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Exhibition
Information
The
explosive, dazzling color, expressionistic imagination,
and big-as-life proportions are Tom Everhart's signature
elements...his artwork is the culmination of 20 years
of close association with cartoonist Charles M. Schulz
and the ®Peanuts phenomenon. The only fine artist
authorized to artistically render the ®Peanuts characters,
Everhart had been a successful painter of large-scale
landscapes before being asked to render drawings of
the ®Peanuts characters for a commercial project in
1980. With no background in cartooning, Everhart prepared
for the task by projecting Schulz's comic strips onto
a 25-foot wall in his studio for closer examination.
He was stunned to discover that, blown up larger than
life, Schulz's pen strokes closely connected to his
own painting style. His immediate fascination with
Schulz's "line" ‹ and his remarkable ability to capture
it with his own distinct interpretation ‹ impressed
Schulz and launched a friendship and collaboration
that continued until Schulz¹s death in February 2000.
In 1988, Everhart had the vision of taking the lovable
®Peanuts gang to a new level of art ‹ what one commentator
would later dub "Expresstoonism." Ironically, Everhart
was in the hospital with life-threatening cancer when
the inspiration struck. But today, with his illness
in remission, the 47-year-old California artist is
pursuing his vision of the ®Peanuts paintings with
an energy as irrepressible as his imagery. Everhart's
paintings have been exhibited at museums all over
the world, including the Louvre in Paris. His exhibition
schedule for 2000 included the Museu da Cidade in
Lisbon, Portugal, and the Suntory Museum in Osaka,
Japan. Additionally, CBS television selected nine
of Everhart¹s paintings to be highlighted in a special
on Charles Schulz hosted by Whoopi Goldberg.
Limited-edition
fine-art lithographs based on Everhart's ®Peanuts
paintings are distributed exclusively by Everhart's
fine art publisher under an agreement with United
Media (licensor of the rights to both Schulz's comic
strip characters and the Everhart lithographs). Capturing
the full impact and vitality of Everhart¹s self-described
"frenzied" color and line is the job of the publisher's
atelier. The publisher's artisans, using paintings
on paper and canvas by Everhart as a starting point,
work directly with Everhart to painstakingly create
these fine artworks with traditional hands-on, hand-pulled
lithography techniques.
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