Dull Tool Dim Bulb: Watercolor

Showing posts with label Watercolor. Show all posts

The Normal Union System of Industrial Drawing 19th c. Watercolor Paintings

There were eight volumes of the incomprehensible Normal Union System of Industrial Drawing published by Sower Potts and Co. in 1878. There were dozens of private "textbook" publishers at the time who sold technical manuals to schools and individuals. The bulk of this one seems to be as simple as replicating simple designs in the blank spaces. The written instructions require a microscope to read! Obviously, our student didn't do very well, and upon failing it appears a younger sibling repurposed the pamphlet as a coloring book for watercolors. Both fail. A few pages of examples.

National Union System of Industrial Drawing (5" x 9") 1878 with watercolor embellishments. Collection Jim Linderman

The Unknown Superhero

The Unknown Superhero. Anonymous watercolor on paper circa 1950
collection Jim Linderman. NOTE: The Amazing Devlin Thompson located the source material! It is apparently the Yellow Jacket, a Marvel creation! Thanks Devlin.

Browse and order books by the author available HERE

19th Century Folk Art Painting of ripe grapes

19th Century Folk Art watercolor of ripe grapes.
Anonymous Collection Jim Linderman
(See also the book Eccentric Folk Art Drawing of the 19th and 20th Centuries)

Folk Art Drawing Nerves of the Telephone System c. 1955 High Schoolgirl Artist

Folk Art Drawing Nerves of the Telephone System c. 1955 by High School Artist Jackie Davis Watercolor paint on writing paper from her "Health Emotions" scrapbook.

Collection Dull Tool Dim Bulb

Sugar Ray Robinson and the Great Boxers in Watercolor

Sugar Ray Robinson was good. He entered professional boxing with an 85 - 0 record as an amateur. Nearly half of those 85 fights ended with a knockout in the first round. Credit where due, I guess...is that he invented the posse. The entourage. Everybody wanted to be in Sugar Ray's camp. I am sure all the fighters painted here have similar stories. I always hated Leroy Neiman and his garish sports paintings, but these are great. A young, aspiring illustrator named "J. Gallagher" did them around 1950, but that's all I know about him.

Watercolor Paintings of the Greatest Boxers by J. Gallagher, circa 1950 Collection Jim Linderman

Antique Folk Art Watercolor Painting 19th Century Rubber Stamp Toy with Paint Embellishment on Ledger Paper

Antique Folk Art Watercolor Painting 19th Century Rubber Stamp Toy with Paint Embellishment. Two Sided (both shown) Collection Jim Linderman
You may also like the book (and ebook) Eccentric Folk Art Drawings of the 19th and 20th Centuries HERE

Witch with Pumpkin original anonymous watercolor dated 1911 Collection Jim Linderman

Witch with Pumpkin original watercolor dated 1911 Collection Jim Linderman
(See also the new book ECCENTRIC FOLK ART DRAWINGS:Obscure drawings of the 19th and 20th centuries)

BATS Miniature Watercolor c. 1910

Primitive Peafowl Folk Art Watercolor

Primitive Peafowl folk art watercolor no date collection Jim Linderman

Watercolor Vase by T. Mckeown (watercolor vase) 1912

Untitled by T. Mckeown (watercolor vase) 1912
Collection Jim Linderman

Untitled (Love during Wartime) Watercolor

Untitled Watercolor, 6" x 8" Irregular Anonymous circa 1918 Collection Jim Linderman

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jim Linderman

"...Linderman is widely regarded as one of the foremost figures in a field of vernacular art collectors working beyond the margins of most institutional axioms and impulses, in what is essentially it's own self-taught art form."
Ursula Magazine Hauser & Wirth 2019

"Linderman produces the most sublime books on dreamy, arcane subjects, sexy stuff, too, all with rare one-of-a-kind images." Craig Yoe 2017

"...disclosing an underground history of American popular culture one oddball tale at a time"
John Strausbaugh in The New York Times

"...one of the blog writers to watch for"
ARTSlant

"...wonderful, extraordinary, fascinating, remarkable and profound" Fans in a Flashbulb International Center of Photography Museum 2016

"Brilliantly Astute, Acerbic and Aesthetic Jim Linderman"
The Museum of Everything 2014

"Dull Tool Dim Bulb is always worth a visit" THINGS Magazine 2016

"...grumpy..." The Austin Chronicle 2014

"Perpetually ahead of the collecting curve...a one man Taschen. An authentically curious individual...diligently archiving the forgotten curiosities of American History"

