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A portrait for Ralph
Curtola gives Alberta premier unusual painting by LaHave artist
By Beverley Ware South Shore Bureau ~ September 23, 2006

Photo by Robert Hubbard Guests At Alberta Event--Among those at last evening's Canadian Progress Club roast in Edmonton for retiring Alberta premier, Ralph Klein (centre) were his longtime friend Bobby Curtola CM, and Geno Wong, friend and business associate of Curtola, and a municipal councillor for the Region Of Queens. Bobby presented Klein with a Giclee limited edition print of the first in a series of unique paintings reflecting the 1960s and Curtola's influence on Canadian culture.

LAHAVE — Both events were much anticipated. Ralph Klein was roasted at a four-star hotel in Edmonton on Tuesday night and former teen idol Bobby Curtola was there to give his friend a framed painting of himself. It’s been six months since Alberta’s retiring premier announced he was retiring and the Canadian Progress Club thanked him with a roast at the Mayfield Inn on Tuesday night. 

It’s been eight years since Mr. Curtola first came up with the idea for a collection of paintings that would include the famous singer, but also be more of a testament to a period in Canadian history. The ’60s Canadian rock icon lives in Liverpool, but also has a home in Edmonton where he first befriended Mr. Klein more than 30 years ago.

"I really admire the man," Mr. Curtola said Tuesday. Canada’s longest-serving current premier has had his problems "but the point is, he did make a difference," said Mr. Curtola, who wanted to say thank you to him in a unique way. The original of the print he gave Mr. Klein sits on an easel in the second-floor studio of LaHave artist Paul Kelley. "I hope he enjoys it," Mr. Kelley said of Mr. Klein, though he concedes he’s not a great fan of politicians. 

Mr. Kelley is best known for sensuous paintings that depict women both nude and clothed — whether in jeans or black lingerie. Mr. Curtola and everyone else in this painting are fully clothed. But some are dressed as if it were 1962, while others are dressed in today’s fashions.

"This painting is not of the ’60s. It’s about the ’60s, but it’s set in 2006," said Mr. Kelley. "It says this is where Bobby started and this is where Bobby is now."

It took Mr. Kelley 800 hours to paint the brilliantly-coloured, detailed work, mostly with a single small sable brush. That’s on top of another week of computer work that it took Mr. Kelley to manipulate a series of photographs with Photoshop — software used to edit photos — until he had exactly what he wanted.

That’s how he works. Mr. Kelley takes photographs of real people, places and objects, manipulates those pictures on the computer, prints off the finished version and uses that to paint the picture.

"This was the most challenging Photoshop project I’ve ever done. It took 30 or 40 layers," Mr. Kelley said.

The resulting painting is the first of a series of nine that will make up the collection. "It’s the banner piece from the collection," Mr. Kelley said, but the ensuing pieces will be different because Mr. Curtola will not be the focus of them. In fact, he might not even be in some of them. That’s because the collection isn’t just about Canada’s first homegrown teen idol. Mr. Kelley describes it as an anthology of Bobby Curtola and of Canada’s culture in the early 1960s. These paintings are about the period in which Bobby Curtola was a legend.

"I’m not making a picture of Bobby, but I’m making a statement of Bobby and his life," Mr. Kelley said. "In terms of Canada, he was one of the kings. He set standards that hadn’t been met before."

Mr. Curtola shot to fame as the first man to turn a jingle into a Top 40 hit with The Real Thing, a song featured in a Coca-Cola ad. 

Mr. Curtola will keep the originals and make canvas prints and glossy posters to sell.

The first painting in the collection — a large copy of which was given to Mr. Klein last night — has Bobby Curtola front and centre in his familiar black jacket and pants with a microphone in his hand.

Behind him, a teenage Bobby Curtola sits in the bed of a pickup truck with a jukebox. Marilyn Monroe stands slightly behind him, her white dress flying up to expose her stocking-covered thighs. 

In the background, mingled with female fans, are some of Mr. Curtola’s friends, including Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison and Tina Turner. 

"This will install Bobby in his place in Canadian music, but also make a collection that reflects the spirit of the time."

© 2006 The Halifax Herald Limited

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Beverley Ware / South Shore Bureau
LaHave artist Paul Kelley has finished the first in a series of paintings on '60s rock icon Bobby Curtola. 
Mr. Curtola gave a print of this painting to retiring premier Ralph Klein of Alberta on Tuesday night.

First In A Series--Canadian artist Paul Kelley, who lives in LaHave, Lunenburg County with his wife and family, has been commissioned by Canada's Rock 'n' Roll Legend Bobby Curtola to create a series of nine paintings which will remain in the Curtola family. The sale of limited edition Giclee prints on canvas as well as standard prints, however, will benefit charities. Back To Our Future, above, is the "banner" piece for the forthcoming collection of paintings depicting the early 1960s, from a Canadian perspective. Bobby Curtola, was a driving force behind this "new age" of consciousness for Canadian youth, and he is the nucleus for this collection as well. Such is our world, that when we look to the future with more and more pessimism, we choose to look back more fondly to our past. The early '60s was such a time, when life seemed simpler, and full of boundless possibilities. For many, many people, Bobby is the embodiment of that time of awakening. Back To Our Future is a capsule of Bobby Curtola, his enduring appeal through the years, and the power of his music to draw people to him. This painting embodies the spirit of the '60s, but is not set in that time. Rather, it is an anthology of Bobby, his music, his appeal, and his gift of pleasing the hearts and souls of his public, then, now, and into the future.

As you can see in the above picture, the first in the series includes a lot of recognizable faces of present and past. A couple of Liverpool residents were also models for the characters in the painting--the young Bobby sitting on the back of the pickup truck, and the young woman with the dark hair in front of the truck. Recognize them?  Paul Kelley's art is a labour of love. Each realistic painting is the result of hundreds of hours of work involving the careful manipulation of light and form, colour and composition, to create an image which is passionate and alluring. In the early 1990's he moved away from exhibitions and associations with galleries to some extent, and began dealing with individuals and corporations directly. Although this direct relationship between artist and client has been more demanding and time consuming, it has proven to be the apex of Paul's career, pushing him in fresh directions and to higher levels of excellence. Works are commissioned by the client from Paul's portfolio of his sketches and ideas, then the painting is created for that buyer.

His works hang in the collections of such organizations and individuals as the Royal Bank Of Canada; Craig Dobbin, chairman of Canadian Helicopter; John Risley, president and CEO of Clearwater Fine Foods; and John Clark, former president of the Toronto Stock Exchange. Educated at Mount Allison University in the mid 1970s, Paul's work has brought pleasure to collectors for more than 25 years.