Paint by Numbers

[image_with_animation image_url=”14123″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Dan Robbins, the inventor of Paint by Numbers passed away Monday, at the age of 93. After World War II, Robbins was working as a package designer for Palmer Paint Company. Company owner Max Klein was looking for something that would sell to adult hobbyists, and Robbins had an idea. Robbins’ Paint by Numbers came from something he learned in school: a number system Leonardo da Vinci used to teach his apprentices how to paint.

“I remembered hearing about how Leonardo da Vinci would challenge his own students or apprentices with creative assignments. He would hand out numbered patterns indicating where certain colors should be used in specific projects such as underpainting, preliminary background colors or some lesser works that did not require his immediate attention.” – Dan Robbins, Paint By Number Museum

In the 1960s Andy Warhol appropriated Robbins’ imagery, and created a series of paint by number paintings. “Art-lovers who wouldn’t be caught dead with one of the kitsch originals were willing to pay thousands of dollars for the Warhol version.” – Artlyst

Painting is a series of decisions. Every brush stroke, every color, every shape and placement is a decision. For a lot of painters, these decisions are excellent brain exercises, creative puzzles, confidence testers. All these decisions, they can be exhausting. Robbins took the pesky acts of deciding out of painting, making “arting” possible for people who like to put things where they go, without the troubling tasks of decision making.

“Dad was strong in seascapes so he did a lot of those at first,” says his son, Larry Robbins. “Then he’d go back, lay a clear plastic sheet over the original and assign numbers to the colors he’d laid down.” – NPR

And thank goodness for Robbin’s system of decision elimination. Without him, we wouldn’t know what Fairfield Porter paintings would look like after the integrity was removed, and hobbyists of the 1950’s wouldn’t have had their kittens, or Queen Elizabeth, to sign as an original work of art, bridging the gap between old master workshop, American capitalism in a free-time rich environment, and Warhol’s shenanigans. Below are a few choice favorites from Robbins’ Craft Masters Collection.

 

Abstract No. 1

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” load_in_animation=”none “I had been asked for demonstration of how paint by numbers would work. I decided to do a simple abstract painting because that seemed easy to do in segments of color. Abstracts were popular at the time and seemed like an artistic way of explaining the idea. So, with a little Braque, a little Picasso and a lot of Robbins, I created a 12×16 painting in 22 colors. I called it Abstract No.1. My boss got the idea, but hated the painting so I designed The Fishermen for our first kit. However, we included Abstract No.1 in the catalog of our first six kits. Eventually it became very famous when someone entered a completed Abstract No.1 in an art show and won. The judges were quite embarrassed but the prize resulted in lots of debate about the concept of art and lots of publicity about paint by numbers.”– Dan Robbins, Paint By Number Museum

 

Fishermen

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The Bullfighter

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Backyard Frolic

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Rock, Surf, and Sky

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Twilight Snow

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Snow Covered Village

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Playful Kittens

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” load_in_animation=”none “Another in a series of “Aw, aren’t they cute” subjects. This time the subject combined a cat and dog in playful destruction. By now, we were getting pretty tired of this type of pet paintings, but still trying to fill the demand.” – Dan Robbins, Paint By Number Museum

Speaking of cute subjects:

 

Queen Elizabeth

[image_with_animation image_url=”14148″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] “To show Canadians that we considered their market important, we decided to create subjects that would be specific to the Canadian market.” – Dan Robbins, Paint By Number Museum

 

Before the Wind

[image_with_animation image_url=”14149″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] “…Max Klein insisted that all paintings have at least touch of red in them. Reluctantly, in a later version I added a red flag atop the main mast.”  – Dan Robbins, Paint By Number Museum

 

Going Home

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