Robert Bateman

... lost it.

Like, B- yeah, Robert Bateman, exactly.

Robert Bateman.

[laughs]

So I would just get his, I would just get his books and just stare at his stuff all day and say, "How on, how on earth does someone draw like this," right? So I would just draw what he drew and try to copy it, you know? And then I would watch animal shows and stuff.

Publisher's proof.

And it's Bateman, Robert Bateman.

Okay.

And I'll have to look up the piece a little bit, and in the break I'll, I'll see if I can find any range of values on it.

Is that the artist, Bateman?

That is the artist.

Yeah, Robert Bateman.

And what they've sent us, which is no surprise because, like, we talk about art is one of the biggest, it, it has to be the single biggest question mark.

Rosetta Stone of those kind of documentaries or those kind of stories.

The story of Robert Bateman and Bristol Foster, which I, as I mentioned, I think I've heard of them, but I wasn't, it doesn't matter.

I get to know them in this film.

And tell me a little bit about how you got onto this story because it's a wonderful story.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, as you say, as you were talking about the wild kingdom stuff, I mean, that's the incredible thing about this film is that, you know, Bristol Foster started shooting it 70 years ago, you know, in 19, well, almost 70 years in 1957, you know, as he and Robert Bateman were going around the world in this Land Rover on this global expedition, uh, he was filming it on his bolex camera so you know two-thirds of the film you're on this journey with them and it's like a time capsule of the way the world was back then and you feel like you're on the ride and you know robert bateman his best friend um is a you know a world-renowned wildlife artist now but he he was in his 20s when he did this trip and um But he was painting and sketching.

He was not a famous artist at that time, but he was certainly, you know, he's been drawn to creating artwork since he was a kid.

And, you know, this trip was no exception.

And in this episode, he's back.

Living legend, Robert Bateman.

who in my opinion he's up there he's on my mount rushmore of artists and he's still going strong 96 years old now robert's a guy who needs no introduction at all but look i'm going to include some links to his work in the show notes in that description down below if you're on tish academy then you can watch the full video version of this podcast right now There will be a link included in the audio version down below as well.

Check that out.

This was a lot of fun.

I really hope you enjoyed.

Without further ado, here's Robert Bateman, the man himself, on The Creative Endeavor.

We actually spoke, I think about three years ago.

If I did...

Well, I think Robert Bateman was one person, and boy, I hope he never watches this podcast.

Robert Bateman and, um, I can't remember, Beverly Doolittle both got extremely greedy back into the, in the early '80s.

And, uh, Robert Bateman one time did a print production of 69,900 limited editions.

Well, y- uh, everybody that loves air aviation knows this, there's a Spitfire print out there that's a $20, $45 print.

Mm-hmm.

Can I send you his portfolio? We said, well, sure, absolutely send it.

And then at the board meeting, we said, well, if this guy's the third or fourth best, what's the next question? Who's best? Well, it didn't take too long to figure out it was Robert Bateman.

At the time, he was 76 years old.

He had painted 6,000 wildlife paintings from Africa and Canada.

There was four that were vertical in size because the building is 10 stories up.

One was, I believe, a wolf, a lynx, a moose, and an eagle.

And we called back Robert Bateman, and we said, which one of these four makes sense to you? And for different reasons, he said, I like the wolf one the best because when I painted the original in 1990, this is a wolf as a predator looking at you, the viewer, eye to eye with respect.

And my marketing light bulb went on.

when

a curator in the business said, well, we had Robert Bateman, who was a top painter.

Many people say he's the top painter in the world.

I'd be one of them.

So how did the book come about? What's the story behind that? Well,

that's a little bit of a story in that my original idea was an exhibition.

Robert Bateman had a big exhibition at the National Museum of National History, which is the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum, it's the largest by a factor of four in the world.

The American Museum in New York, which is, I'd say, a little more famous, is one-fourth the size of the National Museum of Natural History.