“O time, thou must untangle this, not I.
It is too hard a knot for me t’untie.”
―
Author: AllanHardingM
Hopeless Romantic
This article has been approved by Court Painter Enterprises
The Court Painter has spent a lifetime painting romantic portraits of kings, movie stars and moguls, even the occasional mobster or dictator, but all anybody wants to talk about is a picture he made of a guy that hangs in a bar. Not just any bar, of course, but a dark, wood-panelled one. And not just any guy.
The 2015 portrait is called “The Vicious Visionary.” It features a flaccid, tanned and wind blown man “his skin glowing at sunset,” as Playboy described the painting.
Court Painter’s portrait of Donald Trump, with the repainted enlarged hand, hangs inside the bar of the Mar-A-Lago club in Palm Beach.
It’s such a startling, alternative image of Mar-A-Lago’s proprietor that reporters who have thronged to the gilded mansion can’t keep from commenting on it.
The picture has shown up on newspaper and magazine websites from London to New York to Dildo Newfoundland, and has led to a late-life burst of publicity for Court Painter.
A genial storyteller, CP is happy to spend hours talking about his globe-trotting encounters with everybody from Near East to Middle East to Far East potentates,unknown Canadian politicians,to many locals too numerous to mention.
CP was the only painter commissioned by Trump to paint his Elvis Presley impersonation , based on his delight of earlier portraits CP did of Trump’s many impersonations of Fatty Arbuckle hanging with friends in mysterious interiors, currently decorating selected Mar-A- Lago’s ornate bathrooms.
But for the past year, reporters have quizzed him mostly about The Donald, especially the years-long saga of how CP came to paint — and then, at Trump’s insistence, repaint — the enlarged hand on the Mar-A-Lago portrait.
And who can resist a story about Donald Trump and his enlarged hand?
As an artist, CP wanted to capture a romantic and sunnier side of Trump. “I wouldn’t paint you in a blue suit and red tie,” he told Trump. “That’s your New York look. I prefer the windblown and fat suit look.”
CP also wanted to do it in a classic mode, where part of the portrait is left underpainted on purpose. So, in the picture, he decided to leave the left hand resting on Trump’s thigh in that style. The hand was visible, and perfectly formed but it was a bit on the pale side.(not illustrated for copyright reasons)
“I love the sketch portraits, where one hand is finished and the other isn’t,because quite honestly hands are hard and I tire easily,” CP explained on a recent afternoon in his cluttered studio in the Inglewood neighbourhood of Calgary.
Trump accepted the painting and hung it proudly at Mar-A-Lago. “He loved it,” CP said, but it soon became clear that “he didn’t get” the sketchy hand thing.
“He’d say, ‘When are you going to finish my painting?’” CP recalled. “I’d say, ‘Donald, it is finished.’ One day, he said to me, ‘How much would you charge to enlarge the hand?’”
CP doesn’t work for free. On commission, he once did a sepia portraits of the kids -as a surprise from second wife Marla to Trump.
But he hasn’t painted current wife Melania because Trump didn’t want to hurt Stormy Daniel’s feelings or Karen McDougal’s for that matter
Portrait of The Donald impersonating Fatty Arbuckle surrounded by ‘friends’
The hand kerfuffle remains perplexing to him. There are stories of people taking tours of Mar-A-Lago and hearing that the portrait was free and another artist repainted the hand. All not true, insisted CP. “People think I held out (for more money) by not finishing it,but I gave in and painted a frickin enlarged hand to shut up The Donald,” said CP.
Still, he won’t engage in “anything unkind” about Trump. He credits Trump for steering painting commissions his way for an 80% finders fee by bragging to Mar-A-Lago patrons that Court Painter is “the No. 1 portrait painter in the celebrity world.”
“People love a painting with a story,” A Hardon MacKay, (the CP’s Press Attache guy and author of this article) said. “The bigger the story gets, the more famous the painting becomes….the better I look!”
“And if there is anybody who knows about paintings, big stories ,big egos and the famous people behind them, it’s my client Court Painter,Painter of Establishing Narratives and Stuff Like That.
Among Friends
Smoke….what smoke?
