"Emmitt Smith" Football Art Painting

Interesting story behind this Pop art, comic painting. When I was starting out as a sports artist, my first commercial sports art was creating seven basketball paintings for Fox Sports for an NBA commercial. Fox Sports then hired me to create three baseball images of the great Willie Mays for an interview featured during the Baseball All-Star Game on Fox Sports. The interview, featuring Willie Mays with Derek Jeter and Ken Griffey Jr., showcased my Willie Mays baseball art in the background during the 4 ½ minute pregame segment. (You can find the interview on YouTube by searching: “Willie Mays interview by Derek Jeter and Ken Griffey Jr. for All Star Game, John Robertson’s art”). A sports agent noticed my work and hired me to create pieces for the Prudential Center Arena in New Jersey. I painted several pop art, cartoon-style works featuring the NHL’s New Jersey Devils, which are displayed in the Prudential Center. Later, my sports agent presented some of my work to the NFL Dallas Cowboys for their new stadium. This Emmitt Smith piece was similar in style to the work I did for the New Jersey Nets, hoping it would stand out from traditional sports art. Although the Cowboys passed, my agent liked the style so much that I created similar comic pieces for the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers at Levi Stadium and the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. This football painting of Emmitt Smith is on a large, unstretched canvas, originally intended to hang like a banner or tapestry. Some clients choose to stretch and frame it for a more formal look, but it was created to hang with grommets in the four corners. The painting’s unique, primitive style is what makes it so interesting.