"Haig" -the great Walter Hagen

Here is a recent drawing I created of one of my favorite all time golfing greats, Walter Hagen. It was made using a wax crayon (pencil) on paper, scanned into Photoshop, and then layered on top of textures of color I had also created with gouache painted on paper and also scanned into Photoshop. It's a simple shaped vignette that adds to the character of the image.

Walter Hagen -by Steven Salerno

Visit stevensalerno.com to view my work in illustration and children's picture books, and visit sasgolf.com to view my available golf art prints.

Montpelier Elks Golf Club, Vt ...sketch of the 3rd hole, circa 1917

As a kid growing up in Vermont, during my high school years my family had a membership at the Montpelier Elks Golf Club, a short nine-hole course with a handful of the holes either playing extremely uphill, downhill, or sidehill... and add in very small greens and high rough always made it fun and challenging. (My 85 year old father and my older brother still play their golf there.) The course was first open for play in 1902, and will be open for play again in 2016, but is in financial woes and unfortunately it seems its days are numbered, with the best bet for the future going to developers buying the land and building homes...

This painting posted here is a rough study I created depicting the uphill par 5, third hole as if it were circa 1917. 

Visit sasgolf.com to see all my available limited edition golf art prints.

"The Caddy" -ink and gouache drawing

This is an illustration I created (cropped view) of a veteran caddy looping for one of the amateur members. (you can tell from the players somewhat awkward looking stance at address that the caddy rarely treks down the middle of the fairways... I the drawing was created with ink and gouache with added digital color and effects. 

Visit sasgolf.com to see all my available limited edition golf art prints.

Ben Zen -quick gesture drawing of Ben Hogan

-a quick gestural drawing of Ben Hogan done in ink, then digitally layered atop an image of his scorecard from the 100th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale Golf Club.

Visit sasgolf.com to see all my available limited edition golf art prints.

DRIVE SHIFT

Lately I have been creating very small gestural brush & ink drawings of the golf swing... then scanning and enlarging the drawing to then add painted textures and digital color.... resulting in images that look very big and bold. Posted here are just a couple of them....

The top drawing is of a player at the top of his swing, just at the moment when he begins the downward pull...you can see his left leg beginning to move toward the target a bit... The bottom drawing is of a player about mid-way into his backswing, and with an early wrist-cock...

These brush-ink drawings are fun to do... testing my skills of not only capturing the body positions of the swing, but doing so in an aesthetic calligraphic manner. Each drawing taking maybe just a few minutes to create, but the issue is getting a good one. I might create 10 or 20 drawings and toss out 18 of them, deeming only a couple worthy of moving forward with to add the texture and colors.

visit sasgolf.com

visit sasgolf.com

Visit sasgolf.com to see all my available limited edition golf art prints.

"14 Red Shirts" ... can Tiger win another Major Championship?

Back in 2011 I created another limited edition golf art print (released on my gallery site sasgolf.com) entitled, 14 Red Shirts -referring of course to Tiger Woods having amassed 14 Major Championship victories through 2008. (see my original posting about this golf art print)

"14 Red Shirts" (Tiger's 14 Major Championship victories) 

-a limited edition golf art print by artist Steven Anthony Salerno  visit sasgolf.com

(detail) "14 Red Shirts" 

The art image I created was in a grid format, depicting 14 small paintings of Tiger wearing the famous red shirt he always wears in the final round of a tournament... in fact the exact red shirt he wore in the winning round of each of the 14 Major Championships he has won to date.... And in my art image I purposely left a couple blank spaces, which some people observing the art image interpreted to mean that Tiger was done winning any more Major Championships, and others read the blank spaces to mean that he would indeed continue to win more Majors. But could he win 4 more times to catch and tie Jack Nicklaus' total of 18 Major Championship victories? Could Tiger win 5 more Majors and surpass Jack's record?

In the last six years Tiger has weathered devastating personal life issues, injuries, surgery, and all under the scrutiny of the world's eyes and ears. And his golf game suffered. Last year though, healthy again, he won 5 more tournaments, but has yet to win another Major Championship since 2008... though his multiple wins last year allowed many people to begin thinking again that he might still be able to tie or pass the current record of 18 Major Championship victories held by Jack Nicklaus.

