RUBADOUX, Craig, (American, b. 1937): "Tres Gatos", ORIGINAL Oil/Canvas, 36" x 40", signed lower right, unframed. Sold with Clayton Galleries sales receipt from 2007 showing a price paid of $7,200. This conservatively puts today's estimate for this work at $12,900 or as high as $24,600.

ABOUT THE ARTIST: Rubadoux has participated in over 70 exhibitions. Solo exhibitions have included the Ringling Museum of Art, the Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art, the Lowe Museum of Art, and the Cornell Fine Arts Museum. His artworks are included in many public and private collections including the Guggenheim Museum, New York; the High Museum of Art, Atlanta; the Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota; the Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale; the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL; and the State of FL. Rubadoux primarily works on paper and canvas. His paintings are intensely personal glimpses into particular emotions, and he frequently speaks of his work as a journal.

ARTIST STATEMENT: "My work is figurative, abstract and magically mystical. It is a reflection of man's search for meaning, his relationship with himself, his environment and the important people in his life. "While lines, brush strokes and sensuous colour define the object, swirling lines expand beyond the figure, animal or landscape, suggesting movement, flux and change. I strive to keep the work fresh and alive, sometimes to a childlike feeling of abandon. Although I have worked steadily over many decades I continue to experience joy and great satisfaction when a difficult passage in a painting has been resolved successfully. "Many of my paintings are done on gessoed paper. I am attracted to its surface qualities as well as its portability and immediacy. I feel that I can capture the intimate nature of drawing in my oils on paper. "Although my work is very personal, viewers can recognize and identify with the range of feelings that are projected, such as longing, sensitivity, intensity and contemplation. Figures and forms are often distorted or disintegrated. In this process, the painting can communicate more of the essence and internal energy of being. "More recently, I have been drawn to express myself more abstractly. I engage in this process with as much enthusiasm as possible allowing the moment to dictate the outcome. "I draw inspiration from the wonderous creatures in nature such as the warthog, lemurs, lynxes, otters and birds as well as bleached trees on a southern beach, the dark Florida rivers and the craggy Nova Scotia coast."