James R. Bingham: War & Peace

Some people are born to illustrate and it would appear James R. Bingham was such a person. An entry on Bingham in the book, Illustrating for the Saturday Evening Post certainly suggests as much. "In a way," writes author Ashley Halsey Jr., "James R. Bingham was spared a lot of worrying over what he would be when he grew up. At the extremely early age of three, he decided to be an artist."Bingham was born in Pittsburgh in 1917 and according to...

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The Impactful Art of James R. Bingham

If I could use only one word to describe the work of James R. Bingham, it would be this:"Impactful."Bingham had the innate ability to take any scene, from the most benign...... to the most ferocious...... and give to it a sense of drama that transcended the work of most other illustrators.That's because James R. Bingham could do so much more than just draw and paint well. Bingham had a masterful understanding of all the elements that make up a great...

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Albert Pucci (1920-2005)

Last week I was away at a conference in Windsor, Ontario. Whenever I visit another town I try to find some time to visit its used book stores. I'm always hopeful that some overlooked treasure will present itself to me - and that's what happened when I dropped in at Juniper Used Books in Windsor. I found these two slim mid-1960s volumes from the long-running Grumbacher Library series of art instruction booklets; The Art of Landscape Painting and...

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"Rowland Wilson (the cartoonist's cartoonist)" - Bill Peckmann

Last week's look at Rowland B. Wilson's Playboy cartoons certainly prompted a lot of enthusiastic commentary, including this nice note from Bill Peckmann:"Dear Leif; All of us die hard Rowland Wilson fans can't thank you enough for posting 3 days of Rowland's (the cartoonist's cartoonist) art! Any chance of posting more?"Knowing that RBW had done work for Esquire magazine, I dug out a bunch from my old magazine collection and found some wonderful...

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