This season Tiger underwent another surgery, took time away, and then recently came back to tournament action again... however at last week's tournament he suffered severe back spasms and dropped out of the tournament, thus making people wonder right up to the last minute if he would play in this week's final Major Championship of 2014, the 96th playing of the PGA Championship at Valhalla, outside Louisville, Kentucky.

Tiger did enter the PGA Championship this week, which excited his fans greatly... but he opened today with a lackluster 74 (+3) in the event's opening round, which is not exactly the proper recipe for winning his 15th Major Championship. 54 holes remaining to play is ample enough for a recovery, so hopefully he will have three terrific rounds to offset his over-par start...

Tiger is now 38 years old. On paper this means he still has possibly 12 more years (if he stays injury free) of being able to seriously play... 12 x 4 Majors = 48 more Major Championship events he can play in. Is it conceivable that Tiger could win 4 of 48 Major Championship attempts? 

So, getting back to those blank spaces I purposely placed within my art image entitled, 14 Red Shirts...  I did and still do interpret those blank spaces as meaning Tiger can indeed win more Majors. Don't count him out. Tiger has the experience of winning more Majors than anyone else on the planet, except for one person. And of the professional players actually still active there is nobody who can draw upon past winning experience as Tiger can. 

"Tiger X4" by golf artist Steven Anthony Salerno   visit sasgolf.com

Above is another art image I created of Tiger recently... this one kind of a multiple "Warhol-esque" take on the player, depicting Tiger four times in various shirt colors. The number 4 of course, being the same number of Major Victories he needs to tie the Jack Nicklaus record of 18 Major Championship victories...

Time will tell.

Visit sasgolf.com to see the available limited edition golf art prints by golf artist Steven Anthony Salerno.

Steven Anthony Salerno's golf art and golf graphics have appeared in Golf Digest, Golf World, LINKS, and GOLF magazines, as well as on PGATOUR.com where he created portraits of top PGATour players. His limited edition golf art prints are in private art collections in Europe and the United States.

Slammin' Sam Snead

Posted here is the view of a recent painting I completed of the late great Sam Snead... nicknamed "Slammin" Sam Snead" because of his booming drives off the tee. My painting is based on a 1949 photo of Mr. Snead by photographer Arthur E. Haug, from a golf instructional book by Snead and a handful of other pros of that era. What struck me was the perspective of seeing the player's swing from above looking down.... which nicely highlighted Mr. Snead's famous iconic straw hat he wore so frequently. 

You are going to see Sam Snead's name pop up in the golfing news a lot very soon, because in 2014 or 2015 Tiger Woods will probably secure his 82nd and 83rd PGA Tour tournament victories.... an amazing feat. 82 wins will tie Sam Snead's long time hold on the record of PGA Tour victories and Tiger's victory number 83 will surpass Snead's mark and set a new record which may then last forever in the golf record books.

Sam Snead (1912 - 2002), the smooth swinging, long hitting "country boy" from Virginia who became the winningest player in PGA Tour history with 82 official tournament victories (including 7 major championship wins). Wearing his signature straw hat and nicknamed "Slammin' Sammy", Snead's long, powerful swing endured, winning professional events over a six decade span. (At age 67 he shot a 67 and a 66 for two of the four rounds at the 1979 Quad Cities Open, a PGA Tour event) 

The original painting was created with oil crayon and gouache on raw paperboard. Visit my golf art web site sasgolf.com to view my limited edition golf art prints as well as some original golf art for sale, including this painting of Sam Snead.

drawing of Ben Hogan Putting

drawing by Steven Anthony Salerno -visit sasgolf.com

Here is a simple oil crayon drawing I recently created depicting superstar iconic golfer in history Ben Hogan, seen in his putting posture about to strike the ball. 

