Not long ago, in this post, I featured Michael Carson, whose style evolved recently. Commenters mentioned that his earlier work reminded them of that of Malcolm Liepke.
That was true for me as well, and it's mentioned in the Wikipedia entry on Liepke (above), which also notes Liepke's friend Milt Kobayashi as a subject of his influence. And it turns out that Carson, like Liepke, has Minnesota ties; something in those 10,000 lakes affecting the artistic air there?
But there's more! While noticing Carson's new work in Palm Desert I chanced upon yet another painter doing the Liepke thing. The name is Leslie Sanbulte, but I couldn't find any background information on a quick Google search. That is, nothing regarding Minnesota.
In light of all this, I now proclaim a new school of painting: the Greasy Face School. In support, I humbly offer the examples below.
Gallery
In another recent post I compared a currently active painter with Joaquin Sorolla and wondered about similarities in style and subject-matter.
I halfheartedly offered the thought that perhaps it was subject-matter (the coast around Valencia) that contributed to the Sorolla effect. But the similarity in treatment of skin for the artists featured here cannot be explained away in the same manner.
It's a big world and the USA is still pretty much a free country, but I question the wisdom of artists painting in the same off-natural style. Since Liepke seems to be the originator, that's okay by me: I like a fair amount of his work. But the others ought to try something else for their own professional good, I think. And as I posted earlier, Carson seems to have realized this and is now doing work I find more interesting than his Greasy Face stuff.