WAYNE GRETZKY 1985 "SLAP SHOT" LITHOGRAPH BY THOMAS NEEDHAM Wayne Gretzky (Edmonton Oilers)

Date
1985

Dimensions
48 x 52

Edition no.
436/980

Condition Report
Good.

Notes
Signed lower left.

“I bring vivid imagination to my work and a tremendous love of form and grace. It’s through my art that I share the beauty, awe, and mystery of what lies before our eyes.”

Thomas A. Needham was raised in Redondo Beach, California where his love of art and athletics shaped his sense of form and motion. He is a graduate of California’s renowned Art Center College of Design with a double major in Advertising and Illustration.

Mr. Needham has received numerous honors and awards for his oil, acrylic, and watercolor paintings. He worked as an artist for Metromedia Television in Washington D.C. before becoming an Art Director for Computer Sciences Corporation’s International Division and then later as a graphics arts consultant to Prince Bandar Bin Sultan, (Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the U.S.) and to the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia’s Information Office in Washington D.C. The artist currently resides in Appling, Georgia, where he paints and teaches painting classes at the Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art in Augusta.

Tom’s work has appeared in corporate brochures, sports publications, exhibits, and hang in many private and public collections throughout the United States. Several of his sports paintings are exhibited in the collections of Joe Theismann, Joe Dimaggio, Wayne Gretzky, and Hershel Walker.

Mr. Needham’s paintings offer the nostalgia of America’s pastimes. He brings to life much of America’s past, be it farms from America’s heartland or the many lighthouses that line our coastlines and lakes. He also paints the vibrant action of today’s pastimes; athletes in intense concentration and engaged in the healthy struggle of challenging others -- or more accurately themselves. He is an individualist with a keen interest for detail and a love of athletics and nature.