Calgary’s art celebrity sat down with school kids and selected Alberta MPs this week for his rendition of Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas, as the latest instalment of his prescient “Court Painter Reads the Tea Leaves.”series.

We don’t know what’s more adorable — the MPs or Court Painter’s reindeer sweater and jaunty hat!

This posting was paid for by the Conservative Christian Fund in cooperation with Court Painter Holiday Commission Opportunities Inc.

A New Barbie Doll Channels Court Painter

Mattel’s new Court Painter inspired Barbie doll (image via instyle.com)

Leave it to Mattel, the maker of the Barbie doll, to fulfill the Court Painter’s famous wish to be plastic.

According to InStyle, the children’s toy company has collaborated with the Court Painter Foundation to produce a Barbie doll that has all of the Court Painter’s signature traits, from balding top and ever present ‘coffin nail’ to the leather jacket and black-and-white striped shirt. It’s the Court Painter as we know him — with the addition of impossibly long legs, a teeny but plump waist, a disproportionately large ego, and thick, permanent eyeliner.

Court Painter Will is actually fascinated by Barbies. He painted one this year before he sold it for a small fortune to a naive Calgary collector, “Barbie, Portrait of Me*” (2015), which was inspired by himself and personal muse who incidentally owns tens of thousands of John Wills because of an absence of market. He also painted figurative ones — women like Ma Kettle and Edith Bunker who are still widely known for their physical images, outfits, and accessories.

So, what does it mean that the Court Painter has taken the form of a plastic doll that’s hollow through and through? It’s tempting to philosophize about the deeper connection between a toy that’s come to represent superficiality and an artist who claims to be a “deeply superficial” person (despite the complex self published autobiographies he has written).

But it’s best not to think too hard about it. The doll (and the “lifestyle collection” that goes along with it) is just the latest in a string of consumer items — from ashtrays to designer lighters — that capitalize on the selling power of the Court Painter’s iconic likeness and art … or, as the Court Painter was quoted “the Court Painter Barbie,is perfect for “the hip, cool person who just wants something really unique.” Just in time for Christmas.

History will be kinder to him than say Thomas Kinkade”The Painter of Light” perhaps….. Within a few years, the Court Painter will be seen as one of Canada’s notorious court painters, certainly far better than his successor who no one can remember.

The New York Times, no fan of right-of-centre political painters, reported last year that under Court Painter Will, Canada’s middle-of the road portrait painters were better off than its American counterparts for the first time since the 1960s. Middle-of the road American portraitists had seen their incomes go down since the 2008 financial crisis while Court Painter Will’s has risen exponentially according to his Press Attache A Hardon MacKay.

Court Painter’s accomplishments go way beyond his personal economic standing.

For the first time in months, Court Painter Will made sure he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with his closest allies in the art media, this time in the fight against the critical extremism of academic cultural theorists and stuff like that.

So, it is not surprising that in an Angus Reid Institute poll of more than 1,400 visually imparied Canadians taken after the Oct. 19 election, 92% rank the Court Painter as a fair to outstanding court painter, while just 8% of jealous Calgary art mafia types claim he was below average or poor.

A decade from now or less, you can believe the public’s opinion of Court Painter Will will have risen, perhaps even substantially as he ramps up self financed YouTube channels demonstrating his painting techniques plus printing paint by number colouring books for the little tykes and politicians who want to get into the arts.

The Angus Reid poll results would seem to indicate that most Canadians sensed things were okay under the Court Painter’s artistic dominance of political class subjects– maybe not booming, but solid.

It must be noted that during his tenure as Court Painter ,he embraced the art of retail politics and any kind of retail scheme that made his studio flourish and could turn a buck – he connecting with the political elite on a personal level – he had built up a smarmy bank of goodwill. 

These factors are why he will continue to attract commissions and generate grand works that appropriately reflect the status of the political elite of the Great Dominion.