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Monday, January 15, 2007

John Gilroy







Rocky brought us gifts from his trip to Ireland.

For me he gave me a pack Guinness Brewery coasters. There are about 30 coasters in the pack and one each one is a different lightly humor illustration by John Gilmore.

I was curious about John Gilmore and googled him. John lived from 1898 to 1985. He was born into a large family of seven siblings, 4 brothers and 3 sisters.

His art work in these coasters remind me of an illustrator’s work that maybe did the covers for some sporting magazine as Field and Stream and maybe calendars too. Or maybe I have the style confused with a blend of several artists.

The ones shown here are mostly of a zoo-keeper character he apparently developed, but there are others of working men in humorous situations.

Gilroy did Guinness art from the 1930s to the 1960s when he worked for Benson Advertising Agency. Disney made him an offer that he could refuse.

He fought in WWI in the Royal Field Artillery in France, Italy, and Palestine. He was also a highly regarded portrait artists, which he made some for members of the Royal family. He was married.

2 comments:

  1. Those are wonderful illustrations, Eddie. Wouldn't they look great framed and hanging in a bar?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Judy,
    Yes. But I just took a random sampling - I think there are about 30 or so. I am going to copy them all for whatever reason I don't know yet.
    But, I don't think I will stand using them for coasters to get stains on them or whatever.

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