Forget the fussy formality of still lifes, ships and somber portraits of unsmiling people.
Fine art can — in fact, should be — fun. Maybe not trampolines-and-Tilt-a-Whirls fun, but delightful and gratifying, a sort of never-get-tired-of-looking-at-it sense of enjoyment.
“Some people buy art like it’s a stock, and some people buy it because it makes them feel something. The truth? The best collections happen when both are true,” say the folks at Ocean Blue Galleries on Duval Street, which features the collectible — and fun — fine art of Tom Everhart, the only artist who was authorized to draw the iconic Peanuts characters by the man who created them, the late Charles Schulz.
Everhart is the perfect example of art that’s acquired for both its feel-good familiarity and its financial value — and he’s in town this week, appearing at Ocean Blue Galleries Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 7 to 9 p.m.
“Everhart’s work has serious collector value, but it also brings that bold, playful, instantly-happy energy that makes a home feel like you. (Think: the piece that turns your living room into a conversation starter, not just a room),” states the Ocean Blue Facebook page. “If you’ve ever been scared of buying art and regretting it later, don’t be; we’ll help you pick the right piece, the right size, and the right framing so it looks unreal in your space for years.”
With football foibles, 5-cent psychiatry and a famously flippant beagle, Schulz gave the world a 50-year friendship with the Peanuts gang, drawing Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Lucy and the others for his syndicated comic strip and a host of other appearances.
For decades, he trusted no one to recreate his characters. Then he met Everhart, a Yale-educated fine art painter who had never considered a career in cartoon or comic strip art. But a freelance project in 1980 required Everhart to recreate Schulz’s Peanuts gang, then present the drawings to Schulz and his studios.
“Completely impressed with Schulz’s line, (Everhart) was able to reproduce the line art almost exactly, which in turn impressed Schulz at their meeting,” states Everhart’s biography. That line prompted a lasting friendship and artistic partnership between Schulz and Everhart, who would go on to draw most of the Peanuts characters for the iconic MetLife advertising campaign. He remains the only fine artist authorized and educated by Schulz to draw the actual Schulz line that defines the familiar characters.
Everhart began to incorporate the characters into original paintings of his own, many of which are available at Ocean Blue Galleries, 109 Duval St., in Key West, where Everhart is appearing this week on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Feb. 19-21 from 7 to 9 p.m.
