Paint By Number Kits!

I know, a blast from the past.  But I was on vacation 2 weeks ago in Cape Cod and my friend Martha had this very vintage painting on the wall.  I said to her, this looks like Paint by Number and she said in fact that it was a paint by number that her mother had done.  It was really cool to see it, and then discover that it was indeed a "Sissy original" paint by number.  So I went online to see what I could find on Paint by Numbers.  Perhaps do one myself this summer.  I found this great website : Alibris.  It has this kit (which I also found at amazon) but it was cheaper here.  This paint by number book has 8 vintage kits inside to paint and comes with the paints.  Though it doesn't look like it has a lot of paint for 8 vintage paints, but perhaps they're small.  We'll see: yes I ordered one.  Guilty as charged.  Then I found this book as well. Paint by number: by William Bird.  It's description from Alibris is as follows:

"What is the fascination of paint by numbers? Is it the intoxicating and compulsive act of filling in small pools of color? Or the easy thrill of creating your own impressionist masterpiece? Or a fond nostalgic yearning for a craze that cut across national boundaries and age groups? Invented in 1951 by Dan Robbins-based on an idea used by Leonardo da Vinci to teach painting-the paint-by-number craze reached its zenith in the 1950s but continues even today as paints and kits are avidly collected, exhibited in galleries, and traded on eBay. In Paint By Number, author Larry Bird takes us on an unbelievable journey where art meets kitsch and popular and high cultures collide in a collage of home economics, leisure time fun, and art education, Bird revisits the hobby from the vantage point of the artists and entrepreneurs who created the popular paint kits, the critics who reviled them, and the consumers who enthusiastically filled them in and hung them in their homes. Paint By Number includes over 200 examples of paint-by-number ephemera and two pull-out paintings ready to be filled-in!"

The best part is that the book is only $3.00 from both Alibris and Amazon.  Great coffee table book to take you back to the day.  There are of course other books on paint by numbers but they're much more costly: "Real Art".  But I'm not about to drop $23 on a book right now, so those of you who have it, let me know what you think.   

So for those of you youngin's that have no idea what a paint by number is: it's a canvas: or board, that has a drawing on it, but there are numbers inside the lines and they coorespond with a particular paint number.  You simply paint within the shapes and when you're done, you have a very vintage painting, which you kind of did yourself!  For someone who likes to paint, but can't paint: like me, this is so much fun!  Brainless art you can do while you're watching television!

Check out this article too! Here's an exerpt:

Vintage Paint-by-Number Paintings Make a Comeback

Art Business News, July, 2001 by Vanessa Silberman

As the demand for retro art continues to surge, vintage paint-by-number paintings are coloring the market like 1-2-3

Kitsch is back, and nowhere is this more apparent than with the recent craze for vintage paint-by-number paintings. Dating back to the 1950s and `60s, these works, once reviled by the art world, are now considered icons of post-war American pop culture and are valued collectibles. Made for the most part by anonymous amateurs--average suburban wives or Sunday hobbyists--paint-by-number kits such as Craft Master promised that anyone could "be a Rembrandt." In doing so, they helped bridge the gap between the elitist and John Doe as millions of Americans picked up paintbrushes for the first time. Subjects ranged from picturesque landscapes, cowboys and kittens to still-lifes, ballerinas and old Master knockoffs such as da Vinci's "Last Supper." And believe it or not, the art world is starting to take these "objects d'art" seriously, as collectors scramble to find undiscovered pieces and an increasing number of galleries hold shows.

Consider the recent exhibit at the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art (OCCCA), which hosted an exhibit of vintage paint-by-numbers to rave reviews. Or the new, high-profile exhibit currently on view at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, called "Paint by Number: Accounting for Taste in the 1950s." In addition, plans are in the works for an upcoming exhibit at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.
A Cultural Phenomenon
Paint-by-number, or PBN, was the brainchild of artist/designer Dan Robbins with the support of Max S. Klein, owner of the Palmer Paint Co., in 1951. Although earlier examples of PBN existed during the 1920s, these were marketed to children. Inspired by a story about Leonardo da Vinci assigning numbered portions of paintings to his assistants to complete, Robbins believed such a paint system could appeal to adults. The timing was certainly perfect: Following World War II, Americans experienced an age of prosperity and an abundance of leisure time. Millions moved to the suburbs, and signs of conformity were everywhere--from the mass-produced homes in housing developments to the shiny red Fords parked on the curbs. Why not standardize art as well? The numbered canvases, colour-coded to tiny pots of paint, guaranteed satisfaction.
Sure enough, PBNs caught on. With an average price of $2.50 a kit, popularity was so high that by 1954, 12 million kits by Craft Master, Masterpiece and other labels had been sold. Critics complained that more PBN paintings hung in Americans' homes than original works of art. Even Pop Artist Andy Warhol got in on the fun. During the early '60s, he created a series called "Do It Yourself" which were recreations of a paint-by-number style.
The craze peaked from 1953 to '55, but like all fads it began to fade by 1957 due to overexposure, according to Robbins, who is the author of Whatever Happened to Paint-by-Numbers?. Finished paintings soon ended up in basements, attics, trash cans and thrift stores, where they sold for as little as a nickel.
The New Appeal of Paint-by-Numbers
A yearning for the past plays a big part in today's craze for vintage PBN paintings. "The appeal is primarily nostalgic ... There's something uniquely post-war 1950s American that was typified by this stay-within-the-lines approach to art," said collector Larry Rubin of Miami, Fla. "I was attracted to them because they reminded me of the Venus Paradise pencil-by-number kits I did as a kid."
Rubin began collecting vintage PBN paintings about five years ago and has since amassed a collection of more than 300. He also publishes a national quarterly newsletter called "By the Numbers."
"Americana has been in for quite a while, and this is iconic ... You'd be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn't have some connection to the medium," he added.
Trey Speegle, the creative director of YM magazine in New York, has a collection of about 500 PBN paintings which he hangs according to theme in his 19th-century home. He caught the collecting bug after inheriting a collection of 250 from his friend, "Saturday Night Live" writer Michael O' Donoghue, who died in 1994.
"As a graphic artist, the graphic qualities of paint-by-number paintings really appeal to me. Some of them are quite intricate ... I like seeing them grouped together; then you see the diversity of the imagery and how beautifully they were designed," said Speegle, adding, "The designers who created PBN's were fine artists. Someone else would break down the colors."
Robbins feels part of the trend is due to the fascination of retro art by today's 20- and 30-somethings. "I think the renewed interest in PBNs has come a lot from a younger generation who has decided that paint-by-numbers are suddenly kitschy, a piece of Americana," he said.

 

Some examples: 
A computer rendition:

So obviously there are a ton of different kinds of paint by numbers, just google image it and you'll see, but I think they're fun and mindless, and they make me happy, so today my post is PAINT BY NUMBERS!  Just do it! It's fun!