My Portrait of Cal Ripken, Jr. ~ albeit small!
I mentioned in one of my earlier blogs that I recently came across negatives of several paintings I hardly remembered painting. We were without a scanner because our old scanner had become obsolete with our new Macs, so I couldn’t share the paintings with you. Well here is one of them thanks to our new scanner. It is my painting of Oriole Park at Camden Yards, home of the Baltimore Orioles, featuring the scoreboard honoring Cal Ripken, Jr.!
Oriole Park at Camden Yards, painting by William R. Beebe
Talk about a fun project. I was the resident artist for MBNA at the time, 2002, and I was asked by my boss Charlie Cawley to paint this scene as a gift to Cal Ripken, Jr.
I grew up playing baseball, following the Washington Senators, the Baltimore Orioles, and the New York Yankees. I threw out my arm as a kid and already had a rag arm by high school, which limited me to playing first base and a short left field. I managed to play one year of college ball, but came to the realization I was never going to be a Cal Ripken and gave up my dream.
I had never dreamed of becoming an artist, but soon thereafter I took an art class and have been painting ever since. So when a project like this came up, you can imagine how excited I was to paint it!
MBNA had a strong affiliation with the Baltimore Orioles and Cal Ripkin, Jr. They worked together to help raise money for the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation in memory of Cal Jr.’s father. The money goes toward children’s sports programs, educational programs, building athletic parks in urban areas, all providing children with a much better environment in which to grow up.
Now, the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation gives out the Charles M. Cawley Legacy Award in honor of Charlie, the President and CEO of MBNA.
I look back fondly on all of my MBNA projects but the few sports paintings I painted were some of my most enjoyable. Along with this baseball painting, I painted two football paintings of the Cleveland Brown’s stadium, a derby scene, and I vaguely remember another baseball stadium. ☺
Charlie from the beginning of our working relationship challenged me with new and exciting projects, which to this day I am forever grateful.
Thank you for reading my journal, for your interest in my art, and for traveling down memory lane with me.
I have a few more paintings from the archives to share with you, so please check back soon.
“One of the joys of being an artist is having the freedom to follow my passion...”
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Drawing by William R. Beebe