Bob Graham was born in Canton, Texas, in 1947. He studied art at North Texas State University and was mentored by Impressionist painter Henry Hensche at the Cape School. Graham started teaching a few years later in Atlanta, Georgia, where he opened his first portrait studio. He has lived and worked in New Orleans for more than thirty years.
Graham began his career in the Crescent City by selling art in the French Quarter. There he painted Jo Ann Weinberger, who introduced him to the New Orleans Museum of Art. Later, Graham became a spokesperson for the Degas Days Festival at the museum. He gave lectures, demonstrations, and TV appearances for those events. He has painted many local figures, such as Alton Ochsner Sr. His mural The Good Earth Forever was hung at the Terrebonne General Medical Center in Houma and unveiled by then governor Edwin Edwards.
Graham regularly enters art shows around the country. His paintings and pastels were well received and won Best Show in several New York shows, including the American Artist Professional League, the Salmagundi Open, and the Knickerbocker Artists show. He won the Southern Artist Award from the Allied Artists Show for a pastel of a New Orleans derelict entitled The Veteran. In 1990, he was given the title of Master Pastellist by the Pastel Society of America. His influences reach as far as the west, where he spent five years painting in Wyoming, New Mexico, Utah, and Texas. Today, Graham resides in New Orleans, where he paints his unique impressions of Mardi Gras celebrations. |