaborative with specialized talent, pushing the boundaries of modern art using the iconic Rubik’s cube and have slowly expanded their portfolio of work to include collections created with Crayola Crayons, LEGO bricks, Vinyl Record Mosaics, Spools of Sewing Thread, Dice, Guitar Picks as well as Mixed Media and Fine Art paintings and portraits. Most of their works are designed and created based on specific custom requests, meant to inspire, unite and invoke a sense of nostalgia by using common and tangible objects to create impressive and entertaining works of art.
Malcolm Furlow [b.1948, d.2023]
While all of the artists whose work hangs in the Savoy merit a reader board with their bio’s as a way of introducing their work to guests, a recent acquisition by the Savoy has once again introduced me to an artist who was a late bloomer before taking up painting as something he became renown for. Pulling from one of the recent pieces written by an art gallery after his passing in March 2023 — after succumbing to what’s now referred to as ‘Long COVID’ at the age of 77 — it was noted, “A recent PBS documentary entitled the “Life and Art of Malcolm Furlow,” refers to him as a “Renaissance Man“: the quintessential cowboy, musician, and intellectual artist. He is an award-winning painter, whose accolades include the Silver award from the Sorbonne, and the highly coveted Gold Award from the world-renown Luxembourg Museum, Paris, an honor shared with Pablo Picasso.” Oh, and he was an icon to the model railroading community for his amazing layouts that benefitted from his exceptional modelling skills that also came before the canvas he’s known for.
The artist [b.1946, d.2023] was a third-generation Choctaw, who in at least one account of his early years recalled hearing his grandfather’s story of being taken to a Christian school where his braided hair was cut, not being permitted to speak his native, Western Muskogean language and reprisals for doing-so. Growing tensions in Louisiana when he was young compelled the family to relocate to Dallas, Texas, where Malcom was instructed by his father to not make mention of his heritage nor did his father ever encourage him to seek-out any of their Native American relatives. The latter is considered a formative drive for much of his art, as he began to draw at the age of six when travelling with his father on business trips in what was by then their home in New Mexico. From drawing he moved-on to painting with watercolors, but found those ill suited for larger canvases and began painting his images of Native Americans using brightly colored acrylic paints.
He received a track scholarship to the University of Texas where he chose art as his academic major; however, his art professor disapproved of his style of painting and Malcom ultimately dropped out of and pursued his talents for a career in music, playing the saxophone, Bass or sometimes the guitar playing back-up for various singers and groups, including at least two notables: Lou Rawls and the Beach Boys for nearly 20-years. However, it was in 1977 when Malcom became interested in model railroading as an outlet for his artistic talents, and in building HO Narrow Gauge (HOn3) layouts to allow him to build compact, highly realistic layouts and shortly thereafter left the music business and leveraged his artistic talents to build models and movie sets at the Walt Disney Studios, while still pursuing his model railroading hobby. By the early 1980s Malcolm’s byline was regularly appearing in the pages of Model Railroader magazine, the Road & Track of the scale model train hobby. The focus of his articles was his 10 x 10-foot HOn3 Denver & Rio Chama Western railroad layout and in the July 1981 issue, Malcolm shared his motivation, “Model railroading gives me a creative release, and it allows me to escape. I think it’s good if you can stretch a hobby a little beyond the point of having fun. For me it fills a need for expression. Bull sessions with other modelers and operating sessions with friends help enrich the total, but I really enjoy getting away to the train room to work by myself for a couple of hours.” By the mid-1980’s he was one of the most recognized names in the model railroading hobby, appearing in several videos sharing tips and techniques, never mind his exceptional skills as a photographer who wrote several How-To books for Kodak and worked as a photographer for Vogue Italia.
It wasn’t until 1987 — at the age of 41 — after hearing writer Joseph Campbell’s lecture on “Follow Your Bliss,” Furlow decided to go back to his first love, painting, and in particular painting the Native American. “I knew I wanted to say it with color because that’s the emotion of it. I’ve got to make the viewer feel what I feel. All I’m trying to do is paint them as they are – paint their culture, their dignity and their stature. I didn’t want to do portraits of Indians, I wanted to say something about the human condition.” In regard to his artistic style, it’s been said, “Furlow was known for strong color combinations that make his expressionist paintings of Native American themes come alive with feeling. Furlow speaks with color. The bright, chromatically-fragmented images that he painted convey the emotion the artist felt for his subject matter. His figurative works are not portraits of individuals, but rather statements about the human condition. “The further Native Americans are removed from their heritage and embraced by Anglo culture, the greater the conflict that results. This is the dichotomy that fuels the fires for my paintings,” the artist said. He named Fritz Scholder, Andy Warhol and Peter Max as an important influence on his work.” From another writer when he was still living “Overwhelmingly considered a living legend, Malcolm Furlow is a master painter who remains a significant figure in the fabric of the American Southwest.”
