Archive for the 'African American Artist' Category
“One day on the playing field, I looked up and the sun was breaking through the clouds, hitting the unmuddied areas on the uniforms, and I said, ‘That’s beautiful!’ I knew then that it was all over being a player. I was more interested in art. So I traded my cleats for canvas, my bruises for brushes, and put all the violence and power I had felt on the field into my paintings.”
Ernie Barnes was born in 1938, in Durham, North Carolina. His father, Ernest Barnes Sr., worked as a shipping clerk at a local tobacco company and his mother, Fannie Mae Geer Barnes, was employed as a domestic for Frank Fuller Jr., a wealthy Southern attorney who would guide Barnes into the world of art.
By the time Barnes entered the first grade, he was familiar with the works of such masters as Toulouse-Lautrec, Delacroix, Rubens, and Michelangelo. By the time he entered junior high, he could appreciate, as well as decode, many of the cherished masterpieces within the walls of museums — although it would be a half dozen more years before he was allowed entrance because of his race.
Ernie Barnes’ most popular print….. Sugar Shack
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Born in San Diego, California, Albert Fennell’s talent came at the early age of five when he started drawing in-depth pictures of cartoon characters. As a young man in the 6th grade at Ocean View Elementary School, his landscape done in tempera paint was selected in a district-wide competition and was exhibited in the San Diego Museum of Art. He studied fine arts at San Diego Mesa College, commercial drawing at San Diego City College, and refined his skills at Alexander’s School of Drawing, Printing, and Design.
Fennell’s artwork has been seen on the television series, “Generations”, and he received commission from Rosa Parks, Anita Baker, Jesse Jackson, and Father Clement. Albert Fennell stated, “Through my work, I try to create a communication level between all people dealing with truth, pride, and compassion. I thank God for the talent He has given me and the opportunity to present it to you.”
