velvet paintings

estate sale, behind a bookshelf

Found last weekend,

sorry about the photo's fuzzyness. The background is more blue than black and it looks like they took it out of the frame (and didn't put back in right) so they could paint the frame ugly green. When I pull it out of the frame to strip it I'll look for a signature, none is visible on the painting. Has anyone seen this before?

aloha, tikicoma

On 2012-05-21 21:06, tikicoma wrote:

That...is one ugly woman

Here's my current pride and joy.
As signed on the back:

Anna - Micronesian
Original oil on Velvet
No Duplicates/No Copies
$75 Burke Tyree - 1965

WOW! :o Incredible find T.R.R., I'd call that a perfect piece of perfect!!

That's a beauty Michael. Tyree is one of my favorite masters of velvet.

Thanks Boris and Ron! His work is amazing and I'm lucky to have her.
I just got her off the wall to snap these.

Michael - Thanks for sharing Anna - she's absolutely jaw dropping frickin' stunning!

:) G

That's a beautiful painting, thanks for posting that. His shading of the skin tones makes for a lifelike image. I also liked reading the "History of Artist" letter. I wish I knew which years he painted in each locale. I have a Tyree that I need to post soon... it was painted in 1967, just wondering where he painted it.

-Trad'r Bill

Thanks Greg and Bill, it's my pleasure to share, wish I had some more Tyree's post.

Bill, regarding your question about where he painted and when, here's a little tidbit.

The following info is from "Black Velvet Masterpieces," by Carl Baldwin and Caren Anderson:

"In 1956, after four years in Guam, Burke Tyree moved to Hawaii and first began to experiment with velvet painting...It is an extremely difficult medium to master, and Tyree spent eight years in experimenting before arriving at his present tecniques..."

Please post your Tyree when you get a minute.

TikiRootsRocka,

Nice Tyree, I was intrigued by the letter when I saw it for sale on eBay and the subject in the painting is one of the nicest finished paintings I have seen. The detail is amazing.

Found these Leeteg copies today...

Later,

PTD

Thanks PTD,
With my tax return in hand, there was no way I was letting her go to auction :)
Irresponsible use of funds, maybe, regrets, none!!!
Nice scores, btw! From flipping through the thread, looks like you've got a great collection!
Lookin' forward to seeing the next one.

Just brought home this Frank Oda.

I bought this about a year ago on eBay and figured I might as well post Diamond Head at night, since we've got the sunrise above.

This Lavisse was acquired at Tiki Caliente. Thanks again, I love her!


Enjoy!

As promised, here is my Tyree I purchased a few months. Thanks Midnite for the guidance...
I really love this painting and can't wait to display it in my (nearly) finished Tiki room.

What a beauty, huh? Those hips, lips, and er, eyes are amazing...

Enjoy!
Trad'r Bill

Send to GROG. PM for address.

Trad'r Bill, you are my hero of the day!

Great find on that Bill!

I finally built a mounting frame and stretched my "Song Shen"

I posted this on finds too, but thought I should add this to the official velvet thread. This is a Bill Erwin I picked up yesterday. One thing I am curious about is the distinction between and original and copy. Is there a way to tell if the velvet is a copy? Is a copy printed onto the velvet vs the original being hand painted?

The back of the frame has a H C&D (Google says this is Honolulu Construction and Draying) tag it, with a Lot # and an article #. I guess this is some sort of shipping info.

I don't know if Erwin did copies of his own work. He sometimes copied (with variation) other peoples stuff but I don't know and have not seen copies of his own work. Leeteg was the king of copies as his "originals were done by himself several times and he also had "authorized' copies from Davis galleries in Honolulu that were executed by artists in Japan and the Philipines. Davis also did copies on velvet paper and paper prints and these authorized prints are rare and seldom come up for auction. I have seen other artists like Erwin do a copy of Leeteg's Diamond Head by Moonlight, and Lavisse & Bouvier do Leeteg's "Ukelele Boy". Even Tyree did a copy of Leeteg's famous "Hina Rapa" except he used his wife as the model. Tyree made a point of marking the back of his paintings with "No Copies"

Found this red velvet at a Hot Rod show, today. The seller embellished it with rope & starfish, cuz the frame was damaged, but I like it.

