Speed Bump by Dave Coverly for February 14, 2025

He could stop painting and become a ghostwriter.

is that George Lucas touching up his Star Wars stories?

“Leaf By Niggle”. A short story from JRR Tolkein.

“Happy little trees” Bob Ross

paintergeist?

So many unfinished works of art, similar to Leonardo da Vinci and his sfumato technique (without lines like smoke)

Why do I feel sad?

But you can leave.

I am thinking of the artist with the obsession with water lillies

I’ve heard of ghost writers…. but ghost painters?

“Art is never finished, only abandoned” – Leonardo da Vinci (attributed)

Is that Benjamin Sheets after his 96th pitching loss?

That’ll be me with all my unfinished sewing projects.

Frank Frazetta used to go into the Frazetta museum at night to “improve” the paintings hanging there. His wife and son finally had to take his keys away from him so that the paintings would continue to look like what visitors were expecting to see.

Too bad he doesn’t have a cheat sheet.

my dad was an artist, and almost every painting he did was like that… always said I need to change this, or I gotta add that… lol!

A ghostly Bob Ross ! ;-)

and waiting for a paint delivery.

OMG this reminds me of a book I had when I was a kid, A Ghost About the House. A kid ran into a Scottish ghost named Malcolm MacDhu when he was exploring an old house. It was slated to be torn down, so he invited the ghost to move into his home. The mom was an artist, and Malcolm got bored and started “improving” her paintings, and they became popular because of their suddenly ethereal quality. I loved that book and wished I had a ghost friend.

How does Art feel about this?

I recall reading a short story when I was young that involved a man finding a community of various famous people who had vanished to “parts unknown” (I recall mention of Ambrose Bierce and Rudolf Diesel). The founder of the colony had found a way to gain immortality and had made these people the same. Unfortunately for the founder, the residents never finished any project as they now had time to perfect what they were working on. I remember a scene where an artist (whose name I don’t recall) had been working on a painting for over fifty years.