I probably made about five of these relatively quick line drawings before getting it just right.... Because I created each drawing by directly making marks with the crayon on paper without any preliminary light pencil sketch underneath as a guide, I made errors in proportions, or errors in line angles, etc... so it took until the 5th attempt before I got it all done to my satisfaction. Even still, as you can see, the "final" image is purposely rough looking, as I was seeking a very impromptu "sketch" feel for the drawing. (I used photo reference)

I liked this frontal view of Hogan, with his neck and head bent down, because his trademark white cap is seen directly from the top, which is an interesting perspective as it lends a slightly abstract shape into the overall image.

Click here to see a previous post of another drawing I created of Ben Hogan.

Process: I scanned the crayon drawing (which was done on a buff colored raw paper) into Photoshop, where I then added simple washes of digital color for the pants, sweater, and cap.

As you can see from the drawing, Mr. Hogan's putting style was to play the ball lined up off of his left toe, take a slightly closed stance (right foot dropped back a bit from the ball/target line)  plus he then also pulled the putter back to an inside path using a very wristy-hinged stroke to "rap" the ball, which is in comparison to a longer smoother pendulum-stroke technique most Tour players use today.

I must have been channeling another Ben when I made this drawing.... the great American artist Ben Shahn (1898 -1969) because the simple black line I employed, along with the red lettering reminds me a bit this artist's social realism graphic works from the 1930's and '40's. 

Visit sasgolf.com to view my limited edition golf art prints and original paintings and sketches available for purchase.

latest golf drawing by Steven Anthony Salerno

drawing by Steven Anthony Salerno      visit sasgolf.com

Posted here is a recent drawing I created... a very stark image of a player about to strike the ball, seen from a face-on view. 

It's a pen & ink drawing on paper, but I purposely drew it in a manner suggestive of a dark, rich etching. As I drew the ink line with a pen, I immediately rubbed the ink line with my wetted finger, thus smudging the line and getting a heavy black line that "bleeds" -suggestive of a particular etching style wherein the burr of the stylus cutting into the metal plate holds a lot of ink, thus when the plate is printed it yields a rich, black, fuzzy line on the printing paper. (note: When creating an etching, lines are drawn and bitten into a metal plate via an acid bath, then ink is rubbed into these lines, followed by pressing damp paper on top of the plate. The artist will sometimes purposely flood the etching plate with excessive ink too... to obtain a very saturated line that bleeds onto the damp printing paper.) My drawing simulates this look, even though it isn't an etching.

Once I completed the drawing stage, I then scanned it into Photoshop, onto a layer. Then I also scanned into Photoshop an earlier painted background I had created with gouache. This became an abstract layer under my figure of the golfer. I then duplicated this same layer and placed it as a third layer above the figure of the golfer... but immediately erased most of it out, leaving just a couple thin angled streaks, which seem to be in the foreground in front of the golfer. The last step is to merge all these layers, resulting in the final art image which you see here. The background creates a stark atmospheric backdrop for the golfer... as if he is playing alone on a desolate course somewhere in the world.

To see all my available limited edition golf art prints, visit sasgolf.com, my on-line gallery.

new drawing of Arnold Palmer...

Posted here is one of my most recent drawings... this one being yet another image of one of my favorite players of all time, Arnold Palmer. 

I created the image, first by drawing the figure of Palmer using black oil crayon... just a straight forward traditional rendering... then I scanned my drawing into Photoshop where I digitally manipulated the black color of the crayon drawing so that it was now a saturated blue. Then I added a hyper-flesh tone to his face, hands and arms with a digital brush. The last steps were to embed the drawing onto the background which is comprised of distressed paint on a wood panel, which also included the stenciled lettering of PALMER. The resulting "look" is of a traditionally conceived drawing, but the manipulations and layering in Photoshop gave it a modern pop feel overall, representing that Mr. Palmer was a link between older traditions and values to the contemporary game of today. 

drawing of Arnold Palmer by artist Steven Anthony Salerno  -visit sasgolf.com

Of the many top players to have played the game past and present, a handful of them, due mostly to their achievements on the golf course and their charisma, but also multiplied by their achievements in business, their charitable contributions, and the omnipresence of their likeness on television, the web, in books, magazines, and for endorsement advertising campaigns... actually transcend from star athlete, to star celebrity, to being a cultural icon... and for some fans (like myself) they take on mythical status. Mr. Palmer is one such golfer. 

