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Lovers
In Monets Garden #71/300 Signed Benedetto
Click
here to read more about Tony, |
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Below you will find the various "ROSEMARY BASKETS" that will be auctioned during The Fifth Annual Rosemary Clooney Music Festival. The contents of the baskets and the individuals or businesses who generously donated those items are listed below. If you would like to place a bid on one or more of the baskets, please click the Email button for that basket and send an email with your maximum bid on the item. If at the end of the auction on Saturday, no one at the festival has bid higher than you, you will be contacted as the winner. You will have the option of paying directly online using PAYPAL. - Bid increments are $5.00. |
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BASKET |
Min. Bid |
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Mambo
Italiano |
$100.00 |
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Old
Friends |
$100.00 |
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Here
Come The Girls |
$50.00 |
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White
Christmas |
$50.00 |
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My
Old Kentucky Home |
$50.00 |
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Thanks
for the Memories |
$50.00 |
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Get
Me To the Church on Time |
$50.00 |
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Come
On A My House |
$100.00 |
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MANGOS |
$50.00 |
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P.S.
I Love You |
$50.00 |
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Lovers In Monets Garden #71/300 Because of Tony Bennett's affection for Rosemary and in honor of their fifty-plus years of friendship, he has donated an original, fine-art, hand-drawn, limited-edition lithograph of his Lovers in Monet's Garden to "Rescue the Russell." The lithograph which is numbered and signed with his family name Benedetto will be auctioned during the Fifth Annual Rosemary Clooney Music Festival to raise funds for the restoration of The Russell.
Seven of Bennett's paintings have been published as museum-quality limited edition, fine-art original lithographs. The first five of the collection, South of France, Greek Port, Sunday in Central Park, Monet's Garden, and Golden Pavilion are sold out and two titles, Wolf Trap, and Lovers in Monet's Gardens are currently available. The limited edition collection of Tony Bennett's lithographs are printed by the master printer, Eleanor Ettinger, who through Atelier Ettinger, Inc. produces some of the finest quality lithographs in the world. Ettinger uses 150 year old flat bed presses, reputed to have come from the studio of Toulouse-Lautrec, which she converted to electricity (from their original steam engine) when she brought them to the United States. A lithograph is an original work of art because it creates a new product. Even if the lithograph was inspired by an oil painting, watercolor or other media, it is not a reproduction but a translation of that work into the medium of lithography. The technique of lithography is a complex and highly skilled process in which a series of images are made on a special surface, either a plate or limestone. Each plate holds only one color of the full image and after treating the plate and applying great pressure, the image is transferred to paper. This process is repeated with each plate until all the colors and images from all the plates, in the proper order, are printed onto the paper, creating an original piece of art called a lithograph. In the true spirit of the word "limited" each of the Tony Bennett lithographs have been produced in a select quantity of a few hundred only and the plates were destroyed after each print in the series was printed, signed, numbered in pencil by the artist. This generous donation by Tony, is just one more testament of the very special relationship that these two performers shared for over fifty years. Tony and Rosemary started out together on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. Tony said, "Rosie won that night [in 1950], and it's funny: I can remember perfectly her performance of Golden Earrings, but I still can't recall the song I sang. Our joint appearance was a shared beginning for us, as we both got signed to Columbia Records at the same time. We were the two new kids on the block, so to speak. One of my fondest memories of working with Rosie in those early years was our participation in a show called Songs for Sale. The idea behind the program was to have us perform songs that were sent in by amateur songwriters. The lyrics of these forgettable tunes were on cue cards, but often the stagehands would hold them upside down and Rosie and I would just make up lyrics on our own (it was live TV back then)." In later years, Rosemary would recall the horror on the faces of some of the songwriters as the melodies they had labored over became unrecognizable on national TV.
In remembering Rosemary, Tony said that "through the years we maintained a wonderful brother-and-sister relationship in music and life. Take my word, not only was she Mother Earth, she was perfect. She was a natural singer and entertainer. I think the best description I ever heard of her came from the filmmaker Mike Nichols, who said she ‘sings like Spencer Tracy acts.'" Her passing was "an enormous personal loss, as she was my great friend and colleague. She was one of America's finest pop vocalists — with a clear, pure voice filled with warmth and sincerity. She was a wonderful person." Rescue the Russell is grateful to Mr. Bennett for this donation and opportunity to make Rosemary's hometown aware of her dear friend's other artisitc talent. For more information about Tony Bennett's art, please visit Benedetto Arts. For more information about Tony Bennett's recording career visit Tony's Official Website. |
CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO THE ROSEMARY CLOONEY PALLADIUM
CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO RESCUE THE RUSSELL
Most
folks know Tony Bennett as the accomplished singer, who for five
decades has entertained listeners with his warm husky tenor voice
singing hits like I Left My Heart in San Francisco, Because of You,
and I Wanna Be Around. What many do not know about Tony Bennett is
that he is also an accomplished painter, whose original paintings are
owned by Carol Burnett, Whoopie Goldberg, the late Frank Sinatra,
Donald Trump, Oprah Winfrey and Mickey Rooney to name a few.
As
a child growing up in Astoria, NY, one of his first career ambitions
was to be a painter and this passion for art has been as much a part
of his life as his love for music and performing. He finds time to
paint every day, sketching the view from the windows of his hotel
suite or out in the countrysides to which he travels. The United
Nations has commissioned his artwork on two occasions including their
50th Anniversary [Peace, Brotherhood (purchased by Oprah Winfrey for
her personal collection)]. In 2001 Tony was commissioned to be the
official artist of the 2001 Kentucky Derby and created two original
watercolors for this historic racing event (Kickin' Up Dirt 1,
Kickin' Up Dirt 2).
Tony
Bennett began formal training as an art student at the School of
Industrial Arts (now known as the School of Art and Design) in
Manhattan and continued his studies with private studios and teachers
throughout the years. As an artist of both worldly and familiar
subjects, Tony Bennett has experimented with a wide range of
subjects, has studied the intricacies of various styles, and has
learned from the great masters. His body of work reflects an
awareness of the history of art and the artist's continuing passion
for enjoying and creating that which is universally recognized as
beautiful. Common to all his work, be it the oils, watercolors or
sketches, is his desire to communicate.
After
Songs for Sale, Rosemary and Tony moved on to Mitch Miller's
15-minute network radio show on CBS called Steppin' Out. It also
helped to introduce them to the public, and send them on their way to
selling millions of records. During those early years, Tony and
Rosemary spent many hours together waiting for their cues. Often you
would find Tony sketching, and sometimes even sketches of Rosemary,
as seen in this photo from 1951. In 1992, Rosemary used a sketch that
Tony did of her for the cover of her Concord Record's CD Girl Singer.