Mandeville's art work accepted at national exhibit

Saco painter Todd Mandeville – known in Phillips County for his realistic looking paintings – recently found out that he was one of 102 artists to have their works accepted to the 24th Best of American 2014 Exhibit in Missouri where each painting will be judged in mid-October and the best in show will receive a $9,000 grand prize.

Mandeville has found many successes with previous paintings – Swede's Old Truck and A Blanket of Roses have both graced the pages of the Phillips County News in the past – but with his latest painting, entitled My Guardian Angels, Mandeville tried his hand at a subject he had no previous experience with, a horse.

"Come to find out," he said, "they are just like painting anything else."

Angels – done in oil -- is a very intricate painting and the detail in the little girl's hair, the blades of grass and the horse are extraordinary. Mandeville said that he finished the painting – which measures 18x24 inches -- in November of 2013 after working on it for 13 months. He worked on the painting for two or three hours per night, five or six days of the week, until he was finally done. He said at that rate he is only able to finish two paintings a year, but added that sine he has recently made the switch to a fulltime artist that he hopes to at least double his output each year.

The inspiration for Angels – Mandeville bases most of his works on photographs – came from a somewhat unlikely source, i.e. social media.

"I first saw the picture on Facebook and I knew it would make a great painting," Mandeville said. "I also knew it would be a lot of work."

Because he knew the painting would take so long, he tried to focus on other works, but ultimately couldn't get the image to leave his mind until finally he sat to create and set his mind to the task.

"About eight months after I first saw the picture, I decided to call the woman who took the picture and ask her if I could get permission to paint it," he said. "Then it took me a year and a month to paint it."

Mandeville was born and raised in Saco and he said Phillips County is his inspiration for most of his works (a fact that is apparent with only the quickest of glances of any of his paintings.) Mandeville has only been painting for nine years – starting at the age of 45 -- and added even if he never sold a single piece of art that he would paint anyway. He said that he is not classically trained, that no one in his family is much of an artist and for the most part, he learned to paint by reading books.

"I took an Adult Education Class at Saco High School in the winter time and that is how I got started," he said. "I got to the point where I couldn't learn what I wanted to do in the class so I decided to start teaching myself."

Originals of Mandeville's paintings can also be purchased – though at a higher cost. He said that he has been told that in order to make a living as an artist that he must paint faster and turnout more works.

"If I did it that way then it wouldn't be me, but totally different art," he explained.

In his painting entitled A Blanket of Roses, an old, rusty John Deere tractor is buried in an abundance of summer's green foliage. The painting was accepted in the 34th Annual MT Interpretations Juried Exhibition – where it took Honorable Mention – the 2010 Montana State Fair – capturing People's Choice, first place -- and acceptance into the Oil Painters of America - 2010 Western Regional Exhibition.

Mandeville said that prints of each of his paintings can be purchased through his website at http://www.paintingsbymandeville.com or through contacting him through his Facebook page.

He said that he wanted to thank the people of Phillips County for always being so supportive of his passion for art.

"They seem to really appreciate and be proud that I am from Phillips County," he concluded. "I appreciate them right back and I am proud to be from here."