My grandfather, John E Cosgriff, was an artist living in NYC during the Great Depression, supported his family doing pen & ink illustrations, drawings, signs, murals , painted whatever he could to feed his family. My Dad was his youngest son and accompanied him to do some murals like this. He told me that this one was done in paint on the side of a building and measured about 10 x 20 but that most were done with pastels and afterwards my grandpa used the reverse blower of a vacuum cleaner to spread a lacquer mist over the entire picture to seal in the pastels !This picture shown would have been done in the late 30's to early 40's- around WW2 as my dad was still too young to go into the military, when he accompanied his dad to jobs. I edited in the words on the bottom of the mural picture. Grandpa passed away 40 yrs ago.Now this picture of a mural he had done in a wedding catering hall somewhere in NY. My Dad sent me a jpeg of it so cleaned the edges to fit a standard size frame & to make a card of it as well. I am sending the card to my father for Father's Day and copies to my 9 brothers who are also fathers. Grandpa John died before seeing any of his great-grandchildren, but he was still a great grandpa~! He was a great pen & ink artist. I was 14 when he died. They gave me his drawing board, which I cherished. He was very inspirational to me in becoming an artist. I only hope my dad & other relatives can find more of his artworks & email pics of them to me.
5 Comments
Emily Reed 05 Jun 2008
WONDERFUL ART GREETING CARD FOR GRANDAD!helen tyralik 05 Jun 2008
love itZura Potskhishvili 04 Jun 2008
Great job!Sharon Gonzalez 04 Jun 2008
Thank you so very much, Ave, for sharing this awesome painting of your grandfather's. It is beautiful and so are your words! He would be so proud! I know that he knows!Kathie Nichols 04 Jun 2008
This is gorgeous Ave, and thankyou so much for sharing the story behind this wonderful artwork! It looks fabulous, your grandfather would be proud!!