My favorite kind of acquisition. Call it love at first sight, call it a no-brainer, call it what you will. It’s the kind of purchase that you don’t waste a second thinking about because everything is just right. The piece is right, the art is right, the subject is right, the image is right, the size is right, the quality & workmanship are right, the price is right, and the familiar, friendly, seller is right. I mean, what the hell is there to think about? LOOK at this thing!!!!!

I find it amusing that I’ve only purchased two pieces from Ray (over a decade apart) and both pieces are by Terry. Also, both pieces are pastels, AND both are Dave Stevens recreations. The fact that the first Bettie Page piece I bought from him is THE MOST VIEWED image in my gallery also made this one a no-brainer for me. Not to dismiss any of Terry’s other wonderful Stevens recreations, but I honestly feel that the two I have are among his best. Or at least they’re my two favorites of everything I’ve seen thus far. Hard to imagine Terry not being a fan of Dave, as all his recreations are so lovingly crafted. Of course this is not to say that he can’t do anything else. Terry is amazingly talented.

I’m sure many of you know the story (or maybe legend is more like it) of the original Stevens cover. It was stolen years and years ago and was off the grid for a long time. Then it popped up on eBay (this was maybe 15-20 years ago, if not more). Interesting sidenote, I was actually at work on a break surfing the net when I stumbled upon that eBay auction. At first I thought it was a fake or just a recreation. But apparently it was the real deal. Anyway, after a little help from friends and some legal wrangling, Dave recovered the piece. At the time, another collector had commissioned Dave for a recreation of the missing cover. Not sure of the timing, but I believe he was either finished or just finishing up with that recreation when the original surfaced on eBay. After it was recovered, the lucky collector was given a choice between the recreation and the original (DUH). Long story short, he ended up with both versions. There’s lucky, insanely lucky, and just not fair. LOL! Anyway, seeing as how those pieces will never, ever, be available in my lifetime (as if I could afford them – even just the recreation), this is probably the closest I get to touching Dave’s greatness. And you know what, I’m absolutely fine with that.

Some important info about the piece and posted images. The piece is a pastel and quite large, 18 x 24. Normally, for something of this size, I would just scan it in sections. But even though I’m sure it has the proper binding agent, it still seemed like too delicate a medium with too high a risk for damage in the scanning process. At one point, I considered having it professionally photographed. Then I remembered something my friend Andy told me. He said he himself didn’t own a scanner, but he used this phone app for his images. Now I’m not very tech savvy (still have a flip phone for godsake), but I think he said it was either a phone scanning app, or a phone app that turned phone pics into scans. Anyway, something to that effect. I’m sure all the youngsters out there know what the hell I’m talking about. Back to Andy, he told me that if I ever had something too large for my scanner, he would be happy to try doing it on his phone app. So two days after I received the art, I handed it off to Andy (for that first month, it was actually in Andy’s possession longer than it was in mine LOL). Well, as you can see, the results are absolutely amazing! Before Andy created these images for me, the only shot of the piece I had was the one I originally saw on Ray’s CAF, which was from a small snapshot that Terry had provided. Honestly, pastels are probably not my favorite color medium (that would be watercolor), but Andy was really able to bring out the best in this piece. These images really do justice toTerry’s incredibly rich, lush, and textured work. I think even Dave would have been proud.

Big thanks to Ray Cuthbert for not one, but two great transactions (and two great pieces). Huge thanks again to my buddy Andy for the fantastic images. Thanks to the phenomenally talented Terry Twigg for making it possible for me to own a semblance of the beauty Dave brought into this world.

Thanks for stopping by and checking it out.

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