By spring 2007, Malcom had “sold-out” over fifty solo shows and his paintings have commanded principal placement in private and public collections globally, including the U.S. Embassies of Morocco, Belgium and Beijing; the White House; CEO Magazine; The Smithsonian; Mobil Oil; Arnold Schwarzenegger; Samuel Goldwyn; Richard Pryor; Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush; Senator Hillary Clinton; Bernadette Peters; Wes Studi; Phyllis Diller; William DeVane; B.J. Thomas; Jane Goodall Institute; Darryl Hannah; Eiteljorg Museum; Jon Bon Jovi; National Wildlife Museum; Koshare Museum; Santa Fe Fine Arts Museum; Paul Clarkson; Coca Cola Olympic Pavilion; Make a Wish Foundation; NBC’s Today Show; Raymond James Financial Art Collection; Columbia University; and many others. Malcolm is required study in art schools across the globe and there are devoted connoisseurs who travel from Europe, Sweden and Japan to add to their collections.
David Boyd, Jr. (Piece Removed, April 2024)
From his website bio: It has taken me 15 years of painting to discover why I do what I do, and why I am drawn so strongly to the imagery I represent.
I grew up in a small town outside of Atlanta, at a time when the suburbs of Atlanta were still “out in the country.” I was fortunate to spend many weekends with my grandparents in rural Georgia, where the woods and old rusty cars and tractors were my playground. Today, when I see the rusting memorabilia of the rural south, I feel a deep sense of nostalgia.
This imagery is inspiration for my creative expression, although it actually originates from a time in which I never actually lived: A time when working the land was part of our daily survival, and the automobile was both a new modern convenience and an exciting new art form. Remnants of this life are rapidly becoming extinct, as it is only a matter of time before those rusty cars are completely disintegrated back into the earth. As a nod to my childhood memories as well as the passing of time, I want to preserve Southern American life in its current state of decay… “landscapes of rust.”
I use my plein air work as a way to “capture a feeling.” I use my camera to record a moment. Back in my studio I like to combine these into large scale paintings of those things I wish I could keep forever… old signs, decaying buildings, old cars, trucks and tractors, and beautiful rural landscapes. My paintings are my memories, and accordingly, some of my paintings take the angle of a child’s viewpoint; lower to the ground.
Full Biography: David Boyd, Jr. Gallery • Studio
Kevin Kehoe
From his website bio: Utah artist Kevin Kehoe (b.1962) is a native New Englander and graduate of the Art Institute of Boston, where he became the school’s first student published in the Society of Illustrators Student Annual. Since then, he has been wonderfully inspired by masters such as Edward Hopper, Maynard Dixon, John Singer Sargent, Andrew Wyeth, John Register, and Georgia O’Keeffe.
After art school, Kehoe embarked on a 30-year award-winning advertising career, which he credits as the ultimate boot camp for his discipline as a painter. During those years, he lived coast-to-coast and in Park City, Utah, and fell in love with the West’s ability to inspire through its quality of light and majestic beauty. In 2011, he returned to Utah full-time with his wife, Julie, and daughter, Kate. Two years later, he couldn’t ignore the beckoning to paint. So after not picking up a brush for three decades, he set up a studio and devoted himself fully to his painting pursuits.
In 2016, Western Therapy—a series of 12 paintings—was chosen to be half of the inaugural exhibition for the new Southern Utah University Museum of Art and was juxtaposed with the work of Utah artist Jimmie Jones. Since then, Kehoe’s art has been acquired by the Booth Western Art Museum and the State of Utah for their permanent collections. The painting acquired by the State of Utah currently hangs in the Utah Governor’s Mansion. He has had solo exhibits at Modern West Fine Art in Salt Lake City and Altamira Fine Art in Scottsdale. For three years, he has shown at ArtsThrive at the Albuquerque Museum of Fine Art.