When I was a kid growing up in Vermont back, in the early 1970's Arnold Palmer opened his golf academy at the Stratton Mountain ski and golf resort in the southern end of the state. That first summer they operated a summer instructional camp for teens... the cost of which was way beyond my family's means. However, the academy had a spot open for a couple "local Vermont kids" via a tournament (or was it just a lottery, I cannot remember) but my 17 year old older brother won one of the spots ... and got to attend the 2 week golf camp free of charge, room/board and instruction! (his roommate during the camp was J.P. Getty's grandson!)

I remember that my brother came back from the golf academy two weeks later having lost his extremely strong grip! No small feat! I was impressed. Eventually though, it did creep back into his swing mechanics. But hey, later (as an adult) he still somehow managed to shoot a round of 64(!) at his golf club even despite his strong grip... and win a handful of club championships as well! Never judge a book by its cover! 

The opening day of the academy Arnold Palmer flew in and gave a clinic for the teens attending the summer camp (and their family and guests), plus he then played a nine-hole exhibition on the Stratton mountain course. For me (at about age 14 at the time) it was a heavenly experience to witness such a great golfer play the game up close... and I am sure my getting to actually meet Arnold Palmer in person was the spark that eventually lead to me drawing and painting the greats of the game, and not just images of golfscapes only. 

Visit sasgolf.com to view all my available golf art prints.

Tiger By The Numbers

art by Steven Anthony Salerno  visit sasgolf.com

(author's note: since the original posting date on 3/27/13, Tiger won again on the PGA Tour, upping his tournament victory stat from 77 to 78.... so the art image will have to be modified yet again to indicate 01-14-78)

This weeks victory at the Arnold Palmer Bay Hill Invitational Tournament by Tiger Woods marks the player's astounding 77th PGA Tour win, his recapturing of the World Golf Ranking's number 1 position... and has elicited renewed buzz that he may very well be firmly back on track to win more major championships again (he currently has 14 titles) and may either tie or surpass Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 major championship victories.

Posted here is a painting I did a few years ago for the PGA Tour web site's "Player Spotlight" feature section... and at the time the numbers graphic within the art image (I think) was set at  1 -  14  -  71.  So, now I modified the numbers graphics within the art image to be:  1  -  14  -  77.

Of course, the 1 in the artwork is Tiger's world golf ranking, the 14 is how many major titles he owns, and the 77 is how many PGA Tour wins he has. Relative to his golf skills, the man in red has talent, experience far beyond but a few other players in history, a strong work ethic, and clear goals. I personally think Tiger will indeed either tie or surpass Nicklaus' record. And in so doing I think he will win a major at 50 years of age! 

When Tiger's life became a tabloid feast a handful of years ago, and his personal and public world was crumbling... it seemed his golden train in golf had been permanently derailed. No one can avoid catastrophic periods in their life, whether they come from illness, outside forces, or are even self created.... but sometimes one can truly heal, can learn, can become stronger than before. Second chances are available but must be earned. Maybe Tiger indeed is becoming better both on and off the course. And his new prowess on the course suddenly has everyone thinking his golden train is on a very fast track once again.

Portrait of Ernie Els

portrait of Ernie Els by Steven Anthony Salerno visit sasgolf.com

I recently completed a small portrait of World Golf Hall of Fame golfer, South African Ernie Els... shown hoisting the Claret Jug upon winning the 2012 Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St. Annes, his fourth major championship victory. Now being the holder of four majors places Mr. Els into pretty rare company, as only 27 players in the entire history of the game have ever won four or more major championships. (and we all know that Jack Nicklaus hold the record with 18 majors and Tiger Woods is in a not so distant second with 14 majors)

I created this portrait painting using pencil, crayon, acrylics and gouache on Arches 260 lb hot press paper. In 2012 I had completed a series of "signature hole" golfscape paintings for Ernie Els Design (his golf course architecture company) which you can view at sasgolf.com in the Ernie Els project section.

