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.

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.

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)

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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.

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.

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

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