The Bull of Extreme Diversity
Cuz It’s 2018 in Ontario
Ontario government receives encased supine statue of Sir John A. Macdonald From Victoria
Photo of removed statue on flatbed,wrapped in foam packing from which a bronze cast was produced to encase Sir John A’s supine statue
The City of Victoria took down a statue of Sir John A. Macdonald as a symbol of reconciliation. Ontario in the spirit of 2018 has requested and accepted the supine statue of Canada’s first prime minister that is pictured here, encased in cast bronze.
Upon removal of the standing statue a bronze casting was made of the original packing surrounding the statue of Sir John A, where his supine statue has been encased in perpetuity before shipment to the Ontario Legislative grounds.
“It’s the least we could do cuz it’s 2018,” one of the PC government staffers uttered,while simultaneously clapping with gusto!
Ontario’s tourism minister says her government is so happy to provide a new home for the encased supine statue of Sir John A to lay along side of an already large statue of Canada’s first prime minister directly in front of Queen’s Park.
Sylvia Jones, the Dufferin-Caledon MPP named to PC Premier Doug Ford’s first cabinet this summer,allegedly was overheard by the Premier to have said, ” History matters however lets keep Sir John A’s role as architect of the residential schools thingy on the back burner and not spoil what is a wonderful occasion to acknowledge a flawed and complicated man from a flawed and complicated different time ….(an aside) if you ask me twas better then this time of political correctness running with Amok and the liberal gang.”
However for the record, upon launching his “architectural career” we should remember the May 1883 words of Sir John A, spoken before the House of Commons : “When the school is on the reserve the child lives with its parents, who are savages; he is surrounded by savages, and though he may learn to read and write his habits, and training and mode of thought are Indian. He is simply a savage who can read and write … [T]he Indian children should be withdrawn as much as possible from the parental influence, and the only way to do that would be to put them in central training industrial schools where they will acquire the habits and modes of thought of white men.”
Sir John A may be encased but never forgotten and speaking of cases ,lets get back to celebrating the forthcoming Buck A Beer initiative the unflawed and uncomplicated leader for our times Dougie is unrolling for Ontarian’s!
Meanwhile….the continuum
Braggart
Court Painter is an established artist whose new paintings have attracted the international attention of millions (unsubstantiated) over the last few years or months …whatever. Highly detailed political and celebrity subjects are the focus of his paintings. The artist’s experiences and hunger for the almighty dollar are the inspiration for his work.
“I have traveled to many places around the world to know my subjects, but when I work on a painting with many figures I will usually pose my subjects, close my eyes and then paint them as I see them in my mind. I choose to paint from the heart as well as the palette and evoke my personal vision into each painting.”
“I prefer to paint portraits that I believe have relevance to what is going on in the political and celebrity world that I inhabit, that make a scintillating statement , stand for something or other, are cheap to make and fetch a good price. I trust people of refinement will study the paintings and reach beyond the shallow!
Some of the themes which I’m not at liberty to highlight are controversial, but I feel strongly about what is happening in the political and entertainment world today. There are three kinds of people who view my paintings: Those who like, those who hate and those who simply are dumber than a bag of hammers . I am especially interested in this last category. I know my work will create conversation and reach people on a deeper howbeit dimwitted level. I tend to use metaphors,old doors,polished floors, saddle sores and props that soar to create multiple levels of meaning to soften my clients psyche and loosen the purse strings entwining the clients ….purse. If it makes them think thoughts and feel feelings, then I know I have been successful.”
Court Painter is the Great Dominion and America’s Artist for our current generation and crisis,pouring inspiration into his penetrating portraits, giving meaning and hope to many during the past Harper and current Trump years; Court Painter offers hope and a dash of doubt for mortals facing morals charges and the cultural, political and artistic crisis of today and indubitably the day after tomorrow.
At Last : A Politician Who Listens
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has demonstrated an uncannily acute hearing ability in detecting racist remarks and bomb threats allegedly uttered by members of the opposition NDP during recent sittings of the Legislature.
The Doug took the opportunity to show off his hearing aids as well as highlight the Buck A Beer promotion!
Diplomatic Initiative
Original post August 9,2018
Canada pulled out all the stops and sent in their diplomatic heavyweights to defuse the recent Saudi Arabian initiated hair on fire dust up!
The Canadian diplomatic team included Bob & Doug MacKenzie, The Trailer Park Boys and Marg Delahunty batting clean up!
- Epic diplomatic encounters with Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, colloquially known as MBS, the Saudi Arabian politician who is the crown prince, deputy prime minister, and minister of defense of Saudi Arabia, were reported!
