Her website is www.hartough.com

Just now read the article -- and, in the manner of Lieutenant Renault, am shocked (shocked, I tell you!) by the incompetence of this lede:

"THE ninth hole at the Winged Foot Golf Club in Westchester County, where the U.S. Open is to be played this week, is a par-5 with a 510-yard approach, which, in laymen's terms, means that it is humbling and long. Like many unnerving points on courses as old and prestigious as Winged Foot, the ninth hole has an air of celebrity about it, and last year it commanded the attention of Linda Hartough."

That pretty much proves my point. If Tommy thinks something is better, then Linda must be really good to deserve such attention as a reply.

Actually, her studio at Hilton Head is full of some neat stuff. I am not wild about each and every one of her paintings...but there are many that have a great look and quality about them. Like I said, the Postage Stamp, Oakmont Clubhouse and The Old Course — 18...those are quite nice.

Couldn't agree more! Well said!

Could we put it this way?

She's somewhere on the continuum of modern artistry that has Picasso (or: name your own favorite) at one end and Thomas Kinkade ("Painter of Light" TM) at the other.

Forrest,
Quite obviously I was commenting on Voytek's accurate opinion of Hartough, but since we are being so brutally honest here..... (Hurrumph, Hurrumph)  Dan Kelly's contribution of suggesting similarities between her and Thomas Kincade (and even in the business sense) it sounds as if she could be making millions doing lithographs by the thousands and selling them on The Home Shopping Network.

What ART!

Meanwhile, I know of an artist in Culver City who is literally putting his heart and soul into each and every painting and because it doesn't have the realism which actually makes people have to think......and look, God forbid if people actually had to understand what art was really about. Hartough's paintings just simply stroke the heart strings in what quick passing by! "Boy that's nice!" and 30 seconds later you've forgotten you even came across it.

Meanwhile, I keep thinking of how Mike Miller has captured the sand in his art of Sand Hills. His deft touch of a violent sky in his  #10th at Winged Foot. The raw sandy barrens of a new born Cypress Point Club.

And frankly, Hartough's illustrations are just like a Fazio course. All dressed-up with no place to go/It'll do for now but don't think of it as anything that is going to be ground-breaking. At least in the realm of GREATNESS vs. mediocrity.

Speaking of which, where was my Xmas card this year?

Thank you.

Gee... I had a very nice conversation with her yesterday at the merchandise tent at Winged Foot and even bought her US Open calendar to add to my collection.

Joe

I told her that I enjoyed her work and we talked Hilton Head golf and about some people I know in the area. She was responsive and engaging. I never knew that there was "anti-Hartough" element out there. Go figure.

Steve

Thank you.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

As an owner of not one but three of Linda's painting, I now realize just how shallow I really am. Of coarse after the thrashing she's received here it'll be futile to put them up on E-bay now .

I first met her in the Old Troon Antique Shop when attending the British Open in 1989, the one where Calc won the three man playoff with Norman and Grady. My lovely wife and I spent all of the last day behind the tee of the Postage Stamp, watching every player go through. It was the only bogey of the day for Norman; had he parred it he'de have won by a shot. We purchased her "photografic rendering" and she was kind enough to personalize it for us. I wanted to remember what the hole loked like; how it felt is easily registered inthe heart. It's a purchase I've never regretted. Her painting genreally have more life than a snap shot; perhaps her lack of personal golf experience doesn't allow her to capture the true feeling of the game; something that I really haven't seen by any other artist either.