Who is this Velvet Artist?

Did a search and found nothing. Google search found an artist "Behan" with a similar style but mostly religious paintings. Anyone have any information they can share?

Can't find anything on him either, but these just went off on E-Bay for a pretty penny.


no artist title

Tahitian In a Pagan Vally

Iti Vahine

Here is what the seller said about the artist.

• This is the best example of this genre you will ever see. The late artist Lou Behan exhibited thirty of his velvet paintings at the Hawaiian Pavilion at the New York Worlds Fair in 1964. He also exhibited in Honolulu. He had a permanent exhibition of 16 oil portraits of Air Force Military leaders, past and present at the headquarters building of the Randolph Air Force Base in Texas. He painted a portrait of Charles Lindbergh which was in the Library of the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. He was a member of the friends of Tahiti. His interest in the Pacific started when he was in the Army Air Force during World War II. He served with Fourth Emergency Rescue Squadron as an Aerial Radar Observer. During 1946 and 1947, his tour of duty allowed him to visit or patrol various island groups. Among them were the Hawaiian, Marshalls, Marianas, Volcanos, Bismarks, Solomons, and the New Guinea area. In later years, he returned as a civilian to again visit the Society, Samoa, Fiji and again, Hawaii. He was completely captivated by Tahiti. He collected books and did extensive research on the Islands. *

[ Edited by: OnaTiki 2005-11-02 20:08 ]

Wow! I wonder what vintage the above Tiki ones are, they look quite modern. It is rare to find the Wahine/Tiki combination on old velvets...what did they go for on e-bay?

On 2005-11-03 01:10, bigbrotiki wrote:
Wow! I wonder what vintage the above Tiki ones are, they look quite modern. It is rare to find the Wahine/Tiki combination on old velvets...what did they go for on e-bay?

no artist title

$1394

Tahitian In a Pagan Vally

$350

Iti Vahine

$406

The same buyer won all three.

I took it to mean that these paintings were from the 1964 exhibition, but it doesn't explicitly say so. Beautiful paintings.

Here are the auctions for more pics:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7360901696&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7360901460&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7360899232&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1

wow, those are gorgeous, lucky buyer!

I was watching the auction for the latest painting. Was going to take a shot at it but wouldn't ya know, Mom got arrested again. Her most recent malfeasance took a big bite out of the ready cash reserve. I wish Aladdin Bail Bonds had a frequent felon program, I'd have me a toaster oven by now. Plus, $1300 is a goodly amount of capital, even for trust fund loser like me.

One may have more luck by checking out Louis Behan, instead of Lou. I have seen some of the stuff he painted for USAF types (have a brother who was a flyboy). His wahine stuff is much better, even if I cannot resist a man in uniform.

That last painting of his is a beauty, there was a thread here a while back about wahine paintings. There was mention of Behan in it, if I recall.

midnite...who has a new computer now, but lost everybody's email addy.

"no artist title"

-You aren't going to find the artist's title over there.

Yeah, I know, just breath-taking, that toggle Tiki !(?)

Good thing I didn't see that on ebay or I would be much poorer now (or the winner would have had to pay a lot more). I found these as laminated prints a few years ago, but always wondered about the artist.....

Here is the other print, check out the wrap and the necklace.....