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When I Paint, I Seriously Consider The Public Presence Of A Person - The Surface Facade. I Am Less Concerned With How People Look When They Wake Up Or How They Act At Home. A Person's Public Presence Reflects His Own Efforts At Image Development.

-LeRoy Neiman

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When I Paint, I

LeRoy Neiman

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When I Paint, I Seriously Consider The Public Presence Of A Person - The Surface Facade. I Am Less Concerned With How People Look When They Wake Up Or How They Act At Home. A Person's Public Presence Reflects His Own Efforts At Image Development.

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I Have Always Said To Young Artists That Scholastic Training And The Studying Of Art History Are Crucial To Fully Developing As An Artist.

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I Hold Doors Open For All The Women. Men Can Open The Doors For Themselves.

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I Draw All The Time. Drawing Is My Backbone. I Don't Think A Painter Has To Be Able To Draw, I Just Think That If You Draw, You Better Draw Well.

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I Had A Go At Changing History - Maybe Not All By Myself - I Fought At The Battle Of Normandy, I Slogged Through The Ardennes, And I Celebrated The Liberation Of Paris On The Streets With Beautiful French Girls Throwing Flowers At Me. I Said Good-bye To My First True Love And Discovered What I Really Wanted To Do With My Life.

It's Not The Act Of Arrogance To Draw, It's Humbling - You Must Use Your God-given Talent. And Of All The People I Sketch, In Most Cases I Feel I Have To Measure Up To The Subject.

Ive Zeroed In On What You Would Call Action And Excellence... Everybody Who Does Anything To Try To Succeed Has To Give The Best Of Themselves, And Art Has Made Me Pull The Best Out Of Myself.

The People Who Love My Paintings, That Respond To Them The Most, They're Spectators, They're Not Viewers.

Eating Is One Of The Great Beauties In Life. One Of My Favorite Recreations... Eating With Friends, The Service, The Ambience.

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Boxing Is My Real Passion. I Can Go To Ballet, Theatre, Movies, Or Other Sporting Events... And Nothing Is Like The Fights To Me. I'm Excited By The Visual Beauty Of It. A Boxer Can Look So Spectacular By Doing A Good Job.

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My Lovely Wife Janet Has Been In A Few Paintings. She Is Basically A Reserved Woman Who Has Never Sought The Limelight. She Has Always Been There Throughout My Career And Continues To Be At My Side.

The Businessman Says 'if I Don't Do It First, Somebody Else Will.' The Artist Says 'if I Don't Do It First, Nobody Else Will.'

I've Got The Public. I Don't Care About The Critics. I Did At One Time. I Don't Any More. I Did When I Needed Compliments. But If You Get A Lot Of Compliments, You Don't Need A Critic To Tell You, 'this Should Be Done Another Way.'

Compliments You

It Has Been Difficult To Hold Onto Many Paintings But I Have Retained A Few. Possibly The Current Favorite Is Titled 'big Band' Completed In 2005. It Measures 13 Feet X 9 Feet. It Has 18 Nearly Life Size Recognizable Portraits Of The Biggest Jazz Stars That I Knew And Saw Perform In The 1950s, '60s, '70s, '80s And Includes Wynton Marsalis.

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