Ma, Simon :: Comic Art

Gromit acrylic painting – Nick Park

Artist: Nick Park (Painter)

4 Comments - 419 Views - 2 Likes

Gromit acrylic painting – Nick Park Comic Art

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Artwork Details

Title:	Gromit acrylic painting – Nick Park
Artist:	Nick Park (Painter)
Media Type:	Paint - Acrylic
Art Type:	Illustration
For Sale Status:	NFS
Views:	419
Likes on CAF:	2 3
Comments:	4
Added to Site:	12/6/2022
Comic Art Archive:

Description

This painting is the most I have ever paid for an artwork. That is a record that it will probably hold in perpetuity. I won it in an eBay auction at the beginning of the summer in 2012 which was in aid of The Arsenal Foundation, a charity set up by the North-London-based football club to help the underprivileged. I do not bring this up to virtue-signal. Well, perhaps a bit, but not really. I mention it because knowing that the money I was bidding with was going towards a worthy charitable cause was the only way I could justify to myself handing over such a significant chunk of change for a non-essential, a luxury. I do not want to say how much it was – I am sure the dogged, exceptionally curious, and technologically savvy amongst you should be able to find out easily with the scant info I have provided already – but even though I had to increase the credit limit on my MasterCard to accommodate the direction in which the bids were heading days before the auction came to the end I should say that the final figure was a loooong way short of five figures. So buying this painting did not propel me into the Premier League of OA big spenders. A better comparison would be that I got into the playoffs for promotion to League Two, lost on penalties and so was consigned to another term in the National League of buyers, which to be honest is where I belong and feel more comfortable.

I will always associate me picking up this item with the specific events of that day. As my finger hovered over the “Submit Bid” button that Sunday afternoon in May, I could hear the broadcaster in the background behind me announce that what was playing out was the most exciting ever finalé to an English Premier League football season. “The Sky Blues put two past the Hoops, both in stoppage time no less, courtesy of Dzeko and Aguero, and by so doing snatched the title right from under the noses of their bitter crosstown rivals, the Red Devils. Rooney and Fergie were not best pleased.” Did you understand that? No, me neither. My interest in sport in general and football in particular ranges from minimal (when I have a wager on the outcome) to zero (when I don’t). This “allergy” (to borrow Hayley Campbell’s precise medical terminology) to competitive sport stems from my experiences in school sports/gym lessons over forty years ago and the humiliation of invariably being the last one picked by either of the team captains when they were choosing teams. Too much information. Apparently, as of this writing, there is some sort of tournament taking place in Qatar. I have not been watching it and I will not be watching it, and this is because I will not and have not been betting on it. Not even when it seems the bookmakers are falling over themselves to give money away in the slightly-easier-to-predict group match games. That was a loss leader used only to lure you into betting on the infinitely much-harder-to-predict knockout matches. Don’t fall for it! Phew, let me catch my breath.

This is a painting by Nick Park of one half of his most famous creation – Wallace and Gromit. I think that this is one time when I am correct when I say that this very British animation has cut through to the US market, as well as other overseas territories. An eBay auction came to an end in the past week (so still viewable as a completed item) of one of those edge-to-edge hand-lettered postcards by Alex Toth to his friend Darel McNeil in which AT strongly recommends and praises Nick Park and The Wrong Trousers, the second of the four W & G shorts. The clutch of award nominations and award wins the four Wallace and Gromit shorts and feature-length movie scooped added to the series’ fortunes and recognition.

[Continued in the next post]

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About the Owner

	Simon Ma ( 2 ) Premium Gallery Owner
Joined:	April 2013
Last Login:	September 2025
Country:	UNITED KINGDOM
On CAF:	Artworks Commented On Liked Art Site Activity on CAF

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Comments on this Artwork

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Marcus Wai
Member Since 2005

Posted on 12/7/2022

This belongs in a frame more than the other piece. W&G is an international hit because it doesn't rely on language to get the humor across and does universally understood gags that anyone can relate to. The body language in the stop motion is just that good. Gromit in this medium is indeed pretty rare.

Simon Ma
Member Since 2013

1 - Posted on 1/27/2023

Marcus Wai wrote:

You are absolutely right but this was never framed by me and not just because I am a cheapskate who would not spring for archival, museum-quality materials but also because I wanted to get up really close without even a thin sheet of glass getting in the way. Out of my hands now, though. Thank you for your wise words about the international language of comedy.

Ken Westmeyer
Member Since 2015

Posted on 12/12/2022

What a gorgeous piece! The Wrong Trousers is stop-motion animation at its finest :-)

Simon Ma
Member Since 2013

Posted on 1/27/2023

Ken Westmeyer wrote:

What a gorgeous piece! The Wrong Trousers is stop-motion animation at its finest :-)

I appreciate your comments and totally agree with them, and much prefer the first two in the series – especially A Grand Day Out – before Nick Park felt the need to continue to outdo in complexity his previous effort. Less was more.

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