"Siesta Beach"

Original signed painting by Thornton Utz of Siesta Beach located in Sarasota, Florida where the artist lived. Signed lower left. Condition is very good. Oil paint on board. Wild flowers mixed into the beach grass with seagulls flying along the beach. Overall framed in original period frame in a brown copper patina. Overall measurements are 25.25 by 31 inches. Provenance: Sarasota, Florida estate collection.

Thornton Utz was born Nov. 15, 1914, in Memphis, Tennessee, where he spent his young years doodling in textbooks. After discovering his artistic talent, he struggled to save enough money to attend art school in Chicago. With the country in a depression, Utz could afford only one year at the American Academy of the Arts and though he studied there for only a short time, he learned the secret to being a great artist: drawing continually.

And draw Utz did, as well as paint, illustrate and design. Initial recognition of his work came for his illustrations. During the 1940s and '50s, Utz provided advertising illustrations for clients such as Coca-Cola, General Electric and Ford Motor Co. His work also graced more than 50 covers of the 'Saturday Evening Post.'

International fame came with portraits of Princess Grace of Monaco and President Jimmy Carter. In addition to personal portraits of Carter, the family's 1977 Thanksgiving celebration is forever immortalized, thanks to Utz.

Collections of Utz's work have been on display at the Air Force Academy in Colorado, the Pentagon and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C.