Carthage artist plays poker with the "Big Dawgs"

CARTHAGE, Mo. — It was a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, but there was a subtle difference about it that took some people by surprise.

It was the smile.

“All of the photographs of Lincoln show him with a dour face,” said artist Andy Thomas of the painting he did a number of years ago. “Everybody took dour photographs back then.

“But Lincoln had a great sense of humor. There was a melancholiness about him sometimes, but all through his presidency he was a great storyteller and joke teller.”

With his back to the viewer in one of Thomas’ latest works, there’s no way to tell if the 16th president has a grin on his face or not. But the rest of the “Grand Ol’ Gang” gathered merrily around the poker table — Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George Bush and George W. Bush — are flashing smiles, so he’d be in good company.

The former Democrat leaders depicted in a second painting, “True Blues,” are also having a good time as they play a hand: Andrew Jackson, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.

Everyone’s familiar with the painting of dogs playing poker.

Now, it’s time for the “Big Dawgs Playing Poker.”

The oil paintings that Thomas finished in the spring were unveiled in September at a national dealer convention, and are finding a receptive audience as the country heads toward the next presidential election.

Plotting and planning

The idea of taking recognizable faces and incorporating them into an artistic mash-up isn’t a new one for Thomas.

About four years ago, he had the idea to paint Captain Henry Morgan and his pirates celebrating their adventures in the harbor town of Port Royal in Jamaica.

“They would go get this fabulous plunder and go back and have debauchery for a month,” Thomas said. “I thought it would be cool to paint the scene when they were back in the port town.”

Source: Jobinglope.com