Anyone that knows me well enough knows that I am a self-professed Walter Matthau nut. It's true, I had and will always have a soft spot in my heart for old people. Especially slouchy, funny ones. When he died back in 2000 I kind of got on this kick to collect some memorabilia from his movies. I bought a few movies posters, a couple press cards and few autographed 8x10's of him and Jack Lemmon from various movies. I'm mostly proud of the studio movie posters. Two of which I still have hanging in my home: The Odd Couple and The Fortune Cookie (the latter winning him an Academy Award.) Both original and both in really nice shape. I even went as far as to purchase a teacup from his estate sale back in 2001. That's right, a teacup. It's ugly too, and it's got a crack in it. I look at that crack though and think to myself, "He actually took the time to glue this piece back on the cup and keep it." Now I own it and it sits in my living room. It's a god-awful ugly thing too. Something that would totally be in an old person's home.Enough with traveling down memorabilia lane though... this is about a watercolor piece. This painting I did back in 2001. I'm not exactly sure when in that year though, it was after June because this was done after Jack Lemmon had passed away. Plus, I have the second in a series of two of this painting floating around of Lemmon. The idea was to have the older version of the actor in the front in a monochromatic scheme with the younger side being in black and white in the background. It's funny how this man ALWAYS looked old. Overall I was pretty happy how this turned out. I've never been a very good painter (and never will). The blue is a bit harsh and makes him look more frozen than artistically mellow. I also did a pencil version of Matthau along these same lines, an older and a younger version. We'll see if I can dig that up for a future From the Vault.