As a painter, he says, “I allow things to come to me. I allow things to stop me. My paintings celebrate the art of being struck by the natural and authentic beauty I see and feel in the world. I crave authenticity and like to think my subject matter has a story to tell.”
Full Biography: KEVIN KEHOE NEW AMERICAN PAINTER
A Gift of the Vinings Gallery to the Booth Western Art Museum’s Permanent Collection
Thomas Saliot
From his website bio: Born 1968 in Paris, I studied in Paris in ESAG, met de Penninghen for 3 years, then a years in Beaux arts in Versaille. I never was the 4 years old with a gift and a passion for drawing, all came with work and time.
I had a gallery for 10 years in the Marais in Paris. I did various exhibitions but i doubt a list would help you much. Mostly working with Saatchi art since 2012. Art online and social network is the best thing that ever happen to artists. Live wherever, ship your work, promote yourself and have a constant feedback on your work !!
All my work is oil on canvas, « free hand » from photos i do or find all over the web. It is a bit in the spirit of a blog (terrible word) where i use iconic images like snapshot of our centuries. I always liked the sound of Pop art and i think that is where i belong, a mildly modernized version. Have a fondness nowadays for Artiste like Jeremy lipking, Malcolm liepke, Robert mcginnis, John Currin,David Hockney, John Kacere,…
Unsigned / Unknown Artist
Ron Burton
The past 50+ years, the artist has loved, lived and painted auto racing and auto racing art in the shadows of the famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Many of his paintings and trophy designs are enshrined in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. Many corporations, families of owners, drivers and fans around the world own and/or have commissioned works by the artist and places like the Speedway (Brickyard at the Crossing) Hotel and the Union Jack’s Pub in the town of Speedway serve as his galleries. He has a collection of original paintings available for purchase and is accepting commissions for new original works, in acrylics or oils, impressionistic or realism, and line art montages, large, medium, or small. More Here and Here.
Lory Lockwood
The artist (b. 1949) grew up in New York where she developed a fascination with cars and motorcycles in her teens. She learned to drive in a 1966 Ford Mustang and dated a guy with a Harley Davidson. She rode the Bronx River Parkway in a Mercedes Gull Wing and learned to drive a stick shift on a 911 Porsche. She attended the Art Students League in 1967, then relocated to New Orleans where she received her Bachelors of Fine Arts from Tulane University in 1971 and her Masters of Fine Arts in 1973. She then went on to the American Academy in Rome, Italy, in 1980, before returning to New Orleans where she attended the Academy of Fine Arts in 1989 to 1993. In 2000, she graduated from the Vermont College of Fine Art with a Masters of Fine Arts in Painting, While in New Orleans, she did many portraits of local architecture, French Quarter scenes and fashion mannequins – many reflected in windows – and all of which were found from walking the streets. One day when photographing the bark of a sycamore tree she turned around and saw the tree reflected in an automobile. The tree morphed into beautiful and strange abstract shapes seen in the paint, chrome, and the two colors of the window glass – she was hooked. Reflections, photorealism and abstraction became her artistic focus as she painted Thunderbirds, Ferraris, Jaguars, Porsches and Mercedes. Motorcycles like Harley Davidson, Gilera, Ducatis and custom choppers soon followed. Eventually she began going to car and motorcycle shows and found gorgeous subject matter for her exquisitely detailed oil paintings – not just cars and motorcycles but also the biker dudes and babes with their leathers and tattoos. Artists who have inspired and influenced her work are Richard Estes, Don Eddy, Tom Blackwell, James Rosenquist and Audrey Flack. Quoting the artist, “I have always been fascinated by mechanical objects. Knives, silver cups and ornaments were favorite subjects in her early still life paintings. They had sharp, clean edges, shiny surfaces and were reflective.” More Here, and Here.
Michael Goettee
The artist (b. 1947) was born in Jacksonville, Florida and graduated from the University of Florida with honors majoring in Advertising and Art. He settled in the Atlanta Metro area where he worked in everything from Graphic Design to Fine Art and magazine art direction from the 1980’s through 2009, when he decided to pursue his life goal of becoming a full-time, fine artist. As an artist, he marches to the beat of a slightly different drummer, having for a while adopted “Max Glitz” as his pseudonym to reflect both his creative alter ego and, well, it was easier to spell and pronounce. When asked to describe his art, his off the cuff thought was, “Western art with a salted rim and a quirky twist of lime.” His fine arts credits include numerous commissions, several one-man shows, purchases by the Booth Western Art Museum and the Columbus Museum of Art, The Hyatt Regency Hotel in Cologne, Germany, and sat on the board of the Avondale Arts Alliance for three years, serving as vice president. More Here.
