But in recent days, after making multiple dips into my sundry folders of pictures while composing posts from the trip, I kept coming across the Kinkade oil pastorals that I photographed at the Savannah gallery. And it occurred to me that it might be appropriate to add a post about that right after the ones from the art museums Lee Ann and I visited while in Savannah.
In his years of practicing his craft, Kinkade -- who would eventually refer to himself as "the Painter of Light" -- also became a master of self-marketing. He struck deals with firms that produced collectibles, which in turn sold copies of his paintings (and included certificates of authenticity upon delivery) or put the painting likenesses on various products associated with popular collectibles (especially plates).
Kinkade made repeated visits to popular television shopping networks (QVC, HSN, ShopNBC) to hawk his work. Commercially, he was hugely successful, although there was a significant number of art critics who felt the success wasn't supported by the art -- they claimed his scenes were maudlin or overly sentimental.
As it turns out, Kinkade's life story has a dark side; the Wikipedia entry for him accounts for incidents in which associates claim Kinkade was known for drinking excessively and abusing drugs, had no qualms about berating other artists, punctuated his conversation with profanities and vulgarities, and even -- allegedly -- was known to be sexually abusive.
As I read the Wikipedia entry, I couldn't help but wonder if perhaps this behavior -- if true -- was how Kinkade dealt with criticism of his own work. Kinkade died on April 6, 2012, and the autopsy report supported some of the stuff mentioned in the previous paragraph. It said Kinkade had died of "acute intoxication" from alcohol and diazepam, a drug used to treat anxiety, alcohol withdrawal, muscle spams and seizures.
I first stumbled upon Kinkade by accident while channel surfing one day about 15 years ago or so. He was on one of the shopping networks, and a closeup shot of one of his paintings caught my eye. Critics may denigrate Kinkade's work; I saw the appeal. When I came upon another appearance on a shopping network some time later, I bought one of his paintings. I have not become an addict, though; it's the only Kinkade I own. But I do enjoy his work, so our visit to the Kinkade gallery in Savannah on Jan. 31 was pleasurable.
There was a Kinkade gallery in Zionsville, Ind., a northwest suburb of Indianapolis, where I had lived for 40 years, but I never made it inside to peruse its offerings. I do recall seeing some of his works in the storefront windows, however.
The Savannah gallery is next door to the American Prohibition Museum in City Market. The gallery operator told us the shop tends to host work by one or two budding artists in addition to Kinkade works.
When trying to select one of the paintings to use for the lead-off image, I gravitated to one of a lighthouse atop an ocean bluff. Lee Ann enjoys visiting lighthouses, so ... that pick is for you! The last four paintings below were by guest artists; the penultimate was a work by the gentleman who was staffing the gallery that day.
To view a larger and sharper version of any image here, just click on the photo. Note: I did not create a gallery to drop my photo reproductions of the Kinkade works.
Photo geek stuff: All images were taken with my iPhone X.
Next up: Castillo de San Marcos, St. Augustine, Fla.
Previous posts in this series:
Savannah at night
Savannah in daylight
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