I've never seen red! That's fantastic! The rope is great!

[ Edited by: The Granite Tiki 2012-08-03 22:22 ]

I figured it was worth the 15 bucks!

I was fortunate enough to come across my second Burke Tyree velvet recently... this one is in somewhat rough shape right now - the velvet has pulled away from the frame in spots. I'm hoping to find an art conservator who can bring it back to it's original glory.

"Native Back - 1966"

Hard to read the signature, but it's there:

It even has a letter from Mr. Tyree himself, attached to the back:

...obituary for the original owner of the painting, Jean Koda: http://rafu.com/news/yayeko-jean-koda/

Enjoy
-Trad'r Bill

Awesome Tyree's Bill, thanks for sharing!

What kind of lighting is best to use when displaying a velvet painting? Hope its okay to ask this here, if not, please delete Admin . . .

On 2012-09-07 19:52, Phillip Roberts wrote:
Aloha.

(Google says this is Honolulu Construction and Draying

This would be 'Dredging."

---

Waikiki Tiki; Art, History, and Photographs.
Available now from Bess Press Hawaii.

[ Edited by: Phillip Roberts 2012-09-07 19:53 ]

On 2012-09-07 17:33, The Blue Kahuna wrote:
What kind of lighting is best to use when displaying a velvet painting?

Blue Kahuna, here's a post I did less than 2 years ago about that - and to my dismay, the images have disappeared, I have no idea why, in such a recent post. I cannot repost them, but perhaps you can glean some information from the text, still:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=38557&forum=21&vpost=570920

Thank you! I'll have to experiment a little to find the right "look".

[ Edited by: The Blue Kahuna 2012-09-09 05:41 ]

In the last issue of Tiki Magazine, I reviewed the movie "Hell's Half Acre" A small image in the film caught my eye. Right at the end there is a shootout in front of a tourist shop that has a sign "Clean Up Hell's Half Acre"

Behind the left corner of the sign there appears to be a Black velvet Painting. Zooming in here the image is blurry...

It looks like a smaller version of this Leeteg

Bongo, that's a beautiful Leeteg!
Here's the latest addition to my collection by Barbara Allin.



I was able to find an image of another of her paintings, "Lupenui," and the only other info I could find was that she painted in Hawaii, in the 1960's. If you have any other information on her, I'd love to hear it.

Found at a thrift/resale store. I thought that there was a teardrop below the right eye. Turned out it was a small tear in the fabric.The painting was done by "Cece Rodriguez.

pic taken with flash

taken with available light in my tiki room

Just watched the film Velvet Dreams online at http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/velvet-dreams-1997
I've been wanting to see it and it didn't disappoint. :)

aloha, tikicoma

Thanks for the link!

You guys are making me want a velvet now.

Thanks for the "Velvet Dream" link. I just watched the video and it was very educational.

Found at my local "Savers" this afternoon. Unsigned. This painting may be one reason many consider this genre tacky and gaudy. It is in poor condition and very dirty.The edges are warped and the painting may have been wet at some time. I'll post pic another after I l clean and frame this.
Cheers

Spotted this on eBay, beautiful Bill Erwin, out of my price range at $975, though!

Last night I went to pick up these....

And I ended up with these too....

They are from the Coral Reef in Sacramento. I know that they are copies of the originals but they are exceptionally well done copies...
Is anyone familiar with the artist Eddy Joe Martin?

The Frames are really cool too! The backing that the velvet was mounted on has warped and the velvet is hanging loose so I could use some advice on remounting to new backing...

Cheers,
John

On 2013-01-18 10:09, Aquatic Safarinaut wrote:
Last night I went to pick up these....

And I ended up with these too....