Allan Gorman
The artist (b. 1947) was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, and now calls Orange, New Jersey home. He didn’t start painting until the 1980’s, then took a 20-year hiatus before beginning his career as an artist in 2009. Although he attended New York City’s School of Visual Arts in 1970, he began his first professional career as an advertising art director and went on to teach a creative concept class at The School of Visual Arts in early 1980’s, where one of the perks of teaching was taking classes as no cost: his wife encouraged him take a painting class. While inspired by art, he felt he needed to set-it aside, as by that time he had a house and child, a mortgage, had started his own business, and needed to put his energies into earning a living. In 2006, he attended the Montclair Museum – Yard School of Art and by 2008 began painting and drawing again as a hobby. In 2013, he closed his advertising and brand marketing agency after 27 years, and began his second career as a full-time, mostly self-taught artist, exploring hidden abstract patterns, random shapes and aesthetic tensions he finds in manufactured objects — mostly in structures and machinery. He uses his camera as a sketchbook, constantly searching for subject matter that makes him say: “Hey, look at that!” and tries to convey that in artwork as more than just a technical rendering, but also something that resonates emotionally. More Here, Here and Here.
The Original Artist… EARL LINDERMAN [b.1931, d.2023]
The artist was born in Endicott, New York, and as a child growing up in the 1930s and 1940s, Earl was captivated by comic strips and Saturday matinees. He would spend hours drawing the characters from these features, building the foundation of what would eventually become his future career as an art educator and an “artist’s artist:” an artist other artists emulate, and admire for his skill as a painter, and his rich, creative ideas. By the time he was in high school, Earl was drawing his own characters, featuring heroes involved in adventurous dramas. Earl went on to pursue his post-secondary and graduate studies in art education, eventually being awarded his Doctorate in Art, from Penn State University while still in his 20’s. He went to teach as a professor of painting and drawing, at Arizona State University where he worked for 27-years and served as the Chairman of the Art Department. Earl has noted, “I work continually, consistently! I always have been driven; something inside of me keeps nudging me to paint and draw. It is what I love to do. It is my silent friend.” It’s said by those who know his work, his art was centered-around romance and passion and, as written by one museum, and is best characterized as an American Expressionist, primarily figurative, filled with rich color.
It was in the early 1970s when he began to create, The True and Incredible Adventures of Doktor Thrill. He has said the idea for Doktor Thrill came while vacationing in San Diego and sitting on Fisherman’s Wharf at Crystal Pier, “with the fog rolling in, the moon coming up, and the waves lashing against the pilings,” when his imagination kicked into high gear, and Doktor Thrill was born. From an interview, “For me, the imaginative world of my art is a slam-bang, dynamite adventure. Just as Matisse did not wish to become a ‘prisoner of reality’ in his art, I, too, have taken the raw stuff of life and invented a panorama of electric personalities.”
During the next three years, Linderman drew sketches of his character, who originally appeared as Captain Evil, a mysterious looking man one might find in novels of intrigue: these initial works were influenced by German Expressionism. Linderman begins each piece with a drawing, which serves as a preliminary study for the painting. Although not all his drawings become paintings, each drawing is itself a finished piece of art. It is described as brilliant, innovative, vivid, original, and outrageous. “Drawings give us the violins,” says Linderman, “whereas paintings are the orchestra in dramatic crescendo.” Linderman also includes a piece of prose with each painting, which extends the story of The True and Incredible Adventures of Doktor Thrill, and admits that if he had not turned to art, writing would have been his chosen field.
Earl has had one man art shows all over the USA, including Manhattan, LA, Dallas, Phoenix, Palm Springs, etc., and his art has been shown in numerous galleries, in the US and in Europe and held in private collections throughout the world. Public collections are held by the Phoenix Art Museum, the Portland Art Museum, the Plains Art Museum, Eckerd College, the William C. Brown Publishing Company, and Valley National Bank, to name a few.
MPL Added: Dr. Linderman’s works were typically in watercolors and ink. While the central characters are still Doktor Thrill and the Snake Lady, in addition to the painting being oil on canvas, many of the other details in the painting on exhibit are quite different, from the number, placement and color of cars, to painting details, technique, colors as well as the exhaust and dust clouds coming off the cars and the background.
