Four Decades of Realism

Been sick for the past few days, really craving for some good ol' greasy bacon, sausages and eggs with a nice cup of coffee. Hmm...reminds me of American Diners. Which brings me to my post today about Ralph Goings. Photorealist from the 1960s movement.

Some choice picks, left to right, top to bottom:

Airstream - Oil on canvas 1970
This really looks like a photograph! Amazing how he recorded the amount of flare from the reflecting sunlight, making the background hard to make out.

Pee Wee's Diner Still Life - Oil on canvas 1977
All this table needs is a cup of coffee. Very mellow feel.

Rocky's Cafe - Watercolour 1982
This looks like straight out of an old Clint Eastwood movie.

Pie And Iced Tea - Watercolour 1987
The perfect gossip tea break.

Pepper Spill - Watercolour on paper 1995
Look at the light bouncing off the glass detail.

SoHo Sabrette - Watercolor 2006 (he's still well, i hope!)
The yellow van reminds me of Little Miss Sunshine.

You can check out all the photographs of the "photographs" here. His reason for painting stuff for real: fun! "In 1963 I wanted to start painting again but I decided I wasn't going to do abstract pictures. It occurred to me that I should go as far to the opposite as I could. ... It occurred to me that projecting and tracing the photograph instead of copying it freehand would be even more shocking. To copy a photograph literally was considered a bad thing to do. It went against all of my art school training... some people were upset by what I was doing and said 'it's not art, it can't possibly be art'. That gave me encouragement in a perverse way, because I was delighted to be doing something that was really upsetting people... I was having a hell of a lot of fun..." Now if only I can show him my version of the lady's finger in 4B and 6B pencil, heehee!