I usually prefer doing "swing portraits" of players, rather than straight forward "portraits" simply because I enjoy expressing my knowledge of the golf swing and also capturing the unique look of an individual's swing... but in this instance, I actually could not locate sufficient reference photos to my liking of Mr. Els in action during the final round of the 2012 Open Championship... but the multitude of photos of him after winning and hoisting the Claret Jug caught my eye, as they radiated his sheer joy in winning his 4th major championship. So I used about 5 different photos as reference to construct my own art image... simplifying and editing out folds and wrinkles in clothing, adding or eliminating shadows, repositioning his pose, etc... all the multitude of actions required when using static photo reference to create an organic drawing and painting artwork. 

Visit sasgolf.com to view all my available limited edition golf art prints.

Rory is #1 (but for how much longer?)

Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland placed third in the 2007 Open Championship at Carnoustie, by way of a terrific final round bogey-free 68 (at the tender age of just 18 years old) and ever since then he has rocketed to the very top in the golfing world. He now sits atop the World Golf Rankings, and at the ripe old age of 23 has two Major Championship victories under his belt.

In 2013 will Rory hang onto that #1 spot and also win another Major? Or, will the man in the #2 rankings position overtake him? (Who just happens to be one Tiger Woods.) My feeling is that Tiger will win his 15th Major Championship this year, and in so doing will gain back the #1 World Golf Ranking once again.

(Rory will certainly be the world's #1 golfer many more times in the future, but Tiger still has quite a bit of bite left in his own game, enough to regain the #1 title and to also possibly match or surpass the Majors record held by Mr. Nicklaus!)

There is only so much time in a day, and with all the work I do in my illustration career, I then have to also make the time to do the additional golf art projects that come my way (see the Ernie Els project), and also for the number of personal golf art images I create to offer as limited edition prints on my gallery site sasgolf.com. So, I have been meaning to create an art image of Rory McIlroy for quite a while but just cannot find the proper time. And I still haven't..... but recently I did manage to do a simple conventional "study" painting of Rory, posed at the end of his powerful follow through. The impeccable balance maintained throughout his swing is amazing considering the swing speed he generates. This painting was created uses crayon, acrylics, and gouache on Arches 260 lb hot press paper. (paper size: approximately 22" x 16") This painting is not available as a limited edition print, but the original painting is available for purchase on sasgolf.com in the purchase original art section.

"RORY" painting by Steven Anthony Salerno  visit sasgolf.com

To see my golf art images available as limited edition prints, as well as some original artworks available for purchase too, visit sasgolf.com

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

The Ernie Els project: new art "Desaru Coast"

Earlier this year I began a project for Ernie Els Design, the golf course architecture design company of 4 time Major Championship winner and World Golf Hall of Fame member, Ernie Els. It is comprised of creating my original golf art images of select "signature holes" from various golf courses around the world designed by Ernie Els... and the art images will be reproduced to advertise and promote the work of Ernie Els Design. Visit my golf art web site, SASgolf.com to see larger views of these painting for the Ernie Els project, as well as to view all my limited edition golf art prints available for purchase, including some of the original golf art items as well.

The first golfscape art image I created for this special project was of the 18th Hole (West Course) at the Wentworth Club in England. Next was art depicting the 6th Hole at The Els Club Copperleaf in South Africa. The most recent painting I completed is of the 3rd Hole (Coast Course) at The Els Club Desaru Coast in Malaysia. It is a 160 yard par three which is set against the beach line and plays into a prevailing ocean breeze. The course will be open for play in 2013.

Click here to see an earlier post on this project...

full view- painting of 3rd Hole, The Els Club Desaru Coast  -visit sasgolf.com

detail - painting of 3rd Hole, The Els Club Desaru Coast  -visit sasgolf.com

magazine ad / 3rd Hole, The Els Club Desaru Coast  -visit sasgolf.com

The top image (above) is the art image I created of the 3rd Hole (Coast Course) at The Els Club Desaru Coast course in Malaysia. The previous couple golfscapes I created for this Ernie Els project were executed with gouache, crayon, etc... on paper. For a different look, I created this Desaru Coast signature hole art image all digitally. I drew the image on a digital tablet (Wacom) using vector software (Adobe Illustrator). In the case of this art image.... all I had for reference were photos of this new course actually under construction. In other words I had to imagine the completed golf hole from looking at the architects topographical blueprints of the hole, the construction photos, and background photos of the trees and plants along this hole's location.