They are from the Coral Reef in Sacramento. I know that they are copies of the originals but they are exceptionally well done copies...
Is anyone familiar with the artist Eddy Joe Martin?

The Frames are really cool too! The backing that the velvet was mounted on has warped and the velvet is hanging loose so I could use some advice on remounting to new backing...

Cheers,
John

I have no doubt the seller's items were from the Coral Reef, however I am afraid these and the items I saw a couple months ago were not from the Sacramento location, but the Millbrae location.

I went to the Coral Reef in Sacramento and I don't remember any of the things this seller has in the Sacramento location.

If you look closely at few images of the interior and exterior of the restaurant and hotel in Sacramento you do not see any of the items the seller had or that were purchased by others in them. The seller thought the Tiki was from the hotel, but if I remember correctly the hotel was devoid of Tiki.

The closest matching items were the dinner table lamps with the shades that were signed by customers that visited; perhaps that was duplicated in Millbrae?

The Tiki they are selling for $3,100.00 is nowhere to be found in any of the Sacramento images and I don't recall one like that there.

No doubt the seller has some treasures and no doubt from the Coral Reef, I just don't think these were from Sacramento.

PTD

Got this Lavisse painting recently. I've gone from 0 to 5 velvets in no time flat here... I guess I hit a lucky streak.

-Trad'r Bill

Bill,

Did you feel me breathing down your neck on that one? I was second in line-so let me know when you grow tired of it and we can work out a trade.

One from weeks ago, albeit not Tiki nor Polynesian-still like the quality though. Needs a little stretching though. Kind of reminds me of a girl that used to get me in all kinds of trouble. I call this one "Waiting To Be Kissed"-note the mistletoe!

Later,

PTD

On 2013-02-22 11:23, Psycho Tiki D wrote:
Bill,

Did you feel me breathing down your neck on that one? I was second in line-so let me know when you grow tired of it and we can work out a trade.

One from weeks ago, albeit not Tiki nor Polynesian-still like the quality though. Needs a little stretching though. Kind of reminds me of a girl that used to get me in all kinds of trouble. I call this one "Waiting To Be Kissed"-note the mistletoe!

Later,

PTD

...but she has a Polynesian pedigree, because she was "inspired" by THIS Polynesian babe, painted by classic velvet painter Charles MacPhee:

Wow, thanks for sharing that ^

I guess that is about as close as you can get. Interesting how images get recycled!

PTD

Thanks Bigbro!

On 2013-02-26 21:36, bigbrotiki wrote:

On 2013-02-22 11:23, Psycho Tiki D wrote:
Bill,

Did you feel me breathing down your neck on that one? I was second in line-so let me know when you grow tired of it and we can work out a trade.

One from weeks ago, albeit not Tiki nor Polynesian-still like the quality though. Needs a little stretching though. Kind of reminds me of a girl that used to get me in all kinds of trouble. I call this one "Waiting To Be Kissed"-note the mistletoe!

Later,

PTD

...but she has a Polynesian pedigree, because she was "inspired" by THIS Polynesian babe, painted by classic velvet painter Charles MacPhee:

This lady is Sue Bernard, Playboy's playmate December 1966. That issue had a pictorial of tahitian women which may have been the original draw for MacPhee and other artists but the american centerfold seems to have really captivated them.

One more * to the piece!: Black velvet "Tahitian" McPhee Playboy bunny! It's got it all! :D

Picked this up last saturday, Manapua Vendor by Erwin Honolulu...

Reminds me of Leetegs Adze Man. It's 27"x22" has been reframed but this was stuck to the back,

Aside from repeatedly misspelling Erwin as "Irwin" it also states that Leeteg worked for Erwin for a buck an hour in 1935 and 1939, which I doubt, then seems to contradict itself. So I'd guess the rest would be suspect as well, but I would like to know if it was Leetegs letters to Erwin that Mitchner used or was that another error and it was letters to, say, Barney Davis?

aloha, tikicoma

p.s. the color off, the shirt is more blue.

[ Edited by: tikicoma 2013-04-16 00:17 ]