Emma Higgins in Art Hack May 2012

"Jim Linderman likes Art, Antiques and Photography and his collection of Vernacular Photography, Folk Art, Ephemera and Curiosities is a wonderful place..."
LifeElsewhere with Norman B. 2014

"...collected over the years by Jim Linderman, a character who seems the perfect subject for a Harvey Pekar comic. Linderman treats collecting like a calling, and his finds have a resulting air of authority, stunning in their capture of bygone picturesque moments."
Derek Taylor Dusted

"The pictures, discarded artifacts of ecstatic Americana, come from the stash of Jim Linderman, who in his introduction recalls advice he’s plainly taken to heart: “Collect the heck” out of whatever you find interesting."
Drew Jubera Paste Magazine

"His interest in art is rivaled only by his interest in music, and one expression informs the other. He pursues objects with thoroughness and an innate sense of curiosity..."
Tanya Heinrich Folk Art Magazine

"Linderman acknowledges the obscure at the same time that he elevates it.... His collections tell vast stories in sotto voce, allowing curios and objects shadowed by mainstream culture and ideology to converse and be heard. What we hear is an enormous American sub-culture speaking in forbidden, marginalized languages: stuff discovered boxed in the attic out of embarrassment or zealotry, smutty ash trays crowing next to religious pamphlets, each claiming a part of the complex, sometimes contradictory, always conflicted American imagination, a chaos of memories that will one day vanish."
Joe Bonomo Author of Conversations With Greil Marcus, Jerry Lewis Lost and Found and No Such Thing As Was

"...he's one of the world's greatest pickers."
Brian Wallis in The New York Times

"Documenting--one clipping at a time--the scrapbook of a leg and garter aficionado that was dumpster-dived in Virginia in the 60s" "...an outstanding image-archaeologist who has compiled a shelf-ful of worthy and unique photographic histories."
William Smith Hang Fire Books

"Linderman has a knack for discovering untold stories and introducing them to a wider audience"
Joey Lin Anonymous Works

"Jim Linderman...makes us all look a little puny"
Could it be Madness-this?

"...insatiable collector of ephemera and ringleader behind an incredible circus of blogs — including the treasure trove dull tool dim bulb"
The Cynephile

"Yo no sé ustedes pero creo que es uno de los mejores sitios que he visitado en mucho tiemp"
Color Me in Blog

"...there's something beyond the endless photos and postcards and weird propaganda from another time that he lovingly documents - I think it's the collection as a whole, the portrait of a person fascinated with culture and communication. I have met people like this before, and in reading Dull Tool Dim Bulb I feel I have been lucky enough to meet one more. This site is a goldmine in terms of links..."
The Hyggelic Life October 2009

"Linderman is always on the lookout for the new and exciting"
Chuck and Jan Rosenak Contemporary American Folk Art

"...an amazing collection..."
Revel in New York October 2009

"Jim Linderman has a nice little colllection of interesting books and blogs...But every so often he just loses it."
American Digest March 2010

"FOR MOST OF HIS LIFE, COLLECTOR JIM LINDERMAN has searched high and low for authentic things--unique and special objects that define the artistic culture of the American experience. From folk art to popular culture, from pulp fiction to Delta Blues-- Jim is a walking authority on so many things American they are too numerous to mention. One thing is certain-- his collecting interests are for things that have fallen through the cracks, those things lost and forgotten--the box of material under the table at the flea market booth. If it wasn't for dedicated collectors like Jim Linderman-- so many important objects about our culture would have surely been lost to time and indifference."

"Jim Linderman maintains a most interesting blog about the most amazing things from his collection—a site he calls “Dull Tool Dim Bulb,” the only curse words his father ever uttered. I love it, and read it everyday."
"...an excellent writer and I devour your blog daily. I am impressed at your deep knowledge of things within your niche..."
John Foster Accidental Mysteries

"I am grateful to Jim Linderman for first alerting me to the existence of the 1930s Spiritualist hymn "Jesus is My Air-o-plane."
William Fagaly New Orleans Museum of Art, Author Tools of her Ministry: The art of Sister Gertrude Morgan

"Linderman describes a long gone world...(he) claims not to be a writer but he is most certainly an excellent researcher..."
BOOKSTEVE

"Jim Linderman, King of the Internet Ephemeral Arts"
Spaniel Rage

"Jim is a fantastic historian...show him some love"
Astrid Daley Fringe Pop / Sin-A-Rama

"Almost an experimental narrative"
Idiopath

"He came to us with hundreds of jaw-dropping baptism photos that he'd been collecting for 25 years," Ledbetter explains. "By the time he found us, he'd already done half a lifetime's works, and he trusted us to handle it properly." Lance Ledbetter in Creative Loafing 10/13/11

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