Interview with golf artist Steven Anthony Salerno

I was recently interviewed via Skype by golf blogger Ralph Perez in New York City. Here is the link to that interview on gothamgolfblog
...and my golf art also got a mention on the armchairgolfblog, thanks to the editor Neil Sagebiel. You can see the brief article here.

Seve Ballesteros -a new golf art print available on sasgolf.com

see more golf prints at sasgolf.com

see more golf prints at sasgolf.com

(5/7/2011)

Note: Seve Ballesteros died on May 7th, 2011, from ongoing complications due to brain cancer surgeries he underwent back in 2009)

. . .

I recently completed a small gouache painting on paper of one of my favorite players of all time to watch play the game, Seve Ballesteros of Spain. It is available on my gallery site, sasgolf.com as a limited edition print. 

Severiano “Seve” Ballesteros of Spain, with 87 wins worldwide, including 5 major championship victories (2 Masters and 3 British Open Championships) is one of the most bold, and charismatic players to have ever graced championship golf. From humble beginnings as a boy in the town of Santander practicing hitting shots along the sandy beaches, to being inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1997... as well as surviving brain tumor surgery in 2009 at age 52, the golfer and the man is admired by millions of fans all around the world.

The image was created using red as the dominant color theme, to represent his passion and strength exhibited on and off the course. It was executed using brush and gouache on paper, and added digital enhancements.

2010... A very long year for Tiger Woods

see Steven Anthony Salerno's golf prints at sasgolf.com

Back in July of this year, I was commissioned by GolfWorld magazine to create a painting to accompany their BUNKER column article on Tiger Wood's onslaught by the media during 2010 and more specifically how he may now need to be more accessible with reporters than in past years. Since the article was appearing in the issue surrounding the British Open, I depicted Tiger as a lone figure within a battered castle, his TW flag tattered in the relentless wind.

I wonder if Tiger did indeed feel like the depiction in my art image during the course of the past twelve months. He probably did at some point, but 2010 is coming to a close now... and time and effort does indeed heal all wounds, bringing new opportunities. Tiger, as with many of us, are definitely looking forward to 2011 being a much better year.

Undoubtedly Tiger will be more balanced in every way in the new year, so certainly a victory (or two, or three) is lurking around the next couple corners for him. Yes, in the past year the roster of superb players with the capability to win the big tournaments during the Tiger-Void has grown longer. (names like Martin Kaymer, Graeme McDowell come to mind) Although having one major under your belt is a supreme achievement and both players cited will certainly not be limited to just one, but when a veteran player with FOURTEEN majors under his belt begins to prowl near the top of the leader board again (who is a mere 35 years young), it is still all the others players who'll have the most pressure to contend with.

"Three-Putt Blues"

When I created the drawing (posted above) of the golfer struggling to putt the ball into the hole due to excessive analysis, I did not quite have myself in mind as the subject! In fact my putting game is one aspect I can generally rely on from week to week... unlike, for example, my driver, which can get on streaks of missing fairways. In a recent round, however, it was a different story entirely. I was 10 for 12 in hitting the fairway with the driver, but I three-putted greens six times. I repeat, SIX! The most three-putts I can ever remember having in a single round.


In each instance I was on the green in regulation when I three-putted. A couple occurred from 40-45 feet away... but the remaining sins were committed from the 20-25 foot range, and none were from severe downhill/sidehill positions. Many times I play a round without any three putts at all, or when I do, it is maybe one or two times. But SIX?! I thought Rod Serling was going to step from out of the bushes to inform me I had entered The Twilight Zone. I was just plain SHORT all day with my putts. Good line, not enough juice.


I chalked up that 6-time three putt day as being a fluke... especially considering that in the very next round I made nearly everything and had only 27 total putts... go figure!


This golf art print by artist Steven Anthony Salerno is available in a limited edition at sasgolf.com  

Woods? Mickelson? Villegas? -nope, just the artist!

the artist, Steven Anthony Salerno on the range -visit sasgolf.com to view his golf art
photo by: James "Vegas" Yang

This is a photo of me one recent morning hitting a few warm-up shots at the driving range at Bethpage State Park golf complex, home of the infamous Black Course, site of the 2002 and 2009 US Open Championships. There are five course at Bethpage, and on that particular day we were not able to snag a tee time on the preferred Black Course, or even the Red Course... but played the Blue Course, a short-ish rolling hills layout of about 6,600 yards from the back tees. The USGA uses the Blue Course at Bethpage each year as a New York State local qualifying site for the USGA Public Links Championship. I played in this qualifier event a while back, with most participants being good college aged players... and the one young man I was playing with that day drove a level fairway 356 yard par four -on the fly!


Note: see the artificial grass mat I am hitting from? Don't worry, when the pros play the Black Course during the US Open they get a pristine fairway in an adjacent course to use as their practice facility.

A $500 Driver and a 5¢ Swing = SLICE

Between creating my player portrait and golfscape images, I enjoy refreshing my mind by "doodling" more light-hearted drawings, using as my model the amateur hackers out there who all love the game fiercely but have some flawed, high-score swings. In this drawing I am teasing the player who spends top money on the best equipment out there, like the latest driver, but never spends a dime on taking a few lessons from their local PGA Professional, which would help tremendously in keeping their ball in the fairway, lowering their scores and with enjoying the game even more. A $500 club is not going to fix a 5¢ swing. (But hey, the club manufacturers are not going to turn down a sale!)

This drawing was created with oil crayon and pastel on unbleached paper... and can be seen in the "amateurs" gallery on my golf art web site.

This new golf art print by artist Steven Anthony Salerno is available in a limited edition at sasgolf.com

THE KING (Arnold Palmer) -a new golf art print from Steven Anthony Salerno

Arnold Palmer is nicknamed "The King" for his major role popularizing the game of golf with American middle class masses via the blossoming sports television coverage of the 1950's and 1960's... It captured his husky American good looks, steelworker shoulders, swashbuckling charges on the golf course, and charisma. (As well as his seven major championships and 62 PGA tournament victories won during an illustrious career.)

Along the way "Arnie's Army" was created: the legion of millions upon millions of devoted fans who see him as the greatest modern ambassador for the game of golf. I met Mr. Palmer when I was about 13 years old, at his golf academy in Stratton, Vermont (my older brother was attending). He was my favorite golfer then, and he still is 39 years later! I chose to depict Mr. Palmer in his distinctive hunched and knock-kneed putting posture... and purposely rendered the image roughly, using thick oil crayons and gouache on basic brown paper (with digitally added elements of wood grain texture) all to suggest his powerful stature and humble beginnings. The phrase "The King" can be seen written within the image.

This new golf art print by artist Steven Anthony Salerno is available in a limited edition at sasgolf.com

Lord Byron

I recently completed a painting of one of my favorite golfers, Byron Nelson (1912 -2006), nicknamed Lord Byron. This gentlemanly champion from Texas holds what will probably be one professional golf record that will never be broken, not by Tiger Woods nor any other future golf superstar. Not only did Mr. Nelson win 52 PGA titles and 5 major championships in his amazing career, but in 1945 he won a mind-bending 11 PGA events in a row! (He won a total of 18 tournaments that season) His scoring average in that magical year was 68.33 per round... which was a record held until 2000 when broken by the man in red, Tiger Woods.

The painting was created by lightly penciling in the figure of the golfer onto a brown paper, as well as drawing the grid lines onto the paper. Then the image was painted using gouache paints (an opaque watercolor), and by purposely leaving the paper exposed (unpainted) in precise areas, this allowed the brown color of the paper to act as the shadow tones. You can see this best in the white hat, wherein the shadow portion of the hat is actually just the brown of the paper showing through. The design of the lettering within the image was done in Photoshop in separate layers and then merged into the final image of the scanned painting. The image shows Byron striking a long iron just after impact, which undoubtedly sent the ball right on target.

This new golf art print by artist Steven Anthony Salerno is available in a limited edition at sasgolf.com

US Open Back on the West Coast

It has only been a couple years since The US Open was held on the West Coast... but the past six months of hyper-detailed news concerning Tiger's personal issues (and his return to competitive golf) somehow has made the 2008 US Open held at Torrey Pines seems much further in the past, a bit like looking through a telescope from the wrong end.

In a couple short weeks the best players from around the world will be teeing it up at the Pebble Beach Golf Links for the 2010 US Open Championship, including the still reigning #1 in the world Tiger Woods. Considering that the last time the US Open was held at Pebble (back in 2000) Tiger decimated the field, it would be an error to count him out in this upcoming major championship. No matter what his play may be in the other tournaments leading up to the big event on the Monterey Peninsula, at some point Tiger will be "back" -and what better showcase for him than at Pebble.

This newest print depicts a bird's-eye-view of the famous links course seen below through the clouds and mist. The previous print is a view of a windswept hole and a lone cypress.

These new golf art prints by artist Steven Anthony Salerno are available in limited editions at sasgolf.com

new print release: "Sir Walter"

Here is my new limited edition print in the "greatest golfers" gallery on my golf art site... of American Walter Hagen ("The Haig") the flamboyant star who had 44 wins throughout his career from 1914 through the mid-1930's, which included 11 majors championship victories... third in total majors behind Jack Nicklaus with 18, and Tiger Woods currently with 14 and counting. Walter Hagen was the supreme match-play player, and often arrived for a match against his opponent by pulling up to the first tee in a chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce at the last minute. My favorite quote about Hagen: "...He could relax sitting on a hot stove." (-Tommy Armour, The American Golfer 1935).

I created this striking print by overlapping my gouache painting of Hagen with vertical strips from a grainy newspaper photo of the golfer from about 1919... The result is a contemporary image which imbues a sense of the the colorful showmanship Hagen brought to the game that elevated the public perception of a professional golfer to that of a celebrity, but also suggests the time period in which he played the game.

This new golf art print by artist Steven Anthony Salerno is available in a limited edition at sasgolf.com

new print release: "She Loved To Play Golf"

This week I released another new golf art image available as a limited edition print. This graphic scene depicts a fashionable, determined, young woman golfer from the early 1920's era dressed in white, and posed in her follow-through... The vibrant, pop colors of deep orange, raspberry and aqua-green gives the print a very modern feel. The French sentence embedded within the art translates as: She Loved To Play Golf. I created it with gouache on paper, then modified the color hues and balances digitally to arrive at the final print image.

This new golf art print by artist Steven Anthony Salerno is available in a limited edition at sasgolf.com

PEBBLE -latest print release

In June of this year, the famed Pebble Beach Golf Links will host the US Open Championship for a fifth time. (1972 winner Jack Nicklaus, 1982 winner Tom Watson, 1992 winner Tom Kite, 2000 winner Tiger Woods) The print image shown here is my tribute to the championship event being held at Pebble and depicts an idealized windswept green along the Monterey Peninsula coastline, the flagstick bending in the breeze, and a wide view of gathering clouds above the Pacific Ocean. A lone cypress tree becomes the image's focal point.

I created the entire image on a digital drawing tablet with vector-based Adobe Illustrator software. Even though it has beautiful soft blends of colors and gradations, it still has a crisp and minimal graphic look, quite like lithographic travel posters from the 1930's and '40's.

This print has three different type version choices: one with bold red & tan type, the other with simpler black & white type... or a third option is just the image alone without any type.

This new golf art print by artist Steven Anthony Salerno is available in a limited edition at sasgolf.com

Steven Anthony Salerno opens his web golf art gallery

I've been a professional illustrator all my adult life... and have played golf since I was a young boy. I played well enough as a teenager to win the Vermont State Junior Amateur Championship, and as a young man worked in the golf business for several years, first as an Assistant Professional at the Yale University Golf Club, then at Racebrook Country Club, both in Connecticut. During that time I was also a registered apprentice in the PGA, passing their playing ability test (PAT) and also completing the first stage of their business school.

In my illustration career I create images for clients in magazines, advertising, children's picture books, product packaging, etc... However the golf drawings, paintings and graphics I also created over the years were made just for myself, never as an assignment for a commercial client. Very few people knew I even created golf related images.

In 2009 the US Open conducted by the USGA was to be played at the Bethpage Black Course in Farmingdale, Long Island, just a short distance outside of Manhattan (NYC) where I live. The Black Course is a course I've played before, so I decided to create a pretend design of a US Open/Black Course poster just for the fun of it. I created one, then another and another... having such a fun time that in the end I created seven different "mock" poster designs showcasing the Black Course as the 2009 US Open Championship venue. I presented a few of them in February 2009 to the Marketing Director at the USGA, Mary Lopuszynski, but they had already selected an official poster/print for the 2009 US Open event and in fact had already passed the date for finalizing all their merchandise selections.

These test Bethpage Black Course images I created made me decide that I'd pursue another new direction with my artistic talents by joining my life long interest in the game of golf with my artistic talents. Since I continue to work in the illustration field using my name Steven Salerno, I therefore decided that I'd promote my golf art images using my full name Steven Anthony Salerno, just to create a bit of an identity separation between my continuing career in illustration and my budding golf art career. The name of my golf art web site is SASgolf.com -which are my initials, S.A.S.

So, next I tentatively posted these 2009 Bethpage Black Course golf art images onto my illustration blog site, while I figured out how I was going to promote my golf art. In June of 2009 from out of the blue I received a call from Mike McAllister, golf writer and the Managing Editor of the PGA TOUR official web site. He explained that he'd seen my golf art images, and asked if I'd like to create art images of the tour's top players every week in their Player Spotlight feature on pgatour.com. Of course I did! So throughout the rest of 2009, every week, I created portraits of many of the tour stars, including Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Padraig Harrington, Steve Stricker, Camilo Villegas, and others...

This project connection with the PGA TOUR further propelled me to want to make the leap into going beyond my career in illustration and also becoming the best golf artist I can be... so, I created and launched sasgolf.com to display and sell limited edition golf art prints reproduced from my golf art drawings, paintings and graphics.

Visit sasgolf.com to view all the various "galleries" of my prints available to you, for display in your home or office. If you love the game, you'll certainly find a print you'd enjoy owning. These striking prints are printed on 100% cotton rag-based archival fine art papers using vivid permanent pigment inks. The superb inkjet printing process, called Giclee, is the same ultra-fine printing process now used by many museums to produce highly accurate reproduction prints of drawings and paintings in their collection.

Posted above are a couple of my "test" Bethpage Black Course poster designs I initially created.