Lee Gaskins Fair Art

Lee Gaskins was born in Elizabeth, NJ and is an illustrator that specializes in fantasy landscape artistry, various illustration (album covers/fantasy art), Disney-related, as well as scenery and imagery from the 1904 World's Fair. He studied and received a B.A. at the School of Visual Arts in NYC.

Son of noted watercolor master- Lee Gaskins Jr, Lee likes to create fantasy art and does the occasional album cover, and concert posters for a variety of bands. He is an art teacher at Linden High School, New Jersey, and lives with his wife and their Christmas Tree-nosed cat- Lily. He is currently writing a fantasy novel that might include a certain Fair.

Attracted to the 1904 World's Fair from watching the classic film- 'Meet Me in St. Louis,' he began this 1904 World's Fair website. Getting `burnt out,' from all the massive amount of pages, and work for this site, he began painting 1904 World's Fair images, as well as intermingling fantasy elements between the two. He has a particular fondness for The Pike.

Descriptions will be more complete as they are my own.

This painting, I created for the most-part from reference. It is a scene that shows a special tour on a Sunday morning visiting at the Fair (which was no opened on Sundays). The main statue to the right was titled: Cowboy Resting, by American sculpturor- Solon H. Borglum, (December 22, 1868 – January 31, 1922) He is most noted for his depiction of frontier life, and especially his experience with cowboys and native Americans.

The area of the Fair was the Main Launch Landing/Grand Basin. This is an acrtlic on masonite, painted in school, before classes.

This is a large painting of the Palace of Transportation, created in 2004. Researching without a definitive answer, I took liberties with the roof of the grand Palace. Even though there were suggestions that the top was colored yellow (too light for the grayscale photos IMHO), and even green. I gave them a strong red to pop the image. I believe this is probably 98.7% incorrect, but it's done, and I'm not changing it. LOL Again, the medium is acrylic paints on masonite.

A tough image to form a solid composition, I added my wife, painted her in period clothing and `posed,' her in front of another Solon H. Borglum piece, at the Main Basin, and entitled: 'Buffalo Dance.' I added a background figure to help with scale... and keep the clouds less dramatic to emphasis the statue. Agagaim=n, the medium is acrylic on masonite.

I have a special fondness for the Pike attractions; the New York to the North Pole attraction was an eye catching attraction that gave the illusion of trip to the mostly unknown North Pole. I keep the palette in the cool range, while adding most complex clouds to support the strength of the ediface. I added a lot more Fairgoers. Acrylic on masonite.

The legendary Native-American Indian Geronimo (June 16, 1829 – February 17, 1909), was a prominent leader and medicine man from the Bedonkohe band of the Chiricahua Apache tribe.

Because of my new-found likeness for bolder impressionistic tones, I painted the man loosely, and hopefully with honor. Again, acrylic on masonite. You can learn more about Geronimo by simply clicking on the portrait.

I have been making homemade Christmas cards for well over 20 years. This was 2010. Some of my theming, (beside Victorian and Disney), is of 'the couple.' They don't always look the same, but they are in about a dozen cards. The backdrop is the 1904 World's Fair, but with a twist- a frozen winter and a colossal X-mas tree.