Bart Forbes

After enjoying a career spanning more than three decades as one of America’s most successful illustrators, Bart Forbes’ interests have turned toward gallery painting.

His new genre of oil paintings embodies primarily landscape and still-life themes painted over richly-textured surfaces. Departing from his earlier illustration technique, these paintings tend not to be specific places and times but rather serve as a vehicle for Bart’s experiments with texture and color. As he says, “If I had to give my work a label I would call it “traditional realism” but I am more and more drawn to the abstract relationships that are created by the textured surfaces that underlie my paintings. I like to think that the paintings are more mood oriented and invite a greater intuitive and emotional response from the viewer than anything I have done in the past.”

Born in Oklahoma, Bart grew up in an Air Force family, an experience which provided him a wide array of visual and geographical references upon which to draw. After graduating the University of North Carolina he continued his studies at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA.

From his home/studio in Texas, overlooking a beautiful golf course, Bart has created artwork for a long list of major events including the Kentucky Derby, America’s Cup, the Indianapolis 500, Boston Marathon, the Olympic Games, Westminster Dog Show and numerous PGA tournaments, including Pebble Beach, the Players Championship and the Ryder Cup. He has designed 19 postage stamps for the USPS and created coins for the U. S. Mint. In 1988 Bart was selected as the official artist for the Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea by the Korean Olympic Committee.

Bart has also created art for most of America’s top magazines including Time and Sports Illustrated. His corporate clients have included NBC, Exxon, Pepsi-Cola, Eastman Kodak, Lockheed, ABC-TV, ESPN and the National Football League, to name only a few. Former President George H. W. Bush, Arnold Palmer, Pat Summerall, Tiger Woods, Jerry Jones and Justin Leonard have Bart’s paintings in their private collections.