For many of us nothing brings back warm feelings of our childhood more than seeing a vintage paint by number painting. Year-over-year the demand for retro art continues to go up and one of the things leading the way in that surge for retro American art is vintage paint by number paintings.
To say that vintage paint by number is now a current craze would be a tremendous understatement. The demand for vintage paint by number paintings is at an all time high. Paint by number dates back to the 1950s and 1960s.
Vintage Paint By Number Paintings Once Were Considered Trash
Paint by number paintings once reviled by the art world as horrible, disgraceful and distasteful. Now however they are considered icons of postwar American pop art culture and are valued as extreme collectibles. Vintage by number paintings were made for the most part by unknown, anonymous amateurs and hobbyists using paint by number kits such as those designed and sold by a company called Craft Master.
Vintage Paint By Number By Craft Master
Craft Master promised that anyone could be a Rembrandt. This type of marketing helped pave the way and bridge the gap between elitist and Joe sixpack as millions of Americans went out and bought kits pick up a paint brush and for the first time ever made their own paintings.
Vintage paint by number paintings are commonly found with picturesque landscapes, cowboys, and even knockoffs of da Vinci’s Last Supper. And believe it or not now the art world is finally taking notice as collectors from all over the world scramble to have pieces of these postwar pop art icons in their collection.
Vintage Paint By Number Paintings Are Easy To Find
One thing that is so great about vintage paint by number paintings is that they are still findable and garage sales and yard sales across the country. Someone may be selling grandma’s old paint by number paintings of Lassie in a garage sale for few dollars and the buyer may come to find out that it’s worth hundreds on eBay or at an auction. Collectors are scrambling to find undiscovered pieces and now even art galleries are holding vintage paint by number paintings in actual gallery shows.
Paint by number is also known as PBN, and originated as the invention of designer and artist Dan Robbins. Dan Robbins with the support of Max Klein who was the owner of the Palmer paint company started the first paint by number paint business back in 1951. There are examples of PBN even earlier than the 1950s that existed in the air of the 1920s but those were all marketed to children. Dan Robbins paintings were the first that were marketed to and sought after by adults looking to make their own paintings. The paint by number craze hit a high in 1954 as Craft Master sold over 12 million paint by number kits. Following World War II America entered an age of prosperity and abundance more than ever in the 1950s Americans had leisure time. People spend their leisure time doing everything from writing poetry to painting, and most of them were painting using a paint by number kits.
By the late 1950s and early 1960s the fad of paint by number paintings began to fade due to what was popularly considered over exposure. Many of the old paint by number paintings found their way to the attics and basements of grandma’s old house. More started to make their way into yard sales and garage sales selling for as little as $.10 or a nickel. And many vintage paint by number paintings ended up destroyed or thrown away.