The middle image (above) is a close-up view of my art. The way I created the image was to hand draw hundreds of shapes to define the forms of the land contours, tree shapes, water, clouds, shadows, etc... all over lapping one another and each shape being of varying degrees of transparency. The net effect is kind of like a slightly "hard-edged" watercolor painting.... It is very crisp and graphic. The large format (17" x 22") art print of this image looks really terrific.  I have done this same technique for some my other golfscape art images, specifically for a series of art images I created of the Black Course at Bethpage.

The bottom image (above) is how my art was cropped and used in a magazine advertisement by Ernie Els Design in a prominent golf architecture publication... which is the whole point of this project.

You can see larger views of the art created for this project at sasgolf.com in the Ernie Els project gallery section.

New "signature hole" art for The Els Club Copperleaf, South Africa

Earlier this year I began a project for Ernie Els Design, the golf course architecture design company of 4 time Major Championship winner and World Golf Hall of Fame member, Ernie Els. It is comprised of creating my original golf art images of select "signature holes" from various golf courses around the world designed by Ernie Els... and the art images will be reproduced to advertise and promote the work of Ernie Els Design. Visit my golf art web site, SASgolf.com to see larger views of these painting for the Ernie Els project, as well as to view all my limited edition golf art prints available for purchase, including some of the original golf art items as well.

First in this series of commissioned signature hole golf art, I created a painting and a drawing of the 18th hole (West Course) at the Wentworth Club outside of London, England which was redesigned by Ernie Els Design in 2008 -2011. See a previous post on this segment of the project to view all these Wentworth Club art images. Below is my painting of the 18th hole at the Wentworth Club, outside of London, England.

my painting of 18th hole (West Course) at the Wentworth Club  visit SASgolf.com

14th hole at The Els Club Copperleaf  -visit SASgolf.com

(detail) 14th hole at The Els Club Copperleaf  -visit SASgolf.com

And recently I completed two paintings for the project's next segment: The Els Club Copperleaf in South Africa. This Els Club course was designed in 2007... and is near Johannesburg, developed on land once lived on by Ernie Els' grandfather. I created a light, impressionistic gouache and oil crayon painting of the par three 14th hole (see above), which depicts a view from the tee box looking toward the narrow green, and the art features the beautiful plains and mountain vista beyond. The colors and tones in this painting capture the heat of the day and brightness of the day.

6th hole at The Els Club Copperleaf  -visit SASgolf.com

(detail) 6th hole at The Els Club Copperleaf  -visit SASgolf.com

The next painting, of the par four 6th hole (see above), was also created in gouache and oil crayon, and is purposely boldly executed to reflect the beautiful, raw nature of the region surrounding this new golf course. The art is a view seen from the vantage point of the tee shot landing area, showing the angle of the approach shot into the green which is protected by water and bunkers.

magazine advertisement for The Els Club Copperleaf  -visit SASgolf.com

Posted above is the The Els Club Copperleaf art as it was designed for the Els Design advertisement page in a golf architecture publication. The acting creative director for this particular "Copperleaf" segment of the project was handled by Thomas Rubi, the Vice President of Strategic Development for Ernie Els. 

I really look forward to the next "signature hole" golf art I will create for Ernie Els Design... which I believe will be for their new golf course at the Desaru Coast golf complex in Malaysia.

Visit SASgolf.com to view all my available limited edition golf art prints.

"Signature Hole" golfscapes for Ernie Els Design

About a year and a half ago I was contacted by Phil Cotton, a business manager for professional golfer Ernie Els. I think most golf fans know that the South African Mr. Els, AKA: "The Big Easy," is the winner of 4 Major Championship victories, as well as a recent World Golf Hall of Fame inductee. Phil and I discussed possibilities of me creating a series of original golf art images for a number of Els projects, one of which being "signature hole" golfscapes to be used to advertise a number of golf courses around the world designed by Ernie Els Design.

About a month ago this "signature hole" project finally became a reality... and so once the contract was resolved, and the specific golf courses and their corresponding "signature holes" were established, I was off and running with the first image.

