Peanuts come to Life, an homage to Charles Schulz

Acrylic on gessobord, 11 x 14"

painting #215, 2013

Ever wondered how and why the comic strip received the name Peanuts? The origins goes back to the theatre, where the cheapest seats were those way at the bottom floor and where people purchased peanuts because they were the cheapest snack. If they disapproved of the performance, they would throw peanuts at the actors. If they would shout insults, the announcer would reply, "No more comments from the Peanut Gallery". The term Peanut Gallery was later adopted for the children audience featured in the Howdy Doody TV Show that originated in the late 1940's. 

In 1950, Charles Schulz approached the United Feature Syndicate with his best work from a comic strip named Li'l Folks. But since the name Li'l Folks was too close to the names of two other comics of the time: Li'l Abner and Little Folks, and in order avoid confusion, the syndicate settled on the name Peanuts, after the Peanut Gallery featured on the Howdy Doody show. Peanuts was a title Schulz always disliked. In a 1987 interview, Schulz said of the title Peanuts: "It's totally ridiculous, has no meaning, is simply confusing, and has no dignity—and I think my humour has dignity." 

Last year my wife bought a jar of Planters roasted peanuts which immediately ignited the whole concept. A few weeks later while strolling in a local antique shop, I found an issue of LIFE magazine dated March 17, 1967, featuring the protagonist and his dog with the headline reading: "The great Peanuts craze - CHARLIE BROWN and SNOOPY WINNERS AT LAST". This would become the perfect vehicle and element of contingency for my composition. 

The 1967 LIFE article reflected that despite the fact the 'Peanuts' characters who were born to be losers, in contrast, the popularity of the comic strip had attained new heights and had started a craze around the world. 

 "At scores of colleges, Peanuts characters are the biggest people on campus. In Vietnam, pilots fly into combat with Snoopy painted on their planes. Records based on Peanuts have sold millions of copies ("Snoopy and the Red Baron", "Return of the Red Baron" by the Royal Guardsmen). And even before it opened last week, a new off-Broadway hit musical,You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, had sold tickets to admirers as far away as Nebraska. Dolls, cards, clothes and other Peanuts paraphernalia make up a more than $15 million-a-year business. Charles Schulz describes himself as "100% Charlie Brown." But unlike Charlie, who has lost a 123-0 baseball game, Schulz as a youngster pitched a no-hit, no-run game- and is today several times a millionaire". 

- LIFE Magazine - March 17, 1967.

In 1967, the comic strip had a following of 90 million readers a day. Before the passing of Charles Schulz in 2000, it had reached a milestone of 355 million readers in 75 counties.

Needless to say, the popularity of the Peanuts lives on in comic strips reruns. Snoopy is featured on the front of the Metlife blimp.   Most recently, a song entitled Charlie Brown was featured on the 2011 Coldplay album, Mylo Xyloto. The musical, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown has been a popular choice for amateur theatre productions because of its small cast and simple staging. It won several theatre awards during it's original 1967 run. During the 1999 Broadway revival, it would receive a Tony nomination for Best revival of a musical and won Tony awards for Kristin Chenoweth as Sally and Roger Bart as Snoopy in the best featured actress/actor categories. It is currently playing until the end of the month at the Woodland Opera House, in Woodland CA, near Sacramento. I am quite certain that the audience won't be throwing peanuts at the actors on stage this time around.

This painting will be included in the upcoming group exhibition, The Still Life at the Elliott Fouts Gallery, October 5-31, 2013.

-SOLD

Sally blowing bubbles, an homage to Charles Schulz

Acrylic on gessoed hardboard, 12 x 10''

2011, #191

The idea for this painting came to me while doing a bit of research after viewing a Peanuts comic strip that appeared in the Telegraph Journal on October 19, 2009. The strip itself seemed like a perfect vehicle to use for a still life study featuring bubble gum.

Walter Diemer (1904-1998) aged 23, was working as an accounted for the Fleer company when he accidentally invented bubble gum in 1926 while experimenting with chewing gum recipes. It was an instant hit, selling 150,000,000 units at 1¢ a piece in it's first year of production. Ironically, Diemer never patented his product and did not receive royalties from the company, although he would eventually become senior vice-president of Fleer. The new novelty gum was given the name  Dubble Bubble.

In my pursuit of documenting popular culture, it was a perfect opportunity to pay homage to both Diemer and cartoonist Charles Schulz. As Schultz was also documenting popular culture himself with Sally doing a ''show and tell'' in front of her classroom.

Charles Schulz really needs no introduction.  The famous cartoonist who drew from his own life using himself, family members and friends as the inspiration for several of the Peanuts characters. Charlie Brown first appeared in a strip named Lil' Folks that ran from 1947-1950. When Schulz approached United Feature Syndicate, a comic strip known as ''Peanuts'' made it's debut in newspapers on October 2, 1950. The strip is considered to be one of the most popular and influential in the history of the medium. What is probably most remarkable, Schulz often used the strip as a vehicle to address social commentary of issues of the day happening in America and the around the world. The strip ran for 50 years. The last original strip was published on February 13, 2000,  the day after his death at age 77. The strip remains as popular as ever in reruns.

The background for the painting is the cover for a book entitled Holidays - Through the Year - Five Classic Stories, published by Hallmark. The five stories were all made into animated television specials. I can recall watching them as a child. They include: It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Be my Valentine, Charlie Brown and It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown. I purchased the book during the Holidays at Hallmark. The store also had many endearing figurines on display as part of the 60th anniversary commemorative celebration of the Peanuts. For the painting, I did change the order of the characters so I could feature Snoopy, Woodstock and Charlie Brown, who would have been hiding behind the jar.
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This paintings marks the introduction of the use of new technology. I purchased an Apple iPad as a tool to have better accessibility to the quality of the photographic material I use as reference material while painting. I was often disappointed when I saw the digital image in print. The luminosity of my PC monitor was often lost during the printing process, and it greatly affected the colors as well. It's an absolutely brilliant tool, which permits me to move the image around, zoom in certain sections for details, and I can even listen to music from my iTunes collection while I paint.
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After a week of painting, I suffered a setback. While I was removing drawing gum used to mask certain sections, chucks of the board came along with the residue. There was no way I could remedy the problem, and had to restart from scratch. On a positive note, the lettering in the new version is much better.

Peanut comic strip trivia-

- a total of 17,897 strips were published

- it ran in 2600 newspapers at it's peak

- had a readership of 355 millions

- published in 75 counties and in 21 languages

-SOLD