Below are images of the original 1989 work, replicated on a 200 edition, signed serigraph series… which is also the same image appearing on the C.G. Rein Gallery exhibition poster. The exhibition poster reflects the original was 58″ x 64″ in size and, again, the details look quite a bit different from the one on exhibit in the Savoy’s collection
If it weren’t for the signature appearing on the painting,, I’d be left to suspect the Savoy’s is an ‘homage’ to the original, or perhaps had some other documented provenance as to its origin. Regardless, it’s a fun piece that invites viewers to learn more about the artist and his character, Doktor Thrill.
Michael Goettee
The artist (b. 1947) was born in Jacksonville, Florida and graduated from the University of Florida with honors majoring in Advertising and Art. He settled in the Atlanta Metro area where he worked in everything from Graphic Design to Fine Art and magazine art direction from the 1980’s through 2009, when he decided to pursue his life goal of becoming a full-time, fine artist. As an artist, he marches to the beat of a slightly different drummer, having for a while adopted “Max Glitz” as his pseudonym to reflect both his creative alter ego and, well, it was easier to spell and pronounce. When asked to describe his art, his off the cuff thought was, “Western art with a salted rim and a quirky twist of lime.” His fine arts credits include numerous commissions, several one-man shows, purchases by the Booth Western Art Museum and the Columbus Museum of Art, The Hyatt Regency Hotel in Cologne, Germany, and sat on the board of the Avondale Arts Alliance for three years, serving as vice president. More Here.
S.C. Mummert
The artist (b. 1955) grew up in El Monte Valley, east of San Diego, California. He evidenced a talent for art at an early age, was taking on portrait commissions starting at the age of 14, and was the school artist at Grossmont High, in El Cajon. With the full support of his parents, he took private drawing and painting lessons in Balboa Park, San Diego, from noted local painter Loretta Metzger McLeod, a graduate of the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts. By the time he graduated from high school in 1973, he had decided he was going to be a full-time fine artist. However, his career goal was deferred at the age of 19 when his family needed his help managing their growing auto-repair business. However, in 1976 he began studying under Alexander Chidichimo, a successful advertising artist from Chicago who had trained under Sunny Sundblom and whom became his mentor who, in turn, introduced him to Joaquín Sorolla in 1989, a highly regarded Spanish artist who a style of art that further inspired Mummert who began his open air/plenum approach to painting and travelled extensively in search of subject matter between 1990 and 1995 in southwestern California while still managing the family business, having since been married and starting a family. It was in September 2013 when he parted ways with the family business became a full-time fine artist. It’s been said his work brings to mind American painters like Norman Rockwell, a strong influence in his art, and Haddon “Sunny” Sundblom, renown for his Christmastime ads for Coca-Cola that take on clear-eyed optimism, noting he has said, “I try to focus on the positive, to paint things that are elevating.” More Here
Michael Goettee
The artist (b. 1947) was born in Jacksonville, Florida and graduated from the University of Florida with honors majoring in Advertising and Art. He settled in the Atlanta Metro area where he worked in everything from Graphic Design to Fine Art and magazine art direction from the 1980’s through 2009, when he decided to pursue his life goal of becoming a full-time, fine artist. As an artist, he marches to the beat of a slightly different drummer, having for a while adopted “Max Glitz” as his pseudonym to reflect both his creative alter ego and, well, it was easier to spell and pronounce. When asked to describe his art, his off the cuff thought was, “Western art with a salted rim and a quirky twist of lime.” His fine arts credits include numerous commissions, several one-man shows, purchases by the Booth Western Art Museum and the Columbus Museum of Art, The Hyatt Regency Hotel in Cologne, Germany, and sat on the board of the Avondale Arts Alliance for three years, serving as vice president. More Here.
From Michael Goettee regarding his series: “…they were painted to butt up against each other, so the purples flowed across them all and met precisely at the edges.“
“After the three were delivered, the Savoy asked for a fourth, and that became the far left Clark Gable, 1935 Duesenberg in Hollywood.“
“This commission was the most glorious occurrence in my late-started fine art career after retirement. I wasn’t even sure I could do it, but was in my courage mode when I accepted.“
Current & Past Exhibits at the Savoy Museum 