The Wentworth Club outside of London, England was my first subject. Their venerable West Course was originally designed by Harry S. Colt back in the 1920's, and then redesigned/modified by Ernie Els and his design company in 2008-2011. I had my choice of depicting one of several different signature holes from the course, but I selected the 18th hole because I thought it to be a beautiful looking golfscape, plus it was the hole that had undergone the most significant design changes, and also because its redesign had been the most controversial. Mr. Els took a lot of criticism over his redesign of this specific 18th hole. Apparently it had been a relatively short par 5 which yielded quite a few eagles and near certain birdies for the the top professionals. Then, Mr. Els transformed it into a longer par 5 with a smallish green protected by a new devilish lateral water hazard that fits tightly along the entire length of the left side of the green, making players think more than twice about going for the green in 2 shots... In other words, it stirred up the hornet's nest of player opinion, I guess especially with those who had previously enjoyed unmolested eagles.


I have never played the hole personally... but have seen the hole in championship play on television, and the redesigned hole indeed makes for very exciting action. If a player (with the length and confidence) hits and holds the green in just 2 shots, it is indeed a very, very good shot that could possibly be then rewarded with a rare eagle. And the option of laying up requires executing a crisp, very accurate wedge 3rd shot, navigating the creek which tightly skirts the green, especially if the flagpin is set on the left side. To me it seemed like a design improvement befitting an 18th hole for a course staging professional championship caliber events.

Putting the hole's "playability" issue aside.... from my visual aesthetic viewpoint (comparing the old 18th hole photos to the newly redesigned 18th hole), I far prefer the look of the new 18th hole based on a purely sculptural characteristics. Put another way, if the 18th hole still looked the way it did before the redesign by Els and company, I probably would not have chosen it to be the subject of my "signature hole" art image. The creek that splits the fairway then glides alongside the green gives the hole better visual definition and character.

sketch of 18th hole at Wentworth.   visit sasgolf.com

Seen above is my early preliminary rough sketch of the 18th hole... created with pastel, crayon, and gouache. Ideally I would prefer to be on-site to make sketches and take my own reference photos, but in the case of this project I had to work from photos supplied to me by Ernie Els Design.

painting of 18th hole at Wentworth.   visit sasgolf.com

Here is my finished painting of the 18th hole (with the distinctive clubhouse building seen in the far background up on the hill beyond the green). The final completed painting was created with pastel, crayon, and gouache on Arches 260lb hot press paper, with composited layering done in Photoshop. The "story" I envisioned in my head while executing the art was that it is the last light of the day as you play the 18th hole, and it had been a gray, drizzly afternoon and finally the blue sky appears in patches. 

close-up of painting of 18th hole at Wentworth.   visit sasgolf.com

A closer view of the green area... you can see how dangerously close the lateral water hazard fits against the green. In this painting I particularly like how I painted the background bank of trees in a loose impressionistic manner. By depicting mere suggestions of trees without much detail at all, it allows the specific detailing of the green, flagstick and the hazard's wooden piling just in front of the green to focus the viewer's attention there. 

Shown above are three under-painting "stage" views of the painting image in progress....
1: pastel roughing out the shapes of the fairway and tree masses. 2: painting a layer on top with gouache to better define areas and tones. 3: beginning to sharpen the  areas and shapes with more detail. 

drawing of 18th green at Wentworth.   visit sasgolf.com

Above is a second art image I created also of the 18th green at Wentworth, seen from a rear/side angle looking back down the 18th fairway. I purposely executed the drawing in deep browns, blacks and rose color, all to heighten the danger of the lurking water hazard. I also chose this angle so the viewer could really see just how steep the embankment down into the water hazard truly is.

drawing of 18th green at Wentworth.   visit sasgolf.com

Above is a closer view of the 18th green drawing.

There are other "signature hole" art images from the Ernie Els Design project still to come, so check back again in a month or so. The next hole I will be creating an art image of -is on the opposite side of the planet from Wentworth!


Visit SASgolf.com to see all my golf art prints available, however the Wentworth signature hole art images are not available in a limited edtion golf art print, well, not yet anyway...