1996-10-19-Oakland_Tribune_2
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me that they used to stay up nights wracking their brains for a boring subject that I couldn't screw up.
"When they told me to make a picture of a chair, I'd make a chair balancing on one leg. When they told me to do a desert landscape, I'd put a telephone box (booth) in the middle.."
At the time, Entwistle worked with poster paints and watercolors, but he now uses a watercolor brush pen. He works on his art while at home in Gloucestershire, England, using his kitchen as his art studio.
"I usually work on my paintings for, like, two weeks at a time. I am not a person who can switch projects back and forth from day to day," he said.
Although this year marks the first time his art has been shown in galleries he has been drawing caricatures for more than 20 years. In 1975, his work "Who By the Numbers," a fun pen and ink drawing that depicts caricature heads of the band members connected to child-like dot-to-dot style bodies, was featured on the band's album by the same name.
His works, reminiscent of the drawings of John Lennon, are priced at $2,800 to $8,000 for an original and $225 to $750 for a serigraph. The drawings reflect his interpretations of musicians in the 1970s. He works from photographs, often enlarging facial features, then shrinking them to fit into the drawing.
"It's mainly how I see them. Once I've got the eyes, I am done. I hate drawing teeth. Some people are easier to caricature than others. I remember I was drawing Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood and I found that if I made Rod's nose a little longer, he looked like Ronnie."
He is currently working on caricatures of the members of the Rolling Stones. He just finished a series on tourists from various countries. His next project will be The Beatles. He hopes to combine the series into a coffee table book in the next few years.
His own band members, he said, were amused and pleased with the drawings, but he added, "Keith (Moon) got me to do one of him with a smaller stomach. I can be bought by a friend."
When he isn't touring or making art, Entwistle is writing what he hopes will be a novel about the funny experiences of being on tour. "The hardest part about the writing is that I have to be in a good mood to make it funny. One bad phone call and I can't write."
So far, he has been pleased with the response to his art.
"I am waiting for someone to tell me that it is all rubbish, but it hasn't happened yet. I did run into one guy who said to me, 'What makes you think you're an artist?' Then he asked me, 'Which artist do you feel most akin to?' I told him, 'Van Gogh, because I had gonorreah once, too. That shut him up.'"
Reservations to the reception honoring Entwistle should be made in advance. Call (707) 578-9202.