Sunday, October 04, 2020

Paul Hubbard, traveling signpainter, drove cross country 67 times. Just a ship that passed in the night, on to places he'd never been, to sell paintings where he could, and he wintered in Florida. A wonderful life plan! (Thanks Steve!)

He went through Montreal at least twice, the first time in 1917, on a train and the next time, in 1957, in his hand-painted automobile.

At every town he hit, he tried to get media attention with his fast-painting act and frequently succeeded. (No doubt very much a predecessor of Bob Ross style painting)

In Montreal he told a local reporter that a hobo is a working migrant,  a tramp is a non-working migrant and a bum is neither, he's just a sponge.

Hubbard was born in Bowie, Texas in 1892, served as a private in WWI (but not that long if indeed he came through Montreal in 1917) and never married.

 Newspapers loved reporting on Hubbard and National Geographic reportedly did an article on him sometime in 1937 or 1938.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/floridamemory/9608607666

https://thebrooklyncollection.tumblr.com/post/93442086807/self-styled-hobo-artist-paul-hubbard-an/amp

That little boy in the picture of Paul Hubbard and his beautifully painted car is Martin Abrahams. I am presently 70 and lives in Houston Texas. Hubbard gave him lessons in painting and wonderful stories about life. He made three gigantic murals in his dad's house


Paul Hubbard, known as the Hobo Artist and a muralist, painted the interior of the Pequot Theater in New Haven Ct. Opened by 1914 and closed in late-1950's, it was later converted into an auto store then demolished








Update Oct 17th, Karen C found TWO Hubbard paintings at a garage sale! 



Thanks Karen!!

From: Popular Science, May 1959, page 133.



Update May 2022, Sarah was cleaning out her grandpa's place and found this Hubbard:


thank you Sarah for sharing!

Update Dec 10th 2022, Richard found this 1954 painting, that his wife's parents bought it on their honey moon in 1954, and it's been in storage for 30 years



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5 comments:

  1. Karen10:25 AM

    This is amazing! I found 2 paintings today at a garage sale and was looking up the artist, Paul Hubbard, when I came across this post!

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    Replies
    1. Jesse12:15 PM

      that is amazing! I just learned of him 2 weeks ago! This is terrific! Did you buy them? Or even take a photo of them?

      Delete
  2. Karen4:20 AM

    Oh, I bought them. They are GORGEOUS! I can share pictures of them if you let me know how to attach them.
    I had never heard of him. I was drawn to the paintings, bought them, then came home and looked him up. I am having so much fun looking at newspaper articles about him from all over the country. I am in Missouri and the 2 I found are of Meramec Caverns area in Missouri. I decided to do a search and found an article on him in The Sullivan Tri-County News from May 1, 1952.

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    Replies
    1. Jesse7:30 AM

      great! Please either send them via text to my phone at 619 985 0783, or email at jbohjkl@yahoo.com
      I found that there were a LOT of newspaper articles about him, but the only way I've discovered that I can read those newspaper articles is to get a friend with a subscription to send me a screen shot of the articles.
      So, I asked for two, and included them in the post.

      Delete
  3. Karen8:40 AM

    I'm emailing you. So, check your spam for an email address that begins with "bro".

    ReplyDelete

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