Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays and best wishes in the new year! Best wishes  to everyone for 2013!

The highlight of my golf season this year (as usual) was playing in a weekend best-ball tournament with my 82 year old father as my partner, and watching him chip in for a birdie on the 18th hole par 4 hole, giving us a score of 69 (best-ball) for that day.

The highlight of my art career for 2012? A couple projects come to mind: I completed a handful of golf art images for Ernie Els' golf course design company, Els Design. I created golfscape paintings of several signature golf holes around the world that Ernie Els designed, and these art images were then used in magazine ads representing Els Design. Visit sasgolf.com to see these signature hole art images created for Ernie Els.

Also, earlier in 2012 my most recent illustrated children's picture book, Brothers At Bat (written by Audrey Vernick, and is the true story about 12 brothers who made baseball history), was released by Clarion Books, and in December the picture book was included in the New York Times Book Review list of Notable Picture Books for 2012... quite an accomplishment considering there were only 8 books on the list! Visit stevensalerno.com to view samples from Brothers At Bat by clicking on the "featured book" section.

-Steven Anthony Salerno

work in progress: Majors Chart

Currently I am in the middle of working on a rather ambitious new golf art image... one that I had been wanting to create for some time now, and am just now getting to it. 

There are 27 golfers in history who have won four or more of golf's major championship tournament victories. We all know that Jack Nicklaus is at the top of the chart with an astounding 18 major championship wins, followed by Tiger Woods with 14 major championship wins. When Tiger had reached his 14th major victory a handful of years ago, everyone in the golf world assumed it would not be much longer before he cruised past Jack's record. But in lieu of Tiger's fall from grace, drop in world golf ranking's and the rebuilding of his golf swing over the past few years (which has brought him back up into the top 3 in the rankings), Tiger's status regarding whether or not he can match or surpass Jack's landmark of 18 major victories has been fractured. Will he win more majors? It remains to be seen... Certainly he will win more majors, but can he win 4 more? 5 more?

drawing of Harry Vardon by Steven Anthony Salerno

The artwork I am creating is a swing portrait of each of these 27 players, consisting of a small black crayon drawing embellished with a simple tonal wash of neutral color, all of which will then be designed into a kind of descending order performance chart within one of my limited edition art prints. I just think it will be interesting to see at a glance all the players within one visual which puts their major tournament accomplishments into perspective. 

drawing of Ben Hogan by Steven Anthony Salerno

Of the 27 players on the list, only 3 are still active and can potentially add more major victories to their record: Tiger Woods (14), Phil Mickelson (4) and Ernie Els (4). And, as you all know, a few years ago Tom Watson almost won the Open Championship yet again, which would have elevated his record of 8 major victories up to 9 (tying Ben Hogan and Gary Player) but a bogey on the 72nd hole put an end to the incredible feat. Maybe Tom has one more charge in him during an upcoming major.

Posted here are just a few of the drawings: 
Harry Vardon
Ben Hogan
Byron Nelson

drawing of Byron Nelson by Steven Anthony Salerno

Here is the full list of all the player which will appear in my final "Major Chart" art image once it is completed:

Jack Nicklaus (18)
Tiger Woods (14)
Walter Hagen (11)
Ben Hogan (9)
Gary Player (9)
Tom Watson (8)
Harry Vardon (7)
Bobby Jones (7)
Arnold Palmer (7)
Gene Sarazen (7)
Sam Snead (7)
Nick Faldo (6)
Lee Trevino (6)
J.H.Taylor (5)
James Braid (5)
Seve Ballesteros (5)
Byron Nelson (5)
Peter Thompson (5)
Willie Anderson (4)
Jim Barnes (4)
Raymond Floyd (4)
Bobby Locke (4)
Tom Morris Sr. (4)
Tom Morris Jr. (4)
Willie Park Sr. (4)
Phil Mickelson (4)
Ernie Els (4)

These simple drawings I am doing are fun.... I spent many hours locating all the 27 reference photos I needed, and in some instances I found a photo I wanted which depicted a player in the exact swing pose I wanted, but I had to then find another photo of the player which had a better view of his face and then in my drawing combined the visual reference from the two different photos. Of the very early players on the list, like Tom Morris Sr and Jr, or Willie Anderson, or J.H. Taylor, or Willie Park Sr. it was impossible to locate any decent reference photos, so I was stuck with whatever photo I could find.

Once I have completed the final art for "Majors Chart" and the limited edition art print is available, I will post a notice here on my blog....

To view all my limited edition golf art prints available